Day 4, oil platforms waiting in Port Aransas, South Texas

Adding a photo to the map has not been working the last two or three days. Images taken on the Nikon P900 have GPS and are automatically placed on the map. Adding my photos taken with the Canon SX60 will have to wait to be added, until his issue has been fixed.

I'm not sure if these rigs are waiting to be turned into scrap metal; There is a program (if it is still running) called Rigs to Reef which involves recycling of obsolete petroleum platforms into permanent artificial reefs rather than allowing them to be towed ashore and turned into scrap. Offshore production platforms attract a wide variety of sea life. When the platforms are removed, local fishermen lose good ecosystems for their fishing.

These 15 photos were taken early (yet another sunrise) on Day 4, 22 March 2019, a day of birding and also driving from Rockport, where we had stayed for three nights, to Kingsville. Most of these 15 photos were taken at the Port Aransas Nature Preserve. When we arrived at that location, we discovered that only a small area near the beach was open to the public, as other parts had been closed because of damage from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. We had a short walk there, enjoying seeing a tiny - and fast! - Sedge Wren. We also all took photos of a white caterpillar, only to discover when we got back to Calgary, that in fact it was not a caterpillar after all, but two white moths mating : )

Shortly after leaving that area, we stopped to take a quick shot or two of a Loggerhead Shrike, perched high up on a wire. I have seen a Loggerhead Shrike before, here in Alberta, but I had never seen one this close.

After we left this area, we stopped at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, on the edge of the Port Aransas Nature Reserve, which is where my next upload of photos were taken. Lots of birds to see, and an Alligator.