Wed. Mar.4th - South Padre Island

Today we went to the beach on South Padre Island via public access #6. This is our second visit, but this time someone was there to collect the $3 daily use fee. The dogs were hysterical and unbelievably gullible as I threw the only thing available - heavy shells, usually oyster.

Gypsy goes to the right

followed by Leila

Check out Gypsy's ears at full tilt

And again going left

Have you ever seen an 8-legged dog?

This cedar? came in with the tide. I thought it looked like a vicious bird with it's mouth wide open and tongue hanging out.

The last hurricane did some damage on the island. Sand is being moved from the bay side of the road (north) to the Gulf side. Restoring the sand dunes is a big operation in two sections of the only road. The island is roughly 1.5 miles wide. Two large sections are up for sale if you're interested.

Construction of the building on the right was stopped when authorities discovered that something was wrong. Owners are apparently trying to decide what to do: tear it down or pump concrete into the foundation to stop the tilting. Reminds me of the Harry Belafonte song - 'house built on a weak foundation...'

Possible hurricane damage where the facade is missing.

It's not apparent that the building is leaning no matter the angle.

Kiteboarding on the bay side of the island.

This fellow had just come in, then a kiteboarding lesson truck arrived. I asked how difficult it is to learn compared to windsurfing and was told that the learning curve is much faster and so is the ride.

Three gulls

On our way back from the beach we stopped here. There are 5 species of sea turtles in this part of the world, of which they have four. The leatherback is apparently at UBC's research centre.

These turtles are endangered for a variety of reasons - boat props, partially ingesting ballons, plastic bags, etc. Their brain is the size of a pea and they have no peripheral vision so are easily captured or injured. Their jaw muscles are amazingly big. Mainly juveniles are rescued as they can weigh up to several tons in adulthood. Many have damaged or amputated flippers.

The two nose holes are used to pump water out of its mouth when it scoops up food from the sea water. I did not succeed in getting a picture of that process. This turtle is missing his/her left front flipper.

However, I did manage to get a shot of one grabbing onto a leaf of romaine lettuce.