Soggy singer plunges in pavement puddles

This little sparrow was taking advatage of one of the puddles of water at the Aquarium in downtown Houston a few weeks back. A flock of about 10 of them were hopping around looking for food. Finding,none (the pigeons were getting it all) they decided to take advantage of the watery amenities of the urban site.
--steve buser

sparrow, bird, nature, Houston, Texas

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Unheated excitement.

Sometimes the only way to beat the heat is to get wrapped up in cooling water. This little child was one of the many at the Port Neches, TX, splash pad this weekend.

When your in the middle of it, it all seems so natural as the water flies around you. But, when the camera stops a slice of second in time, it has a surreal aura. It really is surreal, though, because sooner or later, you have to come out of the misty mood maker and face the heavy heat of summer.
--steve buser

Water Parks, Port Neches, Texas, heat, summer

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Force field repels heat

Our grand daughter, Sophie, 2, hides with her mom, Vicky, under a bowl of water at the splash pad in Port Neches, Texas. THe weeks-long heat wave that has sit over the area, has made watersports of any kind a favorite for the area. A large high pressure system has had Southeast Texas in its eye for several weeks and shows no signs of letting up. THe new definition of a rainy day is a 10% chance of showers.
--steve buser

Southeast Texas, Heat wave, weather

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The passion is wilting

A Passion Flower, off in the brush near Port Arthur, Texas. The dry weather we have been having seemed to be having its toll on this flower. It was withering a bit in the blistering 100 degree heat.

--steve buser

Passion Flower, Port Arthur, Te xas, weather

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Feeling free on the ferry

It was a ferry good ride. We love to take the ferry from Bolivar to Galveston with the grandkids. It's an exciting ride with birds following the boat, dolphins swimming and the spray of the ocean breezes.

It's hard to decide if we want to get on top to see far away or down on the deck in the back to feel the ocean spray. Usually, the bow has a lot more spray and we keep our distance from that.

It's about a 20 minute ride across the bay. Many people come along the Bolivar Peninsula and use the free ferry for an alternate way into Houston, or its lower haunts.
--steve buser

Galveston, free ferry, Texas, Gulf of Mexico

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Watching the waiters

A Coast Guard boat cuises past some ocean-gowing barges out in the pass between Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula. We were crossing on the ferry. The area is always good for ship viewing.

Look carefully between the Coast Guard boat and the barge on the right. You will see a shrimp boat, also plying the waters.
--steve buser

Houston, ship traffic, Galveston, ferry

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Watch bird, bids us bye

We were out last week on the Cardinal River Tours -- heading down TenMile Bayou off of the Neches River.  Seems like the local fauna always come to check out the visitors to their quiet sanctuary.   This Great Egret sat atop a tree to watch us pass by.   Once we slipped passed,  he slipped back into the Big Thicket National Preserve's marsh and swamps, assured that all was well.

Great Egret, Neches River, Tours, Beaumont, Texas

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Stlit dad diverts attention

A Black-Necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus mexicanus) checks me out because I was getting too close to the chicks.  He would fly over to try to divert my attention,  then land far from the brushes where the chicks were hiding.  There he would screech to get me to look toward him.
-- steve buser

Black-Necked Stilt, Himantopus mexicanus mexicanus

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Dragon flew

We had a staring contest, this dragon fly and me. I just couldn't seem to get a good focus.

Apparently, he was in no hurry to go anywhere. He waited around until I was satisfied I had fooled with all the settings as much as I could to get a good focus. Then, I watched this resting dragon fly away.

Considering how short their lifespan is, I was thankful he gave me that much time.

--steve buser

Dragonfly, Texas

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New bridge will be ready to battle storms

Hurricane Rita slammed the Causeway bridge that connect Texas's Pleasure Island and Louisiana's Cameron Parish on Highway 82, the Gulf Beach Highway. The next Hurricane will have a harder time of disrupting the flow of traffic, as a new highrise bridge is being built to replace the drawbridge. Here the old is to the right and the new climbs on the left over the pass into Lake Sabine.
--steve buser

Highway 82, Cameron Parish, Louisiana, Texas

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The final fish.

The last fish of the day. Make it be that big one. The braggable one. Just this one time. Lake Sabine, Port Arthur Texas.
--Steve Buser

Fishing, Port Arthur, Texas

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Find the kids, quick!

Mom and Dad Black-Necked Stilts (Himantopus mexicanus mexicanus) scurry looking for the little ones when I stepped from my car to take a picture. If you look very closely you can see a rusty, blurry line across the middle of the picture. That is the barbed wire fence I was standing near (and thus it is way out of focus) -- which means they had nothing to fear from me. Not knowing anything about how fences work, the pair scrambled their kids into the brush and then tried to decoy me to other parts of the sparse pond -- two weeks of dry weather have dried up many of the watering holes.
--steve buser

Black-Necked Stilts, Himantopus mexicanus mexicanus

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Where has all the green grass gone?

Football is coming to Lamar University soon. That means all the grass has to go?

The Stadium is getting a sprucing up -- new field, fixed bleachers, new fieldhouse and more.

Meanwhile it is a strange site to see the field looking more like a mud bowl that a gridiron. You'll have to wait a while to see the final results.

--steve buser

Lamar University, Football, Beaumont, Texas

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Cormorants: I got your back

Even these young Double Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus ) understand the law of survival. "I got your back, you've got mine." I think the pile of weeds they are sitting on along Hwy 82 in Cameron Parish, just near the Texas line is a remnant of Hurricane Ike which send a wall of water through this area last year.
--steve buser

Double Crested Cormorants, Phalacrocorax auritus, Cormorants, Louisiana, Cameron, Texas

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Wished I would have studied Red-Winged Blackbird

Talk about being sorry I didn't take Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) in school instead of French, Spanish and Latin! It would have come in real handy today.

This fellow kept a steady chatter going, aimed at me. My guess is it went something like "Nest? What Nest? Come over here and see if I have a nest. Would I be over here if I had a nest of darling little ones over there? Over here! Come over here! You getting cold.

The fellow was on Highway 82 just over the line into Louisiana. I had gone down to Port Arthur to look for good birding spots and decided to run down Pleasure Island and across into Louisiana and Cameron Parish. It was a productive afternoon.
--steve buser

Red-Winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, Cameron Parish, Louisiana

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Grandson does Sun Dive

In case you didn't recognized it.  This is a "Sun Dive."

Our grandson, Sullivan, who was visiting this week described it like this "You look at the Sun and then you do a back jump into the water."

Of course, you recognize the perfect 10 that he is doing here, displaying aerial artwork,  death defying dexterity and all the rest.;

Actually, I, too, had never heard of a Sun Dive. That makes 2 of us.
--steve buser

Diving, Beaumont, Texas

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Wandering Willet turns wary

A Willet gives me the eye when I try to take a picture of him wading in the shallow surf in Galveston Bay.

--steve buser

Willet, bird, Galveston, Texas

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Eye-popping

This eye-popping iris was in one of the hot-houses at Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, Texas

--steve buser

Shangri La Botanical Gardens, Orange, Texas

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Latch nest chicks

Where's Mom? She said she was just running to the store for a few minutes. She should be back by now.

A couple egret chicks wait for food -- they seemed to stay in a state of hunger -- not realizing how long it takes mom how long it takes to get the food they need.

The photo is from Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, TX.

--steve buser

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Little Green Heron

I am up in Austin today.  I waw wandering outside of the hotel just now and found a path down to the Aboretum, This Little Green Heron (Butorides striatus) was wading for his supper catch as the sun was getting ready to go behind the Austin hills. The Little Green is the smallest of the herons in North America. He had nothing to fear from me, but the group of people at the other end of the pond left with their duck-feeding kids and all the ducks, geese and grackle came flocking to see if I was so inclined. Pretty soon, our protagonist here decided to flutter down the pond a distance.
--steve buser

While I wondered dark and dreary...

I was just wandering what it would look like if they dressed up the Stark House in Orange, TX, for a movie shoot. Maybe one of the old sinister, ghoulish movies. So, playing around in my digital darroom I came up with this for one of the peaks on the house. Hmm........ --steve buser

Sunset wrapped

Just wildflowers in the sunset.  West end of Beaumont, along the walking trail
--steve buser

Field of dreams

It was soccer night last night as the bright lights pushed back the black night for a few hours just past the out of bounds line. We were just coming back from a five mile walk -- the walking path starts right by these fields. The rain from the day had left a cool feeling in the night that we are not used to this time of year in Beaumont. (Right click on the picture and pick "View Image" to see the whole thing -- it doesn't fit here very well)
--steve buser

soccer, Beaumont, Texas, night

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Glowing glory

Another lily from our recent visit to Shangri La a couple weeks ago.   One of these days I am going to start bringing a notebook along to capture notes,  like the name of the flower and other important details like that.  Meanwhile, just enjoy the beauty.
--steve buser

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Enfatico ! Everyone Grandioso!

Talk about a grand fugue. These machines were all working in a small space on Calder Street in Beaumont, laying a major drain down the center of the street. Somehow they managed to avoid each other. Sometimes it would be two machines across from each other digging. Then suddenly they would stop and a third machine would start. He would soon be joined by another. Then, all would stop again, and a fourth machine, out of view here, would drive in and do its appointed work and retire backstage. Over and over, crescendo, fortissimo, acciaccatura, adagio, andante, con brio --- on and on it went.

I never saw the conductor, but he did a marvelous job.
-- steve buser

Construction, Beaumont, Texas

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Spinning time in Houston

Little Sophie wants to see what she looks like riding one of those wave-hopping wonders on the Carousel at the Aquarium in Houston. You can see of course that mommy is keeping a close watch in the background.
-- steve buser

Houston Aquarium, Carousel,

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