Hard working bird

One of the small pleasures of our current location is relaxing on the balcony while watching the water fowl busy in the harbor.

The cormorant is the hardest working bird. It will dive 10 times to get a fish, but that is just the start of it's feeding work. When it surfaces it must get the fish turned to swallow head first and protect it's meal from opportunistic rivals. We have seen a Great Heron swoop down on a cormorant and steal a fish from its mouth. The resident osprey has also successfully stolen a hard won meal.

Cormorant drying its wings on our dock:

During a walk on the breakwater that protects the marina, we spotted a Muscovy duck. We had not seen one of these since leaving Homestead. De Anne and I agree it is the ugliest water fowl.

Merry Christmas to all!

Wolf sanctuary

Yesterday we visited the nearby Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary. Isolated at the end of a country road this non-profit organization handles rescue wolves and wolf/dog hybrids from not only Texas, but also surrounding states.

 Dumb people think owning a wolf in an urban or even apartment setting would be fun. When reality bites them (both literally and figuratively) the wolf has to go. Many are put down, while the lucky ones get a home here.

 At first we were dismayed at the 30 foot by 50 foot pens each housing 1 to 3 wolves, but by the end of the tour realized this was the best that could be done for these lucky few.

It was explained that wolves are escape artists. Each pen was a 12 foot chain link fence topped with 45 degree, 3 foot high chicken wire retainer. Rebar was driven 3 feet into the ground all around the fence perimeter and finally a secondary 12 foot fence was set back and encircling all the pens. The safety and care costs are high.

One wolf was brought out and we were instructed to sit on a bench and not get up while the wolf was out. This was the most docile animal in the sanctuary, yet two handlers were present - A woman holding the thick leash and a man right behind her holding a shovel. Extra protection even with the most civilized wolf of the bunch.
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The wolves put on an impromptu concert for us. One let out a string of howls and several others joined the chorus. The singing when on for a couple minutes.

 We left impressed with this facility that cares for these beautiful animals.

Lake Conroe

The distance between points was much less this month. 240 miles versus last months' 1,600 miles; however, I managed to make it difficult.

In trying to outsmart our GPS - the GPS won. I wanted to use some side roads that the GPS did not like so (with my crafty ways) I programmed a halfway point, then when we reached it I reset it for Lake Conroe thinking it would pick the route I wanted. Wrong! The GPS got even by sending us on ever smaller side roads. I finally gave up and got us to I-10 headed to Houston, exactly what I was trying to avoid. I surrendered; however, the GPS was not done humiliating me. It put us on toll roads. After a couple tolls we hit a stretch with huge signs warning that the SunPass was the only way to pay the toll ahead and violators would be prosecuted. We exited and re-calculated yet again. Winding our way through the northern suburbs of Houston we finally arrived having added an hour to what should have been a 4 hour trip.

A couple Sailor Jerry rum and cokes coupled with the view from our balcony improved the day.

After 3 days of rain De Anne is basking in sunshine again this morning.