A foggy morning
Weather this time of year can be so quixotic—one day/night I am wearing socks to bed and a sweatshirt over a longjohn top and thinking bean soup and cocoa and two days later it is moquitoes and a short sleeve shirt—I don’t wear shorts. Fog always comes in on those days and the house never seems to warm up like it does on those cold blue norther days with bright sunshine heating up the tile roof–the heat dissipating over night until about 5 AM when the train starts moving its cars and the bedroom is chilly and the coffeepot is calling my name.
Today was one of the foggy days; still chilly inside but pleasant enough outside.
We had second breakfast at a WaffleHouse after making a trip to the shop to see if the garden water had been left on—yes it was— but the tomatoes were not drowning as has happened in the past with our torrential downpours.
Several options had been discussed—a trip to the Big Thicket? A trip to Anahuac Wildlife Preserver? a trip to the beach?
In the end we decided upon CatTail Marsh, the tertiary sewage treatment plant for the city. It is quiet except for the duck hunters in the distance, the golfers in the golf carts, and the cackling/giggling/snorting/chattering of the birds in the marshy grasses.
We met a young man with a really cute little fluffly dog that snarled at us–but only managed to look really cute instead of threatening. Then there was the man with the huge camera who pointed out where the eagle nest was (no we didn’t see it) We could several trees with egrets and herons circling around and landing in the upper story—it looks so odd to see them in trees instead of wading in the water.
And then there were these birds.
Were they buzzards? They were grouped like buzzards on the road.
Were they cormorants?
We each tried taking good photos of them; our good binoculars safely tucked away in their case in the front seat of my truck—-and we had taken the Tesla.
At home here I could look at them more closely—those long curved bills gave their identity away—ibis!
Sylvia Weir Art 