Misfit

Ugly birds, but interesting. Comments welcome - thanks!

Looks like the cousins to the ones that hang out around here....

Howyabeen?

Got home last weekend after the flooding, Dennis. We've been packing and are planning to sell the place - tired of the water! It would make a great weekend home, but isn't so great living here all the time.

Will it be hard to sell because of the floods? I'd love to see a photo...I keep trying to imagine what it must look like.

Sorry to hear about the water problem. Moving is never easy but sometimes necessary. That's life - nothing stays the same. I'm sure this bird would agree. So is it back to Canada?

Right now, we live on almost 6 acres, about 35 miles from where we both work (Corpus Christi). There are actually fairly large trees on the property, which is rare in S Texas, except for palm trees. The house is up on stilts 8', so never gets water inside. The water didn't come onto the property with these last two floods, but the road gets cut off with the bridge. I'll see if I have some pictures and if not, I can zip outside today and take some. A realtor assures us there IS a market for this place because "executives" like weekend properties, on the river. If we could afford another place in town and keep this one, we'd probably stay in town all week, then come out on weekends. That would be ideal, but we can't do it. We'll move into town and adjust to city living again. I won't miss the water or the scorpions, but the quiet is nice, as well as my numerous photo ops here (lizards, birds, etc.). Oh, and vultures, of course! This shot was taken just down the road. :)

Nice portrait of a loner, Kim. Just wish it was a tad sharper. Sorry to hear about your flood problem, but also glad to hear you lost nothing to it. Sometimes, you gotta count your blessings.

Here's a shot of the low water bridge. This is where we usually get cut off first. Our property is one of the highest, so normally doesn't get water on the property. However, in 2002, it had 3' rushing under our house! I'll post flood pictures of 2002, but this year was nowhere near as bad (thank goodness!).

Here are a few shots of our yard in 2002. We left before the worst of the flooding - it rose another two feet or so!

Another shot of our yard...this was before it got really bad!

They ended up with a foot and a half of water inside their place. They were bought out by the County in 2002.

After the flood, we came home to our fences knocked over and all kinds of garbage in the yard. It's dusty gray, like a bomb had gone off. Ed had planted 20 trees and they were all dead. My garden was washed away and I haven't ever replanted. But the rose bush LOVED it and blossomed with about 3 dozen roses right after the flood. Always something positive to come out of negatives.

Some people risk driving through deep water - not me!!!

We were evacuated shortly after this (two days later), by sheriff's boat. Picture two large lab/retriver X being loaded into a boat, in 3' of rushing water! We got to the other side of the bridge, then had to get up on a flatbed truck to cross 3 more low spots. Diesel and water sprayed over us and we were hanging on for dear life as the flatbed part of the truck moved with the water. It was not a fun time and we do not wait for the water to go up before leaving now.

Great shot that is somehow appropriate to everything you've been through. Wish you were moving farther northwest.

Me, too, Mark. It's about 97 degrees here, so definitely would be nice to be North right now!!!

Thanks for posting these! All that cleanup would not be fun. Can't you compromise and just move halfway to town, so you can still have access to critter photos?