The Beauty of South Texas

Yesterday we biked Laguna Atascosa and reveled in the most glorious weather we've experienced yet on a bike ride....and the most gorgeous scenery.We met up at the visitor center where a little shopping was interrupted by the call to ride.

Not to worry, we stopped by afterward to pick up a few more shirts, books, hummingbird feeders and the all important candy bar.

We saw water birds of all kinds...Beautiful flowering cactus.....I mean...look at that, will you! Gorgeous!

And here's Donna...also gorgeous!

The weather was perfect. A light cooling breeze, tho it never got much over 70 degrees, and the sun felt great.That's South Padre across the bay.Wheee! Janet had a great time!Lots of stops to watch shore birds, fishermen, flowers.We had a marvelous time, didn't we Joey?

And then we had lunch. Always a highlight.

This time we brown bagged it and enjoyed the viewing platform while Dave found us a Nilgai through his telescope.

This is a Nilgai.

It's an exotic antelope from India imported to some ranches in Texas as a hunting trophy. Well, the Nilgai objected to that so they snuck out and took refuge on Federal land.

No dummies in the Nilgai family.

However....when we struggled to our feet after scarfing down our sandwiches it was noted that Dave's Nilgai were actually feral hogs.I personally don't see the similarity but I suppose when you are used to identifying hawks, mistaking a hog for a Nilgai would be a common mistake.More beautiful scenery....After the ride we hiked over to the alligator pond where Lanny promised, promised, we'd see alligators.

No alligators, but lots of ducks, including a very rare masked duck. Lanny did redeem himself (sort of) by pointing out a small stuffed alligator in the visitor center.Cheer up Lanny, stuffed alligators are almost as good as the real thing. NOT!