3/27 Another Foggy Day in Galveston

Another, dull, dreary foggy day along the Gulf of Mexico on Galveston Island.  I have been wanting to go for a long beach walk, but the weather is just not cooperating.  In fact, you can barely see the beach and the waves are wild.

Here is a pier that was damaged in Hurricane Ike.  You can walk part of the way out, but the end is missing.  Nasty waves.

 

In order to protect them from the next hurricane, all houses are built up on stilts, like this one under construction.

They use the underneath part as a garage or to store things, but always there are no permanent walls.  This enables the waves and winds to flow underneath. 

 

 These birds are constantly in the campground.  They are great-tailed grackles, and unlike the grackles we have up north, the have very long legs and tails.  They also make amazing sounds--cheeps, tweets, whistles, and even warbles.  There is a rarer boat-tailed grackle along this coast, but it has a darker eye. 

 

I think a lot of the singing and warbling is due to mating season.  As soon as these birds gather into groups, they start posturing and lifting their heads back, accompanied by all of the noises they can command.