3/29 Finally! A Sunny day!

Or at least mostly sunny.  It was foggy this morning and the haze is coming in again this late afternoon.  I took a very long beach walk to take some photos.  This is a pretty basic campground in terms of good roads and landscaping, but Hurricane Ike took out most of the campsites and the bathroom/shower buildings. They are slowly rebuilding and really need to increase the number of sites, but it costs money.  This was the row that was farthest away from the Gulf, and I doubt if they will every rebuild as close to the water as originally.  In any case, the ocean breeze and privacy more than makes up for facilities.

This is the beach right out in front of my campsite.  Since this is Saturday, there are a lot more people here than during the week when it was foggy and rainy.

 

I think this is some kind of plover.  Not sure.

These birds have a very long beak which is slightly curved downward.  They are dunlins.

 

 Finally made it to the end of the state park.  Note: If you see what looks like a comfortable log on the beach in Texas, do NOT sit on it.  It is likely to be covered with biting tiny ants.  I was lucky to find a couple of very nice ladies who helped me brush them off, but in the 20 seconds I sat on the log, I got two bites on my hand and one on my ankle. 

More shorebirds.  The ones in front are ruddy turnstones.

This is sand blackberry.

And this is fire wheel, aka Indian blanket

This one took a long time to find, but I am 99% sure it is blue gilliam, aka blue bowls.

 

After walking almost two miles, I was very glad to get back home.  Got homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove, and looking forward to driving down to Padre Island tomorrow.