Birding at High Island

I have neglected this old blog, which is a shame because it's our family's photographic record and memory keeper. This pandemic year has been tough, but I've still been taking photos and I plan to go back and upload them and fill out the memories the best I can. After all, 2020 and 2021 are years that really shouldn't be forgotten!

In the meantime, we went birding at High Island today, which is one of our favorite spring events. Each year, hundreds and hundreds of birds nest at High Island, and it is the most spectacular sight. We've made the pilgrimage to High Island every year for years, and it is always a highlight of our spring.

We invited my parents to join us. We hadn't seen them in over a year, and being outdoors with masks and traveling in separate cars (plus vaccines!) made it feel like a safe way to spend time together. I'm so glad they could join us!

The birds are always a highlight, but the Houston Audubon Society has made some updates to the facilities, including a brand new skywalk, which is amazing! Check out these beautiful great egrets:

We saw a lot of babies too, but they were tiny because it is still so early in the season.

The trees are just full of birds!

The roseate spoonbills are some of my favorites. 

More great egrets

We also saw a lot of tricolored herons. We saw ONE last year and the guide told us it was unusual, but these year, we must have seen at least ten. They are gorgeous birds.

Nest building

More babies

We ended our outing with a .7 mile loop around Grackle Pond, where we saw many more birds as well as a lot of turtles. 

The Houston Audubon Sanctuaries at High Island are amazing places to visit in April. Each year, I am so thankful that these incredible places exist less than 90 minutes from the heart of Houston. 

My Henry

We are down to the last two weeks of pre-K for Henry!  This kid has grown so much lately and is just an amazing, sweet little boy.  

These are some comments Henry has made lately: 

On checking the Stilton to make sure it was still good to eat:  

How do you know when stinky cheese goes bad?  

On Mommy's never-ending housework:  

(Back story: We watched a short called Burn-E on the Wall-E DVD, where the repair robot Burn-E tries to fix a lamp only to have everything go wrong. He finally fixes it, turns on the lamp, only to have it crushed and they cycle starts all over again.)   

Mommy, you are just like Burn-E! Your work never ends!

On tearing down small, less expensive houses in West U to build mansions: 

But Mommy, that doesn't make sense. What about the people who don't have as much money? They could buy the small house and live in it!

On feeling grouchy: I feel grouchy when I don't get enough sleep.  

Henry's class made their last bulletin board of the year based on Eric Carle's The Very Grouchy Ladybug. Henry is a grouch when he doesn't get enough sleep!

Happy boy who clearly had lots of sleep the night before :)

Sometimes when Henry is supposed to be sleeping, he is busy writing googol (1 plus 100 zeroes) on his Magnadoodle. We heard him counting to 100 but didn't realize right away that he was counting out zeroes to make googol. I'm 100% positive I was not doing this when I was five years old!

And finally, we have been enjoying this lovely spring weather and Henry's half days (I am so going to miss this next year when he is in kindergarten!) by getting outside lots. I packed us a picnic lunch for the zoo on Monday, and just as I was picking up Henry from school, Gene called to see if he could join us for lunch. When I told him we were headed to the zoo, he met us there!

Meerkat sentry:

And the best thing ever: elephant babies swimming in the water

and rough-housing. They were shoving and kicking each other playfully, just like my boys do. I knew I lived in a zoo!

It was such a fun afternoon but we all missed having Will there. He would have loved it!

Right now, I am just trying to soak up this special time with my little guy before he gets all big and grown-up and has to go to all-day kindergarten.

 In the fall, I know I am going to miss this.

Spring

Spring has sprung in southeast Texas! My azaleas are in bloom

and baby birds are hatching. We found an eggshell in the backyard last week.

The boys are spending tons of time in the backyard, playing with Play-Doh

and the colored bubbles

that Henry got for his birthday.

Colored bubbles. Sounds like a great idea, right? It is, except that the bubble solution STAINS everything. So not worth the trouble.We'll stick with regular bubbles from now on, but the boys did have fun with the colored bubbles while they lasted!And now that the weather is warmer, the boys are requesting frozen yogurt quite often! They loved Tutti Frutti up by our old house, but we have so many more options down here! So far, we've tried out Berripop,

Swirll,

and Yogurtland, where Will was disappointed that the entire store was not made out of yogurt. It is called Yogurtland after all!Our mission to enjoy spring is off to a great start!