POTR #56 Getting Into Autumn

I have always thought of butterflies as creatures that were around during the late spring and summer and by September they would be gone. I guess that I spent too much time in place where autumn and winter was cold enough to discourage active insects. I am sure that in just the last month I have seen more butterflies than I have seen in the total sum of my life to this point. While we have been driving around we have seen them crossing the roads and they seemed more like autumn leaves in a windstorm. There seem to be many varieties. I really like the swallow tails, the yellow ones and the white ones. Of course I also like the Monarchs and the Viceroys that look almost identical. The Monarch make a migration north in the spring and a migration south in the fall and gather in places in such numbers that they reportedly can break branches on trees. I believe that I have seen some of the migration.


TWO FEMALE MONARCH BUTTERFLIES IN BENTSEN GROVE RESORT

One of the birds that has impressed me whenever I have been around them is the white pelican. They are the largest of all species of pelican. Seeing them sitting on the water or sitting on top a post you would never guess that they hide a secret. It is not until they either stretch their wings or are flying that they reveal the secret. Along the outer trailing edge of the wings is a band of very black feathers. They do not show up until the pelican stretches out their wings and then they are very striking. Even when they are flying quite high above the ground the black on their wings makes it easy to differentiate them from any other white bird. I always thought that all pelicans fished the same way. But I was wrong. The brown pelican will fly above the water till it sees a fish then fold its wings and plunge to catch the fish in its large beak. They hit the water seemingly so hard that it is amazing they can survive the impact. While the white pelican has a large pouch attached to its beak like the brown it has a very different way of catching fish. It will cooperate with others to encircle fish and concentrate them int shallows to feed by dipping their beak in the water and engulfing fish. The beak pouch will hold as much a three gallons of water and fish. It really is a large bucket.


TWO WHITE PELICANS AND A BROWN PELICAN


WHITE PELICAN IN FLIGHT NEAR CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS

Our last sight before coming to the Rio Grande Valley was in Corpus Christi. We have been there several times in the past ten years and have seen "The Mighty Lexington" aircraft carrier setting in the harbor, but we have never been able to add it to our plans. We were finally able to have the time to tour the ship. After being decommissioned in 1947 and again in 1991 it was placed in the harbor as a museum. Actually we did not allow enough time to see the ship as well as we might have, but we did allow enough time to get very tired, so it was enough for a single visit. The "Lex" served the United States longer and set more records than any other carrier in the history of naval aviation. The flight deck is 910 foot long and 52 foot above the water line. From the water line to the keel is 30 foot. It has 90,000 square feet of landing area. It had a displacement of 42,000 tons and can travel at over 30 knots (35 MPH). The ship was painted a blue gray color during the war. The Japanese reported that she was sunk no less than four times, but each time she was repaired and returned to fight. The color and her return to battle caused the propagandist Tokyo Rose to nickname her "The Blue Ghost, which became a tribute to the ship the crew and air groups that served with her. In 1967 the ship passed the mark of 200,000 arrested landing, which is more than any other aircraft carrier in the world.


THE USS LEXINGTON, "THE BLUE GHOST", IN THE HARBOR AT CORPUS CHRISTI

We are back in Mission, Texas at Bentsen Grove for the winter. I have to say that it is nice to be in 80 degree weather when a lot of the country is having freezing weather and snow on the ground. More of the Winter Texans are arriving every day and right after Thanksgiving there will be an even larger number of daily arrivals. So far I have something scheduled every day of the week, there of course is church on Sunday. Four days we have dance class, one day I teach a session at computer club and on the remaining day I am the newcomer photographer for the park. I don't have enough to keep myself busy so I help people with computer problems (if I can) and I intend to add some more activities to my schedule as soon as some of the activity chairmen get down here out of the cold. There is plenty to do.

Till Later This Is Doug Of
Peace On The Road