Again, warm overnight and overcast throughout the day. We had many short sharp showers and the occasional thunder-boomer.
We decided that today would be a good day to visit the Texas State Aquarium which is just back along the causeway between us and Corpus Christi.
The aquarium has many indoor exhibits together with some outdoor pools that can be viewed from under cover or from outdoors. The former had its uses today with the showers.
Although this was an aquarium, there were a number of exhibits, and displays, featuring birds of prey and water fowl. One of the birds we had seen in the wild, but hadn’t been able to get a picture of was the roseate spoonbill
Roseate Spoonbill, Texas State Aquarium
There was a show featuring some red shouldered hawks that had been rescued by the aquarium, together with the obligatory dolphin show, where we managed to get wet! However the wetness was not due to being too close to the pool (we’ve learnt that lesson!) it was due to the uncooperative weather.
Inside the aquarium were a number of tank displays as well as a “touch pool”. One tank had a number of tiger fish, these are a bread of fish that are not native to the Gulf of Mexico, but have somehow been introduced here. They are at the top of the food chain and are playing havoc with the balance of native fish in the gulf as they have no known enemies.
Tiger Fish, Texas State Aquarium
Moving on to something more serene, the Gulf of Mexico is also home to seven different types of sea-horse, although they are not very common.
Sea Horse, Texas State Aquarium
Yet another institute that was worth a visit, a little expensive relative to similar places down here, but we did get a 25% discount for being out of state visitors!!