The ones that got away

My niece Bronte graduated from high school in June, which is the reason I went to Texas. I already showed you some of the great birds we saw but while Mary and I were birding, my brother Ricardo took his daughter Olivia and Bronte and her sister (and junior birder) Lilia to a little inlet for some fishing.

Here's Bronte, patiently trolling for the big one:

The fisher-kids and fisherman at work:

When Mary and I returned, sans a Painted Bunting sighting, we found the girls in a state of extreme upset!
Turns out, all three of the girls had caught fish; each had caught a 17-18" drum (which Ricardo said was a good fish), but Ricardo had jerry-rigged a piece of rope to keep the fish alive in the shallow water, but the fish had outsmarted him and wriggled free! They were back in the Gulf, swimming free:


The girls were upset, Ricardo was upset, but Mary and I were just happy we'd seen some good birds:


Here's my handsome brother, still trying to catch the ones that got away.

P.S. Forgot to add that all photos in this post were taken by Mary.