Blog#36 Back in Big Ole Texas
I checked recent bird sightings for High Island and decided against driving out there. It is still too early for the songbird migration to arrive. I keep waiting and hoping they get to Texas before I leave, and not arrive just after I’ve left. Like a certain someone who sucks–he being Jimmy Buffett.
As close as I got to downtown Houston
Scissortail flycatcher
I drove west to Lake Corpus Christi State Park. I checked in to my camp, drove through the park and then went into Three Rivers (nearby town) and ate at Dairy Queen. I had a regular cheeseburger that was the diameter of a salad plate. On the wall was a photo of Ronald Reagan. He was having a cone in that DQ.
Working to stay on the line in the wind
I went back to camp and was lucky to be in a bubble where there was active WiFi. I stayed up late and posted a couple blogs.
Still a long way from getting caught up.
In the morning I cruised through the park and was completely stoked to spot a bobcat out in a field, stalking a molehill. I was at the edge of the field, glassing this cat and several people passing by stopped to share my discovery. I asked a local man if it really was a bobcat, and he said he didn’t have his glasses. So I handed him my binocs and he looked, confirming that it was, indeed, a bobcat. There were now about a dozen people around me, using their phones to try and snap photos of the cat. Then, as we all watched, the bobcat pounced–it’s long tail flowing out behind it. A man in the crowd said, “Nope. It’s domestic”, with utter disgust. He then turned and walked away.
Everyone scattered. I turned, my eyebrows raised, to the man who had earlier confirmed bobcat with the binocs. He raised his shoulders, grinned sheepishly and said, “I can’t see very good, even with glasses”.
Oh well. It drew us all together for a few minutes.
I deleted all the photos so Brian can’t make fun of me.
In the Dairy Queen in Three Rivers, Texas.
I walked out to the campground birdblind, but there was nothing new. Also no seed in the feeders. This is a pet peave of mine. If you advertise that you have a birdblind and good birding, perhaps that reputation would be maintained if you really had birds at your birdblind. Fill the feeders, damn it! (I am shaking an angry fist).
At Lake Corpus Christi State Park–built by the CCC
I had a long drive ahead of me, because I am geographically challenged and had booked a campsite way north and east of San Antonio, where my friend Becky is flying in to meet me. So I departed Lake Corpus Christi, south and west of San Antonio, spotting one roadrunner but no bobcat.
I drove most of the rest of the day, nervous to be going back into swamp for the night. I’m certainly tired of bugs. I arrived at Palmetto State Park, about 75 minutes from San Antonio.
Only new bird I saw at Lake Corpus Christi
I set up camp and explored the park. It has a tiny lake that had people floating on it. No gators here, the lake is spring fed. The park had many hiking trails, but they were rather narrow and wound through the trees and underbrush, not to my liking in the land of poisonous vipers.
No kidding.
I decided I should stop being a baby and seize the day, so I walked the San Marcos River Trail until the sun went down. Didn’t see anything new in the birding list, but I admit it is difficult to search the tree branches when your fear of fangs coming out from under the shrubbery is occupying your thoughts. I kept stopping and looking up for owls, and finally I heard some hooting. I never could never spot it, and light was going fast.
I hoofed it out of the woods and went back to camp where I ate my ham sandwich with a side of salsa and leftover chips and guacamole from Lulu’s. Again, no WiFi.
It was very cool and it began to rain-just as I was climbing into bed for the night. It was a good change to sleep without my fan blowing to cool things down, and the rain helps as a deterrent to the flying biters.
I spent some time with Dan Brown’s Origin. (I wouldn’t give it to Amelia when she flew home. I now have a timeline to finish it so I can give it to her when I stop at her place on my way home. She said I’ll need to work on her garden before leaving for Oregon. We’ll see..).