Travel Report – Page 3 – The Hermits' Rest

All By Myself

I’m all cozy in a hotel very close to a University campus. So it’s not quiet. I’m pretty tired from all that bleeding and stitching yesterday, so you’re not getting much to read tonight.

I did do a BioBlitz at Lick Creek Park in College Station today, but it was very low key because I just wasn’t ready for big crowds (auto correct made the word “crowds” into “briefs”) and talking. So I wandered around and looked at the saddest collection of wilted plants I’ve ever seen in the wild.

It’s hard to find diverse plants when everything is brown and droopy.

I found a few things and would have seen more if I’d been in the guided botany walk.

There were irrigated pollinator gardens around the nature center. I hoped to get lots of pollinator photos, but the butterflies seemed more intent on mating than sipping nectar. And the mid-afternoon sun makes phone photography hard. You can’t see the screen, so you miss a lot. I tried taking distant photos and cropping, with poor results. So the four types of skippers and the many Queens remain uncaptured.

I only heard four birds, too. But, it was a day outdoors and I did chat with a few like-minded people. No complaints.

Thanks to all who checked in on me. I will endeavor to not fall this weekend.

Exploring to the Extent I Could

It was a pretty darn good camping day. I even got to do more traditional nature activities than I did yesterday. After coffee I’d planned to hike at the other unit a few miles away. Instead I went on a fun hike with my new friend Sue along the trails named after birds here at the main camping unit at Choke Canyon State Park.

Sue’s a solo nomad camper, with just her dogs. I admire that! We have a lot in common, including horses, so we had a lot to talk about.

However, the scenery frequently left us wordless, because there were so many butterflies around. There were many Queens and Buckeyes, but the best part was that there were dozens and dozens of American Snouts fluttering around the trails. It must be their migration time.

I have always enjoyed the Snouts. A few years ago, we went to a cabin with family during the Snout migration, and I still have great memories of these little guys and gals flowing in a steady stream as we watched from the porch.

Snouts are feisty, too. We saw them chasing the larger Queens quite pugnaciously. What fun.

We did see some Monarchs, but none ever stopped long enough to photograph.

And some of my photos were bad, like this Funereal Duskywing

Other fun sights came when we went down the concrete jetty trail near the concession stand (closed due to the lake being so low there are few fishing visitors). I was thrilled to see a Ruby-throated Hummingbird enjoying the tubular blossoms of tree tobacco plants. I thought the hummers were all gone.

Anyway, it’s very pleasant to have someone to hike with, especially here, since there really aren’t all that many birds around right now. And it was warm, but not too hot.

Later, i had to take a sad football game break, since my team wasn’t doing great. I went over to the “swimming area” to look at clams and water plants. I also found some very pretty purple flowers called Gregg’s Tube Tongue (Justicia pilosella). I’m a sucker for anything that looks like a violet!

Lee and I went off to the South Unit. They didn’t even have staff at the gate, because it’s so dry that boaters can’t get into the lake easily. We explored the lake shore, which had swaths of marsh fleabane teeming with American Buckeye butterflies. We had lots of fun with them.

Next, we drove over to the dam that contains the Frío River to create the lake. I was very disappointed to find out the road across the dam was closed. I’d really wanted to look for shore birds near the dam. I did see one Great Egret with my binoculars and determined that the white birds I’d seen were buoys to keep boats away from the dangerous part of the lake. Sigh.

We enjoyed dinner outside and that was the end of a pretty good day.

Ooh! I forgot to mention we saw javelina on our way to the dam. Good thing!

Spontaining All Over Texas

Today didn’t go as planned. That’s okay. If you can’t spontain on a relaxing weekend at a state park, when else can you? I did get to spend the morning doing what I intended, which is record birds for the Big Day on Merlin/eBird and record pollinators for the Texas Pollinator Bioblitz on iNaturalist. I do so love doing competitions where I can compete with myself.

Lee had wanted to take pictures with me at the bird blind, but realized the camera batteries were not charged. So he decided to go to Corpus Christi (1.5 hours or so) to get some at a camera shop. I was promised visits to parks on the trip. So, I spontaneously agreed.

I hoped to see more butterflies, like this Buckeye

Off we went, but soon realized people need to eat. We lucked out and there was a very authentic Texas-Czech barbecue/kolache place at our first exit in Mathis. We went through many small towns today, some more decrepit than others. The restaurant had a great collection of antiques and extra friendly waitresses. The fried okra was fresh, too. A winner.

Yes, we did stop next at another state park, Lake Corpus Christi. We decided to come back and stay there for a longer trip. They have full hookups and lots of trails, plus the nicest state park restroom building I ever saw. Indeed, I took pictures. We just drove around and didn’t get out, so I only got two plant photos.

After that I saw many fascinating slums and defunct shopping centers in Corpus Christi. I saw parts of that town I’d never seen before and would have been okay not seeing, but it was like an adventure/scavenger hunt trying to locate the camera stores Lee had looked up. For future reference, there is no camera store in Corpus Christi. There are many small houses, giant empty churches, and weird downtown streets, though.

It was a relief to get on that nice wide road that takes you over some bays index onto Mustang Island, a place I used to hang out at during my early years in Texas. I’d never been to the state park there, but I can no longer say that. We did get to Mustang Island State Park (got our money’s worth on the parks pass).

I got many observations of Beachy pollinators as well as plenty of birds to record, so I was satisfied. We both enjoyed watching the ghost crabs and were astonished at how many jellyfish were washed up. There are super high tides right now, so they were almost to the dunes.

On our way home we drove the back way with no interstates. Wow. There are some desolate areas in this part of Texas. We passed many large ranches with dirt instead of grass (drought) and many others that were obviously being managed for game. The scrub is very good for hunting birds in addition to larger animals.

We also passed through Orange Grove (no oranges seen) which is where some of Lee’s family settled. It was in pretty sad shape but had some nice housing tracts outbox town. It was the last town before all the nothingness.

It’s good to be back at Choke Canyon after a nice meal of H-E-B sushi. I got 45 bird species today!

Heading South Like a Bird

Not that I want it to be warmer; it’s plenty warm still where I live. Nonetheless The plan for today was to head down south for a repeat visit to Choke Canyon State Park. I accidentally rebooked this park, perhaps I had a subconscious plan.

This very anxious cow had both me and the dogs concerned during birding time.

But first we had to get there. The farrier came early, which messed up my careful plans for getting both my work and my travel preparation done (and photography of pollinators for Texas Pollinator Week). Then, of course, work needed me and that got me more out of sync. I kept up my planned work/prep until I went to feed the chickens and give them water.

Of course I stopped for pollinators. This clouded skipper was diving into a flower.

As I turned the water flow on, I saw a brown lump in the grass. Was it something else Vlassic had dragged in from the pasture?

Oh my gosh, no! It was a newborn calf! On our side of the fence! It was doing the classic baby calf thing of laying low and not moving. I knew it was just born, because Tyler V tags new ones as soon as he finds them and he’s looking at least twice a day right now.

No wonder that cow had been mooing so hard this morning! And her milk bag was very full. I got in touch with Tyler then finished working and getting ready. Just as we were finally leaving, Tyler arrived and I showed him where the calf was. The poor thing was getting hot and breathing hard, so I’m glad it got rescued. All it took was for Tyler to walk up to it and it scooted back through the fence. I hope there was a family reunion and the baby got tagged.

That made me as happy as I assume these bee flies were when I took this shot.

Four hours later, we arrived to the familiar sight of Choke Canyon’s scrubby beauty. I quickly realized why I subconsciously rebooked a place we had already been—this time we are just two spots away from the bird blind! The really good one! And there’s javelina poop on our site! Yes! This place has its own beauty and excitement.

Bonus: the leveling system worked and my bedroom slide went out. I can get to my pajamas and art supplies! It’s like we have our motorhome back, though the generator still won’t start.

I did get to walk around just a little bit, and found a lot of climbing milkweed, lantana, and cow pen daisies. I hope these will convince some of the beautiful butterflies I’ve been seeing to stop and pollinate. So far I have a dead queen butterfly and a brown moth. I must do better!

I figure I’ll enjoy a few more birding hikes this weekend as well as take a lot of insect and plant photos! Enjoy scenes from my sunset walk.

Bonus Post: Camping Photos

I had a request to share some of the plants and scenery from camping at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park this weekend, since posting them on Facebook doesn’t reach many of you. It has been a pleasant weekend with lots of peace and quiet and not as much heat as there could have been.

I spent a lot of time looking at water reflecting in the lake.

I did find some new plants, though no new birds. There were 35 different species, including a Black-and-White Warbler and a Great Horned Owl making a high-pitched call I hadn’t heard before (I heard it two different days, so Merlin mustn’t be lying).

This pond reflection looks too perfect to be real!

Most of the weekend I hiked paths and walked around all the campgrounds. The piney woods has many different hardwoods, including hickory, many oaks, buckeyes (if that counts as a tree), sweetgum, Osage orange, and no doubt more. Plus loblolly pine and red cedar.

For the time of year, I saw many flowers, some quite beautiful. Some of my favorites bloom in the fall, of course, like false foxgloves and asters.

I saw deer and squirrels and even a toad. The deer were not pleased that I separated them, hence the action shot. I have no squirrel photos—the ones here aren’t very tame. There was armadillo and raccoon evidence, but no sightings.

Here are more random pictures I liked. Mostly it’s a lot of green stuff here, but that’s fine with me.

View from the best campsite in the park. Private lake access

Back home tomorrow. I could stay here much longer.

Small Concern, Big Happiness

I’ve enjoyed my day at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park, but before showing my endless photos, I wanted to share a concern I have. You see, starting last week I started getting significantly more hits on this blog site. Usually they stay about the same unless a pet dies or I say something controversial.

Not controversial: this view of an inlet.

I looked at the stats, and for the past week or so I’ve been getting more visitors from China than even the US. In today’s world, that concerns me. Am I being monitored because of my political spiritual stances that don’t jive with what our Corporate Overlords promote? Is my writing being mined for AI learning? (That would make me laugh, since I don’t think my informal prose will do anything helpful.)

Anyone else heard of this? Ideas?

Maybe posting red flowers is a good idea.

Now back to cheerful and bland nature stuff. This park is in a beautiful part of northeast Texas, so everywhere I went today was pleasant, even though the soundtrack of Blue Jays got a bit monotonous.

I found many plants that were new to me, and enjoyed exploring so much that when I came back to the campsite I had a weird feeling. I laughed when I realized it was happiness. I was relaxed and happy all day! That was much needed.

However, all the hiking and exploring today has me wiped out. I’m going to just share a few photos then go to bed. I’ll add bonus material for you and my new Chinese friends to enjoy tomorrow.

Buckeyes in seed pod. Yes, I know what it looks like.

Looking for Beauty and Kindness

I declared that today would be spent looking for beauty and kindness wherever I went. That started out early, since we wanted to leave for a camping weekend (at last) as early as possible.

I hit the ground running, trying to get to Tractor Supply right after they opened. Ha. The traffic gods had other plans and I got to wait a lot, which was okay—more time listening to NPR. And I did encounter kindness when the sweet worker who checked me out also loaded all my 50-pound horse and chicken food bags and the deceptively heavy salt. She said she was stronger than most of the men there.

There was much running around, sweating, and chore performance before we could leave, and Lee hurt his back hitching the Jeep to the motorhome. Yet, we survived and drove northeast for a long time, during which Lee was kind to a trucker who needed the lane we were in at a run-down gas station. The guy had a cool big rig—he was taking it to a truck show!

We managed to make it to Lake Bob Sandlin State Park before the office closed, which felt miraculous considering the amount of slow-moving vehicles and construction delays we hit. You know a car is slow if we pass it!

We changed to a more level site, so we lost our lake view, but the piney woods are also lovely, and there are plenty of birds to enjoy.

Helping Lee because his back hurt made me end up sore from crawling in the ground and floor, but that’s what good spouses do for each other!

I found lots more beauty as I walked around the camping area after we were set up. There’s even a lot of beautyberry here, which speeds up one’s search for beauty!

I did find the lake and many woodland plants, so I believe I did what I set out to.

By focusing on good stuff, small annoyances like the bedroom slide and the leveling system not working seem insignificant. I’m just gonna go look at plants and listen to birds tomorrow. Yes.

Yep, Everyone Is Interesting

It’s true, and the interesting stranger at the Portland Airport agrees. I had things to write about yesterday and plans to work on a blog on my way home. That didn’t happen, and it’s not a bad thing, because I was talking to interesting people, as I did the whole time I was in suburban Portland.

Look, kids, it’s Mount Hood! I did my sightseeing from the plane.

As many wise folks have pointed out before me, everyone has a story to tell. They also say it’s hard to feel animosity towards people when you can see what you have in common and know what they’ve been through. For example, one of my Uber drivers was forced to flee Peru, but he’s made a good life here. All the Uber drivers I had on my trip were interesting and taught me things, so I’m glad I had the chance to ride so often. I had some really fun times explaining that Texas isn’t all bad. One guy was shocked I managed to live in a small town and not be a Christian Fascist (or whatever they’re called these days).

This mountain had a smoke ring! My friend Alice thinks it’s Mount Jefferson.

The people I talked to at my workplace were also a fun bunch. Portland seems to be crawling with musicians! And many people had horses or once did. It was fun hanging out with young parents and learning how they do things today. Lots of creativity and/or multi-generational households to handle child care.

I had an oddly frank and open conversation about life with a random punk rocker disguised as a businessman in the airport, as I mentioned above. He was a bit scattered, in a good way, and we found we had much in common. That’s what brought me back to everyone being interesting if you talk to them. So I just continued being friendly and talked to a fellow worried about his large dog traveling in the cargo hold, and I made the flight attendant so happy by asking her about her beautiful silver bracelet she was wearing, which happened to be made by a Hawaiian artist. The flight attendant was beaming as she told me how much she loved it.

Sweet stories from random people keep me hoping we can pull our society back together. Humans are not all mean and hateful like the media so often says they are.

Enough of that. I did want to share that I got to see some Oregon plants and hear some birds yesterday by taking a lunch walk. I found an area where there’s a big effort being made to restore native plants, on property the company I consult for seems to own. The plants were surrounded by two things. One was the ever-present wild blackberries. I ate a lot, since there weren’t right on the roadside and covered with automotive residues.

The other thing I saw were rows of gnarled old trees, which look like they’d been cut down to stumps but we’re trying to come back, fighting through ivy and berries. I couldn’t tell what they were, but I figured they were something that was once harvested. When I finally got to upload photos to iNaturalist, it turned out they were hazelnut trees! Before Tualatin got industrialized, it must have grown nuts. Cool.

There was also a small forest remnant next to the offices, with a short path running through it. I enjoyed seeing the ferns, evergreens, and native maples (among others).

After seeing a California Jay, another new one on my list, I felt satisfied that I’d seen at least a little nature. Then my ride to the airport, a really nice man very much like me, took us through downtown to save time, so I got a bonus tour. Yay for avoiding the crowded interstate!

There, I’m caught up, back with my animals and humans, and ready for what’s next. After some sleep!

Are There Birds in Oregon?

I’m sure there are birds in this state, but I have not been able to put myself into places where birds are. Still, by wandering around the hotel this morning and searching for a neighborhood after work, I found a few, plus a new one, Vaux’s Swift.

Mostly I heard Lesser Goldfinches, Black-capped Chickadees, House Finches, and Crows. Not the plethora I’d hoped for, but I haven’t made it to any nature sights in Oregon and probably won’t since I leave tomorrow and it will be rainy. Oh well! I did see some plants!

This apple tree was bending down from its beautiful crop.

There are wild blackberries everywhere. I guess I’d never go hungry this time of year.

I did enjoy looking around at big trees and colorful flowers, though I’m in a noisy area both at work and where I’m staying. Good thing this wasn’t a sight/seeing trip!

The work part of the day was great, and there was a fun lunch with the people from the company I contract for. They gave us all nice, soft sweatshirts, too. The people part of this visit has been just great. It’s so empowering to work with people who feel like they’re working as a team to make interesting cutting-edge things.

I do need to go home and tell Drew to treat Vicki better, so I’m looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow afternoon!

Citizens of Beaverton loved my shirt. I hesitate to wear it at home. Well, everyone has their opinions.

Investigating Near and Sorta Far

Today was hot, but otherwise a fine Sunday. I started the day by listening to birds, as usual. I felt like getting some exercise, so I took the long walk to the cemetery. It looked very spiffy, and the birds were happy with how nice things looked, both there and at the old school/church property.

I found out later that whoever the Walker’s Creek people are will be holding a picnic there next week! Maybe it’s people with plots in the cemetery—they do that at other cemeteries in the area. what a nice tradition.

While I was there I noticed many Black Vultures gathering in two of the grand dead oaks adjacent to the old “town center.”

I also heard lots of dogs barking and a familiar voice telling them to stop. Were they barking at me or the birds? I went around the corner to Vicki’s house to find out. The answer is that her dogs really don’t like those birds, or they DO and are enjoying themselves. Since I was already there, I paid a visit (so un-hermit-like) and checked out an Australian saddle she’d bought to try to use with Drew.

And, since I was there, I got to go inside and see extremely cute Sheltie puppies. They are very fluffy and bounce around most charmingly. They are destined for great things, given their lineage.

They are very wiggly and hard to photograph.

I had so much fun being a new stimulus for them. Much tummy rubbing and fur ruffling occurred. I also got to see the brand-new puppy whose mother is a national reserve champion herding dog. There was a lot of dog beauty and skill in that house!

The little black girl was too fast to photograph

I dragged my self back home for a shower and some rest. I don’t know why I showered, since I was soaked with sweat after working with Apache and dealing with the water trough Spice had managed to overturn. She, Drew, and Mabel seemed mighty pleased to have done that. At least Apache was good. He’s really getting used to the paths in the front field. He likes the Johnson grass and goldenrod and I like the shady areas.

No horse photos today, so here’s a tired Spicebush Swallowtail.

But, I’m out of sequence. Before horse time, Lee and I took one of our random drives, since he hadn’t been exploring all weekend like I had. We saw lots of crops, which we have in this area because we are east of Interstate 35. The soil is completely different on the west side, because the road follows a fault. Fertile farmland to the east, and alkaline karst formations to the west. Anyway, we saw feed corn being harvested, cotton in bloom, and to my surprise, a rice field. It was irrigated by the Brazos River.

We ended up in Calvert, Texas, which is fairly close to Cameron. Lee saw that some of the antique stores there were open, so we stopped by one, which is in the tallest building in the town. The building was erected by the first Black millionaire in this area as headquarters of a benevolent organization. This is probably inaccurate and no doubt a local person can set me straight.

Picture of a woman teaching a little girl to knit.

The shop had lots and lots in it. Luckily there wasn’t much of what I want, but I wished I had a space for this embroidered screen. It’s very cool. I’d love to restore it.

The screen is tall but I just took pictures of the embroidery.

I did end up getting a planter with pansies on it. I’ll show you once I get it set up. I didn’t get these. They had two similar pairs.

The Queen of England and her spouse as bedroom slippers. Classy.

Enough blather about my day. But I investigated many things, ranging from cute to weird!