Sure Signs of Spring

 

This week in Southeast Texas, the Bluebonnets bloomed, migrating Hummingbirds are feasting at the feeders in the park and I am making reservations and planning our trip home.  Spring has officially arrived. Both, on the calendar and in our routine! Another winter has flown by and we are feeling the usual mixed feelings of the goodbyes to friends in our winter location and excitement of getting back to our home base.

The famous Texas Bluebonnets blooming in the park

Purple Martins have arrived to evict the House Sparrows

We are happy with our decision to come back to Wilderness Lakes.  We continued on with friends we made here three years ago. We even got to spend a day with a Ranger we worked for at Goliad, and her family one special day. The weather has been nice except for the horrible cold that nobody escaped one week in February. We don’t know what we missed by not going to Arizona but we both agree this was where we were meant to be this season.

Last spring’s intrusion of COVID-19 nixed everyone’s travel plans including our plans return to Iowa via West Texas and New Mexico.  This year we are looking forward to seeing another new corner of this great nation. They say things happen for a reason. I am a big believer in that, and this year is proof. If we had taken the trip last year, we would have done it with no motorcycles. Since the trip was postponed last year, I bought another motorcycle, and we traded the SUV for a pickup to haul them both south with us. So, this year not only will we see these two beautiful areas, but we will also be able to ride the motorcycles through some breathtaking countryside and experience Texas Hill Country, The Big Bend area and southern New Mexico desert and mountains as motorcyclists. Not, simply car rubberneckers. I have longed to see the desert in all it’s spring glory for most of my adult life. Now I get to do it from the perch of my two wheeled companions listening to my music as I take in the scenery.  Yes, I have some lofty expectations for our trip home. The weather can always put a kink in the chain, but we are looking forward to our excursion with great excitement.

We are 8 days from lift off. All the yard decorations and pots that grow my lettuce and greens that have fed me through the winter got washed and packed away today. The shopping list of provisions for the trip home is starting to populate and we are making last time plans with winter friends.

Excitement is building for the return home and excitement grows for our commitment with Fish and Wildlife Services on Key Largo next winter. A bonus is we got word that our good friends John and Cathy, who we met on our very first volunteer gig are going to be visiting the Keys for a month next winter. I was over the moon when they told me they were planning time in Florida nearby. We can all experience the beauty of the Keys and I get to go birding with The Great John Harrington as he is known to some, including me.

The countdown has begun.

Until Next Time…

 

Aransas Wildlife Refuge

Ever since my first winter in Texas, people have asked if we have been to Aransas Wildlife Refuge. I know others who have volunteered there, I have worked for Rangers who worked there at some point in their career and today I finally visited.  We originally set out yesterday. We were on the road and I pulled up the weather to see if the forecast had changed and indeed it had. It was raining there, and the sun wasn’t coming till late afternoon. We took a detour to Auto Zone and picked up a new Serpentine belt for the motorhome and went back home and improvised the rest of the day.  The one-day delay was worth the wait.

New Visitors Center under construction

On arrival we were greeted by bright sunshine and about 60 degrees. The birds were actively feeding, and the trails were not particularly busy.  We were treated to a nice variety of shorebirds and views of Mustang Lake and San Antonio Bay from the trails and the viewing platforms.  They have done a nice job with this refuge. Hurricane Harvey made landfall in this very place in 2017 and there was still some evidence in the gnarled tree debris and the brand-new handicap accessible 40’ and 20’ viewing towers. The new Visitor’s Center is under construction and looks like it will be fabulous!

Breakfast for all!

American Pelican's in flight

Roseated Spoonbills and Egrets

R

Egrets flying in

Tri Colored Heron

Tri Colored Heron in flight

Alligators were plentiful as they slumbered in the sun along the shores of the waterways sleeping off their meals from last night. We watched a bit in horror as one idiot loudly taunted a large sleeping alligator as we exited one of the trails. Not only was he stupid he was loud and proud about it. The worst of it was he had several kids with him and a wife pleading with him to quiet down. He reminded me of the occasional news report when someone is attacked by wildlife in a park or refuge and is usually chomped on because of their own ignorance and /or lack of respect for where they were. No one got hurt but I did get a telling picture from the bridge, of this moron getting way too close. 

All I can say is "What a dumbass"

Gater trails to the water

Say Cheese!  Shot from across the channel

 

One of the areas was ironically named Jones Lake. We couldn’t resist the urge to take a selfie with the sign. The lake was covered in ducks and I stood there missing my friend John, who knows ducks well. There was a gentleman with an exceptionally large camera on the viewing deck and I asked him if he knew ducks. He did and was happy to decipher my scenery. I knew the Pied Billed Grebe and the Gadwall, but the American Wigeon escaped me till he told me what it was. The light was excellent, but the picture of the beautiful Wigeon was only recorded in my memory bank since my camera battery died and the extra was back in the truck.

Lesser Yellow Legs wading

My duck guy. I didn't get his name

Pied Billed Grebe

We had a full day walking the trails and taking in the scenery, knowing that it may indeed be several years before we return to Texas. Next year we will be in the Florida Keys and we plan to finally spend some time in Arizona or New Mexico next winter. Who knows after that?  We finished our day in North Padre Island at a Burger Place that I ate at with a lady’s group two weeks ago. I knew Champ would love it and it seemed a just reward for him putting up with 5 hours of walking trails with me stopping every 10 feet to watch a bird through my binoculars. He said it was well worth it!

The next three weeks will be a frenzy of preparing to travel and getting around doing things and seeing people for the last time this winter season. We are looking forward to a meandering trip home that we planned last year but was thwarted by the virus situation. In a way it will be a better trip this year since we have two motorcycles with us to enjoy the areas we will visit in West Texas and New Mexico on our round about trip back to central Iowa.

We are happy with our decision to come back to Wilderness Lakes. We spent time with friends we made here in 2017 and made some new friends that we are sure we will see again down the road.

I talked to my sister on the phone during the hour trip to our birding destination this morning and realized that I am starting to feel the symptoms of my springtime homesickness. I hung up the phone knowing it is time to go home.

Until Next Time…