Starting to See Cactus Now, I always love seeing cactus when in the south. So many different kinds, but we are traveling through this area in February and March, so a lot of the cactus do not look so good this time of year, as it is colder temperatures even in Texas.
We did find this bridge on the map and drove over to see it, I find the construction of older bridges fascinating as well. This is actually a historic bridge named Buchanan Dam Bridge, built in 1937. It was a perfect location at the time below the dam on the Colorado River.
It is a pedestrian bridge now. You can walk across it and when you do there is a constant humming sound, like music almost. From the wind or the traffic going across the newer bridge up river.
Inks Lake State Park Texas, after our stay at the last park I found this state park that was only an hours drive away. We really like not driving more than a couple of hours between parks when possible and we are only staying at this park for 2 nights.
The Colorado river runs through this area and it is the largest river within the state of Texas. It travels 862 miles, almost 600 billion gallons of water flow in a typical year.
Back in the day the river was as much a danger as a blessing for the residents around this area. So they decided to build a dam, a series of six dams to try and control the Colorado river and Inks Lake Dam was the second one built in the series.
In 1940 the state acquired about 1200 acres to make this park here. It has colorful rocks all around the lake, lots of hiking and really good fishing they say.
I love to learn the history of all these places we are visiting. It isn’t about just camping, I find this trip we are on is a walk down the real history of this country. How did all of these places come about? We have been finding a lot of these parks have great museums near by as well and we try to stop at all of them.
So much better than reading it in a book, to get out there and see how everything has changed over the years is quite remarkable to me.
What I Have Learned, This trip we are on has shown me a world I knew existed but was afraid to walk into. Traveling away from the physical world that I grew up in, has made me realize that my safety net is not where I am but knowing I am in His world where ever I am.
Next Stop Granger Texas, our next stop in eastern Texas is at Willis Creek Campground, a Corp of Engineer Lake. If you love camping in national parks and Corp of Engineer parks, I highly recommend getting the America the Beautiful pass, it cost $80 dollars for the year and gets you 50% off your campground fee.
So this campground cost us 11 dollars a night with water and electricity included. This pass has saved us a lot of money on this trip.
We entered the park and there are deer every where. I am not sure if this one works here and wants us to pay her or she is just adding to the scenic view of the park.
Mr and Mrs Stilt, more new birds to my list. I believe the first photo is a female stilt because the second photo is the male and he was sure guarding this first bird as if it is his mate.
Black-necked Stilts are among the most stately of the shorebirds, with long rose-pink legs, a long thin black bill, and elegant black-and-white plumage that make them unmistakable at a glance. They move deliberately when foraging, walking slowly through wetlands in search of tiny aquatic prey. When disturbed, stilts are vociferous, to put it mildly, and their high, yapping calls carry for some distance.
Of course Texas is a great place to see the the Greater Roadrunner. They actually have some color along the side of their face and wings and tail feather. Which I did not know and yes they do run very fast. Video of the Greater Roadrunner below or click HERE; The Greater Roadrunner
Davy Crockett National Park, this park in Texas has the most beautiful pine trees called Loblolly Trees. They grow up to 100 ft. tall. Amazing to stand there and look up and watch them sway in the wind.
I just posted a video of this beautiful park on my You Tube channel, Click Here to Visit; Davy Crockett National Forest. It is a longer video so I will leave it over on You Tube instead of posting it here.
May Brings a Variety of Photos, starting the month off with a variety of photos from a Cardinal sitting in the spot light.
To a White Winged dove photo in a frame I created in photoshop. I love trying to create new looks to my photos via technology.
This photo below is a shot from the Drone camera, how high did it really go to get this shot? Using the Asteroid effect, the camera goes straight up above the controller 131 feet . The little spot at the end of the road off to the left of center is us standing by some mountains in Texas.
I took this photo last night of the Milky Way at our campground, there was some light pollution in the area but it still turned out ok.
The Sky’s the Limit, normally it does not work to take photos with a clear blue sky background. Most photographers like to have some clouds or something in the background. But, depending on the subject, I kind of like the blue background. It can really highlight the subject like a bird.
The first two photos are similar in color with two different birds, grayish birds on a gray post. Photographed in two different areas. I thought it was interesting how they look similar. The first bird is a Curved billed thrasher and the second one is a Mocking Bird.
Plus photographing birds in flight against a blue sky can bring out the detail in the feathers in flight at the right angle.
Animal Kingdom, faces we all can love. From the cute little baby goat, to the beautiful Long Horn Texas Steer. Big and small, they each have a place in this world. Video below or click Link Here; Baby Goat
Javelina, Javelina also known as collared peccary, are medium-sized animals that look similar to a wild boar. They have mainly short coarse salt and pepper colored hair, short legs, and a pig-like nose.
The Cedar Wax Wing Bird A treat to find in your binocular view field, the Cedar Waxwing is a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, rakish black mask, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers.
We were sitting at a bird blind watching birds come and go, and all of a sudden this small group of Wax Wings flew in to get a drink of water. They are so colorful and yes waxy looking.
In fall these birds gather by the hundreds to eat berries, filling the air with their high, thin, whistles. In summer you’re as likely to find them flitting about over rivers in pursuit of flying insects, where they show off dazzling aeronautics for a forest bird.
It is hard to believe it is the end of April all ready. See you next month and have a wonderful weekend.
2 or 3 New Birds to the List, 133 birds photographed.
This first bird here is part of the Jay family, this one is a Scrub Jay that we saw in Texas. There are 8 species of Jay’s and the blue is pretty on all of them.
This one below, we saw in the mountain area and I think it is a Mexican Jay. But, hard to say for sure, but we know it is a jay because of the size and the blue colors. It was pretty high up in the tree, so could not get a good look at it.
I believe this bird below is called the Hooded Oriole. Such a bright color and like all orioles they like to eat oranges.
Had to Evacuate Tunnel Fire AZ, I am jumping ahead on my blog post to what happened last week. Let me tell you, my nerves were on high alert as we were camping in the Coconino Mountains when all of a sudden smoke is gaining ground just south of us.
Let me start at the beginning. We have been on the road for 8 months now and I have a lot of photos still to go through from back in February. But I am jumping ahead to just last week on April 19th, we decided to head to some BLM land, (Bureau of Land Management), which is free camping just north of Flagstaff AZ, we were camping south of Flagstaff the week before.
Arizona and Texas are very dry, we have not seen rain for almost 3 months on this journey. The dust is so bad everywhere in the south when the wind blows and we decided to head north to get away from it. Even though the weather warned of high winds on this particular day. But the BLM land was only 1 1/2 hour drive north, so we figured we could get there before the winds picked up to bad.
This photo below is our drive right before the Coconino Mountains, we will be stopping just on the other side. As we pass the mountains on the left, we noticed some smoke near the mountain. I thought that can’t be good to have any kind of smoke on such a windy day.
We found a campsite not to far from the main road, one other camper was on that road as well. A beautiful spot with tall Pondarosa pine trees and lots of dry grass. There is a lot of burnt trees there already I noticed, as if a fire had gone through there not to long ago.
We set up camp and I made some lunch, as we were eating a strange looking bird landed on our jeep, it was really interested in the red brake lights on top and the red can on top of the jeep.
I have no idea what kind of bird this is, if any one does let me know.
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Then my husband looked out the door and said, ” Is that dust or smoke?”. I went outside and I said this is smoke. Our phone’s started to alert of danger, I quick got into the jeep and drove down to the other campers to see what they might know of the situation. They said the fire from way over there by the west mountains had spread and it just jumped the road to where we are and they were leaving.
So I quickly went back to the RV and said we need to go now. We got to the main road and the police were already helping people to leave on the west side of the road and were blocking traffic from going south.
The map below shows a red dot, that is where we are camping and the pink and green area is the fire spreading across that area.
The winds are now gusting over 50 miles an hour, which is not safe to drive a high profile vehicle in. So I found a spot about 30 min north of the fire to stop and wait out the wind before going any farther. This is where I took the photos from shown below.
They ended up blocking traffic right where we were parked at and we ended up staying there all night. Exhausted and stressed to say the least, 2 other campers stayed the night there as well.
I looked out the window a lot that night, checking to see that the fire did not start to spread north towards us. By morning the smoke was still heavy across the landscape and the fire as of today has burned over 20,000 acres. I have not heard the source of this fire yet.
This could be a bad year for fires, we all need to take care and be mindful of our environment around us. One gentleman we talked to that lives around here said, ” This place used to be paradise when he was growing up here and now it is a rat race”.
Water Gives Life, as winter disappears and the spring rains start to come back to quench the thirst of this earth. Those standing alone who thirst for this water of life will come back to life in full beauty, that which is given to everything under the Sun as is designed.
Video of Black Swans in a Pond Below or click Here, Swans
And the earth she became chaos and vacancy and darkness over the surfaces of the abyss.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Waters is an idiomatic expression for our spiritual nature
Water Gives Life, Nature/Creation speaks to us everyday.
He gives us life in the Garden of Trees
The One who moves over the face of waters In the Garden of Trees
Will never destroy us.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of the Father, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
New Bird to the List, this is a new bird I have never seen in this first photo. It was at this park in Louisiana high in the trees. It stayed pretty far away from us so I could only see a silhouette of this bird except for this one photo.
It is called a Black Crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands.
Another beautiful heron is the Green Heron shown below. There are about 60 different species of herons.
You can always spot some Egret in wetlands. We were to early to see their mating plumage but still pretty birds.
Specular Highlight The specular highlight appears on shiny objects. It normally appears on a mirror-like surface. Its appearance is often found on the top of a rounded surface. The incident light hits the object and creates the specular highlight and the light is reflected off the object toward the viewers eye.
Also called catch lights in photography, Without catch lights, “light in the eye” viewers perceive the eye (and thus the bird) to be lifeless.
It takes patience and sunlight, but I like to try and photograph a bird with that touch of catch light on the eye. I think it brightens the eye, even though this Black Swan has such bright eyes even without the spec of light.
Louisiana Wet Lands, we stopped at a beautiful little park in southern Louisiana back in January. This campground only had 8 campsites and no one was there when we arrived. So we had the whole park to ourselves for a couple of days.
I always look for Wildlife Refuge locations everywhere we go, because they are usually wet lands and home for a lot of wildlife depending on the time of year. So, we found this one here shown above. We drove clear out to the east side of the park and not one bird we found anywhere.
The green icon is the park we were at and the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge in dark green below it.
I thought that maybe we were a little early to see birds migrating through in January. The photo below is the farmland around the campground. It is close to Lake Charles Louisiana.
A couple days later some folks came to camp that were from the area and we got to talking about birding and the wet lands. Come to find out, we were on the wrong side of the wet lands. The gentlemen told us where to go to get to the hot spot and we went there the next day.
Below is part of the wet lands to this refuge and we were not disappointed on what we found. So many birds and new birds I had never heard of.
Talking to folks that live in the area is the best way to get to know some wonderful people and to learn all about their state. This area was hit pretty hard by 2 hurricanes over the last couple of years and when we drove into Lake Charles you could still see all the damage.
Folks were still fighting with their insurance company’s on getting their roofs rebuilt. There was a lot of blue tarps on 80% of the homes waiting to get the shingles or metal roofs put on. Plus they just have a shortage of workers to get it done as well. But the folks were in good spirits and so helpful to us as we were asking questions and enjoying their parks.
As we are chasing 70 degree weather this year, the temperatures stayed in the 50’s f. for the most part and 30’s at night. We did have a few campfires as the park also provided the wood at each campsite.
This is the park where I photographed my first sighting of the Ibis and this bird below is called the white faced Ibis, even though it does not have a white face. It is very colorful with the sunlight shinning on it.
Desert Animals, I thought this little guy in the first photos was a chipmunk, but it is actually a squirrel called the Antelope Squirrel. One of the smaller ones in the species. Found in the desert regions.
Despite the hot desert weather, you will often see these squirrels dashing about in the middle of the day. They will stay out in the heat collecting food until their body reaches its maximum temperature and then they will rest in the shade until that temperature has lowered. Their tail is often held over their head like an umbrella helping to shade their bodies.
You will see a lot of these in southern Texas, the Javelina’s. These were wondering around the campground in the early mornings or evening right by the tents people were sleeping in.
Rock squirrels, below, are one of the largest members of the Scuridae family, growing to nearly a foot in length, not including their long, bushy tails which are nearly as long as their bodies.
Some of the Texas ranches have a variety of exotic deer. Like the two below. You will see them quite often as you drive through the state.
Is it a Mule Deer , Well I am not sure now. I thought this first photo was a mule deer because it is so much smaller then the white tailed deer up north and the ears are so huge. Video below or click this Link Here, Mule Deer
As I was researching the difference between the Mule deer and the white tailed deer. It said the ears are placed farther apart on the Mule deer. The two photos below shows the difference in the ears placement.
The left photo is the new deer I photographed and the right photo is a White Tailed deer from up north. I am not sure, but the photo on the right was taken clear up by Lake Superior and the photo on the left was taken near the Mexican border in the south. Almost worlds apart for them.
The Desert Quails, if you want to see quails the desert is the place to go. I have been seeing two main species. The Scale Quail and the Gambles Quail.
This first photo is the Scale Quail and I am guessing it is named that because their feathers look like scales. Video below or click on Link Here; Desert Quail and Giant Squirrel
The Turkey Vulture, If you’ve gone looking for raptors on a clear day, your heart has probably leaped at the sight of a large, soaring bird in the distance– perhaps an eagle or osprey.
But if it’s soaring with its wings raised in a V and making wobbly circles, it’s likely a Turkey Vulture. These birds ride thermals in the sky and use their keen sense of smell to find fresh carcasses. They are a consummate scavenger, cleaning up the countryside one bite of their sharply hooked bill at a time, and never mussing a feather on their bald heads.
Vultures lack feathers on their heads so that they can more easily keep themselves clean when eating.
Who’s Feathers Are These, they are the back of a Peacock Bird, these are the most colorful birds and I have not seen one in awhile. But I sure love looking at them.
When I was very young on my parents farm we had a few of these beautiful birds. When his tail feathers fell out we collected them and put them in a large vase. I wish I still had those feathers, I don’t know what ever happened to them.
Some Unique Animals Along the Route, well I love all animals not just birds and we stumbled apon a Mercantile store in the desert that provided everything you need for animals, like feed and farming equipment. But they also had an assortment of beautiful animals that folks can see up close.
They are all well taken care off also. Plenty of fresh green hay and water here in the desert.
The next two photos below I will let you guess what it is and who it belongs to. I will show those photos tomorrow.
This of course is a white Camel, very friendly and look very healthy.
Lots of goats, they are always fun to see along with baby goats.
In the Garden of Trees is where you will find the spring bees. Nature is waking up after its long winters nap, a time to see bees working their magic as they pollinate the earth going from tree to tree. Video Link to see pollen falling from all these bees, Link Here; In the Garden of Trees
We were camping under a tree and one morning I woke up and went outside and could hear a loud humming noise but could not see anything. Until I looked very closely at the tree hanging over me, it was filled with bees. Video below of pollen falling from the bees in trees or click on this link here; In the Garden of Tree
I got my camera out and to my eyes surprise, through the morning light, a glow appeared around the bees and pollen was falling ever so lightly all around me.
The White Ibis When we left the state of Mississippi, I found a small campground in southern Louisiana that was our next stop. On this trip we are doing this year, we try not to travel more than 3 hours on travel day. That way we don’t get so tired when we get to the next spot.
We have been meeting so many nice people this year, everyone is very friendly at the campgrounds, it is such a joy to visit with folks. Plus getting to know some of the campers that live in the areas we are visiting has been so helpful with finding the hot spots for birding and they also share where the good restaurants are and sightseeing locations.
That is what happened here in Louisiana, I was looking on google maps around the area we are camping in and found a National Wildlife Refuge, I am always looking for these. So off we went traveling on a road I found that goes to this park. Well, there was not one bird there and this is back in January, so I thought maybe we were to early to see birds in migration here.
Two days later we got to visiting with some other folks that just pulled into the campground and they were from the area. So, we told them about our lack of birds found at their wildlife refuge. They proceeded to tell us that we were at the wrong side of it. He gave us directions to a road that was very hard to see on the map and we headed out there the next day.
What a surprise for us, this is where I got to see the Ibis for the first time and lots of them. Not only this strange looking bird, but as we entered the Wildlife Refuge, my heart skipped a beat I think, there are so many birds here, many that I have never heard of and the best part is the flock of snow geese we came upon out in a field. I will be showing those photos soon.
As we continue this journey around America, I am so thankful for the people that we are meeting. The kindness from others is a wonderful thing to experience and it gives hope that this world is still a beautiful place.
So much has happened over the last couple of years for everyone. But for me the one constant in my life and in my heart is the faith that I have in our Father and His children.
Sometimes we need to just turn off the news, Go Outside and Breathe, you were not meant to carry the burdens of the whole world.
The Northern Shoveler, I put one photo of this bird on a few weeks ago and I got to see them again last week at a small swampy kind of lake where they love to hang out. Now it says the males have an iridescent green color on their necks this time of year. But this one here looked purple to blueish color in the sun.
Either way it is very colorful this time of year.
One of these photos below is a digital painting and the other is a regular photo. It is really hard to tell the difference unless you zoom in, but the one on the left is digital oil painting. Gives it softer lines, I like using that feature on certain photos when I can.
Desert Surprises, it has been very dry in the desert this past month, I was beginning to think we were to early to see any flowers on this trip. But, we walked down to the Rio Grande river one morning right at sunrise and this lone yellow flower was blooming right in the middle of rocks and dry dirt.
A lovely surprise for sure.
Along with this one growing at the base of more rocks.
Even the cactus has just a touch of color with their red pointy needles.
Now this plant below, I believe is in the Agave family, you definitely would not want to trip and fall on one of these. Those things do not bend at all. They are as hard as a rock.
The Vermillion Flycatcher, I had heard about this bird when we were in Louisiana. A fellow birder told me about this brilliant red bird, but he said we were to early to see it. When I got back to the RV, I had to look it up and thought how colorful this little bird is.
Well, when we got to southern Texas to Big Bend National park, to my surprise, they were all over the place. Anywhere there was water you could see one of these beautiful birds perched on the small branches over water. They swoop down and catch a bug and go back to their branch.
