Rain Rain Go Away

We went through another night of thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Luckily, it never got as bad as predicted. There is a lot of flooding in the area but our campsite is way above the lake that we’re beside so we don’t have to worry about it. Yesterday we drove around the park and noticed several areas where trees had fallen across the road. The park staff must have been up awfully early to get the roads cleared. We were told the northern half of the park is closed due to trees blown down across the roads. That part of the park is kept up by the forest service and has no facilities.

Bird count so far: 67

We have been issued a challenge!

One of the volunteers from Santa Ana (Carolyn) recommended Natchez Trace State Park to us as a stop on our way to Maine. She also indicated that when she was here, a couple of weeks ago, she saw over 50 bird species and challenged us to find more than that. As of the end of our first full day here we’ve gotten exactly 51 species.

We had a little rain shower during the night and when we got up this morning there were birds singing all around us. We had over 20 species right around the RV including Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-headed Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird, Brown Thrasher, Indigo Bunting, and Blue Grosbeak.


American Robin


American Robin - on nest
Usually 4 eggs. Pale blue or "robin's-egg blue"


Eastern Phoebe - on nest
Usually 4-5 eggs. White, sometimes with a few dots of reddish brown.


Barn Swallow - on nest
3-4 eggs. White, finely spotted with brown and purple.


Eastern Kingbird
The only widespread kingbird in the east.


Spotted Sandpiper
Breeds near the edge of fresh water.


Orchard Oriole
Eggs are pale bluish white, blotched with brown, gray, and purple (Usually 4-5)


Canada Goose
Parents lead young from the nest 1-2 days after hatching.


Brown Thrasher
Will crack open acorns by pounding them with its bill.

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Teri

Tennessee

Crossing the Mississippi River

We're staying at the Natchez Trace State Park, Tennessee. It took us about 4 hours to get here. It was a easy drive with not much traffic.

The Visitor Center wasn’t open when we got here so we just drove on in. It was a long way in here. 12 miles back to the RV sights!

From the State Park website: With the many acres of scenic woodlands, the park includes four lakes, a swimming beach, a 47 room resort inn and restaurant complex, cabins, group lodge, camping areas, picnicking sites, playgrounds, a ball field, a regulation pistol firing range, picturesque hiking trails, a wrangler camp, 250 miles of horse riding trails, a park store, and archery range. This area is composed of a State Park, State Forest and a WMA with a total of 48,000 acres.

Sounds like a big place with a lot of stuff going on doesn’t it?
Well, we’re about the only people here!

We're the only RV in our loop. After we got set up we walked around one of the other RV loops and noticed that the few people there were leaving tomorrow.


Our campsite

Village Creek State Park, Arkansas

Additional photos from Village Creek State Park:


This Prothonotary Warbler was extremely interested in the hole in the end cap of our bumper.
Although we didn't find any nesting material, the males place small amounts of moss into the nest cavity, building dummy nests, but only the female builds the real nest.


Prothonotary Warbler (Protontaria citrea)
Male displays intensively to the female during courtship by fluffing plumage and spreading wings and tail.


Prothonotary Warbler
He kept hanging around and singing so Mark kept taking pictures of him.


Blue-winged Warbler


White-throated Sparrow


Zebra Swallowtail


Spicebush Swallowtail


Butterflies Puddling (mostly Eastern Tiger Swallowtails)
Males of some butterflies are strongly attracted to damp soil. They are apparently taking in salts and other chemicals from the mud. This is called "puddling".

Trail of Tears

This morning we went on the guided nature walk with Tara, the Interpretive Ranger here at the park. We walked the Trail of Tears.

In 1829 the Memphis to Little Rock Road (Trail of Tears) was completed. It became a major route of Indian removal for Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Cherokee.

The Trail of Tears was the route taken by Indians in the late 1830s, when the federal government forcibly removed members of the Indian nations from their lands in the Southeastern United States. In being relocated to Oklahoma, families were separated, and thousands died in the migrations through Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee.


Tara, Interpretive Ranger

Excerpts from kiosk on the Trail of Tears:

At least 21,000 Choctaw passed through Arkansas during the 1830s. They suffered greatly from the weather as they crossed Arkansas losing 7000 lives along the way.

In 1832, the Chickasaw signed the Treaty of Pontotoc ceding all lands east of the Mississippi River to the US government. The Treaty of Pontotoc was the most favorable of all the removal treaties because it allowed the Chickasaw to bring personal property with them.

Between 1836 and 1837 the US Army forced the removal of more than 20,000 Muscogee (Creeks) to Indian Territory.

The final removal treaty between the US government and the Cherokee Nation was the illegally negotiated Treaty of New Echota in 1835. The Treaty Party was a minority group without authority to negotiate for the Cherokee Nation.


Trail of Tears

Arkansas

We headed for Arkansas at 9:00 this morning. There wasn’t any hurry to get to Village Creek State Park because check-in is at 4:00 pm. It was a fairly easy drive (6 1/2 hours).

We got into a heavy rain once we crossed into Arkansas that lasted about 20 miles. The ditches and fields are flooded and we have been hearing weather reports the last couple of days about heaving rains and tornadoes in the area. We saw several large highway signs that were on the ground, probably blown over by strong winds.

Village Creek State Park is beautiful! The park staff are very nice. We got a long back-in spot that backs up to a little creek where we have heard some very interesting sounding frogs. Mark recorded them and we will try to get them identified. We never did see any of them. They sounded like they were in the trees. We also have seen an amazing number of birds in the first hour we were here!


Our site

There are programs every evening and some during the day. We plan on going to as many as we can. The first one this evening (4:00 pm) was about red and gray foxes. It only lasted about 30 minutes but the park interpreter had pelts that she passed around.


Tulip Tree (Yellow Poplar)
A member of the magnolia family, it is called "tulip tree" for the waxy, yellow tulip-like blossoms which appear in April and May. The seeds are in an unusual woody pod. In the fall, the leaves turn a rich golden-yellow. Crowley's Ridge is the only place in Arkansas where tulip trees grow naturally.