We Have Arrived

We have arrived at Goose Island State Park in Rockport, Texas.  We will be leading bird walks here for two months. We led bird walks in 2016 and were scheduled to return last year, but Hurricane Harvey made landfall directly on the Lamar Peninsula and the park was closed for several months.

Copano Bay Causeway

Entering the Lamar Peninsula

We'd hoped to get the same site we had last time, but it was already occupied so they gave us one just around the corner. We like this one just fine, and there is plenty of room behind the trailer for bird feeders!

Our site

We have been coming to Goose Island State Park for over twenty years, and one of the things that keeps us coming back are the birds. This is a great spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls, terns, and (in the spring) warblers and other migrants.

We set out on a walk shortly after we arrived. The first birds spotted were Vultures. Both Black and Turkey Vultures are common in the area.

Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture has a face only a mother could love!

A little farther down the trail we came across a pair of Couch's Kingbirds. These members of the flycatcher family feed on insects that they catch while on the wing. 

Couch's Kingbirds

The stars of the show at Goose Island are the waders and other shorebirds. We didn't see too many, and got pictures of only a few, but two of the largest wading birds are the Great Blue Heron and the Great Egret. 

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

These large, showy birds are favorites on our bird walks as they are easy to see and will usually stay put while folks study them through binoculars and scopes. We get a lot of new birders on our walks and we appreciate the cooperative birds!

Later!!

Fish Hatchery, with Few Fish!!

We took another road trip to continue breaking-in the new truck, and headed back toward Uvalde, Texas. Garner State Park was on our route today, and we decided to pop in and see what we could find. Mostly we found Wild Turkeys! There was a large group of hens feeding in an open area, and they cooperated for pictures. I wonder if they know that Thanksgiving is just around the corner?

Our goal today was to actually visit the fish hatchery. You might recall that we found them closed when we paid a visit this past Saturday. We were in luck this time and found them open.

We didn't know much about the hatchery, but assumed that they'd be raising warm-water fish species like bass and catfish. We could not have been more wrong! It turns out that they are primarily raising endangered and threatened species associated with spring-fed streams in Texas. And most of their species are not fish at all!

Smooth Pimpleback Mussels

How about some freshwater mussels?  These Smooth Pimpleback (real name...) mussels are found in the upper reaches of the Colorado River basin. They have a complex life-cycle that includes their larva living in the gills of host fish, so successfully raising them is complex indeed!

We were shown a series of small tanks where various species of salamander were being raised. Unlike most salamanders, these species are completely aquatic, never leaving the water. 

In addition to several species that live only in springs, they will be receiving some Texas Blind Salamanders, a species that lives in the limestone caves of the Texas Hill Country. 

In order to feed these critters the hatchery is raising some of their food. This tank holds California Blackworms, which are fed to the salamanders. A little out of focus, but those dark clumps are groups of thousands of worms.

The hatchery works closely with the Edwards Aquifer Authority, which is funding some of the work. This new room was being constructed specifically to hold Edwards Aquifer species. The room is designed to stay dark and cool, like the caves and springs where these species are naturally found. 

After touring the inside of the hatchery, we headed out to a short nature trail. It was overgrown and in need of some attention (possible volunteer opportunity...) but we saw a few birds and dragonflies, and a snake (you've been warned Serene!). 

Black Setwing

Teri and I actually took a Dragonfly identification class years ago from a University of Texas professor, but it's been a while and dragonflies are tougher than birds! Nevertheless we were able to get two species identified. The Setwings are named for their habit of perching with their wings set at a downward angle. This one has a pretty purple hue. 

Eastern Pondhawk

Eastern Pondhawks are interesting as they all start out life green, But males slowly take on a blue coloring, starting at the back of their abdomen. Eventually this one will be entirely blue, except for its face. 

The one snake we saw was an Indigo Snake. This is a common snake in some areas of south Texas, and they can grow to 8' in length. One of their claims to fame is that they eat other snakes, including rattlesnakes!!  So they are good to have around. 

This one was young, and only about two-feet long. It was also very "crooked" looking, and we don't know why. Hungry maybe?

Here's looking at you snake!

Mark

A Ride In The Country

Yesterday was the first morning we have woken up without it raining.  This area is saturated with many flooded creeks and rivers.  We were ready to get out of the house for a while!

We’re supposed to put 1000 miles on our new truck before towing so we decided today would be a good day to get some miles in.

Our place is in the beautiful Texas hill country.  Since the area north of us has had the most rain and road closures, we headed south west toward Uvalde.  Uvalde is about 70 miles from the Mexico border.  There are many enormous ranches along the route we took, some with very pretty entrance gates.

This area has also gotten plenty of rain and the creeks and rivers were running full.

Luckily, this is the only low water crossing we came to that still had water. The water was about 6" deep and wasn't flowing, so we crossed safely. 

This area is definitely cotton country!  We hadn't seen round bales of picked cotton like this before, but they seemed very popular here. 

We had planned on stopping at the Uvalde National Fish Hatchery.  We like to visit fish hatcheries.  We’ve volunteered at a couple of them and are always interested in how different hatcheries operate.

Unfortunately, this one was closed on Saturdays!

Since our main goal today was to put miles on the truck, we weren’t too disappointed.  Our next stop was Cooks Slough Sanctuary and Nature Park.  Cooks Slough is a water recycling center that treats waste water before discharging it into the Leona River about 10 miles away.

There are more than 2 miles of hiking trails on these 25 acres of wetland.

We didn’t see a lot of variety in birds but the few we did see were outstanding! Our very first bird was a Vermillion Flycatcher. You've pretty much got to come as far south as Texas to find this beauty. 

After flying from the post to a tree, it gave us great looks at it's outstretched wings. They look almost transparent in this picture. 

While not nearly as colorful, this Lincoln's Sparrow reminded us that sparrows are on their way to Texas for the winter!

We found ourselves surrounded by butterflies.  There were hundreds of Bodered Patch butterflies. This tropical species makes it way up into Texas and seemed to like this habitat a great deal. 

Many of them were paired off and mating. Can you see the smaller male behind this female, with his abdomen curled up to touch hers?

We also noticed hundreds of caterpillars. We think that these are also Bordered Patch caterpillars, with the orange ones being older. 

After a very enjoyable walk around the sanctuary it was getting close to lunch time.  Mark had done a little research before leaving home and found a great restaurant to try.

There are lots of great plane paintings on the walls and ceiling fans built to look like wooden propellers. 

After lunch we passed many more cotton fields on the drive back home.

Sweet New Ride

Our plan when we left Green Lake NFH in Ellsworth, Maine on October 1st was to arrive at Goose Island State Park in Rockport, Texas on October 31st.  Approximately 2300 miles.  We were going to make several stops along the way for disc golf and sightseeing.

Well, you know what they say about plans …

On October 5th we got a call that the new truck Mark had ordered in early August had been built and delivered.  We had expected it to arrive in November! 

So, we headed back home.

Here it is, our brand new 2019 Ford F350:

This is our first diesel.  Mark ordered the special fifth-wheel hitch package and all the bells and whistles and things I don’t understand.  All I care about are the extended running boards and the heated seats!  

Someone managed to put 14.7 miles on it before we got it!

There is nothing like that new car smell!

Ice Cream and Disc Golf

We decided to give Ben & Jerry’s one more try.  We arrived for the 9:30 tour and were happy to see the parking lot almost empty and no tour buses in sight.

We had read the comments on Trip Advisor so knew what to expect from the tour.  I knew that cameras would not be allowed once we got to the production area observation windows.

We bought tickets - $4 Adult, $3 Senior. 

There were about 25 people on our tour.  Our very polite, young, guide took us to the video room where we watched a 6-minute video.  The first part of the video explained how the company was founded, grew, and was sold to a conglomerate.  The second part of the video was Ben and Jerry giving their thoughts on what is wrong with the world, political views, and asking for donations for their charity.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your views, the video developed problems at the beginning of their talk and we only had sound, no picture.  I pretty much quit listening while sitting in the dark.

After the video we were led up 25 steps to the mezzanine where we were not allowed to take pictures.  Here we can see the production line at work.  They were in full operation on our tour.  There were very few employees on the floor, machines do almost all the work. 

Only one flavor is made at a time.  This day they were making The Tonight Dough.  Our guide explained all the different steps while a tv screen in the back of the room showed a movie of the different steps.  The movie was interesting because it was hard for us to see anything on the floor looking straight down and the movie was taken from down on the floor.

The next step was the tasting room.  Our guide told us we would be tasting one flavor and it was Broccoli Cheddar Chunk.

It sounded disgusting and after a while we were told that they were out of Broccoli Cheddar Chunk and we would be given Milk and Cookies instead.

It was very good.

Apparently, Broccoli Cheddar Chunk is a real flavor that is served on April Fools Day.  That is probably not a good day to take the tour!

After our free sample we walked down the hall of fame to the gift shop.

#1 seller

The Hall of Fame - Most popular flavors.

By the time we finished our tour and arrived at the gift shop the tour buses had started arriving and the line to buy tickets was out the door.

There were a few things to see such as this vintage ice cream scoop collection.

This wall of ice cream flavors didn’t have any information with it.  Since neither of us have eaten very much Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, we thought these just might be the current flavors available.

There is also a “graveyard” up the hill but since it was raining we didn’t bother walking to it.

Magnet worthy?  I’m glad we went.  I don’t know if I would recommend going out of your way to see it and I wouldn’t go again.  But, I did buy a magnet.

The day before was rainy and cold.  Today we were supposed to have a nice, sunny day.  “They” were wrong!   

Mark wanted to play the Brewster Ridge Disc Golf Course at the Smuggler’s Notch Disc Golf Center.  So, we got back on the road.  It was a beautiful drive.

Mark paid his $10 fee in the pro shop and we headed out to one of the courses.

Even with a little rain off and on and a little wind we had a pleasant time.

The sun came out for a little while on the drive home.

Fall colors in Vermont.

Stay tuned - more fun ahead.