1,000 year old Oaks and Whooping Cranes

We drove over to the Old Tree this morning, a Live Oak in excess of 1,000 years old. 

The not-quite 1,000 year old live Oak.

There's a legend about the Live Oaks.  When darkness falls, the Oaks begin to dance.  They dance all night, but when the first rays of light dawn, they all freeze in position.  Nancy's response "We'll have to note the branch's position tonight".  My response "Hell no!  What if they're different in the morning?"

And, in the field almost across the road,  farmer had been feeding Sand Hill Cranes, then noticed the Whooping Cranes were coming in as well.  They weren't there this morning, but we'll go back tonight.

There's a fishing pier on the east end of Goose Island.

Nancy watched for a while, and discussed technique with those fishing.  She snivelled some bait, whipped back to the campsite, picked through her fishing gear for the appropriate tackle (a catfish rig) and headed back to the pier. An hour later, she returned, victorious!  She was doing so well, the old Texans were sidling down the pier towards her to get in on the action.  She caught two Sheepshead (probably) and had plenty more on-line, but not landed.  She released the fish to bite another day.

Goose Island State Park

Goose Island State Park

We drove north, up Highway #77 today, towards Corpus Christi.  We took Highway #37 along Nueces Bay.  I don’t know what preconceived notions I had about Corpus Christi, perhaps a tropical tourist town, but the south shore of Nueces Bay is shoulder to shoulder refineries.  Miles of cracking towers and hundreds of absolutely huge storage tanks!  We crossed the bay on Highway #181, and hit #35. The Copano Bay crossing is multiple miles.  There are three parallel bridges, the old one, now a fishing pier, the currently used one, and the new 4 lane $75 million bridge that isn’t opened yet.  The highway accessing it is two lane.

As we went north, the tropical scrub vegetation gave way to the agricultural land south of Corpus Christi.  Then things quickly transitioned to Live Oak forest. Our destination was Goose Island State Park.  There are two camping areas, one on Goose Island itself, where the sites are feet from the water, and another area, nestled back in the Live Oak forest.  

On the beach

Or in the bush

We left Isla Blanca sticky with salt fog, similarly to our departure from Puerto Penasco, so this time, we tucked into the oak forest.  There are boardwalks and a fishing pier out on Goose Island, so we can hang out in the wind and salt while we are so inclined, and retreat to the calm of the bush when we are not.  Of course, there’s a few mosquitoes waiting, back in the bush, but only a few.

There were a pair of young squirrels cavorting in the trees of our campground, teasing Kirk and checking the strength of his lead.

337 Km. today

March 29

Today was Farmer’s market day so I left Cam and Kirk behind and headed to town. There was fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, dried fruits and nuts, all kinds of canned salsas, relishes, eggs, homemade sausages, etc.  Surprisingly no junk.   I bought dried mangos and homemade pecan tarts, and a smoked Northern pike cheeseball from an enterprising Minnesotan.  Yes, you read it right. Recipe included lemon juice, cherry peppers, onion, parsley, horseradish, liquid smoke, pecans, cream cheese and smoked pike.  Very good, particularly with a Mojito!  (Time to expand the produce line cousin Barry.)  He said he spears the big ones in Minnesota.  He was very particular about how that cheeseball was going to travel back to my refrigerator and even packed it in ice for me.  We have found Minnesotans to be quite like Prudens, you notice them in the campground because they sit around in large groups and they are always cooking something and inviting you over to try it and to have a drink.

Pretty uneventful day otherwise, walks in the ocean with Kirk, Cam riding his Lyric runner, and laying in the sun with a breeze took the rest of the day.  The beach had a a wonderful atmosphere with a lot of families having weekend fun with large drum barbecues and stirring huge pots of something, everybody piled into half tons throbbing out a tune with fishing gear, beach chairs, umbrellas, etc precariously balanced.   It reminds me of my youth headed for the rodeo (or a current outing with the Provens).  Tomorrow we leave for Goose Island State Park near Rockport, Tx.

March 28

Saturday in South Padre Island, not as busy as I had thought.  We drove to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Sanctuary, but no Kirks allowed on the trails.  We continued north on the island, until the road ran out.  South Padre island is a sand barrier island, held together by the vegetation.  Where the ground cover is disrupted, the wind just plain removes everything.  It has been breezy here, so no bug problems, and you don’t seem to feel the humidity.  It’s also a little cooler, running around 24 C most days.  

There are very tall condo’s here, more than 20 stories.  It would be interesting to see what kind of foundation this requires on what is essentially a large sand bar.

Causeway between Port Isabel and S. Padre with Isla Blanca State Park on far right

There were some very expensive, customized trucks and cars running around town this morning.  Clearly, these guys had more invested in their 1/2 tons than most guys in the campground had invested in their class A’s.  Turns out there was a car show at the convention centre, very busy.

Nancy went back to the sanctuary, while Kirk & I hung about the campsite.  

We went out to Joe’s Oyster Bar for supper, very low key, fresh and darn good.  Joe was running the till and was proud of his shop.

South Padre Island Birding and Nature Sanctuary:

I ventured out on the 4800 linear ft of boardwalk on the Laguna Madre.  The area had small streams and pools along the boardwalk with fish, crabs and Red-eared Slider turtles as well as birds.  

Red-eared Slider Turtle

New birds included Clapper Rail and the Fulvous Tree duck.  There were many others including Sora Rails and Common Gallinule which I had seen before but was glad to see again.  All in all, a nice little stroll.

Common Gallinules

Sora Rail

Isla Blanca State Park, South Padre Island, TX.

We arose early, which is now 8, and left for Isla Blanca State Park on South Padre Island.  Yes, it is as beautiful here as they say.  We were given a nice but not prime spot so while Cam sat exercising his patience, I immediately went back and got the one 200 yards off the beach with palm tree surrounded by easter lilies which is appropriate for April.  

The beach dunes hide the ocean view but you can hear it.  Kirk and I went for a hike down the beach and he had a "I am a crazy dog" moment leaping and running in the surf.  They allow dogs on the beach so long as he is leashed so he did 30 miles an hour in the surf around me leaving me dizzy. 

Later Cam, Kirk and I went down to the breakwater to watch the boats and anglers.  The boats going out the channel range from fishing boats to the occasional massive ship.  People were catching a lot of Sheepshead, which is similar to an armored bony sunfish with grandpa's false teeth.   I talked with a Mexican vendor who was filleting fish for $5 a fish. I immediately thought, geez I could help him and make a few bucks.  He was using a wicked knife, shears and pliers.  We compared notes on filleting in Canada vs here and immediately agreed the “rabbit ears” (throat) was the best part and most people miss that point.  He also kept the back bone for deep frying and the head for soup. He said there is not enough cheek on these fish to keep. He was aghast that we ate the livers.  I told him I used to fillet fish and sell parts to Americans too.  I also kept the heads and rabbit ears, we had a good laugh and visit. Several feral cats were getting the leftovers.  He also told me which is the best and cheapest seafood restaurant.   It looks like Cam might be able to fly his glider on our end of the beach where it is quieter.  We think we might just stay here longer than we intended.

So, when Nancy went shopping in Brownsville, the nice trailer park lady gave her directions to an upscale HEB grocery store.  Directionally challenged Nancy ended up at a small hispanic HEB, and did the normal shopping, including Spicy level salsa.  Today, we had the salsa, which was green (peppers) instead of the usual red (tomatoes).  ¡Ay, caramba! It was smoking, but great.  Later, however, I had the legendary "Bowels of Fire" or "Entrañas de fuego"!  Lesson to be learned - when shopping in hispanic stores, downgrade spicy to medium, or maybe even wimp out to mild...

Happiness is having a palm tree in the skylight of your camper

42 Km. today

March 26th

A rainy day, so we drove out to South Padre Island on a very foggy narrow strip of land with large black mangrove tidal flats and marshes.  Very oceanic day with the fog.  We were looking for camping spots so we checked out Park Centre RV resort in Port Isabel which was nice and on a channel with docks. 

Port Isabel is a small village on the Laguna Madre, the body of water between Texas mainland and Padre Island.   It is a working town morphing into a resort town but not quite there yet.  Then we went south across a very long bridge to Isla Blanca State Park and it was even nicer.  I don’t think we would get into either place if it wasn’t the end of the season but as it is they both had room.  There is a birding and nature centre on the island that we want to check out as well if we stay here.   

Great Horned Owl nesting by Visitor Centre.

We headed back and after lunch I ventured out on my own to the Sabal Palm Audubon Centre and Sanctuary. This is a 557 acre sanctuary with one of the largest remaining stands of Sabal Palm forest in the country.  It also features one of the last historic sugarcane plantation homes along the Rio Grande which serves as a visitor centre.  The sanctuary is a joint partnership between Audubon and the Gorgas Science Foundation (historic preservation group).

New birds included the Hooded Oriole, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Golden Fronted Woodpecker, and Chachalaca.  The Chachalacas came into a bird feeding station along a trail just before dusk and the other birds scattered.  They resemble and act just like a bunch of velociraptors (although they eat seeds) and were a delight to watch.

Chachalacas

Cardinal, White winged doves and a Green Jay

Queen Anne Plantation mansion now Visitor Centre 

March 25th

This morning, we headed over to the west side of Brownsville to check out an RV Park closer to some of the birding sites Nancy wants to check out.  While we were over there, we went to Resaca de la Palma State Park.  A resaca is a remnant, a cutoff oxbow, from when the Rio Grande River went freely meandering across it's flood plain.  This park has a 4 mile resaca, a globally threatened plant community, the Ebony-Anaca thorn forest, and alotta birds.  We did a three mile tram tour, with Richard, the amazingly knowledgeable state park interpreter.  He had the birds down cold, by sound, knew his history, and also the vegetation, down to the specific grass that Nancy was testing him on.  Here's the rip that's happening with water in this state park. The Falcon dam on the Rio Grande created the Falcon Lake reservoir.  It stopped the river from frequently changing course (it's the boundary between the US and Mexico) and also stopped the seasonal floods that filled the perched lakes, ie, resaca's.  In order to periodically put some water into the resacas, the park now has to buy water with money from it's small budget!  They cannot afford, nor is the water available, to fill the resaca as a spring flood used to, so they dribble some water in from time to time over the summer, to prevent it from completely drying out.

A Hawk Wasp (very Large)

The Screech Owl

On a brighter note, Kirk got to go for the tram ride; he's been missing his Ranger rides. Nancy bagged a Green Jay, a Screech Owl, and a Hooded Oriole. We heard plenty of Chachalaca's (great name) but never did lay eyes on one.

I had a snooze in the afternoon, while Nancy made a grocery/liquor run.  She came back with two prizes, Kim Chi Noodle soup, and Appleton's rum (a fine score, albeit, at a a painful price compared to the $10.95 for the 750 ml. of the cheap gold rum we had been forcing down). 

After supper, we headed downtown to Ringgold Park, to try to see some Red-Crowned Parrots and Green Parakeets.  While we did see some Mallard and Muscovy Ducks, we were largely disappointed.  (to be totally honest, there were also a Tri-coloured, Green, and Black Crowned Night Herons, and Snowy Egrets hanging about)  A cold front passing through tomorrow is rumoured to bring thundershowers noonish, and drop the temperature to a chilly 23 C.  The northern Snow Bird Migration has begun (although not for us, thank the Lord, I've been watching the weather reports back home), so there's plenty of room to camp in the parks.

Brownsville, TX

Sometimes googlemaps cooperates, and sometimes it will not.  Can't remove the grey alternative routes today; we took the blue route down Highway #83 along the Rio Grande River.

It was a slow drive today.  Road construction was frequent.  There was a lot of red flashing lights on the road in Roma, TX., police trucks blocking intersections, and traffic backed up.  We speculated on the cause - massive drug bust? - big Border Patrol crackdown? - large traffic accident?  Nope, just a very, very large funeral.

Speaking of Border Patrol, omnipresent, trucks lurking along side roads at all times and places, as we drove along the Rio Grand River, Nancy spotted a Blimp, three to five thousand feet up (hard to tell without knowing how big it was).  Soon, we spotted another one, closer and lower, so you could see the tether, and the sensor platform hanging underneath it.  There were a few along the river.  Just another surveillance technique; one with an intimidation factor.

Rio Grande City had the highway go right through the centre of town, no shoulders, with parking on both sides of the road.  It was a lot like driving through Mexico.  Then came the freeway through built-up and busy McAllen/Mission/Pharr/etc., 8 lanes, and with a stiff cross-wind.  The land become lower and lower, the water in the ditches higher and higher.  We pulled into Breeze Lake Campground in Brownsville around 1:30 pm, after being on the road since 7am.  Nice to get back into palm trees and lush, lush, greenery.  It was close to 30 C today, with a high humidity, a nice change after all the time in the desert.  Also nice to get back to some working wi-fi.  We landed and relaxed.

329 Km. today

Laredo, TX

The morning was cool, 7 C, but sunny. We had a leisurely start, and headed south on Highway #83.  We were soon headed down out of the hill country, and onto the agricultural land around Uvalde.  

There’s a thing here about ranch gates.  The most basic is a cattle guard opening in the fence where the driveway is.  The next step is a gate that you open and close. This escalates to the open/close gate with large posts on either side, which begats the open/close, large posts, with an overhead sign with the ranch name (i.e., Rocks-A-Lot). Then starts the custom welded/wrought iron gates.  At this point, the gate is usually set back, with small walls on other side.  The walls on either side get both taller and longer, in either limestone or adobe.  Then the plantings start, with palm trees, large agave plants, lighting, and perhaps an electrically operated gate.  I’ve found that the ranch behind the gate does not have to meet the standard set by it’s impressive entrance. A $50,000 gate entrance can open to a red mud road winding off into the scrub.  A cultural thing, I suppose.

The agricultural land gradually gives way to oil country.  The low oil prices have not slowed fracking activity, apparently, judging by the large volume of dusty, oily trucks and equipment hammering up and down the road at high rates of speed.  You can tell it’s oil country, when the average 1/2 ton morphs into a F-450 4 door, 4WD dually, blowing past you at the legal speed limit of 80 mph.

We entered Laredo in the middle afternoon, and headed to Lake Casa Blanca State Park, which is a reservoir surrounded by the Laredo business outskirts, and the airport.  We emerged from the Bigfoot into tropical air; 32 C, high humidity, and the season somewhere between late spring and early summer.  There are large grasses beside the Bigfoot, 15 or 20 feet high; perhaps Bamboo.  The noisy Boat-tailed Grackles give that tropical sound.  But still no parrots.

Kirk & Nancy went walking, and discovered a lot of wild flowers and a hill.

Bigfoot is allegedly in centre, at the lake's edge.

396 Km. today

March 22nd

The rain finally let up.  The clouds eventually cleared, and the sun came out.  Of course, it was Sunday, our day off.  The campground emptied as the working folks went home, and then filled again as the senior campers rolled in.  

Kirk & Nancy took the opportunity to go for a prodigious hike, over 5 1/2 miles, up the hill and over dale.  Nancy sighted a Scrub Jay.

Note campground, far below

We mostly sat around and watched the Black-chinned Hummingbirds at the feeder, and defended the Bigfoot from the crazed Titmouse.  Turkeys were cruising the campground margins, with the Tom in full display; White Tailed Deer and Armadillos also were wandering about.

On the road again tomorrow, headed for Laredo, TX.

March 21st

Rained all night and most of today.  Nancy and Kirk got in a few jaunts, when things let up a little.  We spent a fair amount of time defending the Bigfoot from a crazed Black-Crested Titmouse, who had decided his mirrored window reflection was a territorial invader who required subduing. He was energetic and persistent.

Nancy put her feeders up, and was rewarded with a Black-Chinned Hummingbird.   

Kirk & I were out walking (!) and Kirk spotted a nine-banded armadillo foraging along the green forest floor in the campground.  The armadillo paid no attention to us, despite Kirk's frantic attempts to slip his lead.  Impressions: much more animated than I had expected, quick and busy.  Had his nose on the ground, under the wet leaves, flipping things as he trotted along.  Small front legs, large back legs.  I had a good look, then dragged Kirk reluctantly away.  Nancy returned from the birding blind shortly thereafter; when I told her of our armadillo encounter, she grabbed the camera and Kirk, I sent them in the general direction, and Kirk shortly homed them in on it.  Many pictures resulted.

Kirk & the Nine-Banded Armadillo

Neat habitat here in the campground.  Still lots of prickly pear cactus, and a type of beargrass, but lush green grass, no understory, and large old oaks.  The lush prickly pear appears unmolested, so the Javelinas must be hunted out locally.  We have seen a couple of wild turkeys, the male strutting about with a full fan tail display.

River bottom forest

South Llano River

Porcupine

Black-Crested Titmouse, sworn enemy of Bigfoot

About 100 miles south of here, across the Rio Grande in Mexico near Del Rio, was a border blaster radio station, XER.  With a 300 foot tower, and 5 times the amount of power legal in the United States, Wolfman Jack blasted rock and roll music across the entire continent.