Cam and Nancy

Thursday, 5 April 2018

Another day of warm trails

Lovely day here. Warm with a slight breeze. We were extremely fortunate to catch a cancellation and will now be staying until Monday here in Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park. Every other park within 10 minutes of town is full as is this one. The northern weather just isn't breaking so here we are.

There are a number of events on in town including the American Chuck Wagon Championship Cook-off taking place in the fairgrounds next door to this park. A large number of these folks are staying in the campground here. All afternoon and into tonight they have a live country band playing in one of their campsites. We are close enough to hear it with our windows open but not enough to be heard once we close up for the night. They are in the other end of the campground.

Band

Kirk and I did another 2.5 hours of trails.

Texas Bindweed

Trailhead view

Texas River Cooters

Is it just me or does Texas like to name things after itself.

Fringed Puccoon

Horse Crippler flower opened

Wild Garlic

Drummond's Phlox

Gray Hairstreak Butterfly

Just in case you thought you'd seen it all.

Wednesday, 4 April 2018

Ladybird Johnson Municipal Park

We went into Fredricksburg in the morning. We picked up sandwiches at Opa's meats and pastries at a German bakery. A very nice touristy town.

Then back to the park where we spent part of the afternoon sitting in lawn chairs along the weir with the geese, ducks and turtles. It was warm and sunny with the cardinals and mockingbirds singing.

Stinkpot (Common Musk Turtle)

There were domestic geese and ducks along the stream obviously spoiled from handouts.

Egyptian Goose

Greylag geese

Greylag Goose, Chinese Goose and 2 Domestic geese.

Pekin duck

Phaon Crescent Butterfly

Larch tree

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Mockingbird

Cross Vine

Black-chinned Hummingbird and Honeysuckle

Pink Evening Primrose

Texas Star

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Fredericksburg, TX - updated

We drove through flat lands of willow and marsh grasses and then began the climb up into hill country. It was quite lovely with Juniper trees, Pines and a wide variety of deciduous trees.

We arrived at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park in Fredricksberg, Texas in early afternoon. This is a lovely park with great nature trails. The park provides checklists for wildflowers, reptiles, mammals, insects and fish. Probably also for birds but wasn't one there at the time. There is a small airport next door which was quiet at night and provided some entertainment for Cam and in the afternoon, kind of like bird watching for me.

Texas Blue Bonnets

Kirk and I walked 2 nature trails. There was a very nice bird blind where there was a variety of birds including cardinals and Black-chinned hummingbirds. It was a warm and humid afternoon. The trails went through a real mix of vegetation. Prairie, woodland, riparian, a clash of tropical and woodland.