Monday 17 January 2020
Which incidentally happens to be a holiday, MLK Day. After pancakes (with blueberries!) for breakfast, Ed and I drove down to the lake. There were two dry boat ramps there, but I'm sure there are still some functional boat ramps somewhere. For one, I saw two boats out in the water; and for two, this evening I saw two trucks hauling boats away from the lake and toward the park exit.
At the lake we saw an Osprey, cormorants, gulls and pelicans. But then we drove over to Salineno (enya missing on keyboard) Wildlife Preserve. I'm not sure how big it is, but what we found was a dirt road with a parking area and a hand-lettered sign that said "birdwatching area". First we drove down the short road to the Rio Grande.
It was a lot grander down there than it was up at Big Bend Ranch, but it looked much the same. Very brown and murky. but there were birds all over the place! I think I caught a vireo or two, definitely a green Jay on the road, and a whole bunch of birds on the other side that I never could really get a good view of. It was late in the day by then--around noon--and so we'd missed the morning activity. Oh, well.
Trying to photograph in this mess:
Back at the birding area, we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to photograph Chachalacas in the trees. Then we went on to the trailer where a man, woman and a very decrepit old dog kept a birdwatching site. it was cool! I saw a long-billed thrasher, green jays, and even an Altamira Oriole! He identified that one for me--I would have had to go to the book. But it didn't linger so I didn't get a picture.
Long-billed Thrasher
After that it was lunchtime, so we headed home and had a lazy afternoon. I eventually took Molly for a walk on the trail up to the entrance station, then along the road to the butterfly garden and back to camp.
Steak and salmon for dinner, then we started winding it down for tomorrow's long drive. Five hours, and most of that on Texas highways, not interstates.
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