Wednesday 3/23
Common Loon in breeding plumage! Awesome. Also an osprey but that's not so unusual. The Loon should be heading north soon. It's a life bird for me although I suspect I've seen one before, at least once and probably more. But this is the first one in unmistakable breeding plumage. Cool.
And below is the look again, with a gaggle of coots in the background.
We probably won't do much today. Take Molly for a walk; go to Lowe's; then go take the kids to the park.
This is an okay camping spot. Very spread out--if it were fully booked we'd have someone right in our face on one side--there's a pull-through site next door--but on the other side a big, delicious break. I suspect that's why I chose this site instead of the pull-through, but I don't remember. If the map didn't show type of site, then I would have automatically gravitated to the one at the end of a grouping.
There's a little sycamore tree next to us but other than that, it's very cleared out here. I can see the pieces of trees where they cut down a few along the lake's edge. My guess is that they died, from heat and exposure after the rest of the ground cover was removed.
But the one thing I like is all the empty space around. And lack of sticker-burrs in the grass--at least for now. I can walk the dogs a long way and not have to pass other campers. I'd prefer a few more trees but--
Cool! A small, striped tailed hawk with a white rump just glided down and disappeared past the bushes in the water. Cooper's or Sharp-shinned. Probably Coopers'. Add that to the osprey and two kestrels I've seen, and that makes a nice assortment of hawks.
It sure seems like this would be a great place for some owls. But none seen or heard. The owls of open country don't occur this far south.
LATER We returned just after dark, having done our grandkid thing and picked up Food Court meals for ourselves and the others. Boston Market seems to work well for them--the boys like mashed potatoes, corn, and chicken; Elyanna likes the mac'n'cheese. I didn't like my Japanese "light" vegetables with steamed rice, but the vegetable egg roll was great. Ed did a Charley's cheesesteak and liked it very much.
Thursday 3/24
Done with it all and time to head home. Nothing interesting this morning--just a large Buteo in a tree by the water while we sat at the dump station, waiting for the tank to clean. Same old same trip home. It's over and spring camping season has begun.
Return time 3:45 which included an unusually slow fill-up at Love's in Burleson -- almost 20 minutes.
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