Mammoth stays at Tickfaw another day

 Sunday, January 31 2021

From my notes for the day:
January is ending and there's just four short weeks until I can start actively scanning the skies for migrating warblers. And buntings, and orioles, and tanagers, etc. For now, we've just got the normal, birds who've been here all winter. I'm taking my binoculars in a bit, along with the dog, for some serious bird watching. I saw a couple of robin-like birds in the bushes this morning which could have been Veery--but no binoculars.

The bird-watching episode turned out to be different from expected--Ed came along and we took Zack down to the Alligator Crossing spot on the road. We stared and stared into the muck, but no alligators appeared. Then we walked back, stopping at Mother Tree where I saw nothing until Ed pointed out a bevy of small birds in the trees right in front of me. Chickadees and Butter-butts and one small bird that was very likely that warbler with no especial markings on it. But I didn't have the camera and I couldn't tell using just the binoculars.

After that we went back by the laundry room, where Ed went inside to check the price of the washers. He thought it must have been 25-cents, because there was only a quarter-sized coin slot. We only had one real quarter and one Filipino quarter between us, but we decided to do a single load and then see if the Filipino quarter would work in the dryer.

(Later, when I went back to do the load, I read the LED over the washer controls as  175. Which was a lot more likely to be the real price--$1.75 per load.  You'd still have to put in a quarter at a time--seven times!  So I didn't even try my measely two quarters.)

But before this, we walked on down to the bridge on the way to the front gate. and there, right at the top of the clear, non-algae topped water, was an alligator!

A smallish one, about four feet long. He moved a little to and fro, just hanging out in the water with his eyes exposed. I didn't get a picture, but here's a little friend in our campsite:

Last note about Tickfaw State Park: the best spots are 27 and the two on the far side (smaller numbers) of the volleyball court. But those might be noisy on weekends--that end of the park was where all the party was. But any site on the outside of the loop would be okay, preferring the ones near the end of the loop like the one we had. Our site pics: