Texas,  Thoughts,  Travel & Places

Waiting for the Stars….

For some reason the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department decided that putting Wi-Fi at their state parks would be a good idea. I’d say that mostly this is a good idea, except that it probably isn’t because then people like me end up online. But that’s ok, I’m watching a line of brown pelicans casually fly across Copano Bay while the moon is pushing half full, the first star is out (or is it a planet…?) and the yellow orange glow of sunset is still lingering. I’m really just waiting for the stars to fully come out so I can practice some night photography. Maybe I will come out with a winner.

We have only one more state park left until we go home. So far my favorite park has been Palo Duro Canyon followed by Colorado Bend State Park. But I am loving being back on the Texas coast, a place where I have so many childhood memories. The place where my little marine biology love started.

I wonder where all the birds are going? To the little islands in the middle of the bay to roost for the night? They are all making a beeline for the east. Some noisy gulls are heading this way. No, they aren’t saying “Mine, mine, mine” like on Nemo, but some other noise that I’m sure a birder would put into words. While on the trail our friend Merf taught us a few birds by sound and I would never have put their calls into how they are said in English. One is “Where are you? Here I am”, and another is “Beer, Beer, Beer, Beee.” Our friend Little Brown called the last one “Beer, Beer, Beer, Free!”. After awhile though you start hearing them everywhere and being able to discern their little languages. My favorite was the MiMi bird, so called after my mom because it sounded like Zoe was saying “MiiiMiii”. Later on we found our from our friend Rich, who lives in PA and we met up with in Palmerton, that it was the Eastern wood peewee and it was actually saying “PeeWeeee”. I like mine better.

Well, I’m off to find a place to set up.

*#(*#@$&(* Mosquitoes. Seriously, nothing was as bad as the mosquitoes on the coast or in Florida while on the trail. Not even the flies in Vermont. Grr…..

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