North of I10 - 3-13-21 - 3-19-21

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the soothing sound of the surf was disrupted by the sound of the ships blaring their horns in the early morning fog.  The sound of  the a/c unit was needed to muffle the horns.

We left our nice spot at Quintana County Beach Park and traveled 194 miles to Hillcrest RV Park in New Waverly, Texas.  It has been 2 months since we have been north of I10.

  

We took a walk around the park taking a few pictures of the pretty blooms. 

 

When we got back to camp, Ferny was ready for some outdoor time and to eat some pretty green grass.  We are all enjoying this nice, quiet, spot in the country to spend the night.

Saturday Pics:

Sunday, it rained a few times in the wee hours of the morning.  We also changed to daylight savings time, in the wee hours of the morning.  Between the rain and the time change, Lauren slept until 8:30 am.  Although, Ferny Kat tried to get him up at 7 am.

We traveled 94 miles with no rain to Sandy Creek RV Park.  It is a Corp of Engineers Park.  We have a nice, quiet, lakefront campsite on the Steinhagen Reservoir, site number 21.

 

We took a ride around to check out the park, taking a few pics of flowers and such.

  

We didn't see much waterfowl on the lake, but did find a Great Egret fishing and a Northern Parula singing in a tree.

Ferny Kat was ready to come outside when we got back.  Needless to say, we have another Ferny Kat approved campground!

Sunday Pics:

Monday morning started out foggy.  It stayed cloudy until late afternoon. 

 

While Lauren was waiting on me to get ready, he got a few pics of Pine Warblers feasting in the trees near our campsite.

We checked out Magnolia Ridge COE and Martin Dies, Jr State Park after lunch.  We found our first azalea blooms of the season.

There is an abundance of  Redbud blooms in this area, which are an attractant for Swallow-tailed Butterflies.

We were talking a few days ago, that we have not seen an armadillo on this trip.  Today, we saw one.

The Island Trail at the state park was a nice hike through the woods and around the lake.

When we got back to camp, we took a walk in the campground.  Again seeing more pretty blooms and butterflies.  The pretty blooms are as attractive to us as they are to the butterflies.

We had a little color reflection from the sunset tonight before the clouds covered it up.

Monday Pics:

Tuesday, was a stay around camp day.  We hiked about 4 miles from our campground to the state park.  It was a nice trail, meandering through the woods and around the lake and sloughs with several pretty plants, butterflies, and other cool critters.

Afterwards, we, including Ferny Kat, relaxed at camp under the canopy that sheltered us from the on and off showers, doing a little bit of people and critter watching.

 

We finally saw lots of waterfowl, late afternoon.  It was the biggest conglomeration of  Cormorants that we have ever seen.

We had another evening of some sunset reflections that was quickly covered up with clouds.

 

Tuesday Pics:

We got on the road early this Wednesday morning trying to beat the rain and we succeeded.  We traveled 200 miles to Riverview RV Park in Vidalia, La.  We got here and set up on site 29 before the rain began.

  

We had on and off thunderstorms, then the heavy rain came.  By 6 pm it was out of here and Ferny Kat was out of the camper, drinking from the water puddles.

Wednesday Pics:

After a restful sleep, listening to the boats chuga luging on the river, we headed to St. Catherine Creek NWR Thursday morning.  The last time we went to the refuge, the gnats were too mean and the water was too high for a hike.  Today, conditions were good for a couple of miles of hiking.

 

We enjoyed the variety of plants on the hilly terrain, along with a few birds, and a lot of butterflies.  We managed to find a couple new, for us, iNaturalist plant species. 

 

We took a ride on Wildlife Drive and found several alligators, and waterfowl.  The Gators here as not as photogenic as the ones in Texas.  They would dive in the water as soon as we stopped the truck.

We had Pizza for linner then took a 3 mile walk along the Vidalia river walk.  It was a very enjoyable stroll, watching the birds, people, and river boats. 

 

My big "60" has been a fabulous day!  Keep the birthdays coming!!

Friday, we traveled 133 miles to Crossroads.  We have had a great time for the last 10 weeks, but it was time to go home.

Our total miles traveled 5,725.  Lauren added 1,469 iNaturalist observations and 222 new species.

I added 870 iNaturalist observations and 177 new species.  

The 2021 Winter Texans trip is a wrap!

Thursday Pics:

Quintana Beach County Park - 3-7-21 - 3-12-21

It has been cloudy for the last 2 mornings, but not Sunday morning.  We finally got a pretty sunrise at Magnolia Beach on this cool, windy, morning.

We lounged around for about 4 hours, taking a nice stroll along the beach.  The campers were packing up and pulling out, one after another.  There were more seagulls than people on the beach today.

If we didn't have a reservation, which we rarely make, we would have stayed here for a few more days. The second celebration of our anniversary was wonderful, but it was time to move on.

We traveled 113 miles to Quintana Beach County Park.  We are camped on an end site, number 35.  The gulf is about a 200 yard walk across the dunes. 

 

We can see the huge ships being escorted with tug boats through the Freeport Harbor Channel from our campsite.  

Lauren and I took a 1.5 mile stroll around the campground, along the beach, and along the jetty.  The beach is a natural beach.  The beach is narrower but the waves are much bigger than Magnolia Beach. 

Ferny Kat was ready for some outside time as soon as we got here.  Of course, she came back out when we returned from our walk.  She enjoyed the green grass and the Grackle watch until the cool wind sent us inside. 

 

Sunday Pics:

Monday morning we went to Brazoria NWR.  They had a nice memorial water garden dedicated to the volunteers in front of the Discovery Center. 

We were envious of the volunteers that are allowed to work outdoors here.  Maybe one day we can get back to the Crane Refuge.

We saw plenty of waterfowl and gators on the boardwalk leading to The Big Slough Trail.

We enjoyed our walk along the trail seeing more waterfowl and a few butterflies.

On our walk back across the boardwalk, we found momma gator and her babies.  One of the babies was laying on momma's head. 

 

We took a ride along the Big Slough Auto Trail, seeing lots more waterfowl, lots more gators, a few songbirds and a few hawks.

After we left the refuge, we checked out the Bastrop Bayou fishing area, and again were envious when we saw the Volunteer Village for Brazoria NWR across the road.  It looked so nice.

We had our tail gate lunch at Surfside Beach, looking at our camper across the jetty.  We took a short ride on Surfside Beach then made it back to camp.

After we got back to camp, we did a 1.7 mile hike to Quintana's Neotropical Bird Sanctuary and to the beach.  The bird sightings were few and far between at the sanctuary.  It should be picking up in the next week or so when the migration begins.

We did a little bit of people watching at the beach, then relaxed for the rest of the day at camp.

Monday Pics:

Tuesday, we went to San Bernard NWR. We saw the usual waterfowl and lots and lots of alligators on our drive along the Moccasin Pond Loop.  The gators came in all sizes.

The Bobcat Trail was a nice trail, meandering through the woods and along the sloughs.  Again we saw a few birds, lots of waterfowl, and gators.

We ate our picnic lunch at the boat ramp at Cedar Lake Creek Trail. 

On our way out of the refuge, we saw a Raccoon standing in the road.

We also saw some Caracaras as we were bouncing down the washboard dirt road back to the pavement.

We took a walk around the jetties when we got back to camp, seeing a few shorebirds.  The Red-breasted Merganser was all dolled up, out in his breeding plumage.

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday, our adventure today was to check out Brazos Bend State Park.  You know it's been a good day of critter watching when we take over 600 pictures between the two of us. 

The state park sign has a picture of an alligator, which was the theme for the area.  This is another place that the gators are in abundance.  It's almost as many in this area of Texas as they have in Florida along Alligator Alley,  Only here, there is no fence between you and them.  Just saying.

The Plant Slough Foot Trail had a few butterflies and birds that kept our interest.

The interest in the critters was more intense when we got to Elm Lake and saw turtles, shore birds, and of course alligators.

These turtles were having a hard time on one of the logs.  They looked liked they were in a logrolling competition.  The log kept rolling and they kept falling off.  Finally the larger one won!

   

We had our tailgate lunch at the 40 acre lake observation tower trail head, watching the Black Vultures sunning in a dead tree.

We saw a gator near the viewing platform before starting our walk.  When we went out to the platform, he was asleep.  After we got to the platform, we turned around and saw him awake.  He would open his mouth and show off his teeth. I can now say, we have seen the inside of an alligator's mouth, and it was in a good way.  Although, it was quite intimidating to walk back past him with his mouth open.

  

The trail to the observation deck was awesome.  We saw lots of water fowl, Nutria, and  Bitterns.  Some of the Nutria were youngsters and so cute. 

 

It was windy at the observation tower, so a few pics and down we come.  There were all kinds of water fowl to take pictures of, including the Rosette Spoonbills.

  

There were alligators and then more alligators.  Every now and then, I would get concerned because they were so close to the path.  They didn't seem to mind.  Not even Momma Gator with her babies nearby.  Needless to say, we, or at least me, didn't let our guard down.

While I was skedaddling away from Momma Gator and her babies and Lauren was taking pictures.  We had 2 Bitterns fly a few feet from us.  This is definitely the closest I've ever been to a Bittern.

We got about 4.5 miles of hiking in and had no gator attacks.  It has been a spectacular day!

Wednesday Pics:

Thursday, we took a ride to Galveston Island and visited the state park.  It was a hazy kind of day and we were in a lazy kind of way.  After all, yesterday was a big day of nature chasing. We enjoyed the trip taking a few pics along the way.

  

We took a stroll around camp, checking out the cannon and the beach when we got back.

Thursday Pics:

Our last day at Quintana on Friday, was a laid back kind of day.  We ate breakfast around 11 am then got Amber loaded up for her ride home. 

The only reason we left camp on Friday was to top off the diesel  After we returned, we took a walk to the sanctuary and the beach.  The sanctuary had a little more bird activity today.  The Green Herons were mighty pretty perched in the tree.

We walked back along the beach, and I finally got my toes in the water.  The water was cool, but so refreshing, on this, the warmest day we have had since we got here.

Friday Pics: