Ginny & Dean's Excellent Adventures: Texas birding & biking 4-11

Dean & Ginny's excellent adventures... Main Adventure Page

Texas--04/11: << Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 >> Part 4 >> Part 5 >> Part 6 >>

Goose Island, a small barrier island, is included within the boundaries of this Texas state park, and we were attracted to this park because it's in the migratory routes of many types of birds.

Our campsite was on the mainland in a small circle built for tenters--tight quarters and no electrical hookups.

We don't need electrical hookups because Dean built a portable solar power system for our van. This system charges the two house batteries and powers our lights, computers, and refrigerator when there is sunshine. This was our maiden voyage with solar and we were quite pleased with how well it worked.

One of our neighbors just barely squeaked in with his big truck.

The blue-eye grass carpeted the whole area around our campsite. We tried not to step on any flowers as we walked around, but it was a futile exercise. >>

We set out to explore the park on our bikes. The first stop was this beautiful stone recreation hall, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s as were so many buildings in other state parks including some in Florida. Butterfly gardens out front and all around attract not only insects, but those who might eat them.

The flowers continued around the building and in the back the Texas blue bonnets (a lupine and their state flower) predominate. Aren't they beautiful?

We continued riding our bikes across the bridge out to the island itself and learned how this beach got the name "Stinky Beach"--rotting seaweed. It smelled okay while we were there. The two rows of campsites out on the beach each come with an aqua-colored cinderblock shelter.

If you camped in a site right on the beach, you could fish from the shoreline without leaving the comfort of your campsite.

Fishing is a big attraction here. Many fishermen came to the park for day use only and either put their boats in at the ramp or fished from the pier or shore. It was shallow for many hundreds of yards.

<< The fishing pier is about 1/3 mile long, but the water is still shallow at the end. That's Dean out there on his bike--he's wearing a white shirt.

<< His fillet knife flashing silver, this fisherman cleaned his ten or so sea trout in a jiffy, while the birds fought over the guts.

We were surprised to see an egret in the fray to get the fish scraps along with the laughing gulls and the pelicans. >>

Dean tried his hand at fishing in this beautiful bay behind the barrier island.

We spent more of our seven days here hiking, biking, and looking for birds. And this is serious birding country...

Normally, there is a camp host or two who run or help run the campground, but this park also has two bird hosts.

Tuesday through Saturday, the bird hosts run bird-watching field trips. I went on the morning when they covered the shorebirds. Fun, and I learned about some new birds.

What are these people taking photos of with their big-lensed cameras??

Whooping Cranes! Dean got some pretty good shots with the 4x zoom lens on his point and shoot camera.

These are BIG birds--1.5 times bigger than a great blue heron. They fly through this area during their migration. On the advice of the ranger, we rode our bikes about a mile out of the park and down the shoreline to find them on the first day, but never saw them again.

On our way to see the cranes, we did see a couple of cool sunrises, watched a dozen great blue herons in their rookery, and saw the state, possibly national, champion coastal live oak tree--35' circumference, 89' canopy, 44' tall.

A bird feeding station stocked with various types of seeds, sugar water, and dripping water attracted a wide variety of birds.

This was a short walk from our campsite, so we came here often and saw some cool birds including a hooded oriole and a buff-bellied hummingbird.

We also saw fox squirrels here partaking of the bird seed. They're 1/3 larger than a gray squirrel and have distinctly yellow undersides--no white. It was amusing to watch them defeat the squirrel deflectors--this nursing female had jumped from a nearby branch.