Thursday, September 16, 2010
Goose Island State Park - Mar 4
We're on the road again. Made another repeat stop at Goose Island State Park, about 6 miles north of Rockport, TX, on the beautiful Lamar Peninsula. This is one of our favorite areas. It has lots of wildlife, especially birds, plus the arching Live Oaks, which form lovely shapes due to the prevailing winds. Despite another bout of rainy weather, we have enjoyed our six days here. We have a lovely campsite nestled in the trees. If you try really hard, you can just see the nearest neighbors. It is very secluded & wonderfully dark at night. We went birdwatching, either with an organized group, or on our own, every day. There is a very good naturalist here, who runs a marvelous birding program that we enjoy very much. We learn a lot from him. The highlight was the bird banding program we attended today. We participated by "adopting" a bird & are now the proud foster parents of a female second-year American Goldfinch. She is banded, so if anyone captures her & records her band number, we will be notified. New birds we have seen since we last wrote are American Bittern, Peregrine Falcon, Red-breasted Merganser, Snowy Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Bonaparte's Gull, Grasshopper Sparrow & Song Sparrow. We have also seen & enjoyed many "old friends" from our time here last year. While visiting the Big Tree (oldest coastal Live Oak in Lamar County), we saw a pair of Whooping Cranes feeding in a nearby pasture. We later observed 4 or 5 Bottlenose Dolphins playing or feeding for quite a long time. Interesting birds in our campsite include Eastern Towhee, White-throated Sparrow, Brown Thrasher & Black-and-white Warbler. Some of the more interesting birds at the shore were Black Skimmer, American Oystercatcher, Ruddy Turnstone (amazing that they are always turning stones!) & Marbled Godwit.
We enjoyed our last month at Port Aransas & will miss the friends we made there. We especially enjoyed the Bridge & Cribbage groups. Willie is a much more confident Cribbage player after six weeks of playing with very good opponents; whereas Doug learned a little humility after experiencing players who were more competitive.
The cats have adjusted to being back on the road quite well. We feel very lucky to have them adapt to this lifestyle with so little difficulty. They obviously do not like the travel days, but they just seem to tolerate it and somehow "know" that it will be over soon & they will be back in their comfy "home". They really love being in the trailer & seem to enjoy that it is always in a different location. They look out the window at whatever is there, whether it be humans or birds & other wildlife. Rainbow & Amber think they should go out, but we only allow this occasionally on a leash. Neither of them is very good on a leash but they like to try it from time to time. Rainbow just thinks she should be wherever we are. If we are outside & she is in, she howls until we either come in or take her out! Amber waits until we start out the door with a large load of laundry & then sneaks out between our feet. Trixie seems to have had enough outside during her days before we adopted her, so she has absolutely no interest in being outside. Gracie wouldn't want to risk missing a meal! There are plenty of places for them to "nest" in the trailer & windows to look out. Sometimes it is hard for us to find a place to sit -- all the seats are already taken! They seem to have a good life & they certainly bring comfort, love & laughter into our lives.
We enjoyed our last month at Port Aransas & will miss the friends we made there. We especially enjoyed the Bridge & Cribbage groups. Willie is a much more confident Cribbage player after six weeks of playing with very good opponents; whereas Doug learned a little humility after experiencing players who were more competitive.
The cats have adjusted to being back on the road quite well. We feel very lucky to have them adapt to this lifestyle with so little difficulty. They obviously do not like the travel days, but they just seem to tolerate it and somehow "know" that it will be over soon & they will be back in their comfy "home". They really love being in the trailer & seem to enjoy that it is always in a different location. They look out the window at whatever is there, whether it be humans or birds & other wildlife. Rainbow & Amber think they should go out, but we only allow this occasionally on a leash. Neither of them is very good on a leash but they like to try it from time to time. Rainbow just thinks she should be wherever we are. If we are outside & she is in, she howls until we either come in or take her out! Amber waits until we start out the door with a large load of laundry & then sneaks out between our feet. Trixie seems to have had enough outside during her days before we adopted her, so she has absolutely no interest in being outside. Gracie wouldn't want to risk missing a meal! There are plenty of places for them to "nest" in the trailer & windows to look out. Sometimes it is hard for us to find a place to sit -- all the seats are already taken! They seem to have a good life & they certainly bring comfort, love & laughter into our lives.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 8:54 PM 
