My friends Mark and Renita enjoy this park a lot, and I’d driven past it a few times planning on visiting sometime. They like it for the kayaking and birding, and I can see why. Nice place.
Before I got settled in I spotted some caracara, green jays, and golden-fronted woodpeckers. One of my neighbors is an armadillo. So I guess I’m in South Texas.
Remarkable is the number of insects, the variety. And in numbers the butterflies which are everywhere. They must be migrating, likely heading to Mexico. I’ve never tried to figure out butterflies, but there’s a butter-yellow number that has caught my eye that I’d like to put a name to. Not getting a good close look I went to my grill guard to see if I had a sample there. Nope, but I did pick off a half-dozen species that were interesting. As well as a few grasshoppers I picked up in Deming and Hatch. I’ll wash the truck when I get to Rockport.
Nice park, but the region surrounding it is undergoing mass destruction as big machines scramble in the dirt for holy oil and gas. Now I’ll admit that west Texas probably isn’t the most environmentally sensitive area on the continent, the most damage done when it was overgrazed, but the current destruction seems a little over the top to me. I think we’ll regret this someday.
Just an afternoon and evening here, tomorrow it’s Goose Island on the Gulf Coast. See how the whooping cranes are doing.