#46 - Saturday, 8 April 2017 - Lake Casa Blanca International State Park, Laredo, Texas

Lake Casa Blanca International State Park sits on the edge of Laredo, a city of about a quarter million residents. I’m sure there are quite a few more than that. This “urban” state park has more of a forest preserve feel than most state parks, but the camping area is set two miles into the park and somewhat isolated from the popular day use family picnic areas near the entrance. As you hopefully know, Laredo is a port of entry into Mexico and the town of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande River. The population here is largely latino, presumably most of Mexican origin, and the visitors to the park reflect that. I arrives early on Thursday morning and my fellow campers had big RVs and my neighbor was a retired couple full-timing that were from Glenview where my mother was once a teacher. Now it’s the weekend and the campsites have filled a bit with tent campers that are mostly large Mexican families with noisy kids. I’m here until Monday morning, but may extend two or three nights just to have the peace and quiet of the weekdays again. My campsite is very nice and I have a trail down to the lake behind my Wheelhouse. I’ve “retired” from fishing, but when I went into town yesterday to go to Wal-Mart for supplies and a couple of Redbox DVD movies, I ended up in the sporting goods department looking at cheap ready-to-go rod & reel combos. I thought maybe I’d make a few casts for a big ole largemouth. I decided against and while watching my movie last night (appropriately, it was Transpecos, a movie about this region and the border patrol) I had people walking past my screen door to try their hand at fishing. 

PYRRHULOXIA (aka Desert Crested Cardinal)
Cardinalis sinuatus

The wildlife highlights so far have been seeing Crested Caracaras in Texas after photographing them in southern Florida (this was outside the park), and capturing a few images of the Pyrrhuloxia or Desert Crested Cardinal. During my hikes inside the park I spooked a group of five large deer. As I pursued them a little bit and looked for other wildlife I crested a hill and saw that one park border runs behind some pretty fancy houses for the affluent of Laredo. Once again I realized how much this park is like a big county forest preserve with the unusual addition of three big campground loops and an RV Dump Station. And the word "international" in the name ;)

All the best, M

#39 - Monday, 27 March 2017 - Kissimmee Prairie Preserve S.P., Florida

Greetings once again from the spot you're probably going to think is my favorite on Earth. It isn't. No place in Florida would rank very high. But this surely is my favorite area of Florida. The place is deserted. I am one of only four occupied campsites a month the 16 or 17 available in the equestrian campground. They had a big event here on Saturday and apparently everyone left first thing Sunday. There are still about a half dozen sites taken in the Astronomy Pad area and perhaps a dozen more campers in the family campground, but it is very peaceful here in the horse area. I can't see the other two occupied campsites and the one I can is two sites away and on the end.

My office as I type this for y'all

I just returned from a trail that cuts through a couple of deep ponds connected by a culvert with four big pipes and there must have been close to fifty alligators ranging in size from five to eleven feet in the area. I photographed some of them along with feeding great blue herons and great white egrets. I then drove out the park toward the spot where a caracara is often seen and captured some images of one perched there scanning the surrounding prairie for carrion. As I've mentioned before, the northern crested caracara is a type of falcon, but it has the feeding habits of a vulture. When I drove back to camp for lunch and to write this blog entry, a group of wild turkey was foraging around my Wheelhouse. I had seen a few hens and an immature male during my morning coffee, but now there was a larger group including a tom. They meandered off to leave me with my sardines, tuna and crackers.

I'm camped here until Friday, which is the last day of March. It is peaceful and without the hordes of savage mosquitoes that plagued my Everglades hiking. I sit at this picnic table as a gentle breeze keeps me cool as the temperature of the partly sunny day hovers around 27ºC/81ºF. I have no plan for Friday morning, but likely will pretty much go full speed ahead north and get out of Florida before I linger here any longer. I can't just stop every interesting place or I'll spend a year in one state. Texas is calling my name and I'd like to be able to visit Dr. Brent Hendrixson in Jackson, Mississippi along the way. Still, that's a bit farther north than I want to go and my goal will be to get across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and shunpike on back highways into Texas avoiding Houston. I'll probably head up toward Austin before heading south to follow the Rio Grande towards Big Bend National Park. Texas has two national parks on the list, but I'll spend an extended amount of time in the Big Bend region before finally heading into New Mexico. 

Cheers, M

#32 - Tuesday, 14 March 2017 | Okeechobee, Florida

Still loving this location. Not Okeechobee city limits so much, but the south central prairies of Florida and Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. I write this from dinner at Applebee's and on the way here I saw several red-shouldered hawks, a huge osprey, several kites, a caracara, white-tailed deer, sandhill cranes, numerous egrets, black and turkey vultures and ravens. I came into town on impulse. I had been plagued by a headache all day and got a little stir-crazy and felt like taking a ride and having a restaurant dinner. 

Tomorrow will be my last day at KPPSP. Thursday morning I will leave as early as possible to make my way south to Everglades National Park. I have a reservation for the Flamingo Campground at the southern tip of the park, but it isn't a site-specific booking and campsites are allotted first come, first serve after arrival. I've begun to take a look at where to head after the Everglades, but Florida is well booked with snowbirds. The season ends mid-April and then most state parks don't take reservations anymore and everything becomes "walk-in". I've been watching the temperatures in Texas and I really want to be heading that direction by April.

All the best, M

#20 - Wednesday, 1 February 2017 | Okeechobee, Florida

Hello February from Okeechobee, Florida where it is currently 78ºF/26ºC. I type this during my second visit to Applebee's since my arrival to the area (the first was the first night's dinner). Tonight will be night three of five at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. Not only is there no wi-fi, but my cell signal is almost non-existent. The park is situated far from cities and cell towers and my beautiful campsite is shaded by amazing old trees covered with epiphytes and Spanish moss. I hope to wean myself of my Internet dependency as the year progresses, but I will always seek out free wi-fi when I can. Starbucks is the most dependable source of both the finest espresso and high speed inter webs, but there isn't one anywhere near here. The drive from my campsite to Okeechobee is about 50 minutes, 15 of which is spent driving the white sand and gravel road leading out of the park. The remoteness of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park (KPPSP) lends itself to many things. It is known to be the finest place in Florida for stargazing and one of my campsite neighbors has two huge telescopes set up next to his equally huge and impressive RV coach.

Site 27, Equestrian Campground, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park

My favorite part of the drive 33 miles southeast to Okeechobee (and back) is the huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes I see each time. I so enjoyed photographing these magnificent birds in northern Illinois last year and I wonder if any of those that frequented Huntley are feeding in the south central Florida warmth. The first evening I saw one pasture that held at least fifty cranes, perhaps closer to 75. Today I saw groups ranging from several to dozens and many were near water-filled oases. I also saw many in flight. Sandhill cranes 

The state park is beautiful and this morning I hiked almost four hours. The park is expansive (54,000 acres) and there are many trails. As it is prairie filled with palmetto scrub, there is little tree cover, but many of the trails lead from the sweeping grassland vistas in out of shady hammocks. In one island of trees I watched a pair of flickers (woodpeckers) for some time and photographed them. Vultures soared overhead and small birds flitted among the palmetto. They were far too fast to view for long much less photograph, but I believe that many were the endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow. The sun was strong and my liter of water began to disappear quicker than I would have liked. My eyes scanned everywhere for reptiles and I had hoped that they would be warming after a comparatively cool early year night. I startled a couple of grouse hidden in the scrub. Actually, my heart jumped and it would be fairer to say that they startled me. Further along a raptor rosefrom the trailside ground ahead and flew across the prairie. Although it quickly distanced itself from me, the beak shape revealed its identity and I may have cursed at having missed the chance to get a good view, and perhaps a photograph, of a Crested Caracara. These falcon relatives are very different in shape and habits, and are known to often feed on carrion. They are known from central Florida, central and southern Texas and south-central Arizona south into Mexico. I continued along the trail and was surprised that what seemed like mostly a dry area became increasingly wetland. I hoped this might mean snakes and I searched around accumulated water. Out of water and my the ball of my right foot becoming very pained I picked up speed after consulting my trail map and finding the right trail to lead me back towards camp. The white sand trail became wide enough for my truck and I observed tracks from the ranger's ATVs and some paw prints that had me wondering if panthers were found in the park. A blue heron and a couple of great white egrets spooked as I approached and I knew that the sides of the trail must be marshy. Soon the water reached both sides of the trail. Where one culvert passed beneath the trail I paused and saw both baby and juvenile alligators in the water. I photographed them for some time and began to wonder if mother might be nearby. The marshy grass showed clear signs of alligator trails. There were banded neonate alligators, but also yearlings and they varied in size based on feeding and growth. I started looking more closely for an adult. I walked to the other side of the trail (the other end of the culvert pipe) and I don't know if mom or I were more startled. She was about seven feet long and was laying in the grass sunning herself. At sight of the big tattooed primate she dove into the water and sought cover inside the mouth of the pipe. I moved along and picked up pace to return to camp for much needed water and a cold shower.

Once I was refreshed and wearing t-shirt, shorts and sandals, I headed into town. As I drove out of KPPSP, I saw a raptor ahead on the road. I slowed my truck and noticed that it was feeding. As I got closer I knew that it was a crested caracara. Perhaps I would have another chance to capture an image or three. I pulled over. Whenever I am driving I have two cameras on the passenger seat. One body has my 300mm f4 super telephoto with 1.4x teleconverter and the other has my amazing 70-200mm f2.8 wildlife workhorse. The first is equivalent to 630mm on my APC (cropped sensor) bodies and I pointed it at the bird. I was able to snap a couple of exposures, but it took to flight before I had a chance to do what I hoped. I jumped back into the truck and chased after it. It was flying parallel to the road on the right side perhaps 50 feet above the ground and moving at a good clip. I drove faster in pursuit watching for it to land. Ahead it landed on a elevated wood platform. I am not sure what the purpose of the structure is, but it sort of looks like an osprey nesting platform only about ten times as large. I'll have to investigate it later when I return to camp. The caracara landed and I was able to drive just past and pull off the road. It seemed much more comfortable sitting high above the ground and I spent about five minutes firing off maybe 100 exposures. I can't wait to review my photos later. Hopefully at least one will make it to Instagram along with some gator shots. I won't be able to post until I have wi-fi again though ...

My plan for the evening is to finish tidying the Wheelhouse. Almost everything is put away now and I will then relax with a movie. Tomorrow morning I plan to film a tour of the campsite and the interior of the Wheelhouse. I'll post it to YouTube and share here.

All the best, M