1/30/23

Bird Whackiing

 

Adventure Location: Rockport Tx area

Adventure Date: 1-30-2023

Another very busy day of living a wonderful life with an RV. There are at least three herds of white tail deer in the park. They each have their zone they live in. The herd near the ranger station has an eight point (If the OFM counted correctly) buck leading that herd. The other two herds do not seem to have a lead buck in them. This evening we happened to get a chance to grab a picture of the smallest herd working the area where last weekend was a herd of scouts camping and spilling food all around about fifteen tents. So the deer are in there cleaning up the spilled food.



We think that lead doe was checking the OFM Teams out for corn getting thrown out. The OFM Teams do not feed wildlife but we have donated to a couple of TPW parks that asked for donations for medicated feed to treat a herd of deer for some disease.



Down by the marshes and other tidal water flood areas are signs to not feed the alligators or try to play with them. We still see limited brain capacity fools messing around with wild alligators now and then. This state park has done a pretty good job of putting marsh access platforms where you will likely find critters to see and photograph without being in serious danger.





Over by the boat ramps and cleaning stations lots of birds show up within seconds that a boat arrives at the ramp area. We have never seen a scrap last longer than three seconds after it was thrown from the cleaning table toward the water.

Here is an example of the small army of birds at the cleaning tables.



There are ten white pelicans in the picture. White pelicans are not small birds and they get way to aggressive at the cleaning table at times. The guides have been seen giving an aggressive bird a serious whack when it closes in too close. A pelican bite on your arm WILL leave a long deep serious wound that will likely need several stitches pretty quick. So the OFM Teams calls whacking an aggressive pelican proper self defense.



For those folks that have never been to this park, it has a lot of nice walking places along the roads and sidewalks. There is only one trail going through the brush and trees past a bird blind and coming out at a different location than you entered. It is a nice path that we have used several times over the past fifty years of coming here. The park is only ten minutes from the main part of Rockport tourist area where there are lots of decent places to eat in many price ranges. The Rockport Beach is about fifteen minutes away and in the summer is very heavily used.

Meanwhile we need to get busy resting up for a big day of excitement watching Sierra get repaired tomorrow. Then we will be getting ready to roll on Wednesday morning to our next location for trying to have tooooo much fun.





5 comments:

  1. Enjoyed your photos today. And I can't remember seeing white pelicans down there. Most I ever saw were I think in Colorado...ha. Or maybe it was Utah. No, Colorado. I was very very surprised. Also some glossy ibises up there. I guess on their way somewhere. I don't know much about either species. Feeding wildlife doesn't seem a great idea to me....though I do have a birdbath out. Everybody needs some water now and then. It is frozen at the moment, and not likely to thaw out until Wednesday, if then. Meanwhile, glad you see you are a Travels with Charley fan. Didn't know you were a reader. Can you still do it with your bum eye?

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    1. Reading a written, printed etc item is ok if I can get it to the proper distance. White pelicans gathered by the thousands on the Columbia River in Washington State when I lived up there.

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  2. It sounds like a very nice park, great location, great views.

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  3. Pelicans are huge birds. The first time I saw one up close (in a zoo, thank goodness, on the other side of a fence) its size astounded me. We get pelicans in Upper Michigan occasionally but they're usually too far out on the water to get a true sense of their size.

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