Archive for the ‘County’ Category

Adolph Thomae, Jr. County Park, Arroyo City, Texas

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

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I have been staying at the Adolph Thomae, Jr. County Park in Arroyo City, Texas for the past week. Thought I’d post some pictures so I’ll have a reference for when I next come to the area. The park is located along the Arroyo Colorado at the end of a road through the small town of Arroyo City. It is surrounded on three sides by Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. In addition to it’s rv sites, it has two lighted fishing piers and a boat launch area. It is a lot better than most of the rv parks in town. There is a problem with litter, especially Sunday afternoon. The Arroyo Colorado has some of the same problems as the Salton Sea in California–pollution and fish die offs. People don’t seem hesitate to eat the fish though.

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RV sites by the water. They were full when I arrived, so I got a spot in the woods area. The water sites tend to be more crowded, so probably better to leave them for fishermen.

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As the sun was setting on my last day at the park, serious clouds started to roll in with thunder in them. Brought a little rain. Next day it was nice again.

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, too

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

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The above photos are from the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge visitor center area. The top ones are a gila woodpecker and green jays enjoying a grapefruit. (I put an orange on a tree by my rv and also attracted these two birds). The rabbit is to tame for its own good. I have seen it every time I have been at the visitor center.

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A kestral overlooking Laguna Madre.

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An osprey taking off with a fish.

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South Padre Island from the refuge. There is a wreck of some sort on the left, can’t tell what it is. The dark spot on the lower right is a heron. Even though it is quite a distance from the shore, you can see how shallow the water is.

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Driving home from the refuge had to stop for some turkey’s crossing the street. It was near 7 p.m., so there was very little light, but this puffed up guy caught my attention.


Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

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I’m currently visiting the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. It is summer here, in the 80′s, with a warm Santa Ana type wind off the ocean. Winter Texan’s in south Texas are starting to think about heading north, as after March it gets pretty warm here. Next winter, I want to come to this area by December.

A green jay, the first one I’ve even seen, is shown above. They are just found in south Texas, Mexico, and South America.

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Above is a view of Laguna Madre from the wildlife refuge’s 15 mile auto tour route. The yucca are in bloom and Padre Island is off in the distance. The refuge has the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley–88,000 acres.

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A pair of crested caracara, seen on the 15 mile tour route.

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This picture was taken a few days after the one showing the caracara on the ground. It might well be the same two.

Morrison Pond, Sweetwater Park

Monday, December 17th, 2007

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Morrison Pond in Sweetwater Regional Park is a great bird watching spot. On the park’s system of trails, you can walk the half mile to the pond from the campground on a trail that goes over a freeway, next to a golf course, and under a city road to an open area that is being restored to attract wildlife. Driving through town there are always people jogging or walking their dogs on the park’s trails. It is great that open areas are being preserved in this densely populated area.

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First night heron I have seen.

San Diego – Sweetwater Park

Friday, December 14th, 2007

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In San Diego at the Sweetwater Regional Park. Wanted to visit some of the wildlife refuges in the area: Tijuana Slough NWR and The San Diego Bay NWR. Also, Zhen Zhen, the baby panda at the San Diego Zoo is due to go on display at any time. Would love to see her and her mom, Bai Yun.

Had a heck of a time finding Sweetwater County Park. A new toll freeway has been constructed next to it and getting here confused both me and my friend Garmin. Left the elephants around 2:30 p.m. and didn’t think there would be any problem travelling the 30 miles to Sweetwater. Ended up going in circles through multiple high-end housing developments (housing track hell). Garmin directed me to a dirt road that had a sign saying “End of Pavement” “No Trucks”. Had no idea where the road went or what condition it was in. Backed up and turned around so Garmin could recalculate the route, but ended up at another dirt road! All this was complicated by the fact that my gas gauge was on empty, it was rush hour with a lot of traffic on roads with a lot of road work being done, and night was closing in. Changed my priority to finding gas. Garmin came through on this for me, albeit through long, slow traffic jams.

Did finally make it to Sweetwater Park around 6:00 p.m. The dirt roads were being constructed for the housing tracts and did take me to the park. Started raining after I got settled. So I was lucky on that point. The park is nice, even with freeways on two sides and jet planes flying over to land in San Diego. It is set on a hill and there are 15 miles of trails for horses and people. It is also very close to the places I want to visit.

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The San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge has a bird aviary for birds who cannot survive in the wild. Bald eagle above, hawk with one bad eye below.

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Barn owl

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They had some cute diving ducks. They would disappear in a flash underwater.


Dos Picos and Elephants

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

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Stayed at Dos Picos County Park in Romona, California for two days. Fortunately, it was not damaged in the recent fires. Love the way they use bark and leaves for mulch under the oak trees and don’t try to grow grass.

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Dos Picos has a fishing pond, which had visiting ducks and coots while I was there. It is also just 20 miles from the San Diego Wild Animal Park that I wanted to visit to see the elephants. Two babies have been born since I was last there, the youngest is just a few weeks old.
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Baby Kamile. You can see some fire damage in the background.

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Kamile nursing, with Khosi and Punga next to her and Kamile’s mom, Umoya, keeping an eye on the group. Umoya allowed Khosi to nurse from her before Kamile was born, thus giving Khosi two mom’s, her real mom, Umngani, and Umoya. After Kamile was born, Khosi continued her claim on Umoya, so that Umoya has been nursing both girls. There has to be some sibling rivalry there. At times, on the elephant cam, I have seen Umoya try to avoid Khosi.

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Punga, the male calf.

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Being the first born in the recent group of births seems to have given Khosi some status. She is comfortable with both the adult and young elephants. Here, Kamile and her mom look her way.

Los Angeles Area

Monday, December 10th, 2007

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Spent close to two weeks in the Los Angeles area. First in Riverside, at Rancho Jurupa County Park, then the KOA in Pomona. At Rancho Jurupa, the two pairs of ducks that were there before are still doing well. Also, in their small fishing pond, there were some visiting white pelicans, cormorants and a blue heron.

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There is no shallow area in the pond for the blue heron to wade in. It kept watching the cormorants catch fish and wanted in the water, but it was too deep.

I stayed a few days more than I had to in Pomona waiting for mail that had been forwarded to me. Finally had to give up on it and head down to San Diego. At least I payed all my bills online, so there should not be any outstanding bills.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

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I am in the vacation mecca of Blythe, California to check out Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.

It is amazing how many white trucks similar to mine are both in the park I’m staying at and in Blythe itself. Seems like 95% of the trucks are white. I got a white truck because I was in a hurry to get a tow vehicle and just got a truck that was on display at the dealers.

Sticker shock with diesel gas prices in California. One mile across the river in Arizona at Flying J the price was $3.27; here in Blythe it was $3.79. There was a traffic jam at the Flying J station. Reminded me of gas rationing in the ’70s.

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More sandhill cranes! Cibola is doing a lot of the same things Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge is doing…planting crops for the birds and flooding fields. There is also an auto tour route at Cibola.

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Another prairie falcon (or American kestral).

Tehachapi to Needles, California

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

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From Coarsegold, my first stop was in Tehachapi, at Mountain Valley RV Park. It is connected to an airport where they give gliding lessons. Would like to come back and see some flights sometime.

On the way to Tehachapi, through the desert, there were wind warnings for “high profile vehicles”. I kept on going, as it did not seem too bad. The following day, found out two people were killed in a dust storm accident on the same route I took. Hard to know when to stop in a situation like that.

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From Tehachapi, it was back to Needles, to Moabi Regional Park. Old Route 66 goes by the park and by the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. The men fishing above are at Catfish Paradise, part of the wildlife refuge. It was so peaceful, just the sounds of some frogs and ducks. Nice to be back in summer-like weather too.

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The pictures above of the sandhill crane and American coots, were taken at the Fivemile Landing Marina at the refuge.

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The railroad goes along the top of the mini-badlands next to Moabi Park.

Jalama Beach County Park

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

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Went to a beautiful California beach this past week Jalama Beach County Park, Santa Barbara County, California. Jalama Beach is just south of Lompoc and Vandenberg AFB, I guess about half way between San Francisco and San Diego. After driving through the non-stop urban sprawl from San Diego to Santa Barbara, it was such a pleasant surprise to come upon this beach. It is 15 miles from Highway 1, through ranch land and groves of oak trees. Not a strip mall in sight. If you are familiar with San Luis Obispo or San Simeon, CA, it is the same type of landscape.

There must be good fishing in the area. The pelicans would take less than 30 seconds to lock onto and dive for a fish. There were dolphins swimming close to shore and I guess whales are also frequently seen.

Hope if any of the surrounding ranch land ever goes on sale, that the state or national park system buys it up.

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