Continuing on from day one, I grabbed lunch and continued on to Dangierfield State Park near Dangierfield Texas. On my way there, I noticed that the clouds were beginning to get darker, and as I entered the park, sure enough, the rain began to pepper my vehicle.
Driving up to the lake area, I saw all the families running for cover from the beach as the rain came in. Driving around there was not much for me to see. Even the birds seem to have taken cover. But as I was driving around the parking lot, I noticed a small bird perched on a rock, shaking the water from its feathers. It sat there quite a while while I pulled up close enough to roll down my window and grab some photos from my vehicle. From what I can tell, this is a very wet eastern kingbird. The red dot on its head is usually hidden so this is a rare sight indeed!
Also fighting the rain was this Carolina wren (my best guess). I found that identifying birds when they are wet creates a whole new challenge, especially when they are not birds that I see every day.
In any event, even with the rain, it was a good day and I got to see several birds that I have never seen before, and even got to photograph a few of them. I also got to see a beautiful sunrise over the Caddo bayou, and while I saw no alligators, it was still a very cool experience.
Day two began with the more mundane but needed task of getting my vehicle serviced at the dealer. Take care of the vehicle and it will take care of you. While waiting on my car I looked to see what state park was the closest and found the Mission Tejas State Park near Grapeland Texas. This is the location of the first mission in the land now known as Texas, dating all the way back to 1690. It sounded interesting, so I take off.
On the way to the park, I came across yet another interesting site. The Caddo Mounds state Historical Site. This was the site of a Caddo (Hasinai) Indian village dating back about 1200 years. While hard to see in this photo, there is a larger mound on the right which was a burial mound and a smaller flat top mound on the left which, it is thought, was some sort of civic mound where ceremonies may have taken place. Across the street (not pictured) is a third mound which is thought to have been their religious temple mound. While digs have been conducted on all three and the surrounding area, a lot of artifacts have been uncovered. Now the mounds are restored and there is a museum located on the site with a plenty of information about what was once there.
Also on this site is a portion of the El Camino Real trail which was a major trade route at that time. Stretching from Mexico City to Natchitoches, LA, the route was over 1,100 miles long. There is only a small portion of the trail here that is available to hike, but, as with the mounds, there is plenty of information here on the historicity of the site to peak the interest of any history buff.
While walking around the trail I noticed this old barn back in the woods. I asked the caretaker about the history of the barn and his first question was, “Why, did it finally fall down?” He then proceeded to tell me that this barn actually only dates back to the previous land owners before it was sold to the state and dates back only to about the 1920s. Still, for anyone who loves old barns, it is a sight to see.
Coming back out of the trail you walk right past the ancient burial mound. Apparently, as time went on, they would create graves on top of other graves thus resulting in this mound. If you are interested in the whole story I would recommend going and taking a few hours to go through the museum and listening to the caretakers explain about the culture of the people who once inhabited this land. And by the way, the descendants of these people still exist and live in Binger OK where they have their tribal headquarters.
Leaving the mounds I continued on a few miles to the Mission Tejas State Park. Looking forward to seeing an old Spanish mission, I was a little disappointed to find that the original mission is no longer standing, but rather a log chapel which was built by the CCC back in the 1930s. Once again, a little research prior to heading to the site would have told me this information. Still, an interesting piece of history, and a very nice, clean, and peaceful park, at least the day I was there.
For those that complain about the color of carpet or the comfort of their pews in their church, a quick look inside shows that worship of God has nothing to do with our comfort. The log pews and rock floor would do little to draw attention away from the Almighty.
As I love looking for birds the ranger told me that they were working on a bird blind on one of the trails. I happily took off down the trail (hilly) in search of said bird blind. What I found was indeed what looked like the beginnings of a bird blind. There was a fence wall with holes to look through, and on the other side was a collection of bird houses and feeders, however they were all empty, save the nest of wasps in one of the feeders. Since this bird blind is a work in progress I won’t post any photos, but I do hope that they continue getting it set up for future visits. Disappointed, I headed back toward my car, hot and sweaty.
Then, as I arrived at my car and began loading my cameras I noticed two birds fly into the trees across the road. I could have sworn I saw flashes of red and white, and then I began to get excited. Grabbing my 100-400 telephoto lens I zoomed in and sure enough, two red-headed woodpeckers! This is a bird I have very few photos of, and exactly zero of those are of any quality. I quickly fired off several shots hoping to get something, anything, before they flew away. Of course they were separated so I was unable to get them both in one shot.
As they remained, I slowly began walking toward them to be closer and cleaner shots. I was able to get several, such as the one below, before they finally flew back into the woods. I’m sure I had a grin that went from ear to ear at this point. Surely the highlight to this day!
After the red headed woodpeckers, not much else could top this, but it was still too early to call it a day, so on my way home I decided to swing by lake Tyler to see what might be happening. As one might expect on a hot summer day, not much other than people putting their boats in the water and taking their boats out of the water. There were however a group of swallows (I’m not sure of the exact species) that were flitting around the boat dock so I decided to practice my bird-in-flight techniques and was able to come up with this photo of the swallow with its wings outstretched.
That brought an end to day two of my east Texas adventure. With still two days to go, I had already seen quite a bit. Check back later to find out what happened on days three and four!
Michael
