"Beware of Flying Golf Balls!"

Once you park your car in any of the several areas, warning signs, such as my blog title suggests, are posted. The park is adjacent to a membership-only golf course!! Invariably you can find some of the players' golf balls along the walk, in the grass. I've often wondered how many car windshields have been broken from errant balls after teeing off!! But while looking for those, you may spot some wildflowers like these:

Where Bud and I walked a few days ago, the area was literally Red and Gray!! With a few other colors mixed here and there. But....it seemed that everywhere we looked swarms of crimson!! The bird calls were a constant similarity. Literally 100s of Northern Cardinals. The ground, the tree branches, and the sky were dotted with red and gray [male...red, female...gray] A few green jays, mockingbirds, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, doves, two woodpeckers, sparrows, and once reaching the ponds, ducks, herons, and egrets mostly. I'll not show any photos of the massive invasion of cardinals. Tho I have many for my birding photo blog.  I will, however, share this cute one. It's of a Lincoln's Sparrow, watching me watch him!!

This park is just on the outskirts of Calallen, Texas. About 25 miles from home. The area is on a small bluff. It's where the annual Fall Migration of hawks and kites [bird species, not the hobbyist kite flying kites] take place...called Hazel Bazemore Park After watching the open areas near the golf course, I traipsed off the winding road into the dense trees to hike the dirt trail along the side of the bluff looking out across the larger of the two ponds. A few observation decks jut out off the path toward the water for watching the waterfowl. This area is a birders' paradise. Down the hill, along the winding park road you follow the Nueces River. Along the way, picnic tables and BBQ pits, a boat ramp, and eventually a circular off road that has another birding platform. The road then is uphill to the park's entrance gate or back out to the highway to head back to Corpus Christi [or Kingsville, Texas or San Antonio].

Some of the views along the side of the bluff...

Once done here, we walked along the road, past the small lakes, seeing egrets, ducks and herons. Two Blue Winged Teal figured we were getting too close, and off they flew to the other side, for safety.

Leaving the bluff behind us, the terrain changes from a heavily wooded area to a flat prairie grass landscape until the road curves to the south and follows the river bank. It's a haven for deer too. We've often seen white tailed deer in this part of the park. Anyway, when the road gently turns along the riverside, the parks and rec department has been building a new birding area/boardwalk. It looked finished, so Bud and I explored it. I will share this segment of photos in a day or two showing you the new area for us birders/walkers. In late Spring of 2015 this area was under water...due to flooding from heavy rainfall accumulation!!  [photo link of flooded area]



 To be continued...