After The Storm...

I left home just before daybreak with overcast sky. By the time I reached the San Antonio/Houston ramps on the interstate, I was driving through a tremendous storm [blinding rain at times]. The worst thing I could do would be to pull off the road; I just kept going!! Eventually, I could see in front of the car again, but at times I had to slow down to 40 MPH and utilize my emergency lights along the stretch during the worst of it. I understand, after I returned home, that Corpus Christi was hit with a lot of rain also while Houston was under tornado-like skies and a couple touched down nearby in suburbs. Above me it was like it was midnight...dark, black and ominous. I was between Corpus and Houston.

I arrived at the park around 8 a.m. and spent the morning there, ate lunch in town, and returned to the park for one last walk around, getting home about 3 pm...

When I first got there, I was the only one. NICE!! I love the peace and quiet. I was going to enjoy my walking....wet and soggy tho it was. The winds were chilly to begin, I got my fleece hooded jacket out of the trunk, grabbed my camera and walked....

First thing I encounter was a broken tree from the daybreak's downpour..

...one outlook that extends over the river had a lot of debris.



...but the river was calm




...the spillway and Kingfisher Point, on the other hand, was a bit turbulent. Normally, this area is dry.



...the park's pond was quiet but some spill-over was swiftly running over into the cavern.

By mid-morning, more birders arrived and some of the wildlife awakened after the deluge! I spotted one male Green Kingfisher [got plenty of photos of it for my bird photography blog], the ground was literally swimming with both male and female cardinals, pewees, red-winged blackbirds [male and female], woodpeckers, chipping sparrows, lincoln's sparrows, one wilson's warbler, grackles, doves, vultures soaring, a flock of black bellied whistling ducks did a fly-over, vireos singing and kinglets flitting here and there.  Loads of Fox Squirrels and a couple of turtles....

After my trek to town and lunch, I returned for one more walk around. The pond is near the parking lot and heading back to the car, I spied this on the log in the pond...

DIAMOND BACK WATER SNAKE
[largest water snake in North America]
{non-venomous}


Yep, definitely time to LEAVE and head home!!!! I HATE SNAKES