§ Country Roads...Take Me Home

A day trippin' road trip was in store for me the other day. I decided to take a drive along the desolate county roads again to get out of the house and still be 'quarantined' inside the car all the time. I had in mind maybe seeing some hawks or the like, but to my surprise, I sighted two very elusive bird species I haven't seen in decades. Or at least so it seems. Yes, it has been a long time since I saw either. And they were both spotted within 10 minutes of each other, and on the same gravel road. I was excited to see them, and even MORE excited to get some good photos of them...they are both very skittish and swift to disappear from sight. Most times, even before anyone has a chance to get the camera's viewfinder up to start focusing in on them. I will have photos of both birds [and others] shared this week on my bird photo blog...I'd Rather B Birdin'. Just click on the link above the photo at the top of Hootin' Anni's.

In the meantime, this is part of what else I saw while driving in my captivity-mobile...

Some roads are lined with cotton fields on both sides, while other roads, on one side it's sorghum and the opposite side is cotton. During Spring when fields are freshly plowed and on the verge of growing planted crops, the birds seen are more raptors, as the crops mature, the wildlife [and birds] change drastically to seed eaters, etc. Deer can be seen during the year in some remote areas, while in other areas, coyotes, javelinas and small critters like skunks and raccoons are found. Burrowing owls can be found if lucky, in the barrow ditches near the openings of the culverts, while other owls are seen in silos and quonset huts used to store grains [or when opened, storing farming equipment] because of the rodent population. It just depends.  But, no matter what time of year, it's always a goodly chance of seeing something.  It's quiet, hardly any traffic on the back roads, and the pristine atmosphere and changes in store are always a good way of getting away while still remaining safe from the virus.  Heck, even BEFORE the virus hit.

Other areas, there are newly developed subdivisions, and large, vast ranch houses where cattle are raised [and some horse farms]. Turf farms.  Yet on other roads, the oil wells and pumps prevail. Along the main highway #70 that takes you to interstate 69 to go either to Houston or Brownsville, Texas there are many wind generator farms and cotton gins, a diverse area of south Texas....

...then, there is a chance of wildlife in the quiet, unpopulated areas!

left:  White Tailed Deer far off the road -
right:  a roadrunner on the post seen in my rear view mirror.

§ A Sepia Rainbow...

'Tis early morning, and I type this out to share with you. It's a bit eclectic; something I choose to do oftentimes when I need to get things off my thought-wave and onto paper so to speak. I'll start with a bit of humor. Some of you may have seen this before but it's worth repeating...

....something I should consider doing!!
[image not mine; unknown source]

Sunday morning, on my drive home after my walk in the park, I pulled over, off the road, and walked into the field to get photos. Looks to me, with all the crops around town and outside the limits, that it's gonna be a bumper crop this year [both the cotton and sorghum]!!! Now, question is, will the economy of our country do the farmers any good with selling this to the right bidder? Anyway, the cotton fields are lush, thick, and green. The blossoms so far are heavy and ripe...

The other day when I posted my share of pencil sketches, most of you mentioned in the comments that the one of Clint by the mirror, brushing his hair, was your favorite [as is mine]. Well, skimming through my photo folders, I came upon the copy of the original that Irene sent me so I could sketch it at the time. Here is the color photo [an aged, very faded copy]. I thought y'all might like seeing what I used to achieve the sketch.  When I take time to stop and view either the photo or my drawing, I feel the bittersweet tears of memories of those scary days when we nearly lost him...

...and then, today I leave you with the thought that has been running thru my mind these past weeks of global turmoil.  First, the statues being torn down and demolished....they are our heritage and history, people, you can't erase history!  Second, the Churchill statue in London, being defaced with graffiti...the word "Racist".  I'm sad because of this, the unrest...if only the younger generation would realize if it weren't for Winston Churchill, England would be a fascist country today, if not for his strength and determination to beat Hitler!  Lost lives, true, but for freedom...the price tho heavy, was necessary.  Oh, and all the websites removing anything relating to Gone With the Wind...it's fiction dear friends!!  I can't help but ask myself  "What is wrong with people?"  One online friend, as we discussed this about Churchill, Phil [England] reminded me that "Anni, the difference is, you and I have lived through the University of Life, but the young ones have yet a lot to learn".  Indeed.  Now, my vision of a rainbow and racial colors of the todays and those of the tomorrows...

Take a Rainbow
by
Anni
© June 2020


[image courtesy of Google Images made sepia by my software program]

Take a rainbow
Make it sepia tone...
The colors blend
None standing alone!
The browns, whites, yellows and other hues
meld into a simple beauty of mix...
The rainbow still lives on, arching to the sky.
You can see the glory of it all if you so choose.  
It reaches across the land for people passing by.
Colors we cannot change, nor want to fix.
Take the rainbow and...
And see the sepia tone...
Colors that blend
Together, none standing alone!!!

original poem by me
do not copy or steal

§ A walk in the Park...Stormy Weather

It was a morning, more or less, of keeping an eye on the sky! Tho the weather pattern promised a sultry day, the chance of rain was there. So, from the time I left home, and while walking the park road, I kept vigil on the cloud cover and listening to distant thunder and watching flashes of lightning to the west, toward Kingsville, Texas. I’ve been in downpours where along the highway I can’t see in front of the car…I didn’t particularly want to be caught outdoors in a situation like that. This post is mostly looking up….

From the morning sunrise in our subdivision just as I was leaving…

…to partly cloudy…





…and a front line of storm on the horizon…

…stopping on the way home at Tule Lake to see if I could find the Wood Stork reported in the vicinity, searched for it…one took off from behind the bushes and landed where I couldn’t see it with the camera lens. I waited, but it never did come out in the open, before I reluctantly thought I’d better leave and get home before the torrents of water fell from above. Tule Lake is behind the interstate highway, between all the oil refineries. Thunder, Lightning and dark, ominous clouds threatened a storm - this photo is looking northeast toward the Victoria, Texas area, the area of Kingsville, to the west of Corpus was hit with torrential rain on that day….

Oh, and while at the park, walking, I did look down at some point. Seeing these:

...just before turning off the access road into the city limits, I pulled over and snapped these photos from the car. Cotton, once again, is now being harvested here in south Texas...

§ Lost...

So...early on a mild morning this week, I found myself driving just before sunrise, to see if I could find two birds for the week. One, I've seen before, but never got a decent photo of it for my photo framed walls. The other, a rare bird, one of which I've never seen before, that was sighted in a small community between the interstate 69 Corridor and Portland, Texas. [this photo is of some of the oil refineries along the outskirts of the city...just before the sun came up.]

After trying to find the 'one that got away' without a good photo, and not finding it...I left that area and headed to my other planned destination...When i got to the highway sign that said "Bayside" I veered to exit, and crossed the railroad tracks, to come up on a street sign that shows me Highway 136...but the sign also showed me a two-way arrow!!! 🡸136🡺 Hmmmm, I guessed I could go either way and get heading in the right direction!! I turned right. Driving through the "Hub" of Woodsboro, Texas. Nuttin' there but worn down business establishments. I really wanted to "get out of Dodge" and onto the farmland where the 2nd rare bird was last reported seen. It's about 20 miles between Woodsboro and Portland...with Bayside in between.

Driving for what seemed an eternity, I finally spotted another highway sign that told me I was on FM1360!!! I knew I was headed in the right direction 'cause the car's navigation system showed "South". But, 1360...a FM [farm to market]?!! "Must be a highway 'spur' that'll eventually get me ON State Highway 136". Or, was I lost?!! This accompanying photo is about the time I said "I feel lost and all alone...who will rescue me?"  Eventually, after seeing near the entire route nothing but farmland and plowed cotton fields, I came to an end...finally the highway heading into Portland and then, over the causeway to Corpus Christi, and home. I did see cotton...lots of cotton. It looked like snow!!



...Altho I didn't find the rare bird in any of the plowed fields as reported, I DID FIND a gaggle of Snow Geese...another species I've been hoping to find...chasing reports of them also ... for over six years' time frame. And in the 'flock' of geese, there were some rare dark morphs...a slate blue-gray species. I got pictures for my bird photo blog.



So, all in all, the day wasn't a total loss.

§ Fuego!!!

~ A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

~ There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.





...okay, movin' on...

While driving down Interstate 69E at mid-morning one day recently, I saw several semi-trailer flatbed trucks transporting the large round 'modules' of cotton [think cotton bales only much larger and round instead of square] to the nearby gin. I realized that the 2nd harvest of cotton was taking place. I veered off the highway onto a county road that was like a picture of snow covered fields in winter! Yep, cotton fields!

You may notice the numbers stamped on the modules? I  believe [not sure] those are specific numbers that show [in short without going into detail here] the gin number...where to haul it, etc. It's a long story, but if you're interested, I'm sure there is a website that explains the 'bale' numbering codes in your own area. Around this area, there are two colors I've noticed, yellow and pink...maybe that has something to do with gins also.  Maybe it means nothing; I am definitely playing a guessing game here.

- - -

Several times throughout my blogging years, I've shared a favorite wildlife refuge in town that has a trail going through the heavily wooded area. There are some photos of the beauty seen along the trail in the link I just added. Well, sadly, this past week, a section of this park [some of the dense wooded trail-way] caught fire and burned to the ground. Now it's nothing but scorched tree carcasses and ash...






...on the 'bright' side, I saw a papa bird and his offspring in the charred area!  The little one was singing its heart out....."Love me tinder, love me true...."




~ After returning home from my walk around the park, Bud and I had a heated discussion about brush fires!!

~ I mentioned that starting fires is one thing arson never did!!


By the way, if you don't know Spanish, my title "Fuego" means Fire!

§ Chapman Ranch Hawk Hunt...

Bud and I went hawk hunting the other day....driving the back roads in the area known as Chapman's Ranch, then, we decided to cross the causeway bridge and drive into Padre Island National Seashore [a federal, national, park].

CHAPMAN RANCH

Chapman Ranch, at one time, was a small community, now incorporated into the Corpus Christi City Limits. Chapman Ranch is on Farm Road 70  in southeastern Nueces County. It  is so named for a family that purchased 34,000 acres of the King Ranch [King Ranch has 825,000 acres] in 1919.  Today the shell of the town, Chapman's Ranch, no longer exists, but a few abandoned buildings remain.  Oil wells, cotton farms, small farm homes - large ranch houses, and a few cattle dot the landscape. On this particular day, the cotton fields were partially harvested and seen were the yellow cotton bales scattered here and there.   A couple of operating cotton gins are seen driving from the intersection of County Road 70 to Interstate 69/State Hwy 77.  Many many farm to market roads and county roads can be driven on...and yes,  on any given day during the entire year, there are other birders out  there with their scopes and binoculars....hunting for hawks and falcons [among other bird species].

The birds we sighted were, White Tailed Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, Starlings, Doves, Sparrows, Crested Cara Caras, Sea Gulls, Purple Martins, Grackles, To show you some in photos...


White Tailed Hawk - Swainson's Hawk in Flight - Purple Martin

Read More on the History of the Chapman Ranch/King Ranch Secrets [Texas Monthly Online]
Elevation of the ranch area is shown to be 26 feet above sea level....Corpus Christi is about 7 feet elevation...while, of course, the park [PINS] is sea level!!!

This 'leg'  [the ranch area] of the hawk hunt was about a 50 mile round trip.  Once back into the city we headed south and eventually paying the fee to enter through the gates of Padre Island National Seashore National Park.  Here, we saw only ONE hawk both coming and going, but we pulled off onto the beach at the end of the road [as far as a two wheeled drive vehicle can go], and enjoyed a bit of the surf.  After an hour or so there, walking along the shore, we left and pulled off toward Laguna Madre before leaving the park boundaries.  This trip added about 50-60 more miles on the odometer....I'll share some more photos in my upcoming post!!