We relocated to Bandera, northwest of San Antonio. We’ll stay at Jeff and Carol’s for a few days. They have such a nice spot for us here on their property in the Hill Country. Juniper oak forest. Bird feeders. Deer. Full hookups.
Monday morning we’ll drop the coach off at a big-rig repair facility near here. We have a slide that complains when we pull it in. Maybe they can fix it before its mood degenerates completely.
Last weekend.
There at the edge of the lake.
Two big white birds. I can’t quite make them out with my binoculars. White Pelicans? No. The heads and necks on these birds aren’t white. I need to get a little closer.
Snow geese? No. A little closer?
Wood Storks? No. What else could be that big and that color? Something else strange about these birds. They haven’t moved.
It’s a long walk there through the mud at the edge of the lake, but it has to be done.
Along the way I find Least Sandpipers
and Snowy Plovers.
I think about the name of this place while I walk. La Sal del Rey. That means “the King’s salt”. This is a Salt lake! As I walk with the prevailing winds to the other side of the lake, the one that takes all the splashes, I see that anything along the edge is salt-encrusted.
I walk all the way there. Those big white birds on the other side of the lake?
Stumps sticking out of the water. Salt encrusted wood stumps.
Mystery birds solved.
It’s a nightmare. The humidity is lower than the temperature!
You just can’t imagine.
It’s Harvest time here.
The cabbage is ready.
The corn isn’t quite as high as an elephant’s eye, but it is certainly up and growing.
We had to let her go back to her family today. In the meantime, we got visiting, walking, birding, snaking…
…a 5 foot Texas Rat Snake.
Bobcatting…
We didn’t see the bobcat, but we heard it moaning in the brush next to us. Sometimes we see bobcat tracks here.
We got to introduce Becky to friends and friends to her.
It was probably a relaxing visit for her, but we stayed up talking way too late every night, so she and we each surely need to catch up on some sleep.
Green-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler.
Curve-billed Thrasher.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck.
And a Red-tailed Hawk.
The left one looks like it might still be alive.
The jury is still out on the right one.
