Winter Diversion

When you trust the National Weather Service to forecast accurately, you sometimes sit out a cold sunny Saturday and ride on a cold gray Sunday. This particular cold gray Sunday, the ladies and I ended up at a small nature park on the outskirts of Rockport, TX that is one of many bird watching hot spots in our
part of the world.

The area was soggy and the trail through it was partly submerged. Abundant standing water means the birds aren’t flying around looking for it so bird watching gets pretty slow. Mid-forties for temperatures probably wasn't stimulating them none, either.

Easing through the brush, following bird noises is part of the adventure, though, so ease we did. Jill got excited over some tiny bird I had never heard of and, in fact, have still never seen. Looking like a couple of misplaced urban guerrillas, she and Jo went stealthing among the brambles till they spotted the thing.

Jo found and collected the shell of a Lightening Whelk. The park's hand crafted birth bath was a handy place to clean the sand out of it.

Birds watched, shell collected, participants thoroughly chilled, we decided lunch was entirely called for. We rode back into Aransas Pass and dined at Taqueria Guadalajara before wending our way back to the warmth of our respective hearths. A cool time was had by all.