Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Choke Canyon State Park, Texas

Before leaving Goose Island, we went on a shore bird walk - at least for me until I was killing three mosquitoes with one swat in the marsh area. Another unique feature, as we were packing up for the road, a ranger stopped by around 9 and asked if we wanted to extend another day. We already had reservations at Choke so declined. When we left at 11 there was another RV waiting for our space. Seems like really efficient operations.

Choke Canyon maybe used to be a canyon, but now it is a reservoir. There are two state parks here - both are named Choke Canyon but only the Callihan Unit has camping. Camping should be a little simpler, but since Ms. Garmina knew what we wanted all is fine. She even managed to direct us to a fine H E B store at about the mid point -- so the pantry is stocked again -- everything except the boxed wine which was out of stock.


We are about 30 miles south of San Antonio. Half of the trip from Goose was over very flat farm land. The second half was hill country cattle land. The feeling is isolated, but there is plenty of TV and adequate cell coverage. Once again, there is plenty of space for each RV and the park seems just about full at mid-week. The restrooms are a little dated, but entirely adequate.

We walked over to the Bird Sanctuary and waited quietly for a flock of about six cardinal pairs and other stunning birds to come in and get a bite to eat. The green-yellow-blue specimen is a Green Jay visiting from Mexico or South America. The little red fellow with the dark wings and eye socket is probably a Vermillion Flycatcher. We also roamed over to the reservoir and spotted a few more bird photo ops. Shot all these with the Nikon D90.

1 comment:

Teri & Mark said...

Those green jay shots you got were fantastic. Up here, just south of San Antonio I haven't ever seen one in the wild. I run a family owned RV Park here and there are lots of birding opportunities. A painted bunting, my favorite bird to date, came right up to our yard and stayed for numerous photos. Enjoy your travels!