2006/12/17
An Observatory at a State Park?
December 15 to December 17
While perusing the Texas State Park book we found a park that not only offered camping facilities and is rated as one of the best birding locations in north east Texas but it also has an observatory and the public is invited to the observatory on Saturday evenings. We decided to move to the park on Friday. This was fortuitous as the park has a ranger led night walk on Friday evenings. The ranger who led the walk was very knowledgeable and had some great stories. The highlight of the evening for me wasn’t the raccoon, possum or deer that we spotted but the armadillo — it was the first live one we’ve seen. The armadillo is considered a pest to the locals as it will destroy gardens and lawns looking for bugs.
Saturday evening was mostly clear ... a requirement to see stars, so we headed over to the observatory. The evening consisted of an orientation talk by one of the members of the local star club and then a chance to look through a number of telescopes. Three of the telescopes are housed in their own domes .... a 14 inch (same model as Ed’s), an 18 inch, and a 1 metre — now that’s a big telescope. In the dome housing the large telescope the floor moved to raise you up to the eyepiece — no step ladder required! Each of the telescopes were aimed at different locations in the sky so we were able to see several galaxies. Ed, of course, was trying to figure out how to sneak one of the domes out for his telescope.
During the day we hiked on several of the parks trails enjoying the diversity of the park while we looked for birds. We saw a number of different birds, including herons, egrets, coots, moor hens and a vermillion flycatcher but had a hard time identifying them — I guess it’s time to get out the bird books.
The Brazos River.
Wildlife? --- a daddy long legs in a mushroom
Common moor hen --- the brown stuff is floating on the water.
What big eyes you have...
Alligators get the right of way when crossing the path. The ranger told us that the alligators aren't hungry in the winter and some zoos don't feed them from October to March.
Bluebird
Immature little blue heron
What big teeth you have --- it was a beautiful day so we saw lots of alligators
A couple of cormorants near sunset
A vermilion fly catcher
Vultures migrate to Texas. Over a hundred vultures were roosting in this tree.
The setting sun sets off the vultures wings.
An armadillo
While perusing the Texas State Park book we found a park that not only offered camping facilities and is rated as one of the best birding locations in north east Texas but it also has an observatory and the public is invited to the observatory on Saturday evenings. We decided to move to the park on Friday. This was fortuitous as the park has a ranger led night walk on Friday evenings. The ranger who led the walk was very knowledgeable and had some great stories. The highlight of the evening for me wasn’t the raccoon, possum or deer that we spotted but the armadillo — it was the first live one we’ve seen. The armadillo is considered a pest to the locals as it will destroy gardens and lawns looking for bugs.
Saturday evening was mostly clear ... a requirement to see stars, so we headed over to the observatory. The evening consisted of an orientation talk by one of the members of the local star club and then a chance to look through a number of telescopes. Three of the telescopes are housed in their own domes .... a 14 inch (same model as Ed’s), an 18 inch, and a 1 metre — now that’s a big telescope. In the dome housing the large telescope the floor moved to raise you up to the eyepiece — no step ladder required! Each of the telescopes were aimed at different locations in the sky so we were able to see several galaxies. Ed, of course, was trying to figure out how to sneak one of the domes out for his telescope.
During the day we hiked on several of the parks trails enjoying the diversity of the park while we looked for birds. We saw a number of different birds, including herons, egrets, coots, moor hens and a vermillion flycatcher but had a hard time identifying them — I guess it’s time to get out the bird books.
The Brazos River.
Wildlife? --- a daddy long legs in a mushroom
Common moor hen --- the brown stuff is floating on the water.
What big eyes you have...
Alligators get the right of way when crossing the path. The ranger told us that the alligators aren't hungry in the winter and some zoos don't feed them from October to March.
Bluebird
Immature little blue heron
What big teeth you have --- it was a beautiful day so we saw lots of alligators
A couple of cormorants near sunset
A vermilion fly catcher
Vultures migrate to Texas. Over a hundred vultures were roosting in this tree.
The setting sun sets off the vultures wings.
An armadillo
