Local Wildlife

There's a pond in the center of our neighborhood where we walk Max. We've been impressed by the variety of wildlife we've seen. Unfortunately I can't manage Max and the camera at the same time so I haven't gotten pictures, but every morning I see multiple white egrets (the record is eleven at one time!). There are a few turtles who usually stay in the water but occasionally venture out. The most unusual animals we've seen are a pair of roseate spoonbills. These pink birds are really striking and there's a pair of them which comes around. Last week we were out in the backyard and they came to a tree behind our house. I tried to get a picture but it wasn't great. Can you see them?


Max himself helped us discover this visitor last week...a Texas brown snake right next to the patio. We were relieved that the snake let Max sniff around and just stayed still!


This weekend we went camping at Stephen F. Austin State Park. We've been there once before and had been impressed by how much wildlife we saw, including one very persistent raccoon. Unfortunately this weekend the most abundant wildlife was mosquitos! Max dealt with this by spilling all his water to make a mud pit to roll around in. It was cool to see how his instincts kicked in!


Happily we did see lots of other non-blood sucking animals. The highlights were seeing a pair of male cardinals which flitted around the campsite all weekend, an unidentified yellow breasted bird, and most amazing of all an owl! We saw it as dusk was beginning...he must have just woken up! I wonder what we'll see the next time we go camping...