Settling In

We finally have an Internet connection. There isn't any cell phone service here. Neither my Verizon nor FreedomPop (Sprint) wireless data access points get any signal, nor do our T-Mobile phones, but we got access to the volunteer WiFi network today. They try to keep the network password a secret, with only one employee able to enter the password on our computers. She has to come by and add it and not tell us what it is. We have seven devices with wifi connectivity. She couldn't make it work with either phone or my new camera. I've fixed two of the three.

We've met the other volunteers. There are six volunteer RV sites here, the others are four couples and a single woman (in another Roadtrek, a real surprise). They are all full-time RVers. We're the only part-timers who still have a home. They are either going from one volunteer position to another or volunteering in the winter and just traveling in the summer. They all seem quite pleasant and two of them also have motorcycles (cruisers, though).

Since we were the last to arrive, we have the smallest site. It isn't deep enough to keep both Speedy and the trailer on the site, so we've had to store the trailer about 50 yards away, behind the community building and research visitor housing. It is a little inconvenient, as we hoped to use it as overflow active storage. We'll see how it works out.

We had one reasonable day and then the cold came back. Ellen has started birding and I've started following her around. The ranger who was the avid birder and eBird poster left for a new position just before we arrived, so we are learning the new birds on our own, very slowly.

Saturday started at 6am, when we woke to Great Horned Owl calls. There was a pair in the tree next to our site. One was quite visible sitting at the very top. Ellen's new Monarch 7 binoculars were bright enough that we could see it clearly and in color in the pre-dawn light. We spent Saturday morning walking the Rail Trail and the Heron Flats Trail and saw lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-winged Doves. When we got out to the flats overlook, there were many of the usual wading birds, herons, egrets and spoonbills, etc.

Yesterday, it was warm and foggy in the morning and I went out for a bike ride and Ellen went for a morning walk. I rode out to the observation tower, but could see nothing but the Black Vultures sitting on the railing of the walkway up to the top. I'd get within about five feet and they'd fly p to the next landing. This continued all the way to the top, where most of them flew off except for a pair that eyed me from the far side of the platform. It was a climb for no view, as the fog was pretty thick.

There was plenty of wildlife on the road though. Lots of white-tailed deer and several packs of feral hogs. Both species ran off into the woods and fields as I rode past. The highlight of the wildlife viewing came later in the day, in the afternoon, when a bobcat wandered right through the site next to ours and along the tree line. It came back again this afternoon, obviously having little fear of the campsites. I was standing outside the van when it came by today. It looked over a couple of times but just kept on hunting, even sitting down about 20 feet away to keep watch on some animal burrow while I was working on the van.

We went into Rockport yesterday and today to pick up bits and pieces we were missing. The sewer dump at our site is at the rear of the site and the outlet on Speedy is at the front of the van. We needed a hose to bridge that gap and an elbow to attach the hose to the dump pipe. It was off to the Rockport Walmart. We also got a cell phone booster to try to get some service here. That didn't work at all. It went back today. We also did some food shopping at Walmart, something which is never satisfying.

Today, we stopped into the H-E-B in Rockport, to see what they had. We were not impressed with the one in Port Lavaca, but the Rockport store is much larger and much better stocked. It will definitely be our "local" market.

On returning from Rockport, we saw our first two Crested Caracaras along the highway. They were each hanging out with flocks of Black Vultures near the remains of roadkill. But they wasn't the best of it. When we got back to the refuge we continued out along the road to the observation tower, stopping at the fish pier on the way. At the pier we saw Lesser Scaup, Pintail Ducks, Sanderlings, Kildeer and....a Long-billed Curlew. From the observation tower we could see more ducks, Great Blue Herons, Cormorants and...our first two Whooping Cranes.

Need I say it—Bird-of-the-day: Whooping Crane.