I was awake at 5:30 to a partly
cloudy 73º morning. I worked on the Blog
for a while, and went down to eat breakfast, but there was a pretty large group
of folks eating, so I just microwaved a couple ‘omelets’ and brought them up to
eat in my room with a container of yogurt.
I finally got out of the motel at 11 a.m., and drove out to the Apple Lake Birding Trail at the Sheffield Nelson Dagmar Wildlife Management Area.
The day’s heat
was fully on, so there was little bird activity. I had expected a walking path, but this trail
is a water trail, providing access for hunters and birders into Apple Lake,
part of the Bayou DeView drainage of the Cache River watershed.
The water was a
bit high and muddy, which would have made for a fun kayak trip, if I’d only had
a kayak.
I might have
picked up a few more species, had I walked out on the past the boat launch trail,
but it was pretty rank & overgrown, so I chose discretion as regards
potential ticks and/or copperheads or cottonmouths.
As it was, a
large snake surprised me right near the road.
I think this is “just” a plain-bellied watersnake (Nerodia
erythrogaster) |
| Rank vegetation - might have ticks? |
 |
| If you know, please let me know what this species is . . . |
At least the
millipedes move more slowly . . .
I lingered there
for about an hour, and ate a quick snack. Then, I basically
just drove west on Interstate 40 and 30 until I took the Highway 82 cutoff in
Texas and pulled into Sherman, having left phone messages with my sister-in-law
Eli and with nephew Abe. I presume that
Abe is in Chicago, so didn’t really expect a reply. I honestly don’t know where Eli might
be. I haven’t heard from her since my
brother Paul passed away a year ago. In
any event, I checked into the Super 8 in town, and not hearing from anyone,
went downtown to supper at the Old Iron Post restaurant. Service was slow and para-professional (which
I let the manager know about, as a 'learning' experience for the young man), but the food was pretty good.
 |
| The Apple Lake parking lot was somewhat unusable |
Apple Lake eBird Checklist is Here
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