Creatures of the Night

Another trip to Bentsen State Park--this time to view wildlife by night. Our tour leader, Josh, is a specialist in dragonflies, but very few of those are active at night. He was also a wealth of information about other night sights at the park, including the elusive Pauraque, a bird that looks for all the world like a heap of leaves--very well camouflaged.


Josh was scanning the area with a spotlight mounted on the top of the van, and the main indication that a pauraque was sitting along the roadside was the yellow eyeshine.

We saw lots of javelinas (as usual), mainly foraging under the bird feeders. We also saw a couple of raccoons, doing the same. One of them was perched on a hanging bird feeder, and when the spotlight surprised it, it scurried along the wire.

It was quite cold tonight, so few insects were active, but we did see a wasp nest. We sat quietly by the resaca and heard a leopard frog and a sheep frog, along with lots of crickets.

Earlier today Ken picked up his glasses with the new lenses he had ordered. We also dropped off our malfunctioning DirecTV receiver at a Fedex drop site, filled up on cheap diesel, stopped by the bank, and did some grocery shopping. This morning we did our laundry. Altogether a productive day, and we had fun dancing to Jerry Story this afternoon too.