Diario de cosmiccat

One of my dreams as a naturalist is to visit the southernmost tip of Texas, the only place in the US where you can see a lot of tropical Mexican critters. I'm finally going in October, which is when most of the tourists are gone, according to the Internet. I particularly want to see the World Birding Center. I'll be staying in Brownsville.

Possible destinations for the week:

Boca Chica Beach
Sabal Palm Sanctuary
Resaca de la Palma State Park (World Birding Center spot)
South Padre Island (another World Birding Center spot)

There's so much to do there that I can't possibly see and do everything in one week! It will be a week of beachcombing, birding, saltwater fishing, and butterfly watching. I can't wait to go!

For those of you outside of Texas, Texas Parks & Wildlife stocks lakes and community ponds with rainbow trout every winter. The fish aren't native and can't survive our summers; they are stocked purely for anglers to catch. The state stocked the Kilgore fish pond in Synergy Park last weekend, so I tried to catch one. There were lots of people there with the same idea, and I asked an old man how they were catching them. He said to either use corn or a nightcrawler.

It didn't take long to get a trout on a worm. I was so excited because it was my first trout. I wanted to stay longer and try to catch more species, but I still have this horrible lingering cough and didn't want to make it worse by staying out in the cold.

While this weekend will be cold, the next one is predicted to be warm. I'll try Martin Creek Lake to see what I can get.

I've gotten over that cough I've had for a month. Since it was warm outside, I went birding in Daingerfield State Park. Conditions for birding were tough---it was very windy. I found a lifer bird, the brown-headed nuthatch. Mondays are half-day at my job, so I'm going to try fishing the park tomorrow.

I think I this nice little park will be an area I focus on this year. I looked up the its checklist, and there are only 136 species, most of those posted by me. Hopefully, I will add fish species to its pokedex tomorrow. :-)