Wandering the Soggy, Boggy Campground

Patches and I have had to tip toe around the grounds and roadways of the campground ever since we arrived Monday due to all the rain this area has had recently. It means we don't get too far off the edges of the roadway but I have managed to grab a few photos here and there.

The Beast is nestled in a patch of live oaks. So far it's been too cold to sit outside and enjoy our camp site.

As the cat and I wandered up the road I saw what appeared to be a brace of ducks hanging from a tree and I thought the hunter had gone WAY over his limit. Then as we got closer, I realized these were groups of duck decoys. Duh.

A sparkle caught my eye in the early morning light and I discovered a square dew covered spider's web on top of the weedy grass.
Picking our way across the soggy grounds Patches and I looked for roseate spoonbills which have been known to stop here to feed. There are two nice sized ponds on the property and the campers avoid feeding the ducks and geese so they don't become a nuisance when you walk the periphery of the pond.


So far all I've seen on the pond are coots (the black ducks with white bills) and canvas back ducks (gray with a brown head.)
There are turtles that were sunning themselves on the bank of the pond until we walked by, then they moved to the water where they peeked out at us.
The heron wasn't too disturbed by us, although he kept a wary eye out in case we wandered too close.
Later in the day I dragged Denny out for a walk where we discovered these black bellied whistling ducks standing on the dock all facing in one direction. We have no idea what they were watching because there was nothing in the direction they were facing.
Here's their perch. If you click on the photo (which you can do to enlarge any of them at any time) you can read the warning sign about the alligator. When we were last here five years ago, the alligator was a huge one and management had hired a professional alligator remover to catch the big guy and move him out. It didn't happen. I guess there's a reason big alligators get to grow so big--they are wily.
There are a lot of strange and unfamiliar bird calls that I hear coming from the thickets near us so I'm looking forward to seeing some new birds before we leave here. Southern and coastal Texas is known to be a good migratory path for birds so I'm hoping to get lucky with some nice photos before we get out of the state.