Frog, Heron, Armadillo...Oh, Yeah...and the International Space Station

On a visit to the space program, 

President Kennedy asked me about the satellite. 

I told him that it would be more important 

than sending a man into space. 

“Why?” he asked. 

“Because,” I said, 

“this satellite will send ideas into space, 

and ideas last longer than men.”

~Newton N. Minnow

I love this park. I think that's why I write about the frogs so often. I want to share the magic that's here.

The original plan was to arrive early, miss the wild Friday evening traffic, and do some research for future daytime hikes in the park. But I continued to run into people as I completed the day's errands. And this is a season to greet and share and slow down. So I left town a little late, took my time with the traffic and arrived just in time for the pre-watch parking lot briefing and chat.

The park manager showed up with special gear (reindeer antlers and other interesting holiday head-dressing) for a festive photo. Strangely enough, I had a Santa hat in my car. The photo was perfect (it looks like I am eating the peppermint horns of the kid standing in front of me).

Then we headed off to check the water and look for frogs.

We ended up a group 11 strong.

While there are frogs that call at this time of year, our "regulars" do not. We do sometimes see one at the edge of the pond, but we weren't holding our breath. And then, there it was. HL has the knack of spying the little buggers and she came through again.

There's been little rain and the pond is a bit murky in spots.

There it was - a Blanchard's Cricket Frog balancing on a piece of water plant (likely some of the Water-willow that grows in the shallows here. See it?

When I report I include a photo with a circle or arrow, just in case.

We have finally learned to take the picture before you try and catch the frog, if the frog will cooperate. Too often we attempt a catch and miss the entire observation - one must have a photo or an audio recording or "it doesn't count." So we captured images  before this frog got away.

The resident Great Blue Heron hunted on the far side of the pond - crying when it flew to a new position. A Belted Kingfisher called and called.  and later flew and called just at full dark. No frogs called.

Low light makes for challenging photos - here the Great Blue Heron.

Crawfish - we've been finding a number of these in the shallows. They try to hide in the weeds.

Blown up so you can see it - Nine-banded Armadillo running from the crazy people.

I always love the views of groups of people looking for frogs with headlights and flashlights.

I love this photo of KM, our intrepid leader, hands cupped around her ears to gather in sound - just in case there is a frog calling somewhere nearby. No luck, though.

MF with his Bushy Bluestem. We had been talking about this grass since the scout hikes.

My friend MF (famous for the Bushy Bluestem) had shared that he had been able to place a game camera where he believed beavers had built a lodge. He took us over to the back side of the pond, along the boardwalk, across fences, past beaver evidence, and finally to THE spot. It is great to see what others are doing by way of documenting the creatures in the park (and I'll be back for daylight photos for future hikes).

Something had been gnawing this cypress tree.

It looks like the bark is missing all around and so the tree will die.

We may have to see to getting a new cypress for this spot.

This time the main trunk of this ash sapling was "removed" by the beaver.

Members of the groups checking the lodge location. I'll go back in daylight.

Then we all trudged back to the parking lot where we watched the skies for the ISS. There are always planes flying in this airspace as we are near the county airport. Finally we spotted a satellite that made a transit of Cassiopeia. Some thought it was the ISS. Others believed it too small and "not bright" enough.

Hanging out in the parking lot, waiting for the ISS.

Then we saw it. The ISS was quite large and bright. We watched as it moved quickly across the sky (just below Cassiopeia) and disappeared into the Earth's shadow.

Some of us stayed in the parking lot a little longer. We talked about children and projects for other naturalists who cannot get out into the wild easily.

With another friend TH I headed off to a restaurant to debrief (we don't see each other enough).

As I left the park a a good-sized White-tailed buck bounded across the road and leaped the fence before disappearing into the dark pecan orchard.

Yes, there's magic in this park.

My "fortune" from dinner: Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. ~ Henry Miller