2007/02/24
Star Party
There was a bird walk scheduled this morning at the park. Even though it was very windy — you had to hang for dear life when you opened the trailer door — we decided to walk over and see what was happening. The birds were all hiding, trying to stay out of the wind — the freshly filled feeders had very few takers — so the bird walk was changed to a bird talk. The volunteer at the park is very knowledgeable about birds so we learned a lot of interesting things. When the talk was breaking up we found out that the other park volunteer in the room is from Port Elgin (retired there from Toronto) and another attendee is from Burlington — it’s a very small world.
The winds died down a bit by mid afternoon so we hiked one of the trails in the park. The trail led us up to the top of one of the mountains where we had good views of the surrounding area and led us along several ridges till we descended near Indian Lodge. Built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Indian Lodge is a pueblo style hotel and restaurant that is part of the state park.
After supper, Ed and I headed up to the McDonald Observatory to attend a “Star Party”. We were able to look through a number of different telescopes and see a variety of “space objects” — the moon, Saturn, a pair of stars, a nebula, etc.
Female Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Cedar Waxwings
Lesser Goldfinch
Ed and Zaph on top of the world.
Looking down on Indian Lodge.
Some of the interesting rock formations around here.
The dead flower stock of the "century plant", an agave
The winds died down a bit by mid afternoon so we hiked one of the trails in the park. The trail led us up to the top of one of the mountains where we had good views of the surrounding area and led us along several ridges till we descended near Indian Lodge. Built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Indian Lodge is a pueblo style hotel and restaurant that is part of the state park.
After supper, Ed and I headed up to the McDonald Observatory to attend a “Star Party”. We were able to look through a number of different telescopes and see a variety of “space objects” — the moon, Saturn, a pair of stars, a nebula, etc.
Female Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Cedar Waxwings
Lesser Goldfinch
Ed and Zaph on top of the world.
Looking down on Indian Lodge.
Some of the interesting rock formations around here.
The dead flower stock of the "century plant", an agave
