A Day At Home at Gulf SP

Thursday, 25 April
Gulf State Park  — Gulf Shores, Alabama
Temps: Lo 57F / Hi 78F (14C / 25.5C)

Today consists of a few quick notes  since we didn’t do much of anything.

It was a mostly cloudy day, so we took a pass on beach time.  Instead, we stayed home, relaxed in the screen shelter, and enjoyed the birds and bunnies visiting our site.

I finally managed to get a decent photo of one of the two species of dark-colored birds that frequent the grass patch adjacent to us — turns out to be a brown-headed cowbird.  Since the mowers have come through, the number of them visiting us has increased exponentially.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website has an interesting description of how these birds raise their young:

… Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer.  These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks.

Still working on a decent photo of the other dark-colored birds that visit us.  From the sheen and spots on their feathers, I think they might be European starlings.  Hopefully I will be able to confirm that soon.

Bunnies — which I still think are eastern cottontail rabbits — are plentiful at this campground.  We see them everywhere we walk.  Obviously the bobcat that frequents the backcountry trails isn’t doing a good job of keeping the bunny population under control ;-)  What about the alligators?  Do they like rabbits?  Hmmm.

This bunny comes by to see us daily!
OK, OK … it just likes the meadow where it can munch away without worry.

When I wasn’t clicking the shutter I was using our day at home to catch up on my reading — be it blogs or other material.  The campground has a good wi-fi system that has been quite speedy so far.  They have plenty of repeaters to transmit the signal throughout the campground … despite its size.  We drove it the other day and it’s about 2 miles (3.2 km) from one end to the other.

Anytime I can do my internet browsing outside is a good time!
Mui made good use of the grill (left corner of our pad) tonight!

In addition to an 11-mile trail system outside the campground — which we plan to check out later in the week — there are several unpaved paths within the campground that go a short distance into the wetlands or to the lakes.  When the sun came out late in the afternoon, we walked the short trail to the Middle Lake Overlook.  Not only did we have the path to ourselves, but there was no one else at the small deck at the end.  Had we not had plans for grilling, we might have returned there with some sandwiches for dinner with a lake view.  Maybe another time.

A glass of chilled wine … grilled gulf shrimp for dinner — Mui made a run into Pensacola and stopped at Joe Patti’s to replenish our supply.  A great way to end a quiet day at home.

Tomorrow we have plans to explore a place that caught my eye as we were driving down from Gulfport via the alternate route we opted for.  From what I have researched since spotting the sign, it sounds like an interesting place.  That’s all I’m going to say about it for now.  Oh, OK.  I’ll give you a hint … it involves some special plants that I’ve been wanting to see for a while ;-)