Wildlife on the Move

Well, I have been doing my video editing bit and come up with a couple of animal movies that woudl be good to record for posterity
'Nine Band Armadillo' is a short video of our sighting of armadillo.


"Raccoons" is a video about the very friendly raccon we met at Sam Houston Jones State Park, near Lake Charles, LA.

When The Wildlife Gets Friendly

Following our somewhat hectic 'Cajun Tour' we have slowed down a bit, taking more time to relax. Yesterday we went in search of a Cold Stone Ice Cream, but the shop was shut due to 'technical problems', so we settle for a Starbucks coffee and cup of Earl Grey Tea.
We are still seeing all sorts of wild life in the park. Last night we saw raccoons up close as they tried to empty our trash bin. I couldn't get a decent photo though, so we await a further visitation tonight. The park is just about empty now, although I am sure that more campers will arrive tonight and tomorrow for the weekend. I managed to take this picture of a pot bellied woodpecker

Sally went for a wander and took some good pics of a heron

and some turtles sunning themselves

Sally also took a good picture of the raccoon
.
As we are in relax mode we have had a campfire, while we sat round the fire, just watching the flames, who should come along but our friendly raccoon.

This time I managed to get some nice pics and some video.
It wandered up to us and sat around the campfire with us, then climbed a tree nearby and cleaned itself. Then came back down the tree and wandered off. Incidentally, in case you, like me, are wondering, a raccoon climbs down a tree forwards and makes it look easy.

Lake Charles

Monday we left behind a nice State Park and a new friend. This week we have spent a bit of time with Camilla. We have done a bit of exploring together, shared some lovely meals, sat round a campfire together and even had a bit of a jam (she plays a pretty good violin). This left us a bit sad.
Now travelling West we made good time and found ourselves a nice spot at Sam Houston Jones State Park, right on the Western Border of Louisiana in time for lunch. We are now poised to travel into Texas. But first we want to explore a little bit around here.
The campground is split into two areas, we are in the smaller of the two. The sites are small and often very close together, however it is a pleasant enough campground, while it is empty. The facilities are good, with the newer style en suite arangement found at Chicot North Campsite. Four private rooms, each with a shower, toilet, basin and mirror.
Anyway we are now safely encamped in a nice little spot by a (now dry) swamp.
We have already had deer, squirrel and a pileated woodpecker come within 10 yards of the trailer. Sally has taken a number of really good pictures of some of them.

Rain Dear

Wednesday, the weather took a turn for the worse this week, with showers, which dropped about 4 inches of rain in a couple of days. We have not ventured far, using the weather to enable us to build our energy reserves. However, in staying in the park we have been able to see a little more of the wild life. The deer seem to like to graze on the grass at the side of the park roads, so we are always seeing startled deer as we drive round the park.

Deep in the woods

Thursday - With Sally slowly improving, but not well enough to go out, we have been looking in more detail at the wild life around us.
So far it seems that there are a lot of amardillos, like this one.
I saw a small group of Cotton Tail deer from the car.
We had a visit from a couple of raccoons last night, they were busy investigating some petrol cans I had left out at the front of the trailer, we could hear them moving around in the dark.
Yesterday while we were having coffee our on our patio we were fortunate enough to see a Pileated Woodpecker close up. This is the largest woodpecker, apart from the very rare Ivory Billed Woodpecker, which is now only found in one part of Sout East Florida. It is also the one which modeled for the famous (amongst oldies) Woody Woodpecker. It has a very loud drum which really does sound like a pneumatic drill. It is between 12" and 15" long.