Today we had to head out a few hours hours from home to help one of John’s elderly relatives. On the way home, we made a stop at Bastrop State Park, a park in a beautiful area of Texas known as the Lost Pines. This pocket of pines, far separated from the pine forests found in East Texas, were a magical place where, through the years, we’ve camped and stayed in historic cabins built by the CCC, hikes, and John has fished.
Sadly, though, on Labor Day weekend in 2011, this area was the victim of the most destructive fire in Texas history, one brought about by continued drought. The devastation stretches for many miles and includes much of the state park itself.
This was our first visit to the park since the fire. Although some areas were saved, like the cabin above, the forest is still filled with many burned trees waiting to be cut…
…and the memory of the fire is everywhere…
But life returns to the park. Thousands of seedlings have been planted which will hopefully grow into yet another pine forest to shade future generations.
Smaller signs of life fill the park even today, though. As we were leaving, we saw one roadrunner chasing another…
Once we returned home and looked at the photos, we could see the second roadrunner was carrying a lizard in his beak as he chased the other roadrunner. I don’t know much about roadrunner behavior (other than the fact that you rarely see two together), so I looked on the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology site which explained:
Food is an important component of the mating ritual. The male will tempt the female with a morsel such as a lizard or snake dangling from its beak.
It’s definitely spring!
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