Justin and I have returned from our whirlwind 2-night each stays in Marble Falls, Texas, and Corpus Christi, Texas. Our primary focus on the Marble Falls visit was wildflower photography, and our focus on the Corpus Christi leg was bird photography, specifically shorebirds (gulls, terns, willets, etc.) and wading birds (herons and egrets).
I'll be posting trip reports for both trips within the next day or so, with accompanying photographs. The wildflowers, when you find them, are at peak now and are magnificent so enjoy them before they start to wane and disappear. The trip reports will include wildlflower viewing locations we observed, and you can find more of that at our friend Rich O's website,
WildflowerHaven.com -- a
must read resource for Texas wildflower viewing information and reports.
I posted this on Rich's site, but it bears repeating -- PLEASE, everyone, be careful when out photographing, especially roadside wildflowers. As we packed up our camera gear at the hotel in Marble Falls, readying ourselves for a wildflower scouting trip, we observed the entire Marble Falls emergency/fire/rescue contingent pass by with sirens blazing. Our path of travel happened to be in the same direction as the accident, so we waited out the traffic stoppage. Thin "rivers" of bluebonnets were visible to our left, in a large field off the highway, but the best field was up ahead -- straight in front of the accident location. Someone had stopped in the fast lane of the highway to make a left-hand turn and park across the street alongside the wildflower field. Whomever hit them either had no time to react or was not paying attention, rear-ending them at highway speed.
A rescue helicopter arrived, made a perilous landing in a VERY small field between two power lines, and prepared to airlift two critically injured parties from the scene (one of whom was still being stabilized in their mangled vehicle).
So, please, as much as we all love Spring, wildflowers and photography, NOTHING is worth your life or anyone else's. Exercise prudence, caution and responsibility. The latter note, responsibility, comes because the same location that "caused" the accident was where we observed the bluebonnets suffering from blatant trespassing over the course of our 2 night/3 day visit; day #1 the field had no trampled flowers, day #2 there were "divots" starting to form on the landowner's side of the fence, and by our last day there there were divots and connecting paths plainly visible. We didn't even take photos the third day, since such a large crowd had assembled we didn't want to contribute to the traffic tie-up of 15+ vehicles parked along a highway.... seeing that accident's immediate after-effects made us MUCH more careful than even we sometimes are.
Watch this space for a link to our Marble Falls and Corpus Christi trip reports!
Texas Wildflowers
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