Road Trip Texas - Estero Llano Grande State Park - Day 5 & 6

We are definitely back on a birding trip!  I've just about reached my 'up to here' level of patience.  Just when I think that I can't walk another mile, or stand still for another 30 minutes or be patient while we 'whisper' the next bird into our sights, a new photo opportunity comes up!  One that's right up there with the interesting things I like to photograph!  A night walk at Estero Llano Grande State Park.

Husband Tom almost stepped on this 3" tarantula.  How he saw it before his foot went down is a mystery!

The volunteer hosts and park rangers lead a once a week night time walk to find  cool critters.
We saw many on our night walk.  In addition to the bugs, we also saw a ringed armadillo, a baby cotton tail, eyes of an alligator, and we heard lots of leopard frogs that sound like cats purring.The two host volunteers and leaders for the night, Tom and Connie, were great at pointing out interesting things.  And lucky for us, Tom and I were the only 'guests' on the walk!

The Tropical Orb Spider shown above - she only makes a web at night, usually across the open pathway.  When daylight comes or rain, she will eat the web and go find some leaves to hang out in until dusk or dry.

An unknown spider

The butterfly at the top is a Queen butterfly, similar to a Monarch but without the dark corners on the wings.  This particular one likes this stick, as it's been seen there for several night walks.

I can't say that I'm particularly fond of spiders and the other creepy crawly things.  I like to photograph them to really see what they look like.  I'd certainly rather my up close and personal experience was through my lens than, say, walking on my arm!

This spider became rather annoyed with my flash, yet moved all over the web allowing me to get some interesting angles and views.

In the past, I've photographed many insects.  I'm always surprised at how our perceptions of them are quite often " ohh, that butterfly or that dragon fly, is so pretty", but when viewed up close, like these spider images, they can be startling unattractive!  Sorry, no night shots of dragonflies or other butterflies to show my point!

The really cool part of the night was finding the scorpions that react quite nicely to an LED blacklight.

Scorpion on a cactus

While the color spectrum is a bit limited with the black light, I may have to see what else I can capture.  Something new, something exciting! It's almost black and white, but the teal and purple are two favorite colors! Monochrome with color!

My favorite - at eye level!

Unfortunately the issue now is to identify all these new and interesting insects.  And when I'm done with the insects from this trip, I'll have to move on to the subjects I've taken in other parts of the world.  A daunting task, and one that keeps sliding down my to do list!  Maybe I should just put the camera and away and tackle the editing,  sorting, and identifying the images already taken..... Nah, can't do it!  There are just too many interesting things to find and photograph!

We're leaving extra early in the morning to go explore South Padre Island and the surrounding areas.  It's only 60 miles from our 'home away from home' but 'we' want to be there before sunrise.  Time for  bed, stay tuned for the next adventure!