The 77-acre park offers picnic facilities, swimming (in good weather, of course), fishing, biking, and a nature trail. The Nueces River runs through the park and there are also wetland ponds and woodlands that attract water-loving birds.
The primary attraction, though, is that it is a prime migratory spot for hawks from August to October. Hundreds of thousands of Broad-winged Hawks, Swainson's Hawk, Mississippi Kites, and other raptors pass along the Nueces River in the park.
In 2014, almost 450,500 raptors were sighted here!
The Hawk Watch Pavilion and view from it towards the wetlands.
Sadie is keeping an eye for hawks, but we only saw one (since it is not the time of year for migration).
We ate our picnic lunch along the Nueces River. It is so muddy because we had just had 2" of rain the day before.
Sadie is asking her dad whether she can go swimming. The answer was, NO!
Along the nature trail we came across this javalina herd. They are usually most active at night, but the cold weather and lush vegetation from the rain must have brought them out in the late afternoon.
Some think they are wild pigs, but they are part of the peccary family and are hoofed mammals originating from South America. They can be very aggressive but these guys did not seem very interested in us.
Visiting this location during the annual hawk migration (August through October) would be awesome. It was awesome to see the javelina herd...we have been many places where they live, but had only seen them once before outside of a zoo.
Website: www.visitcorpuschristitx.org/hazel_bazemore_park.cfm
good catch on the javalinas...
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, we were so surprised when we saw them. They seem so strange to us (being from the east coast).
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