Family Adventures: Camping at Cooper Lake State Park

In addition to the usual camping activities, hiking, kayaking, BBQ, Camp fire, stargazing, we added two new focused activities this time - fishing and bird watching. We had two new members to our camping group, Sophie and Daniel. Daniel is a seasoned angler, and a few of us in the group were eager to learn from him. On the other hand I usually have some bird watching on any camping trip, I emphasized bird watching because the park claims a long list of birds on its territory.

Camping, Fishing, and Camp Fire

We were surprised that the new members had no prior experience with camping. So they were lent a tent, an air mattress with pump. They bought sleeping bags for themselves. They love outdoor, enjoy hiking, and like fishing. A very important trait they have is that they have no problem sleeping outdoor. They are an excellent addition to the group.

While we were hiking on Lonesome Dove trail, the rest of the group went fishing. Daniel caught a big bass, and we got a new item on our dinner BBQ menu - roasted fish!

We started camp fire when it's getting dark. We sat around the fire ring, putting firewood one piece after another, chatting randomly from topic to topic, and looking up to the half-moon lit night sky. Milky way was not obvious, but plenty of stars in the sky. The fire flames have some mythical power, we sat around the fire until the last piece of firewood was turned into charcoal.

Kayaking

After our kayaking at Lake Texoma, we attracted two families of the group into buying a kayak and a small motor boat. Kayaking has been a major activity of our camping group. This time we kayaked at the west side of the park along its shoreline. The main reason was that a wild life management area is right next to the park from west. Unfortunately we started kayaking too early, 3:30 pm or so, we saw no water fowl while paddling along the shoreline within the park boundary. Once we got into the wild life management area, we spotted some water fowls. The handful of birds that flew back and forth ahead of our kayak were double crested cormorants. Three white birds, pelicans I believed, flew over. We spotted a big heron as well.

Pelicans

A Heron

double crested cormorant

We paddled all the way to the line of dead trees in the lake that run across the lake at that location. We paddled more than 4 miles for the afternoon. An interesting episode of the kayaking happened at the end of the kayaking trip. We paddled back to the cove we launched our kayak, but we could not see the big boat ramp. We checked and double checked the map, we were in the right cove, but the boat ramp was nowhere to be seen. We cross checked our memory. We were in the right place, so we paddled forward along the yellow path, and then we saw the boat ramp. The large turn of the shoreline blocked the boat ramp from our view. Something so obvious from the sky is not obvious at all when we are on the water.

Bird Watching

When we retuned to the camping site, it was past 6pm already. Birds were flying and chirping all around the camping sites. Cardinals stood out, especially the male cardinals, with its bright red plumage and sweet whistles.

I saw two cardinals, one male, one female on a tree. The male made bird calls, loud and clear, and perched closer to the female after a round of calls. The female seemed to be indifferent, when the male got too close, it just moved to another branch, trying to keep some distance, but did not fly away. After a few rounds of calling, the male gave up and flew to another tree.

When I was ready to leave the scene, another male cardinal flew in, the first cardinal returned almost instantly, drove away the 3rd party!

There were many other birds, mostly smaller, and blended into the surroundings well. I could hear their chirping but hardly could have a good sighting.

a female cardinal

a male cardinal

The courting cardinals

The next morning, I got up early, the first in the group, around 6:30am. I took my camera, and walked around this camping area, following bird calls from tree to tree.

Again the most visible birds were cardinal, from their sights and their sound. The second easy to identify birds were woodpeckers by the sound of their pecking. But sighting is much harder though. This morning I also witnessed another courting between a different type of birds, right behind our tent. Three birds with dark plumage (presumably males) were standing around a light colored smaller size bird ( female). The largest of male bird was the primary suitor. As the male got too close, the female took flight, all three males followed.

this female cardinal was making calls

A male cardinal

Three birds were tying to court one female bird (the light color one in the front)

likely a waxwing

Can you see the tiny bird in the center of the photo?

There are many bird at the Cooper Lake State Park. It will be really hard to see all of them in one trip. For the birds that are around, it takes patience and knowledge to spot them. It takes a good camera to capture them on photos.

One shortcut for bird watching is to visit a bird feeder, one can easily catch the sights of the birds that visit the feeder. Next to our sites was camp host site, there is a bird feeder there. Many birds came and went, taking pictures was relatively easy, at least there are no tree branches, leaves to block the views.

Bird watching at feeders is easy, but deprives half of the fun from bird watching, that is to look for the birds!