"Lake Houston Park is a beautiful, lushly forested expanse of nearly 5,000 acres 30 miles north of Houston. It is located where Caney Creek and the East Fork of the San Jacinto River meet near the town of New Caney, and it straddles the Harris-Montgomery County line. " --(http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/lakehoustonpark.html).
I went out with my great friend David Kent to visit this little gem of a park. We met with Park Naturalist Jerry Walls and an amazing lady by the name of Reda Schmidt. The Park was hosting their "Off the Beaten Path" day, so about a dozen hardy souls loaded up into two 4WD vehicles and off we went.
It was relatively cool and rainy but we saw a few very interesting animals. Reda noticed this
amazing Snapping Turtle crawling across the path and we stopped for pictures. He was relatively clean and fairly animated. He crawled slowly off into the woods, and we went on looking for new adventures. The trail on which we were driving was very soft an so much care was taken to avoid tearing it up or getting bogged down.The Woods were a combination of Hardwoods and Conifers with low lying swampy areas
dominated by Sago Palms. It was in the boggy Sago Palm areas that we saw the First Butterflies - Falcate Orangetips - the Spring Herald here in Texas. They were only flying when the rain stopped and the sun made an appearance. I was lucky enough to catch one perching on the top of a broken tree. It stayed here until the sun reappeared and with the mottling on its wings it blended in very well with the lichens.
We saw only Males and only in the areas where the Sago Palms occurred. In most instances they were near the ponds but I saw no Butterflies near Peach Creek. We will be back to help them with the provisioning of exhibits for a new Nature center in the park. Overall it was a great trip and we really enjoyed the staff. They clearly love this preserve and we look forward to working with them.Bob Nuelle
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