An Afternoon Drive
A juvenile bald eagle sits in a tree on the west side of Wellington Lake.
A couple days ago, I went for an afternoon drive. Headed southwest from Wellington on gravel roads. Just a nice quiet and beautiful day. In the middle of the day, you really can not expect to see much wildlife. Birds are active as always, and there are nice scenes to be found as one drives along.
A few impressions I got as I drove around. Things are really dry here. Wellington Lake is several feet below normal. Lots of mud flats out there right now. We need inches of rain.
Bales of cotton wait to be transported to the gin.
It is amazing how much cotton is being grown here now. This crop is a latecomer to this area, but I remember when they first started raising it that one of the big benefits is cotton is an excellent crop for our climate here. Makes a lot more sense to grow cotton than it does corn. Corn needs a LOT of water, and in this part of the country that means irrigation. We have sucked the aquifers dry with raising wetland crops out here on the dry prairies.
Cotton bales are big!
It looks to me like someone could take a few bags out and gather a lot of cotton that the harvesters leave behind.
Lots and lots of cotton.
Bluff Creek cuts a pretty deep gouge through the countryside.
Birds stay busy all day long.
Found a nice fixer-upper!
Ever eat a pine tree?
At Salt Plains there was no wind to ripple the water.
That’s a pretty nice reflection.
A beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Cloudy water.
