3 February 2020 Gilley Preserve

We were making our second visit to the Gilley Preserve today.  Gilley is loaded with geocaches and offers a huge caching day if you are willing to put in the roughly fourteen miles of hiking.  On our first visit we had limited time and shortened our visit more when the rain started.  Today we had more time but were aware the short early February day gave no room for a fourteen-mile trek with many stops for caches.  We retraced the start of our last journey until we passed the first of many huge trees in the preserve.

Just beyond the tree we turned left and headed to to a fence line we would be following.

That may look a little like water behind the phoebe, but it is really landscaping mat on the ground of a private farm.

As we moved along the fenceline we were joined by a small herd of cattle on the other side of the fence and their cattle egrets.

We usually see a number of armadillo during our visits.  They are fairly skittish when humans are nearby and this year seemed to be fewer in number.  This one was on the preserve side as we moved along the fence.

To gain access to the far sections of the preserve and most of the caches, one needs to cross private grazing land with a private road between.  On the way out the crossing was easy.  It's a good thing the residents of the grazing land can't read.

The watering spot for the cattle is made from a really large tire and filled with really nasty water.

'
Much of the walk out was quite uneventful with a walk across a flat field and time to enjoy the moss covered trees.

Once we left the private lands and re-entered the preserve we were in a much different area.  It was wetter at this end of the preserve.  We could also see the edge of orange groves as we were caching.

Nice old-style ammo can

We found a few caches and stopped for a water break before turning back so we could exit the preserve before closing time.  We had just crossed the private road when we both spotted interesting birds.  Ali quickly realized they were a pair of meadowlarks.  It was a happy, unplanned sighting before we started across the second pasture.

First, there was one cow.

She is not supposed to be here.  She certainly wasn't here when we passed through earlier.  Soon she had reinforcements running to join her.

This is not looking like a fair fight.  Really, all we want to do is cross the pasture.

We quickly realized their concern was for a group of calves that had entered a different fenced-off area along out path.

We swung as wide a berth as possible around the calves and their protectors while keeping watch on the larger group on our other side.  It was a tense, slow process.  Ali seems to be whispering to them.

Eventually we made it to the other side of the pasture fence and were able to make our way out of the preserve.  Hopefully, we won't be visited by the herd on our next visit.