Living the wild life
Take a hike through Huntsville State Park for a date with nature
“It’s a whole new world,” my wife Kathy said as we turned off Interstate 45 onto Park Road 40, which tunnels one mile through dense pine-oak woodlands to Huntsville State Park.
A foot-long pileated woodpecker deep inside the forest drummed its powerful beak against a decaying tree to make a rapid “tat-tat-tat-tat” sound. A deer nibbled on roadside grasses but suddenly bounded into the forested fortress.
The park’s 2,000-acres of thick woodlands resounded with chirping birds while the cool morning scent of pines invigorated the air. Sweetgum, hackberry and red maple trees exhibited a palette of autumn hues in shades of red and orange. Not New England’s exciting autumn colors but calmingly beautiful.
The park is welcoming New England’s birds that flee for Texas come autumn. We heard the flutesounding song of a hermit thrush, a bird common in the summer woods of New England and in the winter woods of the park.
We entered the park and headed for the Coloneh Trail, which borders Chinquapin Creek feeding into Lake Raven. But crows not ravens uttered raspy “caw-caw-caw” calls as they flew at treetop level. Ravens don’t live in East Texas.
The lake is named for Sam Houston, whom the Cherokees supposedly named “Colonneh,” meaning “the raven.”
The Coloneh Trail leads to a bird observation blind, constructed by the Huntsville Audubon Society. We waited in the blind for a glimpse of a pileated woodpecker, which despite its size can be hard to find in dense woodlands.
We settled for a great view of a yellow-bellied sapsucker that flees northern grounds for winter residence in the park. It’s a woodpeck
er that drills harmless holes in rings around a deciduous tree, allowing its sap to ooze out and trap insects and beetles that would harm the tree.
Our next stop was Prairie Branch Trail, along the southwestern edge of the lake. A half-dozen male wood ducks floated placidly in the water, their heads plumed in striking reds, whites and grays. Great blue herons stalked the lake edges for fish, while a bald eagle perched atop the bordering pine trees.
Northern ducks, such as American wigeons and ringnecked ducks, will make the lake their winter home by Thanksgiving. And hordes of white-throated sparrows, already showing up, will be perched inconspicuously in lakeside bushes, singing their clear-whistled song sounding like “old-sam-peabody-peabody.”