San Angelo State Park

San Angelo State Park  ("SASP") is a Texas state park consisting of 7,677 acres west of San Angelo in Central Texas. The land is leased from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. SASP opened in 1995 and includes the O. C. Fisher Reservoir (which is 5,440 acres), which dammed the North Concho River for flood control and as a secondary source of water for surrounding communities. SASP has over 50 miles of developed trails, some boat ramps, a small herd of bison and part of the Official Texas State Longhorn Herd. It has a north entrance, which was closed when we visited, and a south entrance, which we visited, separated by the reservoir. I spent most of my time at a wonderful bird blind identified as a wildlife viewing area which includes a water source and various kinds of bird feeders. 

The following are photos I took in the park:

The first birds I noticed were female red-winged blackbirds congregated in a tree a short distance from the bird blind. I had no idea what  they were. The male red-winged blackbird is very familiar to me but the female was an unknown. 

While I was watching the red-winged blackbirds this beautiful male northern cardinal flew into a tree near me and subsequently flew into several other trees around me. 

When I first got to the blind all I saw inside were these beautiful white-winged doves. 

Then as I started to leave the blind I noticed this golden-fronted woodpecker in a tree outside of the blind. 

Then it flew into the area inside the blind and I went back to the blind to take more photos of it. 

I got great views of the woodpecker at this feeder. 

Then I noticed this northern bobwhite, aka bobwhite quail, a bird I'd never seen before but guessed what it was. I was blown away by its beauty. As I sat at the blind more and more birds arrived. 

This beautiful male pyrrhuloxia, which I thought was a northern cardinal, came to one of the feeders. 

There were house sparrows, this one a male and two photos down is a female flying to a feeder. 

Another female red-winged blackbird. 

A white-crowned sparrow. 

As I started to leave I saw another pyrrhuloxia in a tree outside the blind (which I thought was a northern cardinal) and I took a trail going the wrong way (away from the car). 

While lost I ran across this beautiful tiny cactus. My post on iNaturalist initially identified it as a white lace cactus of Texas, but then narrowed it down to another subspecies of scientific names that mean nothing to me. 

I also encountered these pyrrhuloxia which I thought were Bohemian waxwings (this photos show more color detail than I was actually seeing because it was quite overcast). 

I finally got back to the car just as it started to down pour. We decided not to go to nearby Fort Concho, but bide our time in the park. So we drove around and saw these American white pelicans in the reservoir. 

We also saw these turkey vultures

The blind in San Angelo State Park is amazing. I really enjoyed our visit here.