Sunday, April 22, 2018

Vicksburg is Lovely

   It was raining, when we woke up in Jackson, Mississippi, so we made today a "travel day". We ate breakfast and then looked at Le Fleur Park, but the gates were locked due to the heavy rain. We went ahead and got on the expressway and drove quickly over to Vicksburg.

   The rain made Robert's joints ache. So, we found a small coffee shop in Vicksburg and relaxed; we were winding up our vacation. We drove to the waterfront and scoped the industrial area south of the downtown area. Here, there were several kinds of birds. One remarkble species we saw was the rufus colored Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma Rufum), perched handsomely on a wooden gate.

   We also saw two pairs of Indigo Buntings (Passerina Cyanea), male and female, in the industrial area. One pair were eating grass seeds off a tuff of johnson grass. The other were feeding off of the ground beside a post. It was cute to be a married couple looking at a pair of paired Indigo Buntings (Passerina Cyanea) . Then, we ate lunch at "The Anthony" inside the Vicksburg Country Club. Finally, we found a room at the Holiday Inn and took a nap.

Indigo Bunting Male
Indigo Bunting Female

   The Fall of the Siege of Vicksburg during the American Civil War happened one day after the Battle of Gettysburg. We decided to bird the hilly battlefield where the Yankees led by the drunken General Grant, assaulted the Confederates, about 150 years ago. Today, the Indigo Buntings (Passerina Cyanea) dominated the battlefield. We saw flocks of them. The male is dressed in Union blue. The female is dressed in the Rebel's battle brown. As our car pushed forward, the Indigo Buntings flew up to avoid us, leaving a blue and brown cloud in our wake. We were slightly offended that the tour road to the Confederate lines was temporarily fenced off and we could only bird the Yankee lines.

   For dinner, we found a restaurant on the rooftop of a tall building in downtown Vicksburg, called 10 South Rooftop. Berry had the blackened catfish tacos. Robert tried the famous Fried Green Tomatoes. These were smothered in crawfish and tomatoes in a creamy Newberg like sauce. Robert also tried the "Award Winning Chili". Vicksburg is an easy place to like.

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of wikipedia, kbolton, dpancamo, 10south

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