Bird Sightings – Page 11 – The Hermits' Rest

Great Teaching? It Depends

What makes a teacher great?

I’ve written about teachers I admire many times in this blog over the years, and you can go to the search bar and find them (a good teacher encourages students to do the work themselves, ha ha). I’ve even been called a good teacher, which is undoubtedly an advantage for my career as a teacher. Great? Some might say so; others might not. That’s fine.

Great teachers are passionate about helping people learn. I’ll teach you that this is a passion flower *Passiflora incarnata.* Passion.

One person’s great teacher can be a poor fit for someone else. That’s why I think one factor that makes a good teacher is the ability to change their style depending on the student. That’s why I prefer to teach one on one. It’s hard to meet all the students’ needs in large group settings. It’s very frustrating and makes me cranky.

Whoever taught my son how to lay floor tile was at least a very good teacher. All that’s left are baseboards.

Great teachers need more than a mastery of the subject matter and a sense of humor. The best ones I’ve had all were able to make whatever they were teaching relevant to their students and got them thinking about the topic for themselves. Sometimes the diversions that come about when engaged students start asking questions make the subject matter unforgettable. I can still remember what that feels like.

It makes me gloriously happy – and here are morning glories.

One reason I was a student so long was that many great teachers engaged me, made me think about things in new ways, and shaped me into who I am. I loved learning and still do. I could probably attend pragmatics and semantics seminars the rest of my life and never get bored, but hey, I have Master Naturalist trainings now, and some of those presenters fit my criteria for great teachers!

I also love teaching, whether students find me “great” or not. Helping someone learn a new skill or see things in new ways feels almost magical. It’s darn hard work figuring out the best way to present new content to perhaps a disinterested audience but nonetheless it’s rewarding. No wonder I had a difficult time staying retired! I enjoy the challenge.

Speaking of challenges, the baby swallows challenge me to leave them alone.

Maybe next time I retire I can stick to teaching nature apps instead of project portfolio management. As they say, no one dreams of being the best project manager ever as a child. You just suddenly are one. Then you watch a lot of training videos if people like me can keep you awake.

Some Stuff’s None of Your Business

Have you ever had surgery? What for?

Really. This sounds like a prompt designed to get information to use against me in some weird internet way. Lee says most of the blog prompts are like that in his opinion, but I find this question really creepy. Also, my answer would be boring.

Great Blue Heron fishing in the creek is not interested in such details, either.

So, instead of my medical history, I’ll share my story from my morning walk (this is a repeat for Facebook friends):

Who says there aren’t good people in Texas? Not me. Today I took my morning walk rather late, so by the time I was on my way back I was pretty sweaty. I noticed a car stopped in the middle of the road near my house and wondered if I knew them. Soon they drove up and stopped next to me. It was an older woman and man who asked if I needed a ride home or a cool drink. I said no, that I was almost home. We chatted briefly and told me they stopped at the top of the hill to finish a phone call, because they lose service by the creek. That’s very true! And then the man handed me a cold Mr. Pibb and insisted I take it. That was so kind.

As I walked home with my cold beverage I wondered why they felt compelled to tell me why they stopped and that the man grew up nearby. But it’s Texas and I guess they wanted me to know they were not up to anything, since the man was Black. Geez. He was friendlier than many white neighbors.

Anyway, I’ll wave when I see them again. I wave to everyone who comes down the road, though most often it’s family members or friends. Rural life!

My cool beverage

Friendly, kind strangers who don’t judge you but just want to make sure you’re okay—we need more of them in the world. I hope I can always be like this couple. If someone needs help, I want to offer it with no regard to appearance or other factors. Good folks are urban, rural, immigrant, religious, atheist, and of all political beliefs. There are icky people in all those groups, too, but today reminded me to never forget the good ones.

The heron left before the car came down the road, so it missed my free drink.

Sorry this wasn’t about surgeries. But a day enjoyed with kind strangers, sweet horses, good friends, more Green Herons than I ever saw at one time, and a lovely sunset is more interesting to me.

This is facing east. Way to go, setting sun!

Now, go be good to someone you may or may not know.

Habitually Consistent

What are your daily habits?

Whew, at first I thought they were asking about my bad habits. I can say that I have fewer now than I did in the past, and I don’t think I’m developing any significant new ones.

Daily habits, though. Hmm. What does this mean? Parts of my routine? Things I habitually do throughout the day? I do know that I habitually look at my watch to see how far I am toward my exercise goals, how hot or cold it is, and the date. I no longer track dates well, though as I work more I assume I’ll get better.

I closed all my rings today. My watch will soon praise me.

I also look at my phone a lot. I’ve cut down on it lately, having found the world is fine without my attention. Still, I get many texts. Some are cute photos of animals or birds, so I don’t mind.

Sara in Wisconsin sent me these glorious golden oyster mushrooms today. Worth checking my phone for.

I’m also habitually looking for my bird notebook. In my mind it must always be nearby, in case I see something, like the Cattle Egrets I saw on the way to dinner tonight. I must write these sightings down! That’s my own rule; no one is forcing me.

I had my notebook when I saw this Downy Woodpecker pecking away at some giant cane *(Arundo donax*). I wonder what it was looking for in there?

That, and twirling my hair around my fingers, a childhood habit that comes back whenever I grow my hair long, about sums up my daily habits that occur at any time of day.

As for things that I habitually do every day, I’ve developed quite a routine lately.

Wake up
Dress
Teeth, medication, facial stuff
Make coffee
Sit in my birding chair and watch/listen to birds. Write down birds I see and Merlin hears.
At the same time, do my Finch self care app (my birb is Ada), read Facebook, check personal email.
Go for a walk to the bridge and back, also listening to birds.
Feed chickens and Connie Gobbler.
Go inside and work. Or spontane if not working.
Check mail after lunch. That’s my break.
After work, feed horses, groom a horse, or work with Apache.
Gather eggs.
Swim in summer. Another walk in other seasons.
Watch whatever television show we are watching. The Gilded Age right now, since we finished Star Trek: Discovery. Crochet or knit.
Write blog or Substack if I didn’t earlier.
Read current book or magazine.
Sleep, glorious sleep.

Oh my gosh. I just wrote down a day in the tedious life of Suna. I do eat somewhere in there. Apparently that habit isn’t worth noting. Please believe me that interesting things do happen! But I realize that this is the first time in my life I’ve had such a routine that I can stick to or deviate from.

And of course I have my weekly nail strip application habit.

I think the Covid isolation led me to become more set in my ways, as my elders used to call it. Now that I’m borderline elderly, I guess I have a right to do so.

Maybe you’ll start to think about your own habits, productive or otherwise. Do they rival mine in dullness?

New Job New Motivation

This is an interesting point in my life. Having time for myself for three months was really pleasant, once I got used to being retired. But I’m just as glad to have gone back to work for a while, because it’s opened my eyes to a few things.

Granted, I haven’t been in the new organization a week yet, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how positive everyone is, how helpful they are to each other, and how they all like what they’re doing (mostly). People act interested in each other as people, even contract workers. And they’re generous with their time and expertise. I’m having a great time collaborating with others in roles similar to mine.

Cheerful as a yellow Kingbird on a wire.

The company has many goals and values that I agree with, like diversity and inclusion, carbon neutrality, and having fun (the larger team couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had playing kickball).

Gee, I hope the “new job glow” doesn’t wear out too quickly! It’s refreshing to not be looking over your shoulder for HR to escort you out of the building or to have no idea where your team is going or what’s next. I spent too many years in my previous two Austin tech cultures, both of which had an atmosphere of negativity that I was always trying to make the best of because I needed money. And all those mergers and acquisitions!

I often felt like I was going down rabbit holes.

That’s no longer an issue. I’m working now because I want to be helpful and I’m in a place that values transparency and honesty with customers and staff. I may be tired from drinking information from a fire hose right now, but I’m doing things I enjoy (other than mandatory compliance training). I feel useful, helpful, and appreciated. That’s motivating!

Porch before tile was installed. It’s just dry fit here.

And very soon I’ll have a porch I can work from. The floor is going down, though my son is tired of having to vacuum up dog hair before laying each tile. Dang dogs.

What? I Can’t Hear You!

I’m taking a break from Facebook, since the fallout on a post I thought was not too controversial turned out to incite strong partisan feelings among my friends. I respect their rights to debate, and find areas of agreement with each, but I’m so damned hypersensitive that I had to take a break. I also snoozed a few very nice people for a while. So, I’m no longer listening to the fallout until I’m up to it again. I do want to hear all views, but I also want to remain mentally stable.

But I can still blog and write on my Substack, which is where I rant. I’ve been trying to listen to birdsong my porch or birding slab, but I’m thwarted. There is an incessant throbbing sound echoing through the trees. It fills most of the spectrogram on Merlin Bird ID.

The faint rhythmic lines are a Cardinal.

It’s cicadas. I can hardly hear myself think for them. Once they start up around 9 am, they’re in all the trees every minute unless it rains. My best birding the past couple of days has been right after a storm, when birds have a feeding frenzy thanks to flying insects, and I guess the cicadas need to dry off.

Only the loudest and closest birds pierce through the wall of cicada sound. I do get a lot of House Sparrow chirps. That’s because their nest is above me (to the right; I’m not putting chairs under their extra-decorative nests.

Mrs Sparrow, who alternates with Mr Sparrow in insect deliveries.

These mofos are everywhere. When not feeding, they’re sitting around pooping on our outdoor furniture, grills (which are covered), etc. They’re not native, so we could dispose of them, but nope. I just make sure they stay out of the new screened porch.

Speaking of our lovely new porch, the Barn Swallow eggs haven’t even hatched yet, so who knows when we will be able to shut the door. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t quite so dang law abiding and could remove the nests.

I do have a bit better luck with birds on my walks, where there are some areas a bit farther from the cicadas. Plus, there are always good old eyeballs for spotting birds! Yesterday I found a Mississippi Kite and today a Green Heron.

Blurry, but I could tell what it was from colors and call.

So, between traipsing through mud to tend to horses and listening to birds, my last free week before my consulting gig starts is full. I also keep crocheting, and now April and May are connected on my temperature blanket, and June is caught up. The nice KnitPicks lady said that if I do not get yarn by ten working days to call them rather than patiently waiting a month like I did. I am now warned.

I’ll leave you with bugs and flowers. Please send healing thoughts to everyone who’s affected by world events, and listen hard, even when it’s difficult to hear.

Selecting a Seasonal Preference

What is your favorite season of year? Why?

It’s a good thing there’s a prompt to answer today, because action around here was fairly limited. So, I’ll dwell on my favorite season and you can think about yours, and maybe even share it in the comments! Why not? I’ll share some pretty nature sights from today, in the unofficial season of late spring humidity.

They took the forms off our concrete slabs. Whee.

When I lived in Illinois, I could never choose between spring and autumn as my favorite seasons. Crabapple trees, spring bulbs, peonies, and lilacs made the world so beautiful up there. But in autumn there were the orange, red, and yellow deciduous trees that contrasted so beautifully with the dark tree trunks (or light, with birch trees). It was beautiful in Champaign-Urbana, all year round. That’s right. I liked winter as long as it was above 0°F and there wasn’t an ice storm.

Simple sunflower and resident crab spider.

Here in Texas, I only have one season I don’t enjoy, and that’s summer. At least my new job will force me to stay indoors during the worst of the heat. I always feel sad for the animals, especially the chickens, and the dying grass on ground with huge cracks in it from drought always looks apocalyptic. I don’t need more reminders of apocalypses. Plus there are the fewest birds here in summer.

It’s hard not to like spring in this area, with all the wildflowers, birds, and butterflies. I hope we still have them in the future. This year was pretty bad for all of them, thanks to an unusually dry winter. And sadly, spring always reminds me that summer will be here soon. Not to mention how many allergies spring brings (but I appreciate the plants’ need to reproduce).

At this point in my life, autumn is my favorite time of year, even though it often arrives late. I can take long walks, once it cools off, and more birds show up as they migrate south. I love the smell of fallen leaves, which also make it easier to see wildlife. The only problem with that time of year is that it’s so busy! There are conference and events and trips…

Winter here is surprisingly great, though. It’s not that cold except for a few days each year, and there are so many entertaining birds to enjoy. Campgrounds are more empty, too. And I never sweat. I hate all that sweating in the other seasons. (I rarely sweated until menopause finally happened and I’m still not used to all that dripping.)

Mockingbird nest in the little tree we planted in the front yard. What a quality nest!

I’m not confident that I’ve answered the question. Let’s hope I’m much more with it tomorrow.

Pearl crescent. There are so many crescents.

Zoo Pictures

As I promised yesterday, Lee and I went to a zoo today. First we spent the night last night in a blissfully dark and quiet Home2 Suite in Waco. The hotel was a little odd in that their breakfast oatmeal was in reality gravy for biscuits. I’m sure glad I didn’t spoon it out and sprinkle brown sugar on it!

Still, I enjoyed a morning walk in the working class neighborhood, where I managed to hear some birds and met some dogs that didn’t particularly want me there. But, hey, I found some weeds to photograph, too. That let Lee have his morning alone time!

We eventually went to the Cameron Park Zoo, which is in a beautiful riverside location near downtown. It’s worth a visit. I’m sort of glad we didn’t go when we’d originally planned, because now we were able to see the new exhibit of African penguins. They were cute, though many were shy.

I had two exhibits I really liked. One was a lot of fish native to Texas, including paddlefish, gars, and extra cute rays. There was too much glare and too many kids running around to get photos. Those big fish were mighty majestic, though.

The other exhibit I enjoyed was the Texas shore birds. It was great to get close-up views of the birds I usually see at a distance. They’d just been fed, so many were eating fish. A couple others were carrying around sticks. Perhaps they were building nests. Forgive all the Roseate spoonbill pictures. They were so pretty.

There were many other birds to see. I was surprised how many I knew from watching nature shows. Some were spectacular, like the bustard. All were fun to watch.

Of course, there were other animals at this zoo. It’s a fairly good sized one. Here are a few that I enjoyed.

I also enjoyed the people, especially kids. We watched one boy, around 3, dragging his grandmother from exhibit to exhibit saying he wanted to see more animals. He was thrilled at each one and knew what they all were without being told. I just wanted to hug him.

Bald Eagle habitat, surrounded by vultures. .

There was also a little girl who bravely fed the giraffe, to her parents’ surprise. The best part was on her way out, she grabbed some of the romaine lettuce for herself. If it’s good enough for the giraffe…

Chinaberry tree. Lots of nonnative plants were around.

One thing I liked about the design of the Cameron Park Zoo was that it was quite shady, either additional shade canopies where needed. And it seemed like each area had an indoor air conditioned exhibit to cool down in. That was good planning. And wow, it was clean. It didn’t smell like poop, which many zoos do.

If you live around Waco or visit, be sure to go visit this zoo and maybe hit the mammoth dig site, too.

Exploring the Unknown, Nearby

I’ve got to tell you how much fun I had this morning! My friend Ann and I went to see the property of our fellow Master Naturalist, to help her improve her skills and see what plants and birds were there.

Our friend lives far enough east of the Hermits’ Rest that the soil is very different, quite sandy compared to my soil. That means different plants will grow. I’d already noticed that along the road to my horse lessons, where the Gaillardia are solid red, and standing cypress lines the road this time of year, with its red plumes. So pretty.

Maroon blanketflower (*Gaillardia amblyodon)*

The birding where we visited was pretty good, and I learned the sounds of a Swainson’s Warbler very well when the ubiquitous White-eyed Vireos rested momentarily. It gave good opportunity for Merlin Bird ID lessons.

The plants were what had me all in a tizzy, though. There were expanses of meadows bordered by nice thick woods, plus excellent trails the homeowners maintain. So much to explore!

I found interesting insects, too. I wish I could have gotten photos of all the different bees and wasps buzzing around all the flowers, but I did capture a few as well as butterflies. The pale pipevine swallowtail was so lovely I will share multiple photos.

There were some impressive wildflower areas, and in one of them I found many species I’d never seen, even some Ann had never seen, and she doesn’t live too far away. A couple of these, like the prairie clover, are pretty rare, so no wonder I wasn’t familiar with them.

The flowers were in a place is where someone built a new tall wildlife fence about ten feet back from the original barbed wire. The area where cattle or other ruminants can’t reach was a blaze of flowers. It’s a secret botanical treasure we discovered!

It wasn’t just flowers that were new. There were plenty of fungus and moss samples to investigate, too. I’d never seen a moss inflorescence so spectacular as the one we found on a trail, and after the recent rains, mushrooms were everywhere.

I don’t mean to go on and on, but this unknown wonderland brought a lot of joy, as did hanging out with my fellow nature lovers. It’s hard to believe I found so much that was new to me, so close to home.

I’ve spared you most of the species I saw, but this location has gone from nothing on iNaturalist to dozens, including the rare ones. I hope this makes a scientist happy someday!

Voted Most Beautiful Flower, by me, was the propeller flower or *Alophia drummondii*

Another Post about Gratitude for Rain

You can tell I live in a semi-arid environment by how often I mention that I’m grateful for rain. Our land is so prone to drought that we always fear it will never rain again. Of course, that’s not true. Usually, we have a very dry period followed by a flood. We’re used to it.

This year we have had some dry spells, but also some nicely spaced rain episodes, just nothing huge, until last night. We had over 2.5″ of rain here yesterday, and since 2″ is usually enough to get runoff happening, that means our ponds/tanks all filled.

It also means that the creek is overflowing, which is always fun, as long as it doesn’t cover the road, which it did not. It only got to the top of the fence that keeps the cattle in. No giant logs banged into the fence, either, which means the new owners won’t have to fix it.

You can see the fence posts almost underwater.

The rain was scary, and there were tornadoes in the area. Some folks got damage, but nothing like what we see in the news in other places, so we’re lucky. One of my friends even got up to 6″ of rain over the past few days! We’ve had at least 3 in total. Now all the animals will be happy.

Something did die, though. The vultures right next to my birding chair told me, along with the large number of flies. Ick. I may have to move my chair!

I enjoyed many clean and shiny birds on my morning walk, though, which is the best bonus. I’m still seeing a Tricolored Heron here, so who needs to travel to see interesting birds?

I went into town to have lunch with a new Master Naturalist and help her get her Merlin and iNaturalist set up for ease of use. Driving around I saw lots of hail damage and trees with lost limbs. The storm was a lot worse southeast of the ranch!

Our Merlin lesson was a bust, because the birds decided to stop making noise at our Cameron renovation project, where we tried to practice. But I did give my student some hints, and we had more success with iNaturalist. A lesson that I learned (relearned) is that everyone’s cell phone and service are set up differently, which always adds to the challenge of assisting people. We had fun anyway, and found some plants we want to transplant before the old landscaping gets obliterated.

I want some of this Turk’s Cap to plant next to our woods.

Today remains sunny, though more rain is in the forecast. Other than how muddy the horse pens get, I’ll welcome all we get!

Mission Accomplished

Ha ha, mission is an appropriate word choice, since we did visit an area full of missions today.

Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, Park Service photo.

After a highly disappointing hotel breakfast, we drove a half hour from Victoria to Goliad, Texas. It’s where lots of Texas history occurred. Just go over here and read about it, unless you are a product of Texas schools, in which case I assume you already know.

Since we were pressed for time, we looked at the beautiful old buildings briefly and then went on a short hike along the San Antonio River, which appeared to be a very old trail.

It was a great joy to investigate this new ecosystem. I found a new-to-me butterfly, the Texas Crescent. It’s so beautiful.

Even more beautiful (to me) was the new grasshopper I found, which is apparently the most distinctive grasshopper in the southern US.

The Eastern Lubber (*Romalea microptera)*

It’s so pretty. And big! They get to be up to four inches long! I was impressed and very grateful to Lee for spotting the first one.

We enjoyed the river, woods, trees, and birds. I even identified a Northern Parula before seeing the ID on Merlin. I’m learning!

There was a bird blind, but we were too late for the morning feed and only saw a male and female House Finch. The male was very colorful, though, and since I usually only hear them at home, I took it as a birding win.

We were ready to head home, but enjoyed going a different route, which ended up being a tour of different roads Lee used to take to visit his parents in the Cuero hospital. That’s where they’d go unless they had heart attacks, in which case they’d go to Victoria, where I’d already had the hospital memory lane tour. Yes, my previous visits to Victoria had been hospital or funeral visits. A wedding was our first happy reason to visit. [edit: second happy reason—we also went down to Yorktown for Chris and Kathleen’s wedding!]

All is well at home. I didn’t even lose any plants! The dogs, chickens, and horses were fine, too. Kudos to our pet sitter!

I should return to non-travel content tomorrow.