Bird Sightings – Page 19 – The Hermits' Rest

Welcome Light

Tomorrow is Imbolc, a celebration that light is starting to appear from darkest winter (among other things). Nature brought the light a little early, and provided us with a rare cool, sunny day. It was mighty pleasant.

I enjoyed a break from my very busy week by sitting outside after work, reflecting on how much I value my connections and wish I could cultivate them more.

I’m too busy sitting with birds, I guess.

At least I talked to my friend Donna yesterday, and she reminded me that the Purple Martins start to return this time of year. I also saw the bluebonnets getting bigger today, and I was happy, even though the speaker at last night’s Master Naturalist class informed us they are not native here, just in the granite areas of the hill country. Poo.

Lee was practicing with his camera so you can see what I look like when listening to and watching birds.

I know spring is coming, with turkey eggs every other day, calendar changes, getting my first new temperature blanket module done (tomorrow), and a new theme color for my journal and nail polishes. Stereotypical, it’s true, but February is all pink. I might even have pink in my hair. Ooooh.

Don’t dye me pink, Suna. My nose is pink enough.

Now I Can See Those Dang Birds

One thing Lee and I did in Austin yesterday was get a zoom lens for our Cannon camera. It goes 150-500, and is pretty big but not ridiculous. We went to Precision Camera, a store I’ve patronized off and on since I moved here. I am glad they sell used equipment. New stuff is pricey.

The first time I went to Precision Camera it was a much smaller store near the current one. I went with Mary Jo, the school librarian at my kids’ school, to get a digital camera so I could put photos on the school website. We got the best we could get in 1998, since it was a new school and we had funds. This fine camera could take ten pictures on its memory card. Then you’d have to slowly download to a PC to clear out space. Getting even one photo per class was tedious (plus no photos of children’s faces—we had already figured that out).

I’m pretty sure this was it. You can get your own here.

I digress. The current equipment we now have holds lots more photos, and we download them via the camera’s wifi, which even our mid-level Canon camera has. So see, some things are better now. My goal is to get photos of birds that will look good enough to ID on iNaturalist. I have no illusions of becoming an art photographer at this point in my life.

New lens triumphantly produced an identifiable White-crowned Sparrow.

Today was not a great day to try the new lens out, since it was misty and drizzly all day. The temperature only varied by 6° all day!

Even though it was a gray day, I took many bird photos, some with the phone, which also has a good zoom but not as many pixels. I wanted to compare.

The lens is heavy, so I’ll have to build arm strength. It has stabilizers, which is quite useful for shaky arms.

Luckily, whatever this thing is didn’t move.

Mostly I practiced taking pictures of our Great Egret as it preened its damp feathers. It’s great to be able to see it up close.

On a sunny day I could do more, but I enjoyed trying different modes. I’m nowhere near able to manually manipulate settings. I’ll get there.

I look forward to seeing what I can do around the ranch. I get plenty of bird variety here! Maybe I can get better photos out camping, too. Identifiable ones will suffice. I’ll leave you with a few of my experiments.

I’m Back, and I’m an Angry Semi-old Woman

I say “semi-old,” because I’m eligible for Social Security (still am two whole days into the new administration!), but I don’t consider people really old until they’re in their mid eighties. So, most of my friends aren’t old.

I’m say back, because I took yesterday off to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lee and I watched many, many episodes of the West Wing, a wonderful television show from a quarter century ago about a US President and his staff. Perfect.

I was a little mad that we got such wimpy snow. If we’re going to endure super-cold weather, we should get pretty snow as a reward.

I say angry, because right now I’m rather irritable and impatient. This makes me quite inarticulate, which irritates me more! I can’t even make rational statements other than how much I care about disenfranchised folks.

Happy picture of Penney loving her coordinated chicken toy on a matching rug.

So I had been wandering around feeling all my feels and hoping the biting, cold wind would suck away my angst. I’d been hearing some heavy equipment going beep around the ranch for a few days, and suddenly it was close. That messed up my bird recordings, which made me grumpier.

I heard a crack. Loud. Looking up I saw a backhoe zipping off to a pile of branches, carrying my Osage-orange tree, the only one on the ranch that’s on a part we will still own after Lee and Sara sell the cattle pastures at the end of the month. My tree, the coolest tree here, just got toted off.

I was steamed, as they would say in the old days. So I marched through the gate, dodging cow patties in my house slippers, with no coat on (it was about 36°), and went to find that backhoe or bulldozer or track-hoe or whatever it was. I found a very young stranger in it, and informed him he’d just killed my valuable tree (they are pretty rare, long story about settlers planting them, the wood being good for bows…). He said but it was dead. He was clearing dead trees from the tornado, as our tenant asked him to.

The tree was not dead. It had leaves and produced horse apples this summer. It’s deciduous. Grr. But, I looked at the young man, who was just doing what he was told to do, and asked him to please not knock over any more living trees, especially around my pond, because I do nature research there. His eyes got big. Well, I do engage in research! I was doing so right then!

Kid getting the heck away from me. Or going to move stuff elsewhere. Hope it’s the latter.

Anyway I apologized for getting upset, and he said it was okay and called me ma’am dozens of times. This isn’t my time. Right now is not a good time to raise a ruckus about hippie stuff like trees. I sure feel old and helpless and expendable. besides, I need to stay under the radar, not act like a nutty tree hugger, even if I am a nutty tree hugger.

I’m not leaving you all, though. I want to share fun pictures and silly stories to bring some cheer, for all my non-old friends.

Gonna Get Cold

I’m hiding and hibernating this weekend, I guess, spending most of my time with birds and horses. That’s just fine with me.

I’ve made sure Apache gets his rides and cantering in before this big cold front arrives. Terry the farrier said Apache has muscles! Mabel has a cut on her hip area from an encounter with a tractor, so I’ve been monitoring that and putting ointment with honey on it. It’s better now, but here was its original state.

All animals are as ready as I can get them for cold weather, with water, shelter, etc. I worry about Connie Gobbler, but the hen house should stay above freezing and I put electrolytes in the water bucket there, for her and the chickens.

Other than looking at birds, including a Vermilion Flycatcher today, I worked on my knitting. The border on last year’s temperature blanket is slowly growing (it’s 540 stitches long on the long end).

I have a very long circular needle for all those stitches.

And today I was able to finish the third row of January on this year’s blanket. It looks more like a calendar now. I’m ridiculously excited about this cold front bringing temperatures low enough to have some purple in them! I guess that will make up for having to wear so many layers for a while!

I’m loving all these cooler colors. The blue lazy daisy stitches equal .2” of rain each.

Ignoring the metaphorical elephant in the room (the room being my country) I’ll just share that I tried to paint my nails black, maybe with one nail with a little sparkle to symbolize hope. But when I put the set I’d picked out on, I realized it was actually dark green. There goes my mourning theme. I guess it’s now the dark embrace of the forest, with little ice crystals, which I put on all the nails.

I expect I’ll be slightly off kilter for a bit, but I’ll be here to support my friends and family, all of them. Have a good Sunday.

Of Blankets and Birds

I’m too tired to write much. Well, honestly, my back hurts too much to concentrate. Spending 3.5 hours in the seating at the place where our Master Naturalist meetings are held is too much, even with cushions. However, it’s good that we started a new member class and that I got going on borders for my temperature blanket from last year. Here it is in its lengthy glory:

Last January is at the top, and the last row is December 31-January 12.

I’m not sure how I didn’t realize the year would end with one day on the last row. So I added the beginning of January. At least that put a few cold days on that end of the blanket. I plan to do the black border wider on the long side to make it more balanced. we will see.

Close-up of summer through winter. You can at least tell it cooled off a bit.

It was another pretty cool bird day. The highlight came when I was standing in the back yard of the house we are incredibly slowly renovating. Suddenly a Red-Shouldered Hawk landed on the old clothesline support, just a few yards away. We were impressed! And she stayed there. We left, not her.

It’s really fun to share an interest in nature with a family member!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll be perkier! I did enjoy the class this evening. The new students are interesting people.

Cute Birds and Bittersweet Memories

It was the best day in a long time for bird watching. Between my observations and the Merlin Bird ID, 51 species were found on our property. That’s pretty exciting for me. But more exciting was how entertained I was by all that I saw. Yes, I’m easily entertained. You knew that.

I swear this little White-crowned Sparrow looks like an egg with a tiny head on it.

I saw a beautiful Harrier swooping over the fields late this afternoon when working with Apache the Wonder Steed. We both watched.

Then right at sunset, while I was watching and listening to the sparrows (Harris’s, White-throated, Chipping, Song, and White-crowned) as they rustled through the leaves looking for bird stuff, something flew by. It was the Great Horned Owl heading to a tree. Thirty seconds later, it hit the ground. I guess it got a mouse. Spectacular.

I didn’t like that. What if the owl was after us cute songbirds? Circle of Life, yeah yeah.

That really helped me get through a hard day. It’s now six years since I heard from my son. He was a great kid. I hope he’s enjoying life. I think he is, and that’s good. I just miss this little charmer.

33 years and 8 months ago, 4 generations.

As the two older generations in that photo are no longer here to talk to, I’m the older generation now. My cousin Jan and I have been talking about that, since her dad, a good friend of my dad’s, passed a way a couple of days ago. We’re the elders. That feels so strange.

Three generations, me, Mom, and Aunt Belle, my grandmother’s twin. I was a senior in high school.

I hope I can stay in contact with the generation after me. Maybe someday my son, but if not, it’s his decision and I respect it. And I’m fine. I just allow myself one day a year to mourn the loss that I really don’t understand. Grief is always lurking.

My parents and me in 1958. I knew they loved me, even if none of us were perfect. Dad was 27. Mom was 36.

Once again, I ask you to stick close to your loved ones, your friends who support you, and your community. We need each other.

My Back Says Ow

Today seemed really long, probably because I twisted my back at some point when getting the RV ready to head home. I’ll take some pain medicine when I go to bed, for sure.

Or I could hypnotize myself by looking at my nails.

I’m surprised I got any other exercise today, because we spent the morning inside. First, we chatted with Mike, who’d been working in his RV all weekend. But at least we had a quiet neighbor! Then I took minutes for a board meeting of the Master Naturalist chapter. Visions of COVID times danced I my head trying to do a meeting on FaceTime. But I did it!

Made me feel squirrelly. And probably annoyed the attendees.

I enjoyed a small walk, listened to birds, and hugged a cypress tree, typical Suna things.

The ride home seemed extra long since my back was still spasmodic and my stupid eye twitch was back making me irritated. The good news is I found my temperature book, so I got caught up to today in the 2025 temperature blanket. I even sewed the first two rows of January together. It vaguely resembles a calendar now.

The moon rose and sun set as we approached Cameron, which was a good distraction!

The dogs were so happy to see us when we got home! Alfred was prancing around like a giant puppy, Goldie was managing to jump up and down, and the others were running into each other with glee. Before I could head to relieve myself, they all had to be petted. I sure feel welcome.

A Good Day in a Small, but Beautiful Site

It’s all good today. The space heaters did their job and the temperature ended up perfect for sleeping last night. It also wasn’t quite so cold, which I did not complain about.

After a nice morning, I ended up walking on every trail in Blanco State Park, enjoying the beautiful sky and the reflections in the river. I especially enjoyed crossing the river on the dams and watching the water flowing.

I even have a dam video for your enjoyment!

This is the park boundary. Those are greenhouses behind the dam.

Birds were a bit more numerous today, and I got to have fun with them. First, I talked to a family who were feeding the family of Egyptian Geese and sleepy Muscovy Ducks at the park. I decided that I’d not mention the rule about not feeding Cheetos to the wildlife, since the birds weren’t natives. I did tell them about the birds, though.

I kept going and went back to the bird blind, hoping to see something more than Cardinals, which I did. There was apparently a Mountain Bluebird, which I did not see. I did get to watch exciting House Sparrows, Black-crested Titmice, and White-winged Doves fussing with each other. Then, suddenly something swooped in, a hawk that I guess was a Coopers, but am not sure. Every single one of the dozens of birds at those feeders took off at once, in a flurry of feathers and dove noises. The hawk sat in a tree for a minute, hoping for a meal, but soon left without a morsel.

I also saw a Kestrel fly up to a tree, then before I could photograph it, swoop down and get some kind of morsel. It must have been an insect, because it finished quickly and went to a telephone pole to look for more prey.

After some football and reading I went back out a couple more times. I got to see the Kingfisher fly by at sunset, which was a lovely highlight. The weather was so nice, I just had to keep wandering around. I tried sneaking up on some deer but failed. Deer sure are the color of the woods.

I’m so glad we’re able to hang out in nature like this. We are lucky to have my son to care for the animals, people, and mail back at the ranch. It’s really important right now to grab every bit of fun and relaxation that you can. Great memories are made that way to comfort us as time goes on.

The Day Got Better, and Warmer

It got very cold last night and once again, the non-propane heater stopped heating. It was 44° in the bedroom this morning! Luckily I had lots of warm blankets, but getting dressed made me wonder how people who live in igloos do it. Brr.

Though its wintertime, the Blanco River is beautiful.

I went out in late morning and it was sunny, which helped. I took lots of pictures of things with ice crystals on them, and was relieved to finally hear a few birds here at Blanco State Park.

After my walk, Lee and I went out into the Texas Hill Country (the middle of it this time), ostensibly to get some space heaters. We first stopped at Lyndon B. Johnson State Park (also a National Park, to get our park passport stamped and a magnet for our collection, though we’d both been there before. I still really like this place, even in winter with no wildflowers. You could see birds, though, and I was delighted to observe a flock of Eastern Bluebirds in a nice leafless tree.

They looked to be one male and a lot of females/juveniles

We also saw a lot of Longhorn cattle, but no real bison. That was fine.

Since we were already nearby, we kept going and visited Fredericksburg, where I enjoyed my free glass of wine at the Becker Vineyards store and got a couple of bottles of types I’m out of.

Lee was hungry, so next we ate at the small German restaurant I enjoy the most in Fredericksburg, a town teeming with German restaurants. The food there is just perfect.

Finally, we did get the heaters, the kind that look like a radiator. I like those better than ones with visible heating elements. Of course, it won’t be so cold tonight.

The squirrel put down her acorn to tell me it would be warmer.

We got back to Blanco in time for me to take a short hike along the river to an old pump house. I like my photos of it.

There was also a very nice bird blind, but it only had Cardinals. I took their pictures anyway.

By the way, I thought it was sweet that Lee introduced a young couple camping near us to Merlin Bird ID. I then talked to them, and hooked them up with iNaturalist to help identify mushrooms, which is their hobby. I did my community outreach! And now, more pretty photos.

Just a Little Chilly

Our annual cold spell is here. It’s been windy, too, so you’ve got to be hardy or foolish to do outdoor activities. But that’s me. Both of those things.

Yesterday was honestly sort of nice. I enjoyed the weather other than the wind. The chickens would just go inside the hen house where the heat lamp is when they got cold. Connie just hunkers down. She’s so warm around her neck and loves her hugs and petting.

The horses love their shelter, especially Dusty. He’s coping fine with all his fuzz. Apache is fuzzier and seems to love getting his exercise and not sweating. Yesterday he was really perky and cantering around, though today at lessons he was a bit creaky. Still, he’s doing great.

I managed two horse lessons in the deep chill. I had my thermal shirt, extra warm riding pants and my huge ranch coat. I look like Queen Elizabeth all hunched over in her English riding outfit.

Drew did well today, and even let me get three quarters of his made de-burred! He was lots calmer and did very well with Tarrin riding him. We came up with some ideas to help him, and I hope we can.

Channeling the Queen as I longe my horse

Not much else is happening other than work. We are having the vet come check on Goldie and Harvey. Neither seems to be improving. At least they are having as good a life as possible.