Bird Sightings – Page 41 – The Hermits' Rest

Battle of the Burs, part 2

Yeah, I’m still on the topic of bur removal. Now that I have my weapons (really cool flexible gloves and sunflower oil) I’m armed for a fight, or what passes for a fight if one is actually a pacifist.

The spoils of war: half a bucket o’ cockleburs.

Late this afternoon, neighbor Sara came over for her monthly hoof trimming of Apache and Drew. Since Apache was going first, I figured I could de-bur him at the same time. We were very lucky that he seems to be feeling better, and he happily let us both work on him at the same time.

I first got at least some of the dirt and clumped mud off him. He’s fond of rolling to get rid of flies. Then I worked on the tail. Wow. About 40 burs came off with no irritation on either his or my part. Sara suggested I braid it, so I tried. If this doesn’t work I’ll wrap it in horse bandage stuff. I have tons from Nancy, the lady we got the horse trailer from.

Next came the once-white mane. It wasn’t as bad as Drew’s, but there was a huge wad between his ears. I got one big bur stab on my index fingertip (the one I use to knit and type on the phone, of course). I understand that the burs must fight back a little. Apache got a lot of oil on his coat, but he enjoyed having it rubbed in.

I had just enough time to braid his mane before Sara was finished putting thrush medicine on. I didn’t try anything fancy on the oily and dirt-encrusted mess. I did put matching rubber bands in.

Let’s see what the burs can do with THIS!

The braids do emphasize his lack of proper muscles. But now that it’s dried out a little we can do more than plod. He was so patient. I love how he lowers his head for me to remove his forehead burs. They must bother him, too.

Meanwhile, Drew was over in the other pen bothering Fiona and getting kicked. I’m sure she was glad when I came and got him. He was more interested in the prospect of his dinner than any hoof trimming or bur removal.

Drew proceeded to kick over my box of rubber bands, poop on Sara, not let me touch his mane burs, and generally act moody. His feet looked okay anyway, so he just got thrush stuff and frog trimming (that’s part of a hoof). So that bur skirmish didn’t go as well.

It IS a lovely battleground. (looking toward the Hermits’ Rest from the cabin)

But I will fight again tomorrow! Phase three will be Death to Cocklebur plants. Yes, I know they are dying anyway, because they’re annuals (huge annuals) but they are going in the burn pile! A warrior’s funeral pyre will ensue, eventually.

No doubt the crows will caw and coyotes howl.

Saddles Are Expensive

Name the most expensive personal item you’ve ever purchased (not your home or car).

Since I have had a poor mental health day, I’ll just answer by telling you that horses are expensive to maintain. I’d say the three most expensive things I’ve ever bought that weren’t buildings or vehicles have been the three horse saddles I’ve bought.

That’s the most costly one. Cost 5X as much as the horse (before expensive training).

However, they are comfortable for the horses and beautiful, too. A lot of saving was involved for each. I can also lift them. That’s important for older riders.

The second costliest. This horse was “free.” Now his meds cost more than mine.

No riding today. It’s too muddy. So I walked the horses and pondered a bur removal campaign. At least Apache likes his medicine and asks for me to take burs out (sticks his head in the right position).

This splotchy cow resembles Apache with no burs.

Otherwise, today I heard seven kinds of sparrows and even photographed one, along with turkey vultures and great egrets.

The birds seem to like the damp, cool weather judging by how many were out this morning.

I’m just feeling really weird. Is it anxiety? Too much salty food? Dehydration? Medication side effect? Being an empath? I may get checked tomorrow in case it’s blood pressure or something. I’m not having an emergency, just feeling unbalanced.

Better Days Do Come

Sometimes when you have a long string of anxious and worried days, it’s nice to have one that builds you up. I hate it when I’m dealing with annoying physical symptoms and I’ve done all I can to get my equilibrium back, but the truth is sometimes I just have to wait it out. Today helped!

I got to enjoy what passes for fall color in College Station Today.

Penney woke me up by wigging and licking like crazy for about an hour, so I got up, looked at the damp day, and did my nails with a set I’d looked forward to using, which looked like a brocade cloth with big flowers on it. It didn’t go on really great, but it perked right up when I added some gaudy jewels I had hanging around. Now the whole thing looks over the top, but it cheers me up.

After talking to the chickens, I headed over to the place I got them, Bird and Bee Farm, where our Master Naturalist wildscape project is located. I rarely have time on their special days to get out there, so I was glad I had a while to drop by.

I’d intended to take photos of all the butterflies, but it was still too damp in late morning for them to be out. Even the bees were still napping.

My friend Debi and I looked at all the flowers and found lots of caterpillars and a cat.

All these black ones came up as salt marsh moths

It was so pleasant just wandering around and seeing what is still hanging around this time of year. The dew was so heavy that it made for fine photo ops. It’s nice to photograph non-wildflowers like roses and zinnias occasionally

I hung out with birds a bit, and heard a new wren on Merlin, a sedge wren. I wish I’d seen it because it sure looks cute in its photo online. Instead, here are turkeys.

After talking a while with other Master Naturalists, I had to leave. I hope Patsy notices I put my nails in the blog for her.

The reason I had to leave was that I had my second watercolor class at Brazos Watercolor Retreats in College Station. We learned to paint trees with sunlight pouring through them. There were lots of new techniques to learn, like making white space by putting some rubbery stuff on the paper before painting. I also learned to make the sun rays.

I didn’t do a great job on the tree part, but I know what I’d do differently if I tried again. For a first try, I’m fine with my finished product. Maybe I should get some paints, brushes, and paper. It’s fun to see how the colors come out.

I even made it home in time to feed the horses before it was too dark, which makes it a lot easier to give Apache his medicine. They have a new bale of hay, and judging from the holes in the wet ground, they had a good time running around after they escaped while the tractor was going in. Those little dickenses.

So, yay, today has been fine enough that I’m handling learning about a few deaths in my circle pretty well. I have plenty of energy to send out love to all the families and friends, which feels really good.

Hug a loved one.

International Day of Peaceful Rationality

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

Today’s prompt made me think, especially in light of all my efforts at bringing peace into my soul the past few days. I’d love a holiday that encourages people to sit back and drop their antagonistic thoughts toward “the other” for a day and work together to create sensible, rational solutions to the issues that conspire to keep all of us from having the chance to live meaningful, productive lives.

I saw a belted kingfisher and a bunch of fish jumping today!

I predict my holiday could lead to arguments over the meaning of peace and the relevance of rationality. But I can dream, can’t I?

Some of us live in peace and safety, like this little buck. Most of us live in a world full of deer feeders fattening us up to feed someone else.

I’m cynical today. Sometimes the news makes you feel even less optimistic than others. And this is after hiding in the woods for a few days. I’m still in the woods, but it was a long work day. I’m happy my office setup works so well. It’s really freeing to be able to work anywhere you have bandwidth.

I’m ready to get home and take care of the animals myself. I hope Apache’s new meds arrived and will work out. I hope humans work things out, too, but I’m betting on the horse.

What’s your holiday?

Another Day, Another Bunch of Plants…Plus Friends!

Today at woodsy ole Buescher State Park was as good as it gets (other than having to grocery shop). I got a bunch of work done, enjoyed my meetings, and was able to take a long walk in the morning. My coworkers loved seeing this in their Zoom meeting.

I was able to find a bit of plant diversity by sticking to the edges of the lake, the dam, and fields. The woods are gorgeous but have mostly the same plants.

Around the lake there were lots of interesting plants and unusual (to me) flowers. There were so many fun shapes and growing habits.

I’m too tired to identify things. Sorry. Why am I tired? It’s a good kind of tired. I got to spend the late afternoon and evening with old friends. First, I got to hang out with my Cameron friends Mike and Martha at their big campsite. It has logs to sit on, so we sat on logs for a good long time.

Martha made a little altar out of chert rocks, sticks, and such. I added red rocks because they are so pretty. This was the compromise, because you’re not supposed to take things home from these parks.

After dinner, Mike and Lee tended a fire at our campsite, and slowly but surely other folks from our group wandered in. We had lots of laughs and told many good stories.

We were trying not to be too loud and not bother the folks who pulled in after dark and were setting up at the site next to us. Then, when they called my name, we realized it was more of us, the church minister and her husband. So we were fine. I was impressed they set up a new tent in the dark. We all had such relaxed fun. I know a lot of good story tellers! My cheeks hurt from laughing again!

Stars through the trees. Big and bright.

There are still a couple more families to catch up with, but I think this will be a nice sized group of current and former Live Oak UU members.

We will have more fires! No more drought!

Here are some other sights from today, including a drive on the scenic road to Bastrop State Park where we went through areas where pines are recovering from the 2011 fire. I hope you enjoy all the trees.

Rolling Off to Bastrop County Again

The weather should be glorious for the next few days, so we’ve decided to spend longer than usual out in the motorhome. That’s made possible by the fact that we also brought my car so Lee can attend a meeting back home and we both can explore this area a bit.

We barely fit both vehicles in, but we did it!

This shady woodland is in Buescher State Park, which is a weirdly shaped area full of trails and scenery. It connects to Bastrop State Park vía a scenic road that I hope to go down tomorrow.

I had fun because I arrived first and got to be the only person in the camping area for a while. It let me really hear the pileated woodpecker singing and pecking away. They are quite noisy birds!

I did a preliminary survey of the plants around the campground. Lots of yaupon and oak, but there are some famous Bastrop County pine trees and others. Not much is blooming after the light frost we had, but I was delighted to find a couple of interesting plants.

This shiny vine is lanceleaf greenbrier, which I’ve looked for often. (*Smilax smallii*)

After my walk, I helped my friend Jen get her trailer unhooked, because her site was too short to fit her camper and her car in without unhooking. We got it done in a fit of woman power and grit. When Lee arrived, I hooked the water up with no dripping, so I’m feeling like a mighty camper.

But I’m not sure if I should go in the restroom. Am I both a woman AND a lady?

Jen and I had nice times chatting and trying to plan a potluck location (none of the cute cabins were available). Then Lee and I spent time with my other favorite co-camper, Mike, with whom I intend to do some good hiking. I earned a lot about AI from him as a bonus.

I’ll enjoy working tomorrow with a view of trees (and no barking dogs to interrupt my recording of myself talking), then get in some exploring. in the meantime, back to knitting by the fake fireplace.

It’s the Most Water-full Time of the Year

Yessir. These days we tend to have a few months of drought, a couple of dribbles, then WHOOSH! A big ole flood comes along. Today was Flood Day. We got four inches or more, three of them very fast.

Even the backup culvert was called into use.

It was about time that our poor ponds (tanks in Texan) got refilled, because the drizzles we’ve had earlier in the month didn’t stop them from continuing to dry up.

Still, it is probably too much to ask of Mother Nature, but a few days of an inch or two a day would be a lot better for our plants and trees, because this much water just runs off into the creek, into the Little Elm, then into the Little River, then into the Brazos, and on to the sea. Or something like that.

For a while there around noon today it looked like we were in a lake, because it was raining so hard nothing could absorb. It was fun to watch, as it was fun to see the creek slowly fill up as more rain went into Walker’s Creek up north from here.

You normally can’t see water from our back yard.

After the rain, I had a lot of fun in my rubber boots looking at the aftermath. Drew was enjoying the water running in from the arroyo and across the road. I hope there wasn’t too much fertilizer runoff, because now it’s all in our front pond.

Mabel, on the other hand, changed colors from rolling in the mud. That gal likes her dirt.

The minute the sun came out, out came all the birds, butterflies, and bugs. The birds had a feast, I’m sure. And I finally got a picture of one of the beautiful blue butterflies with its wings open! That was a personal goal.

You can see how high the water got during the hard rain

I also made all my work goals, even publishing my training video successfully after it breaking repeatedly. For the first time ever, I found the answer in one of those ancient user forums on the software’s site. Turns out you can’t have any of that fancy chart stuff from PowerPoint in your presentation for it to work with my add-on software. I converted the charts to images and everything was fine. I tell you what, it makes me feel smart.

More rain is in store for a few days. There goes my plan to ride my horses every single day. Ya can’t have everything.

Congratulations! It’s a Pipit!

I’ve been trying to ID a brown bird I see every autumn for years now. It’s got white on the sides of its tail and is found in our pastures. Why has it been so hard?

There are LOTS of those tricky little brown birds here in the middle of Texas in the post oak savanna. In addition to the easily spotted house sparrows, there are savannah sparrows, vesper sparrows, lark sparrows, swamp sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, Harris’s sparrows, and maybe more. Some are easy, some are hard to ID visually.

This is the bird. A bit lanky for a sparrow.

That’s why I must once again praise Merlin Bird ID. It’s helped me figure out what I’m seeing SO much. And yesterday and today I was able to figure out what that mysterious brown bird of autumn is, and it’s not a sparrow.

It’s also not a meadowlark, which also has white along it’s tail feathers and a brown back. It does have a beautiful song, like the meadowlark, though.

Meadowlarks are this color in the front, though.

It’s an American pipit. Or it’s a Sprague’s pipit. They aren’t even related to sparrows, which is obvious if you look at their bills. They have the sharp bill of an insectivore. I know that because Merlin heard them calling.

I then read the description and had a “doh” moment. That’s exactly what I’ve been looking at in the fields.

With my love of identification and categorization of what’s around me, I’m quite satisfied right now. Pipit. Yeah. Turns out they’re not even uncommon. Huh.

This snail seed vine isn’t uncommon either, but it’s pretty.

It’s a good bird time right now and will only get better. I’m sad to see summer birds go, but meadowlarks and all those sparrows fill the air with song. Plus the phoebes are screeching and the shrikes are shrieking. The kingfisher is back, too!

It’s a great time of year. Flowers glow in late afternoon light.

And hey, only one bur today on Apache’s man bun and zero on Drew. I want to credit my braiding, but I think the new hay has kept them out of bur world.

Tiny crow poison looks like stars in the grass.

Book Report: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

I finished this fascinating book a while back, but haven’t had time to write it up with so much other excitement going on. But now’s the time! Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: The Astonishing New Science of the Senses, by Maureen Seaberg has opened my eyes (senses metaphor) to all sorts of ways I can do a better job of making full use of all my senses.

I heard the author in an NPR interview talk about her experiences as a person with enhanced senses (she sees more colors than most people and experiences synesthesia). Once she figured out she was different, Seaberg got interested in how our senses work, hence this book.

What fun it was to learn about how we use our senses (including others besides the traditional five) and about our Perception Quotient, a concept Seaberg made up. Stories from people with enhanced smell, taste, etc. make for insightful reading and kept me so engaged that I devoured the whole thing in a day or two. It made me want tetraploid vision a LOT.

I wonder how many shades of green or brown Seaberg would see?

My favorite part of the book is where we get ideas for making the most of our own senses. I’ve been focusing a lot on smell and hearing when I’m out among the woods and fields. I’m glad I’ve been stopping to notice what I can smell in different situations. At the State Park this weekend, the wonderful scents were decomposing wood, Kidneywood blossoms, tiny swallow-wort flowers, and the omnipresent frost weed.

Interestingly, these are all white flowers. I’m not the only one who’s noticed that white flowers seem to have strong scents. That helps with moths at night. If you’ve ever smelled a night-blooming cereus you know that’s true!

There were also unpleasant smells. We were close enough to Luling, Texas and its oil wells to get whiffs of crude oil every so often. I lucked out and didn’t run into any skunk odor, though.

Listening has also been fun lately. I mentioned doing a listening exercise yesterday. I also have fun (sometimes frustration) with the Merlin Bird ID app when I can hear birds it can’t. Mourning doves seem particularly hard for the phone app to hear from a distance. I’m really happy to know my hearing is still good at my age. I’ll get hearing aids the minute I need them, that’s for sure.

I’m also glad my glasses correct my vision so well. I just love to view the world in whatever colors I can see. I’m relieved to not be colorblind like Lee is. My excellent peripheral vision is also something I’m very grateful for. It sure helps me find birds and butterflies in time to enjoy or photograph them.

I found this one because her wings flapped.

I think you’ll get a lot of ideas and learn some new things from this book, even though I find the author can be a little too “New Agey” even for me. She’s a real character!

If you’re like me, you’ll be sharing little tidbits you learn with anyone who will listen. I wish I had grandkids to share some of the book’s ideas and scientific discoveries with, to encourage them to fully use all their senses as they explore their worlds.

I Took a Break

Yes, I took a break from many things I do constantly, and it felt good! I skipped two days of blogging and knitting, and I am just fine, thank you.

I don’t particularly look fine with one dark lens and one light one!

While it wasn’t a voluntary break, it was blissful to have a lot of time to meditate, listen, and rest for the past few days. You see, I took a blogging break starting last Friday because the place we’ve been all weekend is like most Texas State Parks, and light on cellular connectivity. Once I fired up my hotspot, I was able to do things like upload images to iNaturalist slowly and post a few photos to Facebook.

The knitting issue was my own dang fault. I had forgotten to bring along the two shades of blue I needed for the cold front last week. Indeed, it got cool enough to require blue yarn. So, I had to stop. That’s not the end of the world, since I was almost caught up to the present in my squares. Blah blah blah, knitting talk.

Anyway, Lockhart State Park is a little jewel of a place built by the CCC and WPA, two government programs that provided employment in the Great Depression. Today it would be labeled handouts and frowned upon, no doubt.

There are only 20 camping sites, but the circle we are on has 50 amp electric and sewer hookup, so it’s snazzy. Our view is of a woods and the second hole of the only golf course remaining in a Texas State Park. I doubt they have to mow it very often, judging from the sizable herd of deer that shows up every night.

You may recall that our television antenna was knocked off poor Seneca’s roof. We have a new one but haven’t managed to get it up there, so this was also a television-free weekend, other than watching The World Is Not Enough with Pierce Brosnan last night on BlueRay.

Who needs TV? Plus we got the bedroom slide out! Yay!

So, what have I done? Mostly I walked. I have gone on all but one hiking trail here, madly taking photos of plants, bugs, and such for the 2023 Pollinator BioBlitz. I knew I’d do well on this one, because I had one free weekend at home to record observations, most of a week in South Texas, then this long weekend in Lockhart. At one point this weekend, I was #3 out of over 5,000 people in numbers of observations (this will change as people who use real cameras upload their photos, I’m sure).

There were a few plants that I really enjoyed seeing. New to me was the Texas Feathershank Schoenocaulon texanum. It a beautiful plant, especially when the sun shines through its blossoms. I wish it grew at our place!

Two other wonders are the Texas Kidneywood Eysenhardtia texana and the Bearded Swallow-wort Metastelma barbigerum, two plants with tiny white flowers that I learned more about on this trip. Lockhart is at the northern end of the area these are found in.

Kidneywood is used for dye, as it apparently glows underwater! It also has blossoms that smell intoxicatingly wonderful and are very attractive to pollinators. With its teeny little leaves, it’s a cool small tree to find.

The swallow-wort I saw in south Texas. Here, though, there were huge vines of them, just abuzz with bees and wasps. I think it may be related to milkvines, because the leaves look similar and the seed pods look just like climbing milkvine. Plus, look at those seeds. Sure looks like milkweed! The flowers are teeny-tiny, though, so if they have a cute little pearl in the center, I couldn’t see them.

I did finally find a blooming milkvine, after spotting many with no blossoms. I do love milkweeds.

The most common plants here are the ubiquitous straggler daisy, Texas Indian mallow, and Turk’s cap. There were some lovely vistas of Turk’s cap in the woods, even though you could tell a lot were lost in the drought.

Here are some other plants and insects I found:

My side quest was to see how many birds I could identify. I actually saw quite a few, with the most obliging one being this lovely black vulture, who just grunted at me a couple of times.

Mostly I heard birds on Merlin. There were a couple of obvious errors, but most I could confirm by seeing them. There was even a screech owl! In all, I identified 42 kinds of birds, thanks to the varied terrain here (water birds really like the lovely creek that flows through the park).

I also saw lots of deer in the woods, as well as on the golf course, and one happy armadillo. There was evidence of MANY armadillos here, along with coyotes and raccoons.

The most fun I had (fun is a weird thing for me) was going into the trails at sunset and finding a quiet spot. Then I’d just listen. Sadly, you could always hear traffic way in the background, along with airplanes and a really annoying bulldozer that messed up my listening this morning. But when it was quiet, you could hear the leaves falling off the cedar elm trees, cardinals flying (they are loud fliers), distant crows, and what I figure are deer walking around or armadillos digging.

Of course, in the mornings, it isn’t silent. The wrens, chickadees, blue jays, cardinals, and woodpeckers make quite a racket. And one hawk about burst my eardrums it was so close. Pretty cool.

Back to work, dogs, and horses tomorrow morning! I think I have enough Internet to get work done while Lee gets ready to leave! But we both will remember this quiet, restful respite.