Bird Sightings – Page 8 – The Hermits' Rest

Happy to Stay Right Here

How much would you pay to go to the moon?

Nah. I have no need to go to the moon. I like it where it is and me where I am. All the lunar romance, metaphor, and legend falls away when you view the moon as a large cratered hunk of rock. I do think it’s amazing that our moon is the exact right size to create eclipses, though. That is one thing that makes me wonder if there’s an intelligent designer of the universe. Maybe the only thing…

…meanwhile, back in my little spot on Gaia, Mother Nature has taken on a benevolent aspect, at least for a time, and graced us with rain not just one, but two nights in a row! Yesterday’s total was over two inches, and tonight it’s rained hard for quite a while. There was a little water in the creek today. I look forward to seeing how our tanks look tomorrow.

But during the day, it was pleasant, which enabled me to get my eyes examined right in Cameron, Texas (what a luxury), which included interesting conversations on current events where I just listened. I rewarded myself with a visit to the bakery for a nice sticky bun. Mmm.

No photo of a bun, but here’s a Great Egret in a tree.

I’d thought my next task, getting Apache ready for a lesson, would be quick and easy. I was mistaken. I now have all dark gray horses, the exact color of our dirt. Apache had really been getting into his mud spa treatment and was concentrating particularly on his mane. He was encrusted. I regret not photographing it, but was pressed for time.

He looked like me, only bigger and more horse shaped.

I did my best in the limited time I had to wash him off, but it was not successful. At least he was clean enough to put a saddle on and did well even with the distractions of gunshots and frolicking foals. He’s sure come a long way.

I’m sure he will enjoy the mud these clouds have created.

That’s about all I have to write about today, because rather than contemplating wasting my money going to visit a cratered rock, I spent the rest of the day contemplating the value of life, the importance of friendship, and how we need to enjoy every moment we have on this planet, even when things are more than a little wonky.

I enjoyed the moment I saw this Nuptial Scorpionfly today!

Please know that if you’re my friend, you matter to me very much. And even if I don’t know you, I wish you a good life.

Ah, No Stitches

I’m relieved to say I no longer have itchy stitches above my left eye. And yes, I removed them myself with clean (Anita asked, so you might also) nail clippers. One snip and out they came, saving me a couple of hours of travel and a visit to a place with scary germs.

I was surprised at how little the scar shows up. The stitch holes look worse than the cut. I know I’m a good healer, so I don’t think I’m deformed. It’s still swollen and tender, so I don’t plan any rash actions in the near future.

I’ll stick to artsy photos of dead thistles.

I did take my hurt black glasses over to Marvina’s House of Optical Whimsy (not its real name) to see if they could be fixed, but alas, the hinge is dead. So I made myself feel better by picking out some new (more whimsical) black frames and…maybe more whimsy. I do love eyeglasses. So does Marvina. Tomorrow I’ll get my eyes examined and patiently (not) wait for new frames. I just hope my prescription hasn’t changed so I can still use my other glasses.

Other than bird drama (Sandhill Cranes, a marauding Harrier, and a friendly Bewick’s Wren) today was calm. The big rain isn’t here yet, all livestock are great, and work is dandy.

I’ll stop before I make more typos. Sorry about the recent ones, for you email subscribers, but at least my friend Sue R finds them so I can fix them on the website. It takes a village!

Much to Be Happy About

Where to start? The day started out good and kept getting better. Look at this sunrise!

And I was happy to see yesterday’s new calf and mama cow looked much perkier this morning and nursing was going well. I think they’re fine.

I also felt better today, after a slow start. Maybe my head is healing. I’m at least able to do complicated tasks at work.

After work came the best part of the day, very healing and gratifying. Jackie came to do bodywork on Apache, and I decided to see if she could maybe help out Drew, too. He’d been pretty good recently.

After grooming my sweaty Paint boy, I brought Drew out and proceeded to groom him. He was fine. So, as we waited for Jackie, I got to work on his tail, which, sigh, was full of burs, thanks to the horses grazing in the only spot that still has them (I couldn’t even see them when I called them in to eat; I just heard thundering hooves until they came around the pond). With no trouble at all, I got that tail all smooth and shiny.

After Jackie arrived and started working on Apache, who she says is doing very well, I bravely approached his mane, sprayed detangler, and started brushing. There weren’t too many burs, but they came out with no issues. THEN he let me get burs out of his forelock! And asked to have his head rubbed!! What the heck?

That was the start of a wonderful afternoon with Droodles. Perhaps the Adequin (or however you spell it) really kicked in and he feels better. But we had a nice bit of exercise in which he walked, trotted, and cantered pretty calmly, followed by some hand grazing and bonding. I could stroke him, rub his head, let him nuzzle my hand…no scary biting or kicking! Wow!

And he did a good job with the bodywork. When he wanted to say he was uncomfortable, he did, but Jackie could calm him right back down so he could stretch or whatever she asked him for.

This is Drew all relaxed getting worked on.

Afterwards, she showed me how she used calming breaths and distraction, while keeping herself safe. My mind was blown. I can do that! And it’s more how I’d like to work with him. This information was invaluable and encouraging.

Stretching exercise. She let him move around until he was able to bend. That must have felt nice.

We also had a great talk about how long it takes to create a great partnership and a great horse. Her story of Jambo, her horse who just retired, has inspired me. Maybe I can keep going slowly with Drew, work on the ground some more, make sure his pain is managed, and we can go forward.

Look at us all happy. He is not biting me.

I just have to get both horses to the vet to get assessed. Now that I feel less head pain, I will get to work. And maybe I can go back to enjoying both horses. It was SO nice to have a good day with Drew.

And one final good part of the day: IT RAINED. I think it was enough to measure, and will know more tomorrow. It was so exciting that Kathleen and I ran out to check for raindrops in the pool. We hope more substantial rain comes tomorrow, since it’s badly needed.

At Least There Were Clouds

I miss rain. There was a trace while I was out of town, but otherwise no rain since early September. Today the weather toyed with me.

Some nice clouds rolled in early this morning. It got very quiet and the air felt encouraging. It was oddly warm. The birds and I were hopeful.

Alas, the beautiful dark clouds drifted away. Sigh.

On the positive side, it was a great day for birds. I declared it to be the start of Ornithological Winter, because a White-throated Sparrow appeared (more than one, actually). Combined with Chipping Sparrows, Pipits, and passing Sandhill Cranes, I’m confident the season has changed, bird-wise. It will cool off and rain soon!

I’m admittedly tired of having my head feel weird every time I try to do anything more strenuous than walk. Horse grooming and exercising got me worried the cut would re-open, so lucky horses are just getting Bur removal. Yes, as hard as we tried to eliminate them, horses can still find burs.

I’ve been enjoying watching these pretty katydids fly around this week.

Ugh. I’m just not feeling 100% so I’ll write more when I’m more myself.

Worn Out in a Good Way

I’m a tired little teddy bear tonight, so don’t expect anything even moderately pithy. Not that pithy is an adjective I’d choose for my blogging.

I got up bright and early so I could look for birds and pollinators by the lake. I was more successful today than yesterday, and I had bonus sightings of deer, a desert cottontail, and a coyote that I didn’t get a photo of.

After that early fun I set up my outdoor office and got in most of a work day at the park. I got to watch the Green Jays, doves, and woodpeckers while I worked. It was a nice change of pace. I was joined by some friends.

We pulled out of Choke Canyon State Park before my last work call. I managed to take some pictures of the things one sees in the brushy oilfield land on our way home. I was asked for photos of towns, so I’ll give you Kenedy and Nixon. Yes, they are near each other. Enjoy views of deep in the heart of Texas.

So, that’s southern Texas. Now to have a normal day before I go somewhere else. I’m piling on the travel. Zzz.

Exploring to the Extent I Could

It was a pretty darn good camping day. I even got to do more traditional nature activities than I did yesterday. After coffee I’d planned to hike at the other unit a few miles away. Instead I went on a fun hike with my new friend Sue along the trails named after birds here at the main camping unit at Choke Canyon State Park.

Sue’s a solo nomad camper, with just her dogs. I admire that! We have a lot in common, including horses, so we had a lot to talk about.

However, the scenery frequently left us wordless, because there were so many butterflies around. There were many Queens and Buckeyes, but the best part was that there were dozens and dozens of American Snouts fluttering around the trails. It must be their migration time.

I have always enjoyed the Snouts. A few years ago, we went to a cabin with family during the Snout migration, and I still have great memories of these little guys and gals flowing in a steady stream as we watched from the porch.

Snouts are feisty, too. We saw them chasing the larger Queens quite pugnaciously. What fun.

We did see some Monarchs, but none ever stopped long enough to photograph.

And some of my photos were bad, like this Funereal Duskywing

Other fun sights came when we went down the concrete jetty trail near the concession stand (closed due to the lake being so low there are few fishing visitors). I was thrilled to see a Ruby-throated Hummingbird enjoying the tubular blossoms of tree tobacco plants. I thought the hummers were all gone.

Anyway, it’s very pleasant to have someone to hike with, especially here, since there really aren’t all that many birds around right now. And it was warm, but not too hot.

Later, i had to take a sad football game break, since my team wasn’t doing great. I went over to the “swimming area” to look at clams and water plants. I also found some very pretty purple flowers called Gregg’s Tube Tongue (Justicia pilosella). I’m a sucker for anything that looks like a violet!

Lee and I went off to the South Unit. They didn’t even have staff at the gate, because it’s so dry that boaters can’t get into the lake easily. We explored the lake shore, which had swaths of marsh fleabane teeming with American Buckeye butterflies. We had lots of fun with them.

Next, we drove over to the dam that contains the Frío River to create the lake. I was very disappointed to find out the road across the dam was closed. I’d really wanted to look for shore birds near the dam. I did see one Great Egret with my binoculars and determined that the white birds I’d seen were buoys to keep boats away from the dangerous part of the lake. Sigh.

We enjoyed dinner outside and that was the end of a pretty good day.

Ooh! I forgot to mention we saw javelina on our way to the dam. Good thing!

Spontaining All Over Texas

Today didn’t go as planned. That’s okay. If you can’t spontain on a relaxing weekend at a state park, when else can you? I did get to spend the morning doing what I intended, which is record birds for the Big Day on Merlin/eBird and record pollinators for the Texas Pollinator Bioblitz on iNaturalist. I do so love doing competitions where I can compete with myself.

Lee had wanted to take pictures with me at the bird blind, but realized the camera batteries were not charged. So he decided to go to Corpus Christi (1.5 hours or so) to get some at a camera shop. I was promised visits to parks on the trip. So, I spontaneously agreed.

I hoped to see more butterflies, like this Buckeye

Off we went, but soon realized people need to eat. We lucked out and there was a very authentic Texas-Czech barbecue/kolache place at our first exit in Mathis. We went through many small towns today, some more decrepit than others. The restaurant had a great collection of antiques and extra friendly waitresses. The fried okra was fresh, too. A winner.

Yes, we did stop next at another state park, Lake Corpus Christi. We decided to come back and stay there for a longer trip. They have full hookups and lots of trails, plus the nicest state park restroom building I ever saw. Indeed, I took pictures. We just drove around and didn’t get out, so I only got two plant photos.

After that I saw many fascinating slums and defunct shopping centers in Corpus Christi. I saw parts of that town I’d never seen before and would have been okay not seeing, but it was like an adventure/scavenger hunt trying to locate the camera stores Lee had looked up. For future reference, there is no camera store in Corpus Christi. There are many small houses, giant empty churches, and weird downtown streets, though.

It was a relief to get on that nice wide road that takes you over some bays index onto Mustang Island, a place I used to hang out at during my early years in Texas. I’d never been to the state park there, but I can no longer say that. We did get to Mustang Island State Park (got our money’s worth on the parks pass).

I got many observations of Beachy pollinators as well as plenty of birds to record, so I was satisfied. We both enjoyed watching the ghost crabs and were astonished at how many jellyfish were washed up. There are super high tides right now, so they were almost to the dunes.

On our way home we drove the back way with no interstates. Wow. There are some desolate areas in this part of Texas. We passed many large ranches with dirt instead of grass (drought) and many others that were obviously being managed for game. The scrub is very good for hunting birds in addition to larger animals.

We also passed through Orange Grove (no oranges seen) which is where some of Lee’s family settled. It was in pretty sad shape but had some nice housing tracts outbox town. It was the last town before all the nothingness.

It’s good to be back at Choke Canyon after a nice meal of H-E-B sushi. I got 45 bird species today!

Heading South Like a Bird

Not that I want it to be warmer; it’s plenty warm still where I live. Nonetheless The plan for today was to head down south for a repeat visit to Choke Canyon State Park. I accidentally rebooked this park, perhaps I had a subconscious plan.

This very anxious cow had both me and the dogs concerned during birding time.

But first we had to get there. The farrier came early, which messed up my careful plans for getting both my work and my travel preparation done (and photography of pollinators for Texas Pollinator Week). Then, of course, work needed me and that got me more out of sync. I kept up my planned work/prep until I went to feed the chickens and give them water.

Of course I stopped for pollinators. This clouded skipper was diving into a flower.

As I turned the water flow on, I saw a brown lump in the grass. Was it something else Vlassic had dragged in from the pasture?

Oh my gosh, no! It was a newborn calf! On our side of the fence! It was doing the classic baby calf thing of laying low and not moving. I knew it was just born, because Tyler V tags new ones as soon as he finds them and he’s looking at least twice a day right now.

No wonder that cow had been mooing so hard this morning! And her milk bag was very full. I got in touch with Tyler then finished working and getting ready. Just as we were finally leaving, Tyler arrived and I showed him where the calf was. The poor thing was getting hot and breathing hard, so I’m glad it got rescued. All it took was for Tyler to walk up to it and it scooted back through the fence. I hope there was a family reunion and the baby got tagged.

That made me as happy as I assume these bee flies were when I took this shot.

Four hours later, we arrived to the familiar sight of Choke Canyon’s scrubby beauty. I quickly realized why I subconsciously rebooked a place we had already been—this time we are just two spots away from the bird blind! The really good one! And there’s javelina poop on our site! Yes! This place has its own beauty and excitement.

Bonus: the leveling system worked and my bedroom slide went out. I can get to my pajamas and art supplies! It’s like we have our motorhome back, though the generator still won’t start.

I did get to walk around just a little bit, and found a lot of climbing milkweed, lantana, and cow pen daisies. I hope these will convince some of the beautiful butterflies I’ve been seeing to stop and pollinate. So far I have a dead queen butterfly and a brown moth. I must do better!

I figure I’ll enjoy a few more birding hikes this weekend as well as take a lot of insect and plant photos! Enjoy scenes from my sunset walk.

Hard Goals

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

As tired as I am, I can answer this one (I don’t answer blog prompts lately because I’ve answered most of them). That’s good, because it was another day of barely getting through work and not being able to do much more.

I finished coloring this. It took a week or so in small doses.

So, I’ve probably mentioned this before and will again. But for years I had a hard time being the person I felt I could be, and it turns out I had a lot to do with it. Thanks to some issues in my birth family and an inherently sensitive nature, I was always very hard on myself.

I never met my own expectations. Any mistake I made lingered in my mind for a long time. I’d replay “dumb” things I said over and over. And I would constantly talk to myself in ways no one would talk to someone they cared about. I was ugly, fat, stupid, and so on. I was not nice to me.

Since I AM actually pretty smart and intuitive, I figured out that I was not helping myself with the negative self talk. So I had some therapy, talked things out with a group of safe and understanding women, meditated (a lot, still do), and read.

I’m very pleased to have come across the writing of Brené Brown. I’m also pleased someone made me read a self-help book. I find most of them really simplistic or not right for me. Her first few books opened my eyes to how much I was affecting my own self worth, and by that, encouraging others to pick at me or devalue me. Figuring out that I wasn’t the only one doing this to myself was a huge revelation. I got a much better outlook and began to heal.

I got tested a lot in this healing phase. Since I came to Cameron, a couple of people (who of course are suffering from their own internal battles) tried their best to break me down, give the community a bad impression of me, and hurt others I cared about. I’ve had some very hard times here in rural Texas, where even in a good day I’m a square peg not even trying to fit into a round hole.

But, one day, right after a very mean person was mean to me, something snapped in my brain. I told my patterns I was sick and tired of them and vowed to reframe the situation every time I started to berate myself.

Get this. It worked. After a while, weird thoughts like how good I felt, or how peaceful life was began to replace sadness. My negativity patterns have gone into background mode, and I feel so much better. Sure, that stuff is still down there and today’s trying times make feeling good about anything difficult. Yet, I honestly feel good about myself, like myself, and don’t beat myself up when I screw up (much). And of course, the horse riding lessons helped me practice gaining self confidence.

I kept telling myself I was fine just as I was and that it’s perfectly okay that not everybody likes me until it became true. I’ve even learned a bit about how to perform the once-mysterious act of “letting other people’s negativity slide right off my back.”

Maybe that’s why these bluebirds of happiness keep following me.

I try to cut others some slack, and accept those around me who confuse me just as they are. I just hope they find peace and joy on their path.

Who IS THIS version of Suna? She’s different. Not perfect, not better than anyone else, but at a good place in her spiritual journey.

So, blog prompt readers, loving myself and treating myself kindly were my hardest goals.

Now I’ll move on towards being less judgmental (making good progress), and being so afraid to speak up about what I see as wrong. There’s always room for improvement!

Mortality Blues

I’ve been re-watching the television series Lucifer, in which the Devil comes to earth to figure out what being mortal is like, among other things. He’s all excited to get to actually feel pain.

Well, I’m glad it gives Mr. Morningstar some giggles. It’s not the case with me these days, nor with so many of my friends in the 75+ age group. They seem pretty baffled at how their previously well behaved bodies are randomly (it seems) failing. Why is my knee giving way? How did I get this heart issue? What the heck!

Carlton is concerned about his mortality though he need not be

I remember how weird it seemed when my indestructible Dad started to show signs of age. Maybe it was good he passed at 80, before his body stopped being so robust. That would have been hard on him.

I’m musing about this because my digestive system, the one inextricably linked to my anxiety and stress, has not been cooperating with me. I was pretty much out of commission today, and I don’t know which of many possibilities caused it. I ended up taking a nap in the cool motorhome after work.

No doubt the horses were relieved I didn’t make anyone work today, but they got fed.

It’s just so frustrating to have your body not doing its job properly when you have plans. That’s my least favorite part of aging, the unreliability of the physical part of myself.

Nonetheless there were highlights today, the biggest of which was seeing a big Wood Stork by the creek. I thought it was a hawk at first, but the head shape gave it away. I hope we see more, and some cranes.

That will make up for how quiet birding has been lately. I hear plenty of birds, but not in large numbers and not very enthusiastically. Maybe they’re all molting like Connie and the chickens.

The Great Egret was another non-Hawk that was in the usual lookout trees.

I will now see if I can sleep. I’ve avoided the news and have not read any depressing books.