As someone who was there when it was born and started building websites when they were text only, I have a soft spot for it. So, what sites do I love these days?
INaturalist. That should come as no surprise. I just love looking at the photos, helping folks ID their observations, and tracking my own observations. Want to see what’s found in the ranch? You can see it here!
eBird. I use this mainly to look up birds, but my Merlin IDs are there. I just don’t mark everything I see. However, great bird reference.
Wikipedia. This is where I “do my research.” I learn so much from this site, and it’s easy to go find original sources for what’s in there. I usually Google topics then end up on Wikipedia. We give them money, too, since we use it so much.
Notice that I list all .org sites. They tend to have fewer deceiving redirects, flashing popups, and other things I dislike about commercial sites.
This lovely Fish Crow is on iNat.
So, that answers that question. I’ve spent the afternoon getting settled into my condo for this year’s visit to Hilton Head. I must have screwed up my reservation, because I’m not in an ocean-front room on a high floor. I’d been counting on that for bird observations. My room is also a handicapped room, so the kitchen has interesting features. But that’s okay.
The view is fine. And all the lighting protects the dark sky
I can go out walking if I want birds, and the rooms have been refreshed. It will be fine.
I found lots of birds right across the road from the condo. And this festive grass.
Tomorrow I can go to a nature preserve within walking distance, so I’m set.
The Common Mestra (Mestra amymone) is a butterfly I’ve been seeing very often this autumn. I went on and on about it the first time I saw one.
The Mestra
Since then, they’ve been everywhere, including parks I’ve visited, flitting here and there and enjoying the broomweed and frog fruit in particular. I’d never seen them before this year.
It’s pretty and orange on the underwings.
I’ve been trying to get better pictures of them, since I wanted to write about them. However, they are very busy looking for nectar or places to lay eggs, or something. I wonder if they’re able to find what they need, with no rain here all month.
You wouldn’t know it, but there are at least a half dozen in this photo of the Hermits’ Rest woods.
I looked up information on these delicate beauties. These Mestra live from our area down through Panama.
According to the descriptions in various websites, they like lantana flowers, but those are no longer blooming here. I go to wondering about their lifecycle this week as we saw dozens of Mestra at the Springtail Ridge hike.
This one shows the orange border nicely.
One of the women I was BioBlitzing with found a resource that said their host plant is Tragia or noseburn. I hadn’t looked up the common name for Tragia when I first read up on these butterflies. Suddenly it all made sense.
Tragia urticifolia, or Nettleleaf Noseburn growing in our woods.
This year was a really good one for this plant thanks to having more rain this summer than usual. This may have meant more Mestra eggs hatched this year than usual. All the women I talked to live in central Texas where there was this same rain pattern. They’ve all seen more of these than usual. One woman who’s been in Texas a long time remembered another year with lots of Mestra, then they went away until this year.
My guess is that good years for noseburn (not our most pleasant plant otherwise) mean good years for Common Mestra. I’ll be on the lookout next year to see if this is true.
After I got home from San Marcos, I was happy to get home to my birds and woods. I even heard a Swainson’s Hawk to greet me. I spent an hour or so taking photos of pollinators, since the Bioblitz ends today. I found more butterflies than I’ve been seeing lately, plus bees and wasps.
BuckeyeCrow featherThere’s a Pileated Woodpecker nest up there!Dry ranchMore drynessBack pondQueenAsterI think it looks like a dragonSkipperHairstreakLonghorn beeA cloud!!Katydid
I look forward to a week with my dog and horse buddies and to ordering reading material to supplement what I learned last week, like Val Plumwood, Paul Taylor, and Paul Shepherd. I wrote those here so I won’t lose their names.
Yes. Walking is my favorite exercise. That’s clear to anyone who reads this little blog. Second is horseback riding. You get exercise and don’t even notice, because your brain is so engaged.
My favorite horse riding photo.
I get itchy if I don’t get my walking in. That became very obvious when I had Covid and in the weeks afterwards when my stamina left. However, today I did a LOT of sitting, since this was the only day of the Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting when I didn’t have any field sessions. I walked around the hotel as fast as I could and got out for a ten-minute walk between sessions. Better than nothing, though, and it helped me make my move goal.
The oak tree I found in the parking lot is not native. It’s a Mexican white oak.
Let me say this; it was worth sitting around all day. I learned so much that I’ll use in the future today! This has really been a great conference, which I’m glad for since I’ve had to miss another conference with many friends.
Interpretation, not what you think.
Two of the sessions I attended were about interpretation. My mom would be pleased, since she always thought I was going to school to be an interpreter (I was a linguistics major). Note that the sessions were about interpretation of nature or historical locations. I want to be better at leading nature and bird walks at our new bird sanctuary.
Levels of experience you can help people achieve.
I have good ideas for stories I can tell to facilitate learning in different audiences.
Two other sessions I attended were about creatures I’m fond of, spiders and flies. Both were by the same woman, a nature writer whose stuff I’m familiar with from the Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, Sheryl Smith-Rodgers. She’s entertaining, though her presentations are relentlessly paced. I could have used more depth.
One new thing I learned.
I especially liked some of her videos, many of which she took herself. There was one on a peacock spider that was extra cute, and one extreme closeup video of a mosquito (which is a fly) getting blood out of someone. It was both fascinating and nauseating.
The other thing I learned was how to tell a male from a female fly. Females have a gap between their compound eyes.
I wish I had videos of these presentations so I could look at the pictures more.
Another session I learned a lot from was on what lives in the aquifer under San Marcos. They get samples of what comes up from an old artesian well and analyze them.
The well in question.
I knew vaguely that there were blind cave salamanders, but, wow, there are all sorts of living things under the water in the limestone. It ranges from shrimp to snails to relatives of pill bugs. They’re all blind and colorless.
Look at that salamander.
I think my brain got full today. I’m glad I could just enjoy dinner with nice folks, including my chapter friend Linda Jo. They gave out many, many awards, and I got to stand up for hitting 1,000 volunteer hours last year. Of course, that was dwarfed by two guys who hit 30,000 hours. Linda Jo and I think we started too late to get to that one. Also, we have other things in our lives.
Our program got an international award, though, and our bat monitoring program was voted the best master naturalist program in the US. Impressed.
I’ve had a darned good time even if I didn’t get much exercise today. I do look forward to heading home tomorrow to find out how the animals and people are holding up.
My idea of a thrill may not be yours. For me, seeing a new natural environment with new flora and fauna is often thrilling to me. Today’s field trip was to Ringtail Ridge Natural area, west of San Marcos. What an interesting spot!
The Bioblitz participants.
We did a Bioblitz as part of the Texas Master Naturalist annual meeting set up by the Nature Trackers staff. The park was big enough that we could all disperse and not be on top of each other. I ended up with three excellent birders, and a good time was had by all.
Our selfie
We heard and saw warblers, a Kestrel, and many Black-crested Titmice. Finding interesting plants was a little harder, because it’s so dry right now, but we could tell this place is beautiful in spring and early summer. The topography was interesting, with many berms and old stone walls.
This velvet-leaf mallow really has velvety leaves. Beautiful Brasil plant. Hackberry, beloved by insects. Dry but pretty. The land
Most of the thrills came from insects, which we found plenty of. There were so many common mestra butterflies that in one place it looked like fairies having a convention. There were also many goatweed leaf wings and caterpillars galore. One caterpillar was huge. It looked like a big ole hotdog chomping on a vine. It’s a future Vine sphinx moth. Spectacular!
MestraMestraMestraGoatweed leaf wingVine sphinx caterpillarIt was so big! The adult mothA chrysalis?Definitely a chrysalis Bold jumping spider eating a cactus bugGiant milkweed bugsSalt marsh moth caterpillar The insects
We also found nests and not just bird nests! There were many turtle nests, too, with little eggshells. We had fun.
Eventually we returned to the hotel, where I did two normal conference sessions, one on how to have difficult discussions as Master Naturalists and one on nightjars (like Chuck-will’s widows and nighthawks. Such interesting and little studied birds.
Love it. Mike Mitchell not being controversial Look at that mouth.
The dinner presentation was by Jeff Gessas, one of the leaders of the leaders of yesterday’s moving session. I loved watching him talk, as he reminded me so much of my estranged older son, also a philosopher. Geez. They’re the same age. Still, I learned a lot that resonated with me.
Biocultural Conservation
It was a fun day, and I even got to hang out with folks from my chapter a bit!
Our little contingent managed to get together. Mark from Bastrop and I both hit 1,000 hours. I met him the day we planted all the flowers.
Oh I needed today. Words have failed me when I’ve tried to describe what I experienced, but I’ll try to summarize.
San Marcos River
This morning I attended a field session at the location of the former Aquarena Springs tourist attraction, which has been lovingly returned to a more natural state by Texas State University and is now the meadows Center for Water and the Environment. Before it was an attraction, it was a site of a gristmill. Before that, it was a sacred site for native people who believed they were born from the springs.
This is the spot.
I’d met the descendants of this tribe at a conference years ago. They talked about the Sacred Springs and how it had magical qualities. That’s why I wanted to attend the session on Field Environmental Philosophy As An Approach Towards Mindfulness and Reconnection With Freshwater Ecosystems. That’s a mouthful.
Headwaters of the river.
Oh my goodness. The session, which was led by three philosophy professors, was exactly what I needed to put together the seemingly disparate pieces of my spiritual practice, personal philosophy, and scientific interests. It’s biocultural conservation. The techniques the presentation demonstrated show how you can integrate mindfulness and connection with nature and scientific analysis. Bingo. That’s my goal.
Learning and listening
I got a bit overwhelmed just standing at the sacred site. It felt like one of “my” places. I was deeply comforted and quite moved. One of the professors noticed. I said I felt connection, like ley lines. He said that’s because many sensitive people say the same thing! Eureka. I found my Texas home spot at last. (I know of two others, one in Florida and one in Wales.)
Later in the day
I no longer wonder if I shouldn’t be identifying birds while doing my breathing exercises. I feel validated in my drive to perceive the world around me in all the modalities. It’s just a great feeling.
Sunset and cypress
Anyway, we did an observation exercise then came back and talked about it. I think the philosophers were ticked that so many of us were blown away by what they were sharing with us. There were so many great pieces of feedback and questions. I have many reading resources to look up now. I’m stoked.
Glorious old growth trees.
I enjoyed hearing the birds and looking at the beautiful plants on this site, too. The university is doing great work to preserve this area.
The rest of my day was full of fine conversations with new and old friends and even some rest. I met interesting people in the vendor area and learned from them. Fascinating stuff about night sky preservation, fireflies, raptors, and native seeds. Bonus was meeting a woman who’s just published a book on karst and caves in this area, another interest of mine!
The Texas Master Naturalist annual meeting kickoff was back at the springs. I enjoyed the glass-bottom boat tide very much. I’m glad they kept the boats from the tourist days. Here are some fish and turtle photos.
Glass-bottom bowman ride.
After the boat I went into the aquarium area in the building on site. They had examples of all the fish we saw in the river, plus the Texas River Cooter turtles. The garfish were so cool. Plus there was an eel. I love aquariums.
Aquaria
I came on back before the nothing began and joined my friend Mike for a drink. I wish we could see him more often. I caught him up with the rest of our chapter members and he caught me up with his naturalist and ethics work.
I still have time to blog for you! Enjoy this dump of more photos of my day at the aquatic center.
A maple tree!Great EgretGiant black WillieArmy webwormCypress kneesTurtle and fishPrettiest poverty weed everWetland beauty.
Whew. I’m a tired gal. But it was fun getting that way and I was rewarded with a pleasant evening.
Seeing a Common Mestra made my day.
It’s time for the Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting. So I drove to the Shield Ranch somewhere in Southwest Travis County or Hays County to start my activities. I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but it looked like an interesting spot in the field session description.
It had an interesting stump that looks like an animal head.
When I got there (after having to go through rush hour in west Austin) I found that the session included doing some dirty work. And there I was in my white shirt. Silly me.
That’s me in the white shirt holding the seed sack.
But we intrepid volunteers all had a good time, I think. We prepared ground with topsoil and composted horse manure (much lifting, wheelbarrow wrangling, raking and mixing). I mostly threw native plant seeds appropriate to the part of the world where the ranch is on top of that mix. It sounds easy but that seed bucket was heavy. My left arm is telling me that, right now.
Seed buckets. There was also rye grass seed.
Once that was done, mulch was used to hide the seeds from birds. This was on the roadside, where plants have not been growing. It should be really nice if it ever rains the seeds in. We did well!
Preparation and the final result.
After the work, we ate our sack lunches in the impressive dining pavilion. It’s all solar powered and all the water is harvested rainwater. There’s no air conditioning, but it was perfectly pleasant inside. And at one end was a garage door of windows that could be cranked open, to be replaced by screens. Very clever.
View from side window
I ate with a very nice older woman named Annie who was Texan in the best way, full of stories of her farm upbringing and funny relatives. I just had the nicest time talking to her.
Beautiful little bluestem prairie area as seen from the garage doors.
After we ate we went on tour of the site, which hosts camps for underprivileged young people, we took a hike along the creek then up the escarpment to see the meadows. There were many interesting plants, though they were pretty shriveled from the drought.
Picnic areaEntrance Hand washing station, which we needed. Donor wall. Really well done. Small solar panelsCamping cabinEvaporative toilet Explanation Bathroom area with another sink area. The back of the toilet system. Fascinating. Rick wall left from early white settlersThis is the fire road. So pretty. Native landscape plant and skipperSo Iran bumblebee. Very striped. More gradToothleaf goldeneye Yellow ckematisCreek has small amount of water Texas persimmon tree.
Oh, I meant to mention that a Master Naturalist chapter did the welcoming and very decorative plantings around the facility. It’s all native plants, teeming with life, but as attractive as a traditional landscape. They did great work. photos are above.
The drive to San Marcos, where the meeting is being held, was quite enjoyable, mostly on back roads. There were many huge ranches with ornate fencing and gates. Combined with their concrete driveways, you knew lots of money was being used for these spreads. Also there were numerous neighborhoods of very large homes. Land must be less expensive in the Buda area.
When the hour-long drive ended, I collapsed in my very comfy room. It’s a corner suite, which matters because I’m at one of those atrium hotels with all the echoes. Most suites have windows facing the hallway, which is loud. Mine looks out in the back (quiet) side of the hotel, where I can see how much the area has grown since I came here 15 years or so ago for a UU women’s conference. I feel old!
That used to be corn
I did venture back out, because we get two free drinks per night! I’m so glad I did, because I ended up talking to the woman in front of me in the drinks line for a long time. We ended up having a great conversation about all sorts of things, even horses! She’s learning dressage. I couldn’t have had a nicer time.
Happy couch time
Now I hope I can sleep. I didn’t last night! That was inconvenient insomnia. Tomorrow’s field session involves mindfulness and wetlands. Hmm. And later, glass-bottom boats at the beautiful former Aquarena Springs.
It happens all the time to me. I get perturbed about a situation, but if I just give myself time, I can figure out a solution. I need to remember this for future perturbations.
I’ve no idea if I used perturbation right. But here’s a cute Fiery Skipper in a salt marsh aster.
Yesterday I found out my roommate for the upcoming Master Naturalist annual meeting had decided to get a room to herself. Now, as Suna, I would be hypocritical if I didn’t applaud someone who wanted to room alone. Heck, this was the first year I’d wanted a roommate, and I go on long trips alone. I get wanting a place to decompress!
This Dusky Skipper is here to tell you it’s time for the 2024 Texas Pollinator Bioblitz, so there will be many insects and flowering plants in here for the next few days.
The problem was that I’d messed up when registering for my hotel room. Because I wanted to arrive Wednesday, a day the hotel is full, I couldn’t use hotel points and had to reserve a full price. Then I realized I’d forgotten to book Saturday night. So, it was working out to be an expensive mess and I considered canceling, since I’ll have no one to hang out with.
I could hang with this guy. What an interesting wasp. It’s a Five-banded Thynnid wasp, I think.
But I thought, and thought, and at last my brain woke up and gave me the inspiration to contact Hilton customer support. So I got through to their Diamond member customer support. I told the agent my situation and she said she thought she could fix it. It took a while, but she was able to apply points for three of the nights, and get me the less expensive conference rate for that pesky Wednesday night (it’s still over $200—no wonder most of my colleagues aren’t going). To top it off, she exchanged my standard two-queen room for my favorite: the king corner suite. I just couldn’t stop thanking that nice and competent worker. She got a great review from me!
I’m happy as a Phaon Crescent that’s avoided the local Phoebes.
I felt like things took a turn for the better last night when I got a text from Tarrin after I’d already gone to bed. She said to go outside quickly. So I did. There was the aurora borealis dimly shining in the north! It may have been pale, but I’d never seen it before! And it looked really cool in photos.
Wow!
I got all weepy and giddy at the same time. I’d always wanted to see the Northern Lights. Now I don’t have to go to Iceland to do it. Lee enjoyed it, too. I really should have texted others, but I was too awestruck. I’m glad Tarrin texted!
Bucket Lust (Anita said I had to leave this good typo) complete. That was the only thing left on it, now that I’ve also seen the Grand Canyon.
I’d also been sort of pouty that I had no one to do fun things with tomorrow afternoon, but now I do! I’m going to the Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary to do my October bird count and should find friends there, then I’ll go help another group at the yearly Steak Stein and Wine event downtown. I’m glad they asked. I’m a sucker for feeling needed.
I’m also a sucker for gifts of flowers. Lee got me a chrysanthemum a couple of days ago. This, however, is feverfew.
Plus, I get to eat the steak dinner, because a space became available. I was ok not going, but it will be nice to go after all and see my son as a bonus.
Don’t be pouty! A beautiful moment might be coming right up.
The moral of today is to quit being pouty. Things will work out, or a better alternative will arise if you remember to make your own fun!
Today I got a bee in my bonnet to arrange my list of birds seen in Milam County, Texas phylogenetically. That’s how my friend Ann says most birders want to see their bird lists. Here’s the official list, which is all formal and in Latin.
I prefer informal birds, like these guys in the painting by a local artist that I got as a housewarming gift. I’ve seen all three of these, finally.
I’m not making it that complex. I’m using David Sibley’s English interpretation, which is how most of the checklists I’ve seen for state parks are organized. There are lots of variations, as I discovered when I looked all all Ann’s examples.
Here’s one example, which also tells you what season the bird might appear and if it’s unusual.
I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity about how many birds of each order we have. Once I got started, I just couldn’t stop arranging. I kept going until all the birds were arranged. I’m embarrassed to say I spent at least four hours formatting, cutting, pasting and labeling.
Here’s another example. We have lots more birds here, thanks to migratory visitors.
I sure got fixated on my list! I’ll share it when we are finished.
Here’s yet another Scissortail photo. Look at his tail!
All that concentration meant that I was a bit late getting to the horses, so I got rained on. Yes! Rain! At least it cooled down a bit. I’m not enjoying the fact that our two moderate weather weeks are over.
The heat this morning made bird watching hard. This is my best attempt at a bluebird photo.
I did find a couple of interesting plants today. I was particularly happy to find gomphrena weed on the roadside, because I didn’t know it grew here. I’d seen it before while camping. And I just thought the goldenrod was graceful.
I pretty much spent my whole day engaged in bird activities. There was a horse hour or two and a trip to buy dog food, but the rest of the day was for the birds. I do enjoy them, probably because I don’t understand them too well.
I got no bird photos, so enjoy a wildflower, marsh fleabane.
This morning I headed out early (for me on a Saturday) and went to the Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary we are working on. Ann and Phyllis joined me as I did my monthly bird count.
They were quite coordinated.
We had lots of eyes, ears, and binoculars, which made finding 25 birds not all that hard. Most of the hummingbird feeders were covered in bees, which annoyed the plentiful Ruby-throated hummingbirds.
There are many new songbird feeders, too.
We practiced our Forest Walking, but didn’t immerse ourselves in it, because we were busy identifying birds and plants. The wooded area was lots of fun, but I got into something itchy.
Late bonesetCedar elm leaves were fallingPastoral beauty Velvet ant. Not an ant. A wingless wasp.
When we were getting ready to leave, Cindy and Gene Rek brought a big box over to me. It contained two black Cochin hens. These are the big fluffy kind with pretty feathered feet. What a lovely gift!
Ann approves of my chicken.
I hope they end up liking the new housing situation. Cindy and Cathy (the hens, not people) got a bit stressed out by their day and got pretty pale and hot. They have lots of water and food now, and Lee made them new stairs to climb to get into the coop. I hope they figure it out.
Shiny girls looking stressed.
Getting them settled was hard because one got out when I was unboxing them. She went under the RV and would not leave even when Lee squirted her with water. I’m thinking that actually felt good. I got her out with my official chicken net that is really a fishing net.
Feeling better, but suspicious of the water dish. They have a bigger water trough but I worried they couldn’t find it.
As if that wasn’t enough bird action, I then spent the evening blogging about the morning and making a list of all birds that have been seen in Milam County on iNaturalist and eBird. Ann wants to have a checklist people can use. I’ll be working on that for a while, but it feels good to contribute!
This friend walked by while I was doing my morning sit. It just grunted a greeting and kept going.
Birding activity was a good way to take my mind off dogs and such.
I read a lot. Apparently what I read sinks into my being and comes out unbidden, making me think I have original ideas. Or maybe I repeat other people’s ideas unbidden.
All creativity borrows from others. Um, this is a Clouded Skipper with an interesting wing. It’s just here because it’s pretty.
Anyway, I laughed at myself a lot this evening at our Master Naturalist meeting. The speaker was a very nice woman with whom I can tell I have much in common. The second she saw me she complimented my shoes, for example (I do highly recommend Converse high tops with the comfort insole—mmm comfy).
Comfortable and cute as heck. I designed them.
Anyway, the speaker is an accredited leader in shinrin-ryoku or forest bathing, which is a formalized way of doing what I do every dang day. I’ve read about it a lot since it was developed in Japan and love the fact that they’ve done research that shows the positive effects of hanging out in nature with intent. You know, what makes intuitive sense to folks like me. But now there’s science!
Apache says his favorite part of the formal forest walks would be the tea ceremony afterward. He is preparing tea from dried dove weed leaves. He wouldn’t touch a living plant.
What tickled me was that as she talked, every time she was at a loss for words or needed help with a concept, I just blurted out helpful information. Wow, is all that information easily accessible in my brain. I was either quite helpful or annoying. But, the information she provided was in essence a more formalized distillation of what I yammer on and on about in this blog and on Facebook every day. So I knew her talk, just not her reference material. I just stood/sat there smiling to myself through the whole thing.
Everyone was interested!
I just kept laughing at myself whenever she suggested a practice, like sitting for 20 minutes or so in one place every day and just absorbing your surroundings. Yup. I do that in what Lee calls my Birding Chair. Before the chair, I just stood up, in any weather, except rain. Little did I know, that chair is my Sit Spot and there’s a whole book on it. I should have asked my friend Ann, who also does all this stuff but DID read the books.
Me and Ann being silly after the presentation.
I feel quite au courant with all my woodland wanderings and spot sitting. However, my urge to identify things as a naturalist means many of my walks aren’t forest bathing at all. But that’s okay with me. The Shinto/Zen side of me can coexist with my inner taxonomist. It all keeps me centered and happier.
Not my sit spot, but one I sat at.
If I were into more structured events, I’d consider taking the training to be one of the guides in this discipline. It must be very rewarding to see people experience nature washing over them for the first time. It can be so healing, and we all need that!
The Hermits' Rest 