Citizen Science – Page 8 – The Hermits' Rest

A Day of Bird Fun

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Little Miss Forest Bather

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.

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.

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!

For further reading (I have permission to share)

Not a Sales Person, But

If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

I’d sell all my yarn stash, which would take quite a while, and offer knitting and crochet lessons. It would be a fun little pop-up store and I wouldn’t have to worry about maintaining inventory and paying sales taxes except once. I really have no interest in owning a shop. I enjoy interacting with people, organizing, and decorating, but not accounting.

Some nice, organized yarn. Photo from Pexels.

So, that’s not gonna happen but at least it gave me a topic, since much of my day was fairly full. At least I feel better. When I woke up I felt awful, but it must have been all those anti-shingles dispersing. I’m normal other than lingering arm soreness.

I managed a quick walk and saw this Spicebush Swallowtail.

It was very humid, so the heat felt hotter, and I decided to skip an activity in the blazing sun this morning. Instead, I went to the new bird station Master Naturalist project to take my August bird inventory there. At least I could do that in the shade.

I had a pleasant time and saw or heard 17 birds. There is a new water feature there, with water coming down a chain into a bird bath. On the chain I got to watch a juvenile Painted Bunting having a nice drink. I didn’t figure out what it was until I got home and looked it up.

There were also juvenile cardinals out and about, and one did some fine snacking right near me. Birds ignore you if you sit still long enough!

In fact, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were bold enough to sit on the tree branch closest to me as if to inquire whether I had any gnats for them. They are so pretty.

No gnatcatcher photos, but here are the cool furniture pieces that got donated.

I’m not going to go on and on, since I already wrote a blog post for the Master Naturalist blog this afternoon. But I enjoyed seeing so many birds flitting around, plus the chickens, guineas, and turkeys are fun, too.

Old live oak tree near the birding station

I’m glad I was feeling well enough to get horse supplies afterwards, since Dusty was out of his feed. Lifting 60-pound bags of food and salt got my weight-bearing exercise quota in, too. I’m sure the horses didn’t mind that I went swimming rather than riding, because I was I overheated!

Cattle were hot, too, but it didn’t phase the Great Blue Heron.

Dull but productive day, for sure, but since I’ll be traveling next Saturday, I enjoyed the chores and everyday duties! May tomorrow also be average!

Enjoy your weekend like this Eastern pond hawk.

Curiosity: The Secret to a Happy, Long Life

What are you curious about?

Now, here’s a question I can answer! I’m curious about everything. I probably could have gone to college my whole life getting degrees in different subjects. Since I couldn’t do that, I’ve tried to keep asking questions and trying to see how things work my whole life. And oh, how happy I am when I figure something out (examples to follow).

Dusty is **always** curious about what I’m doing. I couldn’t get a picture of all 4 horses lined up in their stall, because he had to come check me out. He’s so sweet and I can’t fault him for being curious!

It’s always seemed to me that people who are curious and want to expand their knowledge are happy. Closed-minded people seem either sad or grumpy. I don’t have scientific evidence for this, so maybe I should look that up…

There’s lots of evidence that lifelong learners stay sharper (on average) than people who are fine without getting new insights or ideas. To me these folks seem to live longer, but maybe not. In any case, curiosity makes any life feel rich and long.

Look! I was curious as to what this is. It’s a bluish-green cuckoo wasp. I found out it’s a parasite on mud dauber nests. Hmmm.

There are things I’m not all that curious about. For certain I don’t want to know what other people are thinking. Nope. I’ve tried, but I can’t get interested in learning war strategies, types of firearms, ways to cheat “the system,” or gambling. I’m not all that curious about how political systems work, but since Lee is, I’m learning about it anyway. It just soaks in.

Lee loves CNN. He took this awkward anchor person photo.

I like solving little local mysteries that my curiosity brings out. I gather my mental evidence and look for more. Like today, my hunch that there was a Green Heron nest in the pond behind the house was borne out. I finally saw the whole family, including squabbling adolescents. That was fun!

In Other News

I made more cardigan progress today. It fits! Now I’m working on the sleeves, which require a delicate calculation of how much of the main yarn color is left. The sleeves need to be even!

Yep, it’s bright. At least I smoked today.

And I have also finished updating the Sightings section on this blog website. I found it interesting that the numbers of plant and insect species are very close, over 350 each (I say from memory, since I’m not curious enough to check). I don’t think I’d ever have imagined I’d find that many if I hadn’t have been curious enough to start recording them.

I’m glad this week is over. There certainly have been lots of ups and downs in my personal stuff, my friends’ lives, the US, and the world. Maybe there can be a little break?

A Typical Day, with Science!

Was today typical?

Yes, today was a normal Monday, for the most part. Wake up, coffee, bullet journal (I made a page with mostly pink birds), do some work, take my morning walk, work more, meet with friends via Zoom for lunch, work, exercise and feed horses, swim, cook dinner (including delicious squash Sara gave me), crochet, TV, bed/blog.

There were two exceptions to the typical day. I had no pick up a prescription and ended up having a long conversation with the pharmacist, who is a really great person who cares so much about this community. I encouraged her to make her life less stressful like I’ve been trying to do. It was a good talk.

I had another good talk when I ran back into town to pick my son’s repaired work truck up from the shop. I was enjoying talking to him and his partner so much I nearly missed the repair shop. They’re very cool people, and it’s great having them nearby!

This is the only photo I took today. Not much going on.

Any day I get to talk to people I care about is a good day. And if I have time to cook, that’s a bonus! It may be boring, but having the energy to make a turkey breast, cucumber salad, and giant sweet squash was a treat for me.

But wait! I promised science in the blog post title! That’s because I’ve been working on the scientific parts of the blog website.

First thing. Since I have been tracking the birds I see every month, I decided to add them on the bird sightings page. I even have them as fly-out menus (ooh, work that WordPress). I also made myself use Excel to filter my results. I am not too fond of Excel.

Second thing. When I started this blog I was trying to count how many birds, plants, mammals, etc. I wasn’t keeping it up very well, then I realized I have a list of all these things already. I have an iNaturalist project just for observations on our property and the part we share (it’s called Hermits’ Rest Ranch Flora and Fauna, but I can’t link to it). All I need to do is export them!

So that’s what I’m doing. I have lists of all birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids I’ve seen since I started using iNat. I’m dreading plants and insects, but I’ll get it done. Mammals won’t be too bad, nor will fungi. Find them under Sightings on the blog. I’m still cleaning things up, but I’ll get there.

So soon there will be useful nature information here in addition to cute animal stories and painful tales of attempted self improvement!

Taking Comfort, Making Plans

What’s your go-to comfort food?

Hmm. Lately no food comforts me much. But I’d say I usually reach for something cheesy. These days it’s either those little red laughing cow rounds or cottage cheese (preferably full fat, large curd). Full fat yogurt with good fruit, like Noosa, also works. Creaminess seems to be a key. Naturally, creamy ole ice cream also does the trick. I guess I help finance the dairy industry.

Cheese. I like it (also bread—I can eat wheat and dairy just fine, being all European.

My anxiety has ticked down a notch, which I can tell because I’ve allowed myself to plan for the future (other than camping and condos; I do plan that). But today I figured out what I’d like to do with my volunteer time. Well, in addition to endless flower and insect photos.

I visited the new bird observation way station thing that’s been started by our Master Naturalist group today. I’m very impressed by how hard Gene at the Bird and Bee Farm has been working on it. He’s even obtained outside funding that is helping with fencing and future mulching.

My friend Ann is the mastermind behind the project, but she can’t do most of the heavy work. She is the expert on birds, though.

I sat on a log out there for a long time and watched a little Downy Woodpecker digging a hole, maybe for a nest. Then I watched dung beetles rolling some poop quite industriously. I realized that this was A Good Place and that I’d like to help.

So, I told Ann I’d be the chronicler of the project. I’ll take pictures and record the bird species seen and heard there. I can blog about it on the Master Naturalist blog, too. I’m feeling brave for making a plan.

Logs mark the boundaries. They’ve already run water out here, too!

It will be a great reason to be outdoors in peace and quiet while contributing to something positive. And maybe I can take some cheese out there and have a comforting picnic.

Bonus piece of oddness. There’s a crawfish in our pool. It’s just going around eating stuff.

Today Was Pretend Retirement Day

How do you want to retire?

I doubt my retirement will differ much from my working years. I’m not particularly interested in not working on something, so maybe I’ll just do something more in line with my hobbies and not 40 hours a week.

There WILL be travel. I do not tire of this view coming into the area where we are staying.

If I were retired, I’d still be active and running around looking for birds, like I did today. I’d spend even more time with the horses and go around traveling, too, long as I have a horse sitter.

Lesser Goldfinch, from a distance. Retired me will learn to use a real camera.

I’ll probably drive Lee bonkers just like today, when I disappeared into a nature preserve and didn’t realize he couldn’t track me or that I had taken the car keys. I felt awful about that.

This sign shows how many birds have been found at the Bubbling ponds preserve.

BUT I found a hidden Audubon Society trail next to a fishery and made Lee take me in there. It was really something!

The trail goes through undisturbed land covered in native vegetation, which the builders have kindly labeled. I wish I could have stayed longer. As it is, I heard or saw five new birds, on top of two I found near the condo.

*Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Northern Waterthrush
Bridled Titmouse
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Mexican Duck
Phainopepla (condo) (looks like a solid black Cardinal with red eyes)
Black-throated Sparrow (condo)

There was even a family of Mexican ducks, which do live up here.

I was so excited that I lost track of time. Plus there were squirrels and a sweet deer.

I’ll have to go back before I leave, and to the nearby wetland preserve. These are in an area called Page Creek, where there are lots of wineries. In total, today I saw or heard 38 birds!

Here’s the back of a Northern Waterthrush.

It’s no Antelope Canyon, but with all the fruit trees and native plants, I sure did better with birds today. Retired me will look for these hidden gems.

What Time Is It? Hiking Time!

I managed to get a few good walks in today, around pockets of work. Palmetto State Park is very beautiful and a joy to hike. You should visit, especially if you’re near Austin, since it’s an easy drive.

The first hike I went on today covered the Mesquite Flats Trail. It goes to the edge of the park and as promised, takes the hiker by some mesquite trees. I also walked part of the interpretive trail through the beautiful palmetto swamp. Let’s go…

Around lunch-time I had to go to the park office to get a sticker for the Jeep. After getting my magnet and shirt, I decided to go look at the oxbow lake that’s near the tent camping area. There are lovely ponds fed by artesian wells built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. There’s also a very interesting trail around the lake, where I enjoyed cliff swallows and interés plants.

Later in the day, Mike and I walked the San Marcos River Trail. The river sure was flowing! We found immense old trees, mostly cottonwood, and saw plenty of interesting/scary insects. I made it hard for him to keep his heart rate up. I’m just too full of curiosity. We checked out the Civilian Conservation Corps Rectory building and a cool low water crossing where we found a beautiful damselfly, the American Rubyspot. It is crimson when flying.

San Marcos River

You’d think that would be enough. But no, in the evening I went out on a night hike sponsored by the park. The hike was actually a half hour later than I’d been told but that’s ok, because my wish came true and a painted bunting decided to hang out near me where I could get pictures. Yay!

The hike was led by a park biologist and the park host next door to us. Since we were all Texas Parks and Wildlife people, we ditched the program and just walked. It was great. We got to know each other and shared many nature tales. We investigated poop, spiders that look like moss, and many deer. At the end, we were serenaded by hundreds of frogs. Wow.

Ending the evening around the campfire with friends was perfect. Today was great, and I’m very grateful to those taking care of our house.

Childhood Memories Revisited

I owe y’all a more cheerful post, so I’m glad this dreary day produced some happy thoughts.

Look at these tiny margined calligrapher wasps!

The day started out looking like a tornado was going to hit. Long after the sun theoretically rose (couldn’t see it for the clouds), it suddenly got pitch black dark outside, like it was night. Then it turned that scary pre-tornado green.

Luckily all we got was some wind, heavy rain, and brief power outages.

It stayed drizzly all day, but I figured out ways to be outside with the animals and nature as much as I could. In the early afternoon I took a walk to the creek, where I heard a sound. I looked down at my phone and, YES! It was a bobwhite quail. Wow! That brought childhood memories back.

When I was a girl in the 60s, I lived in Gainesville, Florida. It was a town of 25,000 surrounded by beautiful farms, cattle ranches, and lakes. Everyone my parents knew had little lake shacks or hunting cabins (not fancy) or had family out in the country. Hunting and fishing happened most weekends (except for us – dad played fast-pitch softball on weekends).

A thing that happened I guess fairly often was that guys would get together during the appropriate season and hunt quail. They wouldn’t go get a few. No. They would bring bags and bags of them home, at which point women-folk would clean them. Then they’d invite all their friends over and eat quail (I think other people brought side dishes).

My memory is dim, but I remember the bags of quail and the deep fryer they cooked them in. It was huge. You’d go get a couple of tiny birds, carefully eat them to avoid shot, then get more.

I assume beer was also involved. In any case, the couple of times we were invited were quite unusual to me and my brother, who weren’t exactly country folk (one generation removed).

Now quail are no longer even there to hunt. That’s why hearing one got me so excited. I kept hoping some of our woods edges and the pond hill might be good for quail (they need a specific habitat, which the northern Florida scrub fit). Yay, right?

The other thing that took me back to childhood came later, when I went out walking at dusk, hoping to hear a nighthawk, my second-favorite nightjar. I did hear and see them, plus heard another bobwhite, so I know I wasn’t imagining it.

But also, I saw some fireflies! I’d lamented to Anita that I hadn’t seen any out here at the ranch, though I had in Cameron. But, there they were on the side of the road by our house. They are another childhood sight I miss.

When I was a girl in the 60s (same as above), we didn’t have fireflies at home. That meant I really looked forward to our yearly visit to my grandmother’s house in Chattanooga, because each summer her yard filled with fireflies.

My brother, my cousins, and I must have spent hours and hours chasing fireflies to put in jars, which we hoped would act as lanterns. I learned later than after we went to bed Dad let the poor creatures out. Aww. I guess that was better than cleaning up dead bugs.

My kids enjoyed them when they were little, too. I’m glad the pesticides haven’t killed them all yet.

It’s nice to see biodiversity trying to come back. I feel like I live in a hotbed of it here. Maybe there’s hope! After all, I saw or heard 48 different bird species yesterday and 44 today. I’m trying to keep as many native plants happy and healthy here as I can. And I want the fish, frogs, turtles, snakes, and mammals to have their own niches. That’s a positive goal!

You Know What They Say about Good Deeds

Right? No good deed goes unpunished! I experienced one of those times today. I’m not upset at all, but shaking my head. There are just so many ways to look at things!

It’s like a scene viewed through different lenses.

I’m standing in the same spot, just using different camera settings. Things seem different, too.

Today I finally got around to do something about the bees who decided our propane tank access hole was a good place to start a hive.

They had moved under the piece of insulation we put over the pipes rather than leaving when all the rain came. It turns out bees like rain, according to Heath, the bee removal guy we called.

Thank goodness Jeremy from the Bling Box remembered this company had posted ad ad on Facebook and gave me their number. They showed up after work, having driven from Temple.

It took little time for our docile bees to get gently vacuumed up into the special bee vac (really a small shop vac with modifications). Heath got the queen and most of the workers, though a few were probably out foraging. I feel bad for them coming home to no sisterhood.

Safely sucked up. Glad my bees weren’t Africanized.

I felt good that I’d not killed them just because they inconvenienced me, and that we helped a small business.

That is, until I responded to a post in a FB group about bees dying from visiting poisoned dandelions and said I’d tried to help some honeybees. I promptly got a response lecturing me on how honeybees aren’t native and that they’re hurting native bees and that any good biologist (such as the man (of course) writing the response) knows they should be eliminated!

Even the dogs won’t look at me. Tsk tsk.

I said, “Okay, thanks.”

In my view I was helping insects who live near me. In his view I was hurting others. We both have good intentions.

Thinking about native versus nonnative can get you deep into rabbit holes. Many common living things here at the Hermits’ Rest aren’t native, like those chirping fools the house sparrows, or those mega-swarming starlings. One type of dove I hear daily is an Eurasian Collared Dove. Must be Eurasian. The wildflowers have many introduced species in their mix, too. Even the common dandelion isn’t native.

At least you aren’t going down MY rabbit hole.

What to do? Eliminate them all? Or are some so well adapted they are okay now?

Should we build a cactus border wall to keep out non natives? Oh wait. Plants can’t read maps.

I don’t t know. Maybe I’ll ask in Master Naturalists tomorrow. I want to be a good steward of my land, but I’m not sure I have the strength to scorch the earth.

Otherwise, all is well. I sure appreciate the nice feedback on yesterday’s blog entry. Having supportive folks around makes it easy to have a good life.