Mammal Sightings – The Hermits' Rest

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.

I Fall (ouch) but Get Rewarded

I fell really well, I hear. Oddly, I feel more confident about Drew after getting bucked off in my first attempt at cantering than I did earlier today. Who’d have guessed?

But look how cute he is with his graying mane and tousled effect (he had just stumbled hard).

Since my last lesson with Drew, I’d been really cautious with him. I admit I mainly took him out and exercised him, avoiding grooming, because I was having trouble keeping him from trying to bite or kick me, even with a riding crop to make my bubble larger. I needed help.

What don’t I need help with? Befriending bunnies. These young cottontails no longer pay me any notice.

But I had an ego boost today that buoyed me up. I felt irrationally good about myself because at the conference sponsored by my previous employer I was called out for an award as someone who is helpful to their users. This was given by the director of the group that tried so hard to get me to leave, and I was nominated by former colleagues. That felt good, because Dell can’t give contractors awards or bonuses. I’m happy that the hard work I do is noticed!

I’m as cheerful as the color of this Gulf fritillary.

So, I was more confident when I went to get Drew for his lesson. He was so good, coming up to me to be haltered and being friendly as heck until I tried to groom him. He even bit my riding crop in two. But I got it done. That pleased me.

When we got to Tarrin’s he was sweet as pie and let me get all the little burs out of his mane. I felt better already. I just had to figure out the grooming thing.

Oh it’s figured out now. Tarrin gave me the Tough Love speech about how I had to stop moving away from him and rewarding his behavior or I’d have to sell Droodles. I felt really bad about being scared after being kicked but it’s a human reaction. I just had to get past it.

After that unpleasantness, she showed me a great technique for encouraging him to keep his teeth and hooves to himself. I managed to finish grooming and even get his mane and tail done. He is not fond of the bamboo stick I was semi-competently wielding to bop him. He was quite the gentleman thereafter. He even took the bit politely!

In fact, other than one stumble while we were nicely trotting, he was perfect during the lesson. I think we both were having fun together. He was doing so well that Tarrin thought we might be able to try a canter (have I mentioned before that I’d never cantered on a horse? Never got that far in lessons with Apache because he has canter “issues” having nothing to do with my skill set).

Just some nettle leaf noseburn to break up the tension.

She set it up so that she had him on the lead rope and I was in the saddle holding the reins in one hand and the saddle in the other. It all went fine. He started to canter but something happened that made him buck me right off. We were all surprised.

There was NO WAY I was going to fall in such a way that my cesarean scar would get re-injured like it did on my old hybrid saddle with Apache. So I went off to the correct side to not be trampled and somehow successfully rolled like I was doing judo or whatever. It went butt, back, head in such a way that I’m only bruised and have a headache.

THIS is why you wear a helmet when riding a horse. It protected me. In fact, I was wearing the helmet I had to buy after Apache bucked me off (which led to me starting lessons with Tarrin.)

Apparently after I landed and had the wind knocked out of me, I said, “I think I’m dead.” Tarrin, being pretty smart, figured out if I was talking I was alive. She and Drew came to see if I was all right. He was quite concerned that I was on the ground, as horses tend to be.

Once I was up, Tarrin got on Drew to firmly remind him how to behave in canter.

After a little squabbling, he was fine. We went back and practiced grooming his sweaty little self. Lee came up and Tarrin said I got an A+ and Drew got an F. That’s a great reward! She is not pleased that this little hiccup occurred, because she considers it her job to keep her students safe. But I think, in the end, everything worked out fine.

He settled down. Yes I took pictures. I was a little nauseated but sitting down to recover.

Honestly, I’m proud of myself for how I handled the events of the lesson. Getting thrown from a horse was a concern for me, since older people don’t bounce as well as young ones. But I coped well and mainly feel sad to have caused Tarrin concern. I feel good about Drew, the best I have since he got hurt. We are on the road back to a good relationship.

My wrinkles and I are intent on telling you I’m fine. I have perky pajamas and strong drugs.

Tomorrow won’t be fun. I guess checking out my bruises will be interesting. My back is a bit tweaked so I’ll do stretches and hope I don’t need a chiropractor. But yes, I have appropriate medications, analgesics, and medical professionals to contact if I get any concussion symptoms. Honest. No need to post medical advice!

Maybe I’ll ride Apache tomorrow. Hee hee. He looked bummed that he didn’t get to go to lessons.

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!

It’s Like Riding a Bicycle – Information, Not Advice

List the people you admire and look to for advice…

Okay, I’m not going to list everyone I admire! Some of them do t want to be blogged about, anyway. And advice? An organization I used to work for had a catchphrase something like, “Offer information, don’t give advice.” I rarely ask for advice these days. But I appreciate information from trusted sources.

That said, I have always found doing tarot card readings to be a way of providing information and perspectives without giving advice. You get some ideas from archetypal images and let the person you’re reading for draw their own conclusions. Ideally.

Celtic cross with significator, using Babylonian Tarot.

I hadn’t been reading cards much. The reading above was years ago in a previous post. Since 2018, I haven’t really wanted any insights into things around me, sort of feeling like ignorance may be bliss. But I’ll read if asked.

So today I was asked. I then realized my favorite Robin Wood deck was hiding somewhere in my Austin house stuff. And I was feeling rusty, especially since the only deck I could find that wasn’t overly cutesy was one with alternative names for suits, and worse, had labels on the cards giving them meanings I didn’t necessarily want to hear.

This cheerful card did come up. The good news is no one can stab you any more. They’re out of swords.

However, the reading went fine. Like riding a bicycle, it all comes back. I just love looking at what is laid out and seeing a gestalt of what the cards are hinting at before looking at details. That is FUN. And helping people with problems look at things from a new perspective is rewarding. (Plus I got to talk to an old friend.)

Maybe if I locate one of the decks I’m more comfortable with, I’ll do more, just not for me or my family. I have a friend who’s a professional tarot reader who doesn’t do family readings.

(I’m sure somewhere in this blog I talk more about out tarot and how I use it, so in a few words, no I don’t predict the future and no it’s not a parlor trick. It’s intuition and archetypes.)

I’m glad I was home and able to spontain a tarot reading, since not much else happened today. More rain and wetness! 100% humidity means I had big hair. I did get to see a big ole jackrabbit, which is pretty rare here, and continued to get the buntings more comfortable with me. I enjoy both the painted and indigo ones singing and flitting around.

You can practically tell that this is a bird! They’re getting closer!

I hope you have trustworthy advisors, but even more, I hope you have the wisdom to make your own decisions based on good information, and if you get a tarot reading, don’t take it literally. That’s my advice.

Birds Come to Mind

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

Well, of course birds are the first thing that comes to mind, since I saw and heard at least 50 today. That’s not bad for a day in which I also worked a lot!

Vultures waited patiently for me to come out and play.

Lake Whitney State Park is a birder’s paradise right now. Well, probably all of Texas is during spring migration. I heard so many warblers that my head was ringing. And lots of painted buntings, who finally graced me with visual sightings. The summer tanagers are still hiding, but I have time.

My mousy buddies, the grackles, were also here.

I enjoyed a midday break by hiking the Two Bridges Trail, which wound through lovely wildflowers and woods with very old oaks (live oaks and post oaks I think). There were, in fact, two bridges.

I also finally got to see the lake, which is quite wild and natural looking. It’s probably prettier with blue skies, but we got clouds and nice cool weather.

The trees were beautiful, too. Here are just a few I saw around the park today.

The thing I saw most of, other than plants, were butterflies and caterpillars. I felt like royalty walking down the path as the butterflies scattered upon my approach. Make way for the Queen! Mostly it was orange sulphurs and red admirals. I have no idea what most of the caterpillars are, because I haven’t had time to ID them.

Before I share flowers, I want to show you the family of young armadillos I saw. They were having a grand time jumping around and pouncing on bugs. It was so fun to watch them.

What’s not fun is that I can’t share photos of wildlife I safely observe from a distance without people being compelled to inform me that they carry germs that cause diseases. I do know that. I don’t hug and kiss them, nor any deer that might have ticks, or potentially rabid skunks and raccoons.

Happy babies

Why were there four armadillo, you ask? Well, their females always give birth to four identical babies. Interesting!

Of course, I saw some flowers, including some new ones for me. That’s always fun. Here are a few.

I got all this done while feeling a bit under the weather! We just relaxed all evening and watched a television show, Wednesday, all evening. That may explain why I’m too tired to look up names for things!

All Grown Up

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Ha, I’m pretty sure I wanted to be a horse when I grew up at that age. I know I tried eating grass, and spent time practicing my whinnies. I also wanted to be a dog herder. I would gather up all the neighborhood dogs and try to get them to follow me (no leash laws back then).

We want to herd cattle. Or play with them.

After that I wanted to be a veterinarian or Supergirl. As you see, I haven’t changed much, except now I write all those ideas down.

Things are good here:

Monarchs are here, plus I saw a big zebra swallowtail.
Our niece is not too badly hurt from getting kicked by Big Bag Betty B**** (a cow who m, deservedly, leaves for the sale barn soon) even though she was life flighted by helicopter to a hospital pretty far from her farm. (She posted the story, so for once I can do more than vague hinting.)
I had a great session with Apache the Paint today, better than usual, even. He sure has energy and joy now.
Tarrin has a plan to get my gray horse Drew better, which involves some expensive veterinary stuff, but gives me hope for our future.
There was time this afternoon to watch the dogs play with cows (nice ones) and to hang out on the patio with Lee. We are much less stressed than yesterday!

My herd, minus Harvey, who doesn’t play with cattle, and Vlassic, who was in the garage.

I wish every one of you at least one beautiful spring day to spend with those you love, and I hope your childhood dreams came true, at least a little. I can’t BE a horse or herd dogs, but I can hang out with them!

I’ll Take the Motorhome or Walk

You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

I’m getting pretty used to traveling with my own house. Once we get the towing straightened out, we can set up Seneca to leave it as a base, and go explore any area. It’s no less expensive, but it’s comfortable and fun! Who needs planes? And passenger trains no longer go most places. Not for Nature Girl here.

Today, though, I walked. With over 22,000 steps, I think I made up for yesterday, when I was stuck indoors half the day. I realize walking 8 miles is nothing to some people, but I impressed myself. And it was all through thick, clay mud, so it was tough slogging. I regret not taking a photo of my boots, which looked like clown shoes from all the mud.

Speaking of shoes, this is an elf shoe stink bug.

In fact, when I tried to recreate the walk I was supposed to go on yesterday when the storms came, I came to an abrupt stop when the next trail marker turned out to be underwater. It rained a lot.

That stick shows where the equestrian trail usually is.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the big hike I went on, even though there was only one new flower and not much bird excitement, either, just towhees.

I did see a lot of fungi, though. This seems to be a trip that emphasizes moisture-loving life.

Cooper Lake State Park does have lovely woods, though, and all the bright green new foliage made me feel appropriate in my St Patrick’s Day green! Who cares about the mud on a day with perfect weather and lots of nature?

I did a bunch of walking around other parts of the park, and it was mostly calm. But there was one part of a walk when some creature kept yelling at me. It wasn’t a bird, because Merlin didn’t register it, and it wasn’t a squirrel. I know all their sounds. It was creepy and loud, but I never saw it. Eek. So let’s look at butterflies, moths, and caterpillars instead.

That’s about it for this trip. We’ll still be here tomorrow morning, but I have a lot of work to do. If it’s quiet, I can sit outside, though. The change of scenery might inspire more creativity! If I was on a cross-country trip, I’d also probably still be working, like I do at the condos. I like to keep busy.

Birds, Woods, Gifts

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

Being out camping makes it easy to talk about two of the best gifts I’ve ever received, and share my famous/endless nature photos with y’all, too.

Maybe a beaver pond on Lake Ray Roberts.

I talked about this back when I got it, but I’ll repeat that my bird journal is a gift that means a lot to me. The amount of time my husband put into designing the format, finding hundreds of bird pictures, printing the book, then binding it himself was considerable! It’s not just a journal for writing down my sightings, but it’s also made just for me. I use it daily and am reminded of all the kindness deep within Lee’s hermit heart.

The other gift I’ve appreciated a lot is the opportunity to be out in nature so much since we got this motorhome. It’s helped keep me mentally and physically healthy. Lee drives me quite cheerfully and is fine when I go away for over three hours looking at plants and birds. He also kindly drives me to horse events, which are another element of my sanity.

I think we’re getting our money’s worth with this monster.

I may have overdone it today, since my stomach has been unhappy and hiking the entire equestrian trail probably didn’t help it. But I lived.

The trail passed an old homestead chimney.

The trail was worth it, with interesting sights I didn’t expect. The part of the park I was in today has much more varied microclimates, and there was evidence of a controlled burn not too long ago. I could also see that a lot of brush had been cut back, perhaps to create more prairie areas.

The fire may also help in another way. I was charmed to realize I’d walked into a pine forest. It’s apparently cut off from the piney woods, like lost pines near Austin. The fire may encourage more young pine trees. They are needed, because many of the pines I saw were quite old. They were just beautiful.

I managed to see and hear more birds today. Many were by water, including the pond shown at the top of this post. I heard a belted kingfisher go on and on, along with four woodpeckers and many small birds. At one point I saw a downy and red-bellied woodpecker on the same tree! Near there I flushed an owl, which was another fun surprise. All my sightings went into Merlin, because they are tallied as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count . I’m happy to participate in this!

I did run into a few folks on the trail, two sets with unleashed dogs, and three horse groups. I was able to warn two groups of a tree that was blocking the path. The third group was four Mexican-American men with authentic outfits, great hats, and excellent cowboy hats. Their horses were fancy as they were, too.

I politely didn’t photograph the riders, but this is the tree. It must have fallen recently, because the trails are well maintained.

It was a lot of fun, even with a stomach ache. I did take it easy the rest of the day. We watched The Big Year, which is still very funny, and I was impressed by how much more I understood about the bird content than I did when the movie came out. It’s funny even for non birders.

Here’s where I walked today. Yesterday I walked north to Quail Run.

Now to get ready to work in the morning then drive home. I’m glad I can work in the evening to make up for the drive time. Of course, it’s nice and warm here starting tomorrow. But it will be warm at home, so I can horse around.

I’m Tough, I Guess

I say that because even though it was cold with a biting wind, I hiked the whole Randy Bell Scenic Trail and added a walk through the second, and very beautiful, camping area here at the Isle du Bois Unit of the Ray Roberts State Park. That’s a long name. I got 6 miles and 16,000+ steps in.

It wasn’t a great bird day, probably because I didn’t go out until late morning. But I did get to enjoy watching a flock of dark-eyed juncos feasting on cedar berries. I used to see them a lot in Illinois.

Other than that, I was pleased to see more varied terrain today, with more prairie areas and evidence of controlled burns. All good.

The Quail Run campaign area is on a hill that makes a little peninsula on the lake. Most of the campsites only work for tents, but some would fit an RV. The settings are really scenic and would be great to look out from if there weren’t gale winds.

The woods were full of deer. Since there’s not much underbrush, they can’t hide too well, so I got to see them eating and napping. No more pooping, though.

I just wandered around and enjoyed the peace and quiet, then rested a bit and walked more with Lee. We were able to sit outside a while until the sun went behind clouds.

We ended the day watching those three Wizarding World movies from a few years ago. I’m woefully not up on Harry Potter stuff, for no deep reason. Anyway, more photos for those of you that like such things.

I wish you all a good Sunday.m, especially everyone at Tarrin’s clinic tomorrow. Maybe it will be warmer here.

Isn’t That a Loaded Question?

Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

These days “patriot” doesn’t mean what I used to think it meant. So I’m not gonna declare myself either a patriot or a non-patriot. I am not of the opinion that the place I was born is better than any other place. Or worse. Every place has pluses and minuses.

Even the place I live, Texas, has its good points. (Let’s skip the bad points, I don’t have the energy…sorta like our power grid.)

That was my graceful transition into how much I enjoy the State Park system in Texas. Each one we visit is so different! I’m glad I had a chance to explore Ray Roberts State Park before the cold front came through and the camping area filled up. I got to see and hear all the wildlife before boats and screaming kids took over. Kids. So cute until the screech.

Anyway, work was challenging today, so a breakfast and lunch walk both helped, as did the post-work decompression (I sighed a lot at my laptop).

In the early walk I mostly listened to birds, happy to find them. There was even an Osprey. I heard fish jumping and annoyed a deer who was just trying to relieve herself.

I was proud of myself for seeing a bluebird in my binoculars before Merlin heard it! The biggest surprise was hearing wild turkeys twice. It was a relief from crows and geese.

We crows are magnificent. We grace you with our caws.

The lunch walk took me down some fun little trails that eventually led to the equestrian area.

The equestrian camping area is really nice and well maintained by a group of dedicated people. The stalls are in great shape, have roofs, and even include gutters. I talked to a couple of women who love the trails.

You pull your trailer right up to the stalls.

After work it was still pretty nice outside so Lee walked on the concrete path with me for a while. Wow it would be great for cycling.

I did a pretty good job sticking to the path as I enjoyed the hills, watched woodpeckers at work, and checked out the iron-rich rocks in this part of the state. I love seeing how different it is just a few hours away from home.

Eventually I got to the huge recreation area where there is a beach, boat ramps, playgrounds, and parking galore. This place must hop when it’s warmer. I left there quickly and instead focused on this beautiful inlet near some primitive camping.

Eventually I headed back on dirt trails, even though I’d worn the walking shoes, not the hiking boots. I was rewarded with more cool rocks and more deer.

As the park filled up, Lee talked to people. I went inside and knitted. We enjoyed mindless television thanks to the new antenna that’s finally replaced the one the trees on Tarrin’s road ate. There were 80 channels! The local television commercials reminded me of what I don’t like about Texas (political ads). Tomorrow I get to relax, though I’ll go hike even in the cold!

Enjoy more photos!