photos – Page 2 – The Hermits' Rest

Elderly Ramblings

No complaints about yesterday, which was the first whole day I got to spend with Lee on this trip. Make that few complaints, since sometimes the negativity slips under my skin and needles me, but I’m sure my stuff needles him, too.

I did the usual walking and birding, getting a new lifer, the Blackpoll Warbler. I’m racking up warblers on this trip. We had lunch at the Greek restaurant here in Hilton Head, where we both raved about the red grapes so much that the server took a picture of the bag for us so we can look for them. If you see these, try them! Going on and on about fruit makes me feel elderly.

We went to the Newhall Audubon Preserve after that, with the Big Lens. Lee got really excellent pictures of some very active Black Vultures.

There was also a pretty Gray Catbird that posed for us, and lots of birds to listen to. Here are all the birds I got photos of, in no good order.

I spent my time looking for fungi, insects, weird galls, and whatever could up my total on my final day of the City Nature Challenge. I did well, with over 300 sightings, which would have won my group at home if I’d been at home. On the other hand, maybe I wouldn’t have seen so many organisms (I probably would have; Milam County is more diverse, it turns out). But it was FUN, and that’s what counts.

Now, about these elderly ramblings I promised in the title of this post. I’ve been watching a lot of television shows about elderly people in the past few weeks (also watched all of Only Murders in the Building a while back). Matlock’s heroine is 75 years old. Grace and Frankie are in their seventies, too. And yesterday we started watching A Man on the Inside, where Ted Danson also plays someone who’s at least 70. It makes sense to have more television and movies about the elderly, since the demographics of the US are skewing older. And I like the fact that they don’t try to make them look too young (even Jane Fonda) and they talk about old people issues, like vaginal dryness.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with our (increasingly weirder and scarier) society’s focus on youth. I think my parents did a good job of modeling being comfortable in your skin, however saggy it might be, and I’ve followed along after some years of hair dyeing that didn’t produce anything remotely natural. No wonder I switched to Overtone’s bright colors.

My current hair looks like pampas grass in many ways.

In addition to accepting how they look, it’s fun to see how vibrant and active the elderly folks are in these shows, especially their senses of humor and willingness to try new things. We all know that not all people of a certain age are perky and active, so I appreciated that A Man on the Inside had a character with memory loss, who they treated with respect while addressing issues typical for people dealing with that.

I don’t spend all my time watching television, though my recent discovery of streaming has upped my ability to actually enjoy it, and I’ve been meeting a lot of older people on this trip. It’s been fun to learn about how they negotiate their changing lives, incomes, and dreams. Traveling just seems to make people more open and friendly, though, so I’m probably seeing their good sides. For example, yesterday at lunch, we had a great chat with a couple who are going to the Grand Canyon to celebrate his 60th birthday (they saw Lee’s t-shirt). We shared all we did in Sedona last year and wished them well. Total strangers. That was fun.

And we are probably having more fun now that we’re older than we did when we were first married. There is lots of time for conversation and exploration, without quite so many annoying things you just have to do. Like I heard on the television last night, yeah, things hurt, but you just deal with it, because the benefits of being elderly are worth it, at least for many of us.

The beautiful pond at the bird sanctuary

End of ramblings.

Nature Church

I’m easily excited, I guess. When I see a new or unexpected plant, bird, or insect, I get a thrill in my heart. I smile in the middle of nowhere, all by myself. Yesterday was full of such moments. The only thing that could have improved it would be to have had a companion also iNatting and Merlining with me. I made those verbs up. It’s good to have a companion in your spiritual experiences occasionally.

On my first walk yesterday here at the Nails Creek Unit of Lake Somerville State Park, I took the Overlook Trail, after revisiting the Lake Trail, where all the White Pelicans, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Forster’s Terns, Northern Shovelers (charmingly shoveling away), Blue- and Green-winged Teals, and mystery sandpipers were in full force.

Forster’s Tern. Lee took the next few photos.

The Overlook Trail was breathtaking in its subtle way. First, it smelled wonderful, thanks to the blooming trees. There were Honey Locust, Honey Mesquite, Eve’s Necklacepod, and a lot of yaupon. That stuff smells so good.

Every turn I took revealed new vistas or secluded nooks. I realized that I felt spiritually a-tingle, like I was in a religious service and being moved. Mother Nature’s church was what my soul needed.

I enjoyed the viewing platform and all the lake views, though the little plants also enchanted me. I couldn’t have felt better. No news, no noise, no distractions.

Next we took an exciting trip to the grocery store in Somerville. This yard where someone planted a LOT of wildflowers was a highlight.

In the late afternoon it wasn’t too hot, so I went on the Cedar Creek Trail. It goes into the middle of the park, through beautiful post oak Savannah. The prairie parts were covered by wildflowers that like sandy soil, a few of which were new to me. The photos don’t do the scenery justice, plus all those little pointed phlox smelled better than perfume. I was often stopped in my tracks by the views. Wow.

I realize this isn’t the Grand Canyon or Rocky Mountains, but to me this part of Texas is incredibly beautiful. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

More Excruciatingly Dull Birds

Sorry. All I have is more bird pictures. I spent most of the day relaxing, but hit all my exercise goals walking around looking at stuff.

I didn’t enjoy the Super Bowl much since we had to try to stream it on bad connectivity. I missed most of the good commercials and the game was too embarrassing to enjoy. Ugh.

This coot butt is more interesting than that game.

I did encounter 53 species of birds today, which is impressive. I especially enjoyed sitting at a shady picnic table next to a big oak tree and some scrub, and just watching bird behavior.

This tiny Downy Woodpecker must have pecked this entire sapling.

The most fun part of the interlude was when I heard a new sound and there was the bird I’d been looking for here at Choke Canyon the most, the Audubon’s Oriole. It’s so striking. And it proceeded to put on a little show of cuteness for me. What a joy.

Not wanting me to forget that it’s also cute and colorful, a Green Jay popped in for a puffing and preening session. Yep, it was indeed cute.

I wandered around the lake a while, too, seeing ducks, a pair of Anhingas, Least Sandpipers, Coots, a Cooper’s Hawk, and Ospreys.

Of course, while chatting with neighbors, I did other observations. Enjoy. I enjoyed the neighbors. Many seem as starved for friendly conversation as I am.

Red Admiral. I saw other butterflies, but they were busy.

Heading home tomorrow.

Pay Attention and You’ll Learn Stuff

Here’s what I learned today. This morning, a fellow birder and I watched the Red-winged Blackbirds in a feeding frenzy at the bird blind.

We also watched two beautiful Long-billed Thrashers as they stayed above the hubbub and got their food and drink. These are interesting, because they have a limited range and are sort of in between Brown Thrashers and Curved-bill Thrashers.

They have cool golden eyes and those long bills.

They weren’t as flashy as the Green Jays or Great Kiskadees, but it was fun to watch them pop in and out of view.

As you can imagine, all these birds were loud. Very loud.

The thrashers never made a sound.

Later in the day, I walked the bird trails that led to the unimaginably named 75-Acre Lake. There weren’t many birds to be found most of the way, one exception were Ling-billed Thrashers. They were always rustling in the leaves and hopping up and down in the trees.

I enjoyed the lake which had recently been cleared of cattails, and did hear a White-eyed Vireo pair singing, and lucked out to hear a Roadrunner making its eerie song. All was not lost.

There are large Spanish Dagger yucca here

My learning about the thrashers concluded around sunset. I began hearing what I thought was a Mockingbird going through its repertoire, but it didn’t seem right. I fired up Merlin Bird ID and was quite surprised to see an ID of Ling-billed Thrasher. All the thrashers got together at sunset and sang their hearts out for about a half hour. It was beautiful! Who knew? They only sing at dusk.

I’m glad I paid attention to the behavior of these birds. I learned something!

Hooray! Suna also can differentiate vultures by their wings. I’m a Black Vulture.

Observation and re-evaluation led me to a new life bird today, too. In the bird blind we noticed the size difference between the little Inca Doves and the others at the feeders.

I assumed the large dove at left was a Mourning Dove. However, Merlin listed a different option first, the White-tipped Dove. I’d never heard of it, but looked at the description. Sure enough, this dove had white wing and tail tips and no other patterning. Not a Mourning Dove at all. I just had to look carefully.

Whew. My head is full from all that observing and learning. Still I found time to see more fun plants, animals and birds today. And I can’t forget learning from fellow campers, most of whom seem to be from Canada or Minnesota. They’re so friendly! The birder guy was local, from San Antonio, and he had great advice on Canon cameras and lenses. I’m glad I found him and that Lee was able to talk to him, too.

Knowledge is power. Well, for the moment. Being smart is not popular among the powerful these days.

Birds and Beasts on a Friday

I’m in a funny place in some ways. The scenery isn’t much to write home about, lots of late winter brown, dead downed trees from past storms, and a lake that’s way down from drought so you see a lot of dead tree tops. It’s classic Texas bramble or whatever they call it.

However, the Choke Canyon area is teeming with wildlife. This part of the state is really wild. All the scary creatures in the state roam here. I haven’t seen a mountain lion or coyote, but it seems like I’ve seen the rest, along with a big portion of the birds of south Texas, which are both beautiful and loud.

Example: the collared peccary or javelina.

The peccaries were all over the place. You just don’t get too close to them and all is well. For example, I came up to a group as I rounded a corner on my hike today, and just crossed to the other side of the road. They glared at me as if to underscore that I was on their turf.

Our gang rules this side of the road, see?

I saw evidence (poop) of raccoons and coyotes, who also got to howling earlier this evening. And if I’m good at judging holes, there are armadillos digging up the dirt as well as the javelinas. I haven’t seen any armadillos, but squirrels are around. I have photos of one, but we’re having issues downloading pictures from the fancy camera so I will share later. I will spare you my picture of a very large alligator way across the lake. I will tell you this lake has huge gators!

The most fun I had today was looking at birds. I also had wonderful conversations with campers at the bird blind. It’s conveniently located near our campsite, but not too, near, because the morning blackbirds are almost deafening.

There are many Red-winged Blackbirds enjoying the water feature here.

Also loud were Green Jays. Somehow I managed not to get any good views of them when I was in McAllen in 2023, but I’ve made up for it this time. These are pretty spectacular birds and I got good images on the camera, but they won’t download.

The bird blind had other visitors, too, like Cardinals, Lesser Goldfinches, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and of course a lot of doves. I really enjoyed the small flock of Inca Doves that were at the blind.

We found more birds at the recreation area, which has a fish-cleaning area herons and egrets love. I also heard a new bird, the Olive Sparrow, but only briefly glimpsed it. These guys posed, though.

Later in the day I walked down most of the trails, which didn’t have many birds, other than one Great Kiskadee that shouted at me but mostly hid behind branches. Here’s what they look like.

I did see many deer, who stay out of the javelinas’ ways. A few deer were very thin. Most looked fine, though.

You know what a deer looks like, so just one photo.

It was a good day for birds (50 species in total) and beasts, though rather warm for February. The evening was pleasant, however, and I enjoyed the sunset.

I’ll try to share more thoughts tomorrow. The heat has wiped me out!

Spontaining with Birds

I had things to do today, important things like hard boil some eggs. Instead, I proposed that we hop in the car and take our cameras to Granger Lake, and see if we could find any birds. As long as I could get home in time to ride Apache, we were free. Time to spontain!

As you can see, I’d already been playing with the zoom lens. I got the best White-crowned Sparrow I’ve ever taken!

The weather was even better than yesterday, so why not tote that giant lens around? it was good practice.

We went to two of the many parks around Granger Lake. It was too loud to listen at the first park, but I found big birds and yaupon berries.

We left that place and went to the other side of the lake, down beautiful country roads to the park with equestrian trails. It also had prettier campsites. We enjoyed exploring this area alone, and it was great fun in the swampy areas and trails (will be better in spring).

We eventually meandered over to the lake, where I finally found some different birds to photograph. I was mostly just trying to figure out what the white birds were, then realized there were even more cormorants than white birds.

This was really far away, but clear enough to ID.

When I got home and downloaded the pictures to my phone, I realized that my photos of gulls were filled with cormorants. They aren’t very clear, but if you click to enlarge you will see them in trees, swimming, and sticking their heads out of the water!

As if this wasn’t enough fun, we went home on the back roads (Lee is familiar with them from once living in Granger). We noticed more places to hike in the nature preserves, which made us want to bring the RV down one weekend.

I felt so good when I got home, even after listening to unbearable political analysis all the way to the lake (it made my stomach hurt). I’m glad I felt good, so that I could do my important chores of boiling eggs and riding a horse who was not interested in side passing.

I’m glad Lee and I have a shared hobby. I wish his macro photos had loaded into our shared library, but synching is slow. I’ll share another time!

Oh yes! The month has a pink theme. Happy love nails.

Now I Can See Those Dang Birds

One thing Lee and I did in Austin yesterday was get a zoom lens for our Cannon camera. It goes 150-500, and is pretty big but not ridiculous. We went to Precision Camera, a store I’ve patronized off and on since I moved here. I am glad they sell used equipment. New stuff is pricey.

The first time I went to Precision Camera it was a much smaller store near the current one. I went with Mary Jo, the school librarian at my kids’ school, to get a digital camera so I could put photos on the school website. We got the best we could get in 1998, since it was a new school and we had funds. This fine camera could take ten pictures on its memory card. Then you’d have to slowly download to a PC to clear out space. Getting even one photo per class was tedious (plus no photos of children’s faces—we had already figured that out).

I’m pretty sure this was it. You can get your own here.

I digress. The current equipment we now have holds lots more photos, and we download them via the camera’s wifi, which even our mid-level Canon camera has. So see, some things are better now. My goal is to get photos of birds that will look good enough to ID on iNaturalist. I have no illusions of becoming an art photographer at this point in my life.

New lens triumphantly produced an identifiable White-crowned Sparrow.

Today was not a great day to try the new lens out, since it was misty and drizzly all day. The temperature only varied by 6° all day!

Even though it was a gray day, I took many bird photos, some with the phone, which also has a good zoom but not as many pixels. I wanted to compare.

The lens is heavy, so I’ll have to build arm strength. It has stabilizers, which is quite useful for shaky arms.

Luckily, whatever this thing is didn’t move.

Mostly I practiced taking pictures of our Great Egret as it preened its damp feathers. It’s great to be able to see it up close.

On a sunny day I could do more, but I enjoyed trying different modes. I’m nowhere near able to manually manipulate settings. I’ll get there.

I look forward to seeing what I can do around the ranch. I get plenty of bird variety here! Maybe I can get better photos out camping, too. Identifiable ones will suffice. I’ll leave you with a few of my experiments.

I’m Practicing Character Judgment

Are you a good judge of character?

I’m camping in a beautiful place and haven’t felt much like blogging, but this question intrigued me. I certainly get vibes from people. But I’ve learned that I’ll benefit from not making snap judgments, especially about character.

Too many times, I’ve gotten a bad impression about someone only to find out later that I was wrong. People are often awkward at first. Also, people are complex, and given a chance, people who come across poorly can end up lifelong friends. Conversely, I’ve met people who seemed wonderful upon first meeting, but who used me, hurt me, or were just misrepresenting themselves.

Plus, I know I’m often nervous when meeting new people and say/do awkward things. Since nowadays, the trend is to not give people second chances, I’ve made bad impressions with no chance of recovery. Sigh.

So, coincidentally, I’ve been meeting a lot of people since we arrived at South Llano River State Park. Camping aficionados tend to be friendly with supportive of each other. Mostly they don’t bring up controversial topics and just chat about their equipment, the park, and their travels.

For example, we laugh that our RV is under mistletoe.

I’ve had a bunch of fun conversations with fellow campers, and I’ve just assumed they are all nice folks. It’s been just great. I’ve had many conversations about dogs, birds (at the many well-maintained bird blinds), how crowded Round Rock has become, and why some of the trails close at 3 (turkey roosting). If any of these campers are secretly creepy, it doesn’t hurt to be nice to them. I’ll reserve judgement on their character and help make this a friendly place.

Because beauty and love are what we need.

Anyway. I’m having lots of adventures wandering around this diverse park, which has a river, an oak and pecan river bottom, higher areas with different oaks and Ashe Junipers. There are lots of yucca, cactus, and desert plants.

It’s teeming with wildlife. In one walk I saw 7 armadillos, at least that many deer, and evidence of abundant raccoons, opossums, and skunks. I think I saw ringtail poop, too.

And the birds, oh my. The bird blinds are obviously maintained daily. There’s food every morning. That’s let me photograph many beautiful birds with both cameras. My favorites are Fox Sparrows, Black-throated Sparrows, Scrub Jays, Spotted Towhees, and the big excitement, my first Pyrrhuloxia!

Even the common birds are gorgeous when they play in the fountains and eat from the homemade feeders. The volunteers do a super job here. I’ll be sure to donate!

I’m glad to have plenty of time to explore here. It’s funny that we were at the far northeast end of the Texas Hill Country last trip, and we’re at the far southwest end this week! Fun.

Solstice Blessings to all! Let’s go out and be careful when we judge people’s character as days lengthen.

Fun Up North

That’s north of Dallas, Texas. My pseudo-granddaughter had her third birthday party today, which provided an excellent excuse to visit her actual grandmother, my friend Pouri.

I drove up yesterday afternoon (still no fun driving through Dallas) and made it in time for a fabulous Persian meal. She overdid it as usual. I’m not complaining, of course. So many herbs, so much flavor. Saffron rice, salad with figs, nuts, and pomegranate…beef kebab and chicken with tasty potatoes. Wow. And there were persimmons for dessert.

Mostly this was a great chance to catch up and talk in a relaxed way. What a wonderful thing to do. That makes two nice talks with old friends in one week! This is the perfect thing to do in uncertain times, be with people you care about.

After a nice sleep in the cute guest room, Pouri gave me a “light” breakfast of many kinds of toast and exquisite preserves, like quince and sour cherries. Pouri is really a great hostess. I tried to take mental notes, but…

She put cute birds in the bathroom for me.

After breakfast, I took a walk around the neighborhood and heard 22 birds. There was a Great Horned Owl and a Cooper’s Hawk, and many overconfident crows.

Apparently this suburb is crawling with wildlife, including multiple bobcats. I saw enough squirrels to scare Anita for life, plus some rabbits, but no bobcats. I’m as intrigued with suburbs as I was last year.

The party was this afternoon at Ellie’s new house. It made me so happy to see how well she and Jimmy have done in their careers and with their daughter. I mean, Ellie just went with it when a vampire theme was requested for the party. All the dripping blood mixed well with the Christmas decor. So cute.

All the children were cute and I got to chat with the extended family some, too. Ellie and I plan to talk next week, when she’s relaxed.

Face painting went over very well. The painter was quite skilled. Pouri and I got flowers. Why not?

I drove back home this evening. So I’m pretty darned tired, especially since I hit a lot of rain. But I’m glad I went. I can’t wait for more catch-up sessions. I’ve been hiding too long.

I didn’t miss the dogs, because Banjo was there. Such a well behaved dog.

Hiking with Someone Can Be Fun

To be truthful, I get irritated at people who talk and talk as they go down trails, ruining my precious silence and bird listening. That makes me a hypocrite, because given the chance to talk to someone I hadn’t talked to in a good number of years, I’ll talk my butt off, even on slippery rocks.

Yes! I went on a nice hike with a friend! Rebecca was the choir director when I sang at Live Oak UU Church, and we also sang together in other choral groups over the years. She’s one of the people I’d missed most when I left Round Rick for weekends at the ranch.

The gray sky made the red leaves more vivid.

After seeing each other again at the recent memorial service, we decided to do stuff together, and decided to hike at Cedar Breaks Park on Lake Georgetown. It took us the same amount of time to get there, coming different ways, so Rebecca made a good choice.

There is a lot of confusing construction around the park, but the trails weren’t very crowded, thanks to a misty drizzle. But it wasn’t too cold and the fall colors were striking. It WAS rather slippery on the limestone along the trail, but we were careful.

It was great catching up with each other and identifying plants. She’s a Master Gardener now, so we’re both all educated. I was surprised at how many plants were still blooming or budding out.

There weren’t very many birds in the oak/juniper forest, but hearing a Canyon Wren made up for it. That was only my second one. you need a canyon to find them, and we had them on the lake.

After we got back, we headed into Georgetown for a nice lunch at the Sweet Lemon Cafe. It was cute and the food was very nice. We wished it wasn’t rainy, so we could visit nearby shops, but maybe we can try again.

So, what caused this tree damage? It’s fresh.

We already have an idea for another adventure. I sure feel good about breaking out of hermit-hood a little. As a matter of fact, I’m going to keep trying! Tomorrow I drive up north and hope the rodeo traffic is confined to the west side of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.