Plant Sightings – Page 2 – The Hermits' Rest

Sixty-four Bird Species!

Today was a fun one in the bird department! It was a beautiful day, and I guess the birds thought so, too.

Look at that bright sky and brilliant foliage.

I guess the birds are on the move or something. Of the incredible 64 species that either I saw or Merlin heard, there were even two hummingbirds! I know a few hang around during the winter, but I was surprised to see Merlin heard a Rufous Hummingbird! But, hey, it turns out that they do come through here in the winter! I wish I’d actually seen it.

Other birds that have shown up in the past few days are more expected, though I don’t know if we get Towhees and Juncos very often here (common elsewhere in Texas). It’s as if we had a sudden influx of the birds from further south and west.

My notebook. Three full columns is 60 birds. I do abbreviate many names, just like Amy Tan.

Ones with an x in front are new this month, though I think the Brown Thrasher was here not too long ago. I love writing down the birds every day. It only matters to me, but it brings me joy to track their comings and goings on this one little spot where three habitats meet and there are many natural food choices. It’s not going to get written up for science, but it interests me (and a couple of you).

I’m almost done with my first pretty bird notebook. I’ll have to choose one with a winter bird on the cover next.

Other than birding and working, I enjoyed spotting a few intrepid flowers still blooming. I meant to capture some dandelions but forgot. All these cheer me up, though.

As always, it’s good to have nature to distract me from…I guess, nature. Something has given me a stuffy head this week (Lee, too) and today my ears were clogged. We assume it’s an allergen, though maybe we got a virus while camping with all those germy people (just kidding).

I was around more people this evening, as I learned about bears at the Master Naturalist meeting. No one breathed too hard on me.

So why am I blogging with this sinus headache? I’ll be back soon!

Sometimes It’s Hard to Leave

But then it’s good to be back

That’s the story of my day. Lee and I were enjoying our time together in Blanco and almost decided to stay until tomorrow, but we dragged ourselves home. That’s probably for the best, given the strong winds blowing in that early cold front.

I still managed to get in a walk to the only trail I’d missed on this visit, which allowed me to enjoy the resident non-native geese.

And since I figured out Bluetooth on the upgraded camera body, I can now share images from it and the phone. I’m glad I took it on my walk, and look forward to trying the other lenses. I just took the standard one. It took nice tree photos. I was captivated by cypress and sycamore trees.

I also enjoyed leaves, lots of leaves.

Berries? Want to see berries?

Here are other interesting sights and some new ones for me.

And finally, I can share that I was happy to enjoy the windy morning (very few birds), but a bit sad to say goodbye to Jennifer, even though I know I’ll see her at least a couple more times before she moves away. Sniff.

The dogs were glad to see us, as was the human resident, when we got home. I should have more than just photos tomorrow. At least it will be photos of something that is not next to a river.

One More Good Day at the River

I’m not kidding. If I lived on one of these Texas Hill Country Rivers like the Blanco, you’d find me every day sitting under a huge bald cypress tree looking at the river life, marveling at the life within the moving water.

I spent a great deal of time this morning just watching fish being fish. It makes me miss my aquariums.

Look at these bluegill beside a cypress.

The morning was magical in many ways, from the light shining on grasses to meeting some interesting Master Naturalists and birders. That’s one reason I love visiting state parks! It’s so much. Fun to talk about what birds and plants we have on our land.

I did find birds farther down the pump house trail, where my binoculars let me enjoy the crown of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, who also sang his entire repertoire for me.

I also managed to find some palafox and skeleton flowers, which was a pleasant pink surprise.

After that walk, I uploaded everything to iNaturalist until I was invited to lead a nature walk by some fellow campers. We went on the trail that goes under the highway, and I showed them the things I found yesterday as well as finding new plants and a Greylag Goose.

Later in the day I practiced taking pictures with Lee’s newest camera, once I got some help with the settings. Another reason it’s nice to see old friends again. I’d share photos, but they aren’t showing up for me.

I also have no photos of the enjoyable potluck dinner this evening. I got to meet some very interesting newer members and their fun kids and dogs, and enjoyed catching up with others. I’m glad I was able to be more social and really get into some meaningful exchanges.

I’m really going to hate to leave tomorrow, but since the temperatures are going to drop I will need to go bring in some plants. I’ll miss the fish, though.

Autumn in Texas

November in the part of the world where I live is our prettiest autumn month. If the leaves on the deciduous trees are going to change colors before they fall off, now’s the time for them to do it. Sometimes a freeze comes, turns them all mushy brown, and that’s it for leaves.

We are back at Llano State Park, because that’s where our friend Jennifer chose for the fall campout for our former UU church. Those of us who moved to Cameron still tag along (that’s us, Martha, and Mike). I still know a few campers, and I enjoy meeting some new people. Usually. Today I could only take small doses.

This is one beautiful, clear river, and it’s not crowded this time of year.

Yes, it’s a great time to camp in Texas. Last night was lovely sleeping with the windows open, and it wasn’t too hot today. It looks like an early (for us) freeze may be coming to knock all those leaves off, so Jennifer picked a good weekend.

Today I got a little stressed due to lots of work stuff and worrying about all the motorhome issues. Work ended up ok, and Lee managed to find a guy to come figure out why our air conditioning and chassis power weren’t working. That’s good, because getting in and out of Seneca takes a lot of upper body strength when the stairs won’t come down.

All the church people thought the repair truck was an ambulance!

The guy did a very good job, and Lee is planning to drive Seneca back around here to his repair place to get the numerous other issues we have fixed. That will make me feel better.

Also making me feel better was getting my tree art hung in the wall. We got rid of an ugly clock.

I did a bit of walking, as you can see from the photos. It was such a beautiful day that it was hard to stay all worried. There were some birds, and I got to see many of them. At least one Carolina Wren was VERY friendly.

I’ll go visit the bird blind tomorrow. And I’ll try to be more outgoing. I did stop and talk to people, but wasn’t up for group activities. We just went to dinner at the same place we ate last time. I believe they make the best charro beans I ever ate. Texas Cannon Brewing.

No photos of dinner but here’s a very long picnic table built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

I’m looking forward to another day on the river. The water is very clear. I could see fish and watched a young turtle swimming around. I hope you enjoy some of my sights from today.

Outdoor Projects Moving Forward

I didn’t write last night because I was chatting with my family. This makes me think blogging is what I do when there’s no one to talk to. Perhaps two occasions of that happening in one week aren’t enough data for such a sad interpretation. It is not the case that I have so few people to talk to in real life that I chat with an unknown audience. I have both friends and readers, many of whom ARE friends or step-sisters.

The weather is probably making me weird(er) today. It kept acting like it wanted to rain, then just displaying attractive clouds to distract me from the projects I was planning to talk about.

Before the projects, I’ll share a story of mama cows who are brave. There was a new tan calf this morning and I saw the vultures heading over to the pond to bother the mom and baby. Vultures look beautiful in morning light with dark clouds behind them (last tree photo above was the setting). The mother cow was looking unhappy and let out a weird short moo.

In response I hear hooves. The new white calf is running toward the new family. That calf is quite the zippy little thing. Her mother was right behind, mooing loudly. Mama walked right up to the vultures, lowered her big bovine head, and shooed the birds away. So much flapping! After that, everyone settled down for peaceful nursing and grazing.

Okay, so I did leave the ranch in time to do some volunteering over at the Wildscape project with some of the Master Naturalist chapter. There was a large pile of dirt to spread over a weed barrier, and there was also some cleanup to do as the team gets ready to plant new pollinator-attracting plants for the H-E-B pollinator grant we got.

I was not very helpful, but I did take some unofficial photos of everyone working.

Then I ran off to the bird sanctuary, which is hanging in there without our help. I wandered off to the area where prairie is being restored and found myself all alone and unable to see signs of humanity other than fences. That was good energy for the new year (Samhain and Día de Los Muertes).

I did go back and interact with people, plus get to connect with my friends Ann and Donna, who have been dealing with health issues that annoy them.

I’m glad I got to go help a little, even though it meant I missed a funeral. Lee was able to attend and convey my condolences, though. I always feel a lot of sympathy for spouses who are left alone after many years. I’m glad our friend who lost his wife has a large supportive family.

When I got home from my errands, I got to watch more work being done on my birding station. They had to go back for more wood again—I think the design has been refined. I was told the project just eats wood. Anyway, it now has siding along the bottom, so there’s just top and roof left, I think.

Exciting stuff, huh.

Yeah, Genie, Do This

You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?

Everyone will wake up one day and realize we can all live together in peace if we spend as much energy trying to work things out as we now do on trying to divide each other.
Everyone has what they need to be healthy, contribute to society, and love who they love.
The non-human life in earth can thrive and heal the planet.

That will do.

It’s not hopeless. Lilies came back after the rain. Just south of here, migrating monarchs are everywhere. Sandhill Cranes are reaching their wintering grounds. A cold front is coming.

Ranch Life, Surprises Are All Good

Ya know, these days not much fazes me around here. As long as there’s no gushing blood on humans or livestock, it’s all fine.

I’ve got Penney and her pals watching out for me.

Today was typical. I enjoyed my morning birding—I really missed it last week, and I took Penney out for a tromp through the front field while I took pictures for yet another BioBlitz, for the Native Plant Society. So idyllic!

I settled in at my desk to do meetings and a big task, with my coffee in my hand and headphones over my ears. However, near the end of the second meeting I heard Lee exclaim that the horses were out. Oops! Someone (me) didn’t shut the big gate well and the wind blew it open.

They sure looked happy in the driveway circle, where Lee had accidentally left the water on the little tree for too long. I’m just glad it is not fresh and juicy enough to mess with Apache.

Lee and I decided to let them hang out in the open area for the day, and bungee-corded the front gate shut. I think they had a good day finding pockets of grass that’s not all dried up. I also noticed a lot of rubbing itchy areas on pieces of equipment.

They went right back to their pens for feeding time with just a little encouragement, so it’s all just fine. The afternoon ended with more birding and pleasant sitting by the pool as a family.

I gazed at the birding station from the pool patio. They’ll get back to it soon!

Heck, the only negative stuff for today was an outage of our phone service (worse for others than for me, because it didn’t stop me from working) and frustration with getting logged in to the correct streaming service for football. I’m sure it’s easier for the young folks. Just too many passwords on annoying interfaces!

So I just breathe and look at grass. Aah.

When you don’t let surprises bug you, it’s way easier to deal with the little things, and that’s today’s takeaway.

I couldn’t identify this by sight, but iNaturalist says it’s very dry prairie tea (*Croton monanthogynus)*

Working on Things?

What have you been working on?

I’ve been slacking on my main project, the temperature blanket. I just have to buckle down and sew September onto the main blanket and crochet more black squares. Then I can enjoy October (hoping it cools off someday).

Poorly arranged photo of September. Hot colors.

This doesn’t mean work isn’t being done around the Hermits’ Rest. I was delighted to notice a lot of materials in our back yard when I arrived home from College Station. I also noticed the horses had more hay, so someone or someones had been busy this weekend!

Yes! My concrete bird-watching pad is becoming a birding station. It’s going to be quite a little gem. Kathleen has been painting trim like she’s driven, and her brother and spouse are building the structure.

I’ll have the shade I need in summer and protection from wind in winter. I look forward to trying it out!

I was pretty darned tired today from all that activity at the Texas Master Naturalist annual meeting. So I mostly napped and tried to add more photos before the Texas Pollinator Week ends. I did find a few interesting things, including katydids that I learned about this week.

It’s good to be home and back working on my usual projects, iNaturalist, Merlin Bird ID (got a Great Horned Owl!), crochet, and feeding animals. I fed horses and did not get injured. They’re calmer with their different bale of hay. That’s good, because half my face is green from bruising fun.

All By Myself

I’m all cozy in a hotel very close to a University campus. So it’s not quiet. I’m pretty tired from all that bleeding and stitching yesterday, so you’re not getting much to read tonight.

I did do a BioBlitz at Lick Creek Park in College Station today, but it was very low key because I just wasn’t ready for big crowds (auto correct made the word “crowds” into “briefs”) and talking. So I wandered around and looked at the saddest collection of wilted plants I’ve ever seen in the wild.

It’s hard to find diverse plants when everything is brown and droopy.

I found a few things and would have seen more if I’d been in the guided botany walk.

There were irrigated pollinator gardens around the nature center. I hoped to get lots of pollinator photos, but the butterflies seemed more intent on mating than sipping nectar. And the mid-afternoon sun makes phone photography hard. You can’t see the screen, so you miss a lot. I tried taking distant photos and cropping, with poor results. So the four types of skippers and the many Queens remain uncaptured.

I only heard four birds, too. But, it was a day outdoors and I did chat with a few like-minded people. No complaints.

Thanks to all who checked in on me. I will endeavor to not fall this weekend.

Exploring to the Extent I Could

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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