birds – Page 14 – The Hermits' Rest

Meteorological Warm Fuzzies

After all the horse hugging yesterday, I did not expect the weather to be nice to me today, but it was! Now, it’s still windy as heck, but I guess that’s typical March coming in like a lion stuff.

I’ve been unhappy with the weather, because all the flowers are coming up late, but it turns out it’s not just here. Friends elsewhere report similar late spring plant activity. I did go wander through the property today to check for flowers coming up, and they are there, just not up as far as usual. Whew.

The weather even blew a Barn Swallow into the house when a door blew open, which I’m sure was no fun for it. Luckily it found its way back out and the house isn’t all poopy.

The day was so lovely and sunny, though, which was a gift after so many days of angry clouds and dust. Imagine my surprise when we got a severe thunderstorm warning just as I was finishing a call with my financial advisor (depressing).

Can you see green leaves forming on the trees?

I went out to feed the animals and get everything all cozy, and even had time to ride Apache before it got ominous out. The rain that came was pleasant and didn’t last too long. Afterwards I noticed the sun came out while it was still drizzling. I knew was warm fuzzy gift that would bring!

It was one of the fullest rainbows I’d seen here in a long time. It was very intense, which is hard to tell from pictures.

Little things like light refracting on water droplets can make one’s day!

But more awaited me. The nearly full moon rose and peeked over some leftover rain clouds and was so pretty I had to stop my errands to watch it.

There were no clouds in the west, so all the color you see is from the setting sun hitting the clouds.

Right now, when our horizons are quite cloudy, pausing to enjoy gifts like rainbows and sunsets can make all the difference.

Rocks and Water Both Heal

It was a good day at Inks Lake State Park today. Jennifer stayed until she had to check out at noon, which was good. We enjoyed having a fellow camper to talk to.

I took a little walk this morning to check out the campsites farther down the road, many of which were beautifully wooded or right on the lake where all the ducks and geese are.

I enjoyed a half hour or so on the fishing dock, which was nice and quiet, other than quacking and honking. There was a pair of white pelicans as well as entertaining coots, a cormorant, and many ducks, including a Lesser Scaup in the mix. I greatly enjoyed the diving and popping back up that they were all engaging in. Just being around water and the life it supports made me feel better.

After lunch I embarked on one of my really long solo hikes I impose on myself. I went on a trail that went next to the lake for a while then way up into the karst formations and around a hill. It was very windy, but I did manage to find some Black-throated Sparrows, which excited me. They were ones I enjoyed at Southern Llano River.

Mostly I just had fond memories of hiking this same trail soon after I met Lee and other hikes when all the interesting plants were blooming. The red rocks with lichen growing on them, the tiny plants that grow in puddles when it rains, and the hardy little trees are just so much fun to look at.

And then there were so many views of the lake and surrounding hills. Ahh. It was just me and the vultures (many) for most of the hike.

After four miles, I was tired, so Lee and I made dinner and ate outside while listening to hundreds of Great-tailed Grackles shrieking. Such ambience!

We topped it off with sunset viewing on the dock, and finished the fifth and final season of the West Wing. I’ll miss the characters as well as the ideas of democracy the show portrayed.

I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes, but all but 15 minutes of it should be fine. If I’m not grounded and healed from all these rocks, I don’t know what will do it!

We don’t have to leave until mid afternoon. That’s great!

The Hits Keep Coming

I don’t know what to do but laugh. This month has just been chock full of unpleasant stuff, but like one of those clown toys from when I was a kid, when I’m hit I just fall down and pop back up.

It the right image but the toy looks best up. Image from Pexels.

That’s new for me. I used to fall apart. Now I react, but deal with it better. The bad news isn’t everything in life, I realized at last. There’s always good, too. Here’s an example.

Yesterday I’d been thinking how proud of myself I was. I’d paid my credit cards down and could see them being all gone in a few weeks. Ha ha. Wishful thinking! I’d only get that feeling for a few hours.

I’d been looking forward to yesterday for a long time. My friend Lynn Hagan was receiving an award from Texas A&M, and she’d invited some friends to attend the reception and banquet. We had to wear nice clothes!

I went to pick up my friend Pamela, who defied all the odds and was not late. We were enjoying a trip down the back roads of Milam County, on our way to get Phyllis, when I got a phone call from the contracting company I work for. as I tried to navigate unfamiliar roads I was informed that Dell has decided to end my contract next week. I’m out of work!

I’m impressed by how well I handled the call. I’d had inklings something was up, though I won’t know for sure until I talk to my supervisor Monday. I’m more annoyed that they couldn’t wait until the contract ended so I’d have time to get Social Security set up (if I do get it…times are uncertain). But I’m just fine. I’ll wait to see what the story is there, and in the meantime I’ll see what’s out there. It will be okay.

I admit I was not feeling great as I drove to College Station, but I ended up meeting many fascinating people and making friends at the reception and meal. It felt so good to be in a room full of humanities and science majors! I miss being around people of my background sometimes, though I feel like an intellectual elite person when I say that. It was fun violently agreeing on many topics and making everyone feel welcome.

I’m glad we were able to go support Lynn as she got her huge framed award.

I couldn’t sleep last night but I did not lay there and blame myself for the job thing or panic about loss of income. I just couldn’t sleep.

But today I did just fine, got all animals at least partly groomed. Mabel kept asking to be brushed more. By the time she decided to leave, her mane was gleaming. And Fiona let me work on her, too. Yay.

Today we are at Inks Lake State Park, which is too crowded for me. But our friend Jen is here, too, which will make it fun to do bird stuff. I’m going to work on my resume and try not to kick myself for dyeing my hair ends purple. Makes me look eccentric.

Onward! It will be fine.

Doing Something about It

The Universe has spoken. I’m on the right path for right now, and I’m reaping the rewards. Now I need to be an example for others. I’ll explain.

But first, look, I made a thing. It’s a small bag to hang on a hook next to where I sit in the RV. It will hold my nail file, pencils, and scissors. Not having an end table is a pain.*

I’m feeling somewhat better now that I can be outside more. I was even able to work in the porch today. No wonder I was able to hear 50 birds today.

My view was these two cows. One was not feeling well and the other stayed with her, licking her until they napped.

And more horse time has also helped. Lee put out more hay today, and while everyone else wanted to get into the hay, Dusty just hung around with me and let me remove burs. So when Lee was done, I gave Dusty a bonus meal and a grooming session. That helped, because he’s shedding even more than Apache. We even took a nice walk around the obstacles. He liked that. Much hugging was involved.

He’s looking good for his advanced age, just thin.

After I was finished working I fed everyone and took Apache out on a ride. He’s getting so much better at home. We had fun, and he genuinely seemed to enjoy hanging out with me. More hugging occurred.

I ended up taking lots of horse and donkey photos after trying to de-bur Fiona. I only got partway through. My hands hurt.

I know all those bird observing and horse hugging is good, because I went to a tarot group meeting this evening on Zoom. I appreciated the invitation, because I’d been wanting to get back to more readings, but didn’t want to get a scary one all alone. We did a five-card spread and each did our own analysis.

It may look depressing, but it made sense.

I won’t go into what each position was for, since the spread was just for this group. The gist of my interpretation is that I’m one broken-hearted wise woman who needs to turn away from what makes her sad and go meditate or whatever. As usual, the cards back up what I’m trying to do! The Emperor tells me I’m on a path of leadership, and that’s a nudge to go be a good example more. I’ll heed that advice and go do something: be a more vocal proponent of peace and universal love.

Anyway, that was a different and fun day!

*there is no pattern for this. It’s got a single crochet base and double crochet sides using two strands of Dishie cotton yarn. I seamed the center with slip stitches and added a handle 5 stitches wide. I put this here because I know people always want patterns, but this was just a utilitarian object.

Consequences of the Cold

The recent cold spell has taken a lot out of me. Combined with mourning from losing Goldie and being sad that the Red House on Fannin got rented out, I’ve been not much fun. I’m glad we will get income from the house, but it was fun fixing it up to be the Airbnb. Another failed enterprise. We’re racking them up.

In good news, I unpacked these pretty things from boxes we’d stored at the Red House.

I’m not going to be a part of any more joint ventures with friends and family from now on. Hold me to that. I really stink at such things, and sitting inside in the cold gave me too much time to dwell on past mistakes, knowing perfectly well that beating myself up over past errors and regrets in judgement is not productive. Learn from mistakes and move on, I’ve been repeating that.

I also found my really good bowls and gave away many things to my son and his coworkers. That felt good.

The cold was hard on the birds I usually hang out with, too. For two days in a row I only observed a few birds on Merlin. Yesterday, it saddened me to find one of the male Barn Swallow scouts had died on the porch. I put it safely to rest and then washed my hands a lot in case he had bird flu.

The chickens and Connie made it through the cold snap by staying in their house. They didn’t stop laying eggs, though. Today they were back to normal outdoor activities and Connie finally laid a big ole turkey egg. Here it is compared to her first egg (I saved it).

Today it finally warmed up and I was able to spend my usual amount of time outside. It made a big difference, since I started the day really dragging and ended up with stories to tell Lee.

All the chairs now have cushions, making for good patio time.

I was able to pull some burs off the equines and do more than stick food under their noses and flee. That pleased everyone but Drew, who just isn’t in a good space.

Since I was out a lot, I got to hear and see fun bird action. The Barred Owl was hooting much of the day, which is always fun. There were ducks flying around, too, at least three kinds. Of course, the sparrows, chickadees, and Cardinals entertained a lot. They all seemed glad it warmed up.

I was walking along the fence line listening to a Red-tailed Hawk making some of its weird calls when something white bounced off my head. I looked up to see all the mistletoe above me was full of round, white berries.

Did one just fall on me? No. It quickly became obvious that one of the Mockingbirds had dropped it. It hopped over to the fence then into the bush next to me, scolding me with mistletoe still in its beak. I understood that I was on his territory (must be a male, because he’d been singing earlier) and retreated with a smile on my face.

Hooray. I need my bird observation and horse time to keep me out of my funks and remind me about that living in the moment thing I’m supposed to be aiming for. Darn those polar vortexes.

Counting Birds and Holding Steady

What luck. This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count.

This provides me with a perfect excuse to sit outside in my chair for hours and track what birds show up. I needed that healing time, and the peace of being outdoors. Since there was a break in the weather and the sun came out, I got a lot of healing time out of the break.

It was so green! But frigid air is returning.

Plus, I found 46 species of birds today, which will be great for the count. We’re so lucky here that I can see water birds, woodland birds, and meadow birds (like Meadowlarks!). Even a duck flew over, an American Wigeon. I wish ducks liked our ponds more, but they mainly attract shore birds. At least mostly all the winter sparrows and the Pipit showed up: White-crowned, White-throated, Savannah, Vesper, Field, Harris’s, Song, and House (technically an Old World species). So many little brown birds. I just love watching them, the Cardinals, the Chickadees, and the Titmice searching for tasty morsels.

Okay, so when I wasn’t birding I did my nails, which always distracts me for an hour each week as I try not to wrinkle the polish or put them on wonky. These look pretty cool.

I was writing up the Master Naturalist meeting minutes in my office and kept thinking I saw Goldie on the sofa. Or couch. I had to make it look different and not remind me so much of her or I’d dread going in there. So, I washed the cover I’d put on to try to prevent more damage to it. But, then I remembered how filthy she had gotten the upholstery by getting on it when dirty or skunked or bleeding.

Hey, I helped with that and am still here!

So I got out the upholstery cleaner stuff and went to town on that grime. I guess that was the equivalent of our nephew digging a giant hole for her burial yesterday —I poured my sadness into scrubbing. And it worked. The fabric looks way better and smells less “doggy.” I now remember how I’d decorated the room, too.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll take my grief out on the muddy and bur-covered horses. They were pretty icky looking when I fed them.

Anyway, thanks for your good thoughts and kind words. I’m feeling very cared for today. If you ever wonder whether words of sympathy after a loved one (human or not) passes are helpful to the bereaved, I can tell you they are.

Time for Quiet

It’s one of those days when there is a lot to process. I’m not sure that I’m ready to say anything yet, other than I’m feeling really irrelevant due to my age, ethnicity, gender, and views. It’s probably good that I figured that out before I did or said something I shouldn’t. I need to keep processing for a bit.

I’m the big egret in a world of coots and ducks.

We did make it home. The animals are quite pleased. The people seemed to be, too. I’ll talk to y’all, one-sidedly, tomorrow. I’ll be quiet now.

Our two sickly dogs mostly bark from the couch now. Neither is doing very well.

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.