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.
The river was all rippled today.
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.
Greylag and Egyptian 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.
Obviously not a tree. This is a webworm moth nest.
I also enjoyed leaves, lots of leaves.
CypressSycamorePileup at the spillwayVirginia creeperWillowOakNo ideaOkay that’s enough leaves
Berries? Want to see berries?
PossumhawBeauty BerryAcorn that should have been in the previous setChinaberry? soapberry? I forgot. Glossy privet, invasiveMandona, invasive
Here are other interesting sights and some new ones for me.
News: the sap of cypress trees is redI didn’t know thatCypress knees Cute woodpecker holesSomeone can hide hereA bracket fungusCypress leaf in waterKayak/canoe launch under the highwayPedestrian entrance to the parkINat said this was goldenrod. Hmm.
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.
I had to wear a vest! She taught me to be a birder!
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.
No doubt I’ve accidentally done something I’m not supposed to do more than once and still don’t know it. But one I do know about is that for a while I had a collection of bird feathers I’d found on the ground on the ranch. There were striped hawk feathers, huge black vulture feathers, etc.
Here’s some feathery grass. It’s a bluestem.
In my Master Naturalist training I learned that it’s against the law to collect and display native wild bird feathers unless you’re a Native American doing it for spiritual reasons. I think the Migratory Bird Act is the law. It’s so people won’t hurt birds to make hats or other decorative objects.
Fly free, migratory birds! These are geese, probably Canada geese, photobombed by a tern.
I set my wild feathers free and now happily display domestic chicken feathers. It seems like if the feather fell out for bird-related reasons, like fighting or molting, it wouldn’t harm anything. Oh well. I will look at feathers on birds. That’s fine.
Birds I looked at today included a lot of coots.
Yes, we have flown the coop once again (more bird talk) and Seneca the motorhome brought us to Ray Roberts State Park, Isle de Bois unit. This lake provides Dallas and Denton their water.
It’s still looking pretty wintry up here, but we are right on the lake.
Note all the logs. I guess there was a bad storm up here recently, because there is a big mess in the campground. It’s sort of sad. I hope the trails look better! The lake gives great views, though.
We arrived just at sunset. I had to get work done first.
I have seen more birds than I’ve heard, so far. There are very busy white-throated sparrows, loud crows, cardinals, and great blue herons that make noise. But the coots, ducks, geese, and terns didn’t have much to say. The terns were diving from the air, and the coots and ring-necked ducks were diving from the water. it’s lots of fun to watch. I’ll enjoy working from the picnic table tomorrow!
These are the ducks. I know, hard to tell. They have longer black bills. Coots have short white ones. My binoculars helped.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to some quiet hiking. They have paved trails! There’s also an equestrian area to check out. Saturday it will be colder, but I brought my trusty winter hiking clothing AND hiking boots that aren’t broken! I’m set.
So pretty here. The white dots are a plane and its reflection.
The horses and dogs have good care, so all should be well at home. Of course we miss them. But quiet is nice. Enjoy more pictures.
Tree carnageCoots. This is our view. Seneca from the lakeArtsy grass and sunMore geeseTrees and lakeAhhOoh
We returned to the ranch over the weekend, with zero seconds of downtime, but we jumped right into the swing of things and enjoyed visitors, both human and otherwise.
Flying Friends
The most glorious visitors were just passing through. Many flocks of sandhill cranes flew over. We also saw a few snow geese. I just love the sounds of the cranes!
One of my favorite neighbors.
While I was taking crane pictures, two blue herons squawked, so I got nice close photos of them. Of course, they are blurry iPhone pictures, but some day I’ll get a new battery and learn to use the good camera again!
There have also been a lot of visiting starlings, which we don’t usually have. One thing I’ve noticed about them is that they make lots and lots of noise when they are all lined up on the electric wires, but when they take off as a flock to rearrange themselves, they are totally silent. It’s really eerie when you are standing around in the field listening, and suddenly all you hear are the coyotes.
These are so delicate.
Most of the dragonflies are gone, but we did see a lovely bluet by the small meadow pond. These sure are pretty. They curve their bodies where you see the stripes.
Why won’t the turtle play with me? (You can sort of see it in the grass.)
More “Friends”
Because it’s rained so much (have I mentioned that? Lots of flooding while we were gone), animals seem to be wandering around. Yesterday, Carlton the dog found an extra large pond turtle in the middle of the pasture. He was most dismayed that it would not come out and play, so he stood there for 15 minutes and barked at it, poking it with his nose a lot. Treats had to be used to save that poor turtle from the torture.
This dirty part of the porch is where we harmless snakes like to hang out. I want to date this electric cord.
And later yesterday, I once again spotted a large snake on the front porch, in the icky dirty part, of course. I was pretty convinced it was a water mocassin, but the folks at iNaturalist talked me down, and asssured me it was a water snake trying to look like a poisonous one. I am pretty sure this is the same snake I’ve seen over by the pond. It hisses. We kept the dogs away, and it slowly meandered off.
Our house guest was not thrilled that we didn’t kill it. I repeated a number of times, “I don’t kill snakes.” I do understand many people aren’t good with them. My dad sure wasn’t! He’d kill them 3 or 4 times!
It’s a scorpion, all right. Small.
In the early evening, we found our first scorpion at the ranch. It was pre-dead, so we didn’t have to do anything to it. We used to see lots more in our house in the karst area of Williamson County
Not Friends at All
We apparently have a visitor over to the chicken coop who is not our friend. It has killed at least 4 of the chickens (at least two roosters, who were probably trying to defend the flock). It gets them IN the chicken coop. Yet another reason for them not to lay eggs in there!
The Neighbor is sure it’s an owl. I think it might be a bobcat, since both hunt at night. A cat could get in there easily from the tree, then scale the fence to get out.
Leave us ALONE! We just want to eat grass. And escape from these non-sheepproof fences.
Something also went after the four new sheep the Neighbor brought in, and one of them lost a LOT of wool and some flesh, but seems OK. We are hoping the culprit is not the cabin occupant’s dog, who went after the sheep when he first saw them, so they don’t want to leave the pen to eat in the pasture.
Nice of all these creatures to wait until I got home to show up, isn’t it?
The young redbud tree near the cabin on the Wild Hermits property.
Hey! Today I made a few pages for this site, including one for Sightings, which is on the main menu, and some sub-pages on birds and mammals I’ve seen since I’ve been coming out to the Hermits’ Rest. That’s been since 2011, the year of the Big Drought.
I thought I’d also practice writing down what I saw and did each week (you see, I’m there half time; the other half of each week I’m in Austin, leaving my spouse to guard the place).
Bird Sightings, April 6-8
The big excitement of the week was multiple flocks of snow geese going overhead. They flew low enough to easily identify their black wing tips. They also weren’t making all the noise the cranes make, and were lower than cranes tend to be.
The Hermits' Rest 