nature – The Hermits' Rest

Pollinators, trees, bagpipes and more

Lots of surprises and fun filled the last full day of the 2026 Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting. I was rested enough to get through the whole day, but not enough for after-session activities. Believe me, the day was full!

It was great to see Craig Hensley, who retired last year, come back to present a very interesting session on the best plants to attract pollinators and who those pollinators are likely to be. I learned so much about how beetles, bees, wasps, and of course butterflies/moths pollinate plants. He had nifty data, too. I know what I’ll be planting!

The next session I attended was on the Heritage Trees of McClennan County. It was led by an impressive young Mexican American man who is both an arborist and a firefighter. We learned about this program to save local trees, then went on a field trip just down the road to see a few of them.

We visited the St Francis Oak, near a historic church and learned that it’s in the middle of a future road. Hector explained options for saving or preserving its heritage. I took a few acorns.

On the way back to the convention center, I took pictures of every plant I could find for the Pollinator Bioblitz. Might as well kill two birds with one stone (though I am not a bird killer). There were no exciting discoveries along the urban sidewalks.

Lunch was good but they ran out of pasta and carrots. The servers were all very nice, though. Afterwards, I went to a session on who should care for wildlife. I got distracted because he used speech to text and it was really bad. He’s trying to be accommodating but I don’t think a hearing impaired person would have been able to figure out what the talk was about due to mistakes. Mike said it’s free software, so you get what you pay for.

I got no photos in that session, so here’s me with a lunch flower in my hair.

Onward to more learning. A session on techniques for nature photography, especially film, was really good. I learned lots of techniques to use in the future. The speaker has had a long and interesting career in television and film, including the television show for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Now he takes all our official photos, too.

Lee showing us how agile you need to be to get good nature shots.

I really didn’t care about his content too much, because I enjoyed the film clips he shared of ducks, cranes, deer, snakes (one drinking, so cool), and bats. His examples were so helpful!

Some of our group went over to the Hilton bar to relax before dinner and enjoyed listening to bagpipes and drums rehearsing down the hall. They were part of a group of firefighters and I think police from around the state that performs at funerals and other ceremonies. They were giving seminars to other groups or something.

We were delighted to be surprised by a performance by the group before dinner! They’d agreed to do it on the spur of the moment when asked by our leadership. It was so good. All the flourishes and pageantry made me quite emotional.

I managed to film a bit of them marching out. So much dedication it must take to learn all this, and how good of them to honor the fallen.

To continue the night on a high note, the food was good tonight and there was plenty. We even got a few group photos.

The best part of the evening was when they announced milestones for members. It was a true joy to see the reaction our Linda Jo got when it was announced she’d achieved 10,000 hours of volunteer service. I hope all the love made her very happy. Mike and Dr Rector escorted her back to her seat, which was so cute!

She photographed Lee, the official photographer

To see someone I admire so much get well deserved recognition was the highlight of the whole event for me!

To those of you who get the blog by mail, I apologize that some text was missing. I’m not sure how it happened, but the online version has been corrected.

Lake Waco and what would Sue Ann post?

I’d planned to blog last night but I fell asleep uploading observations to iNaturalist. It didn’t help that I’d barely slept the previous night (no idea why). But yesterday was pretty good.

I worked until 1, managing to do so while driving to Waco, which worked out great. I was headed to Lacy Point on Lake Waco for another Bioblitz. I’m on a roll with those things! This was the first activity for the 2026 Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting.

I hung out with a fellow Master Naturalist from College Station and did a nice 2-mile trail walk. There wasn’t a lot of variety of vegetation, but I ended up with 90 observations, so that was pretty good, plus all the pollinators counted for the other Bioblitz. Yes!

When I was done I chatted with my coworker next to this surprise. I sent it off to the coworker!

It’s a gar. I guess folk don’t eat them?

A good number of song birds were around, clumping around the trees for the most part. We enjoyed watching and hearing Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and multiple Ospreys.

When I was done I headed over to my friend Kathy’s house to see her family and her new Dalmatian (the previous one, Daisy passed away soon after our last visit). Sally came through Milam Touch of Love, and I’m so glad she got out of the Casa where she was being held. Whew.

She’s a lovely dog, still getting used to her home.

It was a nice evening talking and eating and telling stories. Her daughter was there, who I hadn’t seen since La Leche League days. Kathy’s husband is also doing well and fun to see.

I was telling Kathy what a good job she’s doing dealing with a bunch of challenges, how patient and kind she’s being. She laughed and said she wasn’t always that way. I responded that I feel the same, that it’s so hard not to show how upset I am in public forums (fora?). Kathy said I was her role model in moderation and that she often thinks, “What would Sue Ann post?” (WWSAP)

That was the highlight of my evening! Just to know someone notices how hard I try. She should know, since she was there when my outspokenness did me no good. Learning and growing is the best, and being noticed is a bonus.

Boy, did I sleep well last night, too!

Who do I want to be?

If you could switch lives with a famous person for a week, who would it be and why?

You know, being famous doesn’t appeal to me very much. I’d like to be appreciated by those who matter to me, but being famous and surrounded by “fans” is not appealing. Maybe I could switch with someone who’s famous for being an anonymous benefactor would be okay. I’d enjoy benefacting.

I always feel magnanimous feeding the fish.

Nah, I’m all accustomed to being me. I’m used to my quirks, my personality, my pleasantly average looks, and the friends and family who can put up with me (and vice versa). Since there’s always something new to learn right here being me, I’ll just stick with it through all the ups and downs.

My nails are ready for the Master Naturalist annual meeting!

Here in the adequately interesting world of Suna, I found a few more butterflies for the Bioblitz, but I’m ready to blitz hard tomorrow in Waco.

The team at KCC Construction was at full strength today, which means the form for the big slab to hold the huge water tank now has buttresses to hold the weight of the concrete, an area all smoothed for the pad to hold pumps and filters, and the drains set up. Plus much rebar has been bent for more strength. That pad’s gonna be solid!

I tried to do two errands at lunch, but once again managed to hit the pharmacy during their lunch break. Sigh. However, Lee and I did manage to vote. It felt good to vote for people I actually know and like. I did have a bit of a panic attack when I was finished. I guess my internal angst about the outcome slipped out. I chatted with a friend and feel better now. I’ll deal with what happens later when it’s later.

Thanks for all the nice thoughts on what I share. I feel like I’m talking to very quiet people. Thanks, too, for your messages, texts, and calls.

Blitzing the biology

I’ve continued making observations for the 2026 Texas Pollinator Bioblitz this weekend. It’s like I went camping, only I stayed home, with all the walking, stalking and talking? No talking. I just took pictures but that does not rhyme.

I even climbed a hill, the only one around here.

After the incredibly windy day Friday, it was more pleasant to go look for pollinators and the plants they pollinate this weekend. But the wind had bashed a lot of the few plants that should still be blooming. For example, I’d really looked forward to getting pictures of Snow on the Mountain on my walk today, but I had a hard time finding any whose flowers hadn’t blown off.

Anyway, I’m doing okay finding things to contribute. Right now I (Sunasak) look like quite the little blitzer. However, the real hardcore participants include Texas Parks and Wildlife staff and people with good cameras who need to process their images. By the end, I’ll be more in the center.

Anyway, at least it’s gotten me out of the house. The only other stuff I’ve done is feed various animals. Spice messed up the water trough AGAIN and the rest of the horses have found the cockleburs. Apache feels it’s his duty to take over from Drew, so he requires daily work. I don’t think he minds the added attention!

The number of butterflies I’ve seen is larger than I expected. The Gulf Fritillary family is still busy laying eggs on passion vines, so they were easy to get good photos of.

There are many tiny Ceraunus Blue butterflies yesterday, but a good number of others, too.

Of course, butterflies aren’t the only pollinators. I found plenty of bees, wasps, and other insects (which may or may not be pollinators).

I did find a good number of plants, but not many great plant photos. This is not a good time of year for pretty plant images. It’s a good thing I know what a lot of plants look like when they’ve gone to seed!

I also have to report on birds, even if they aren’t part of the Bioblitz. On Friday, with all that wind, I only had 11 species, but it was a bit better yesterday with the arrival of much cooler weather and my little buddies the White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows. Today has been quite good, with over 40 species so far (I’m writing in the early evening). The best part is that I got some photos, including a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that Merlin didn’t register.

I’ll spare you the dog adventures this weekend. They were sort of unpleasant, but in the end, they’re all fine. I hope you are, too, or at least heading that way.

Blown away!

It’s not hot anymore! The weather today would have been quite pleasant, except that the cold front literally blew in. Like a leaf blower on steroids.

Merlin only heard 8 bird species. Luckily my eyes saw three more, but 11 is a real low!

The mountain was gradually moved back to where the backhoe is, so the area could be smoothed down.

And the guys working on the forms for the cement pads had to be careful so pieces of wood wouldn’t blow them around. All the dirt moving also left a film of dust everywhere.

Worst: the cattle ranchers had spread fertilizer yesterday. Everything smells like poop. I was looking all over the house to see which dog had pooped, sprayed Lysol all over the house, and was totally baffled until I finally remembered that tractor pulling something behind it yesterday. Dogs are forgiven, but some horse is in Trouble for messing up yet another water trough float. (Spice)

I did manage to get out and snap some pollinator photos for the bioblitz, though the plants were very wiggly. I was surprised at how many butterflies and dragonflies stayed still long enough, and the workers found me a cool rabid wolf spider with eggs (not a pollinator, but interesting).

The wind had started to die down when we went to eat some Mexican food this evening. That bodes well for a chilly tomorrow!

October Big Day

Today was the October Big Day for birders. Cornell Ornithology Lab was encouraging everyone to report all their bird sightings today on eBird or Merlin Bird ID. Of course, I was up for that, and because I had an upset tummy thing, I stayed close to home, making it a good day to observe.

Since its calving season, it was easy to spot Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures, and Crested Caracaras.

There was a mama cow glaring at this Caracara who was enjoying a placenta snack (hey, it’s Nature’s cleaning service).

And House Sparrows were east to find, since they dominate the stump feeder.

Mostly, I enjoyed listening to birds. Mockingbirds are back to singing long and complicated songs, as are Carolina Wrens. (Bewick’s Wrens are still just buzzing.)

This Mockingbird was singing away on a high branch.

My favorite sight came late in the afternoon, when I went on a walk. Eastern Bluebirds were all over the pastures singing and diving for insects. They were pretty blue streaks against the brown grass.

All in all, I recorded 40 species today. That’s about average for this time of year. Below is the list, as checked off in the book Lee went to a lot of trouble to make me, only to find he forgot October. He’s making another one, and I’ll transfer these to the new book.

The list is birds I have seen before in November. It works for October. I just write in new species, and he will add them for next year. He likes to make books!

Good news: I’m feeling better mentally since coming home from New Mexico. I even had energy today to do all the chores and not feel exhausted. That made all the animals happy, because I hung out and played with them.

We were a little offended that you didn’t count us in the Big Day count, but we appreciated the romaine lettuce

I need to lose my post-horse-lesson depression weight, so my goal is to get back to my daily walks and horse stuff. It’s now cool enough in mornings and around sunset to walk without suffering, so I’m taking advantage of it. Besides, I get to enjoy flowers and sunsets!

The only hiccup in the day was putting the red border around September in my temperature blanket only to realize I’d omitted a row of blank squares. Oops. I should be able to show it tomorrow, though.

PS: more good news. I confirmed today that all three goldfish are still alive and swimming. There are still lots of the other fish, too, so Alfred is forgiven.

You asked, I’ll tell you about my mornings

Tell us about your morning routine.

Does anyone really care about this? If so, why? I’m happy to let all of you go about your mornings in peace and confidentiality. But, the Blog Prompter asked…

Leave now or be intrigued at the tedium.

I awaken most mornings at the civil hour of 7:15 am, which is possible because I work on the Pacific Coast but live in Texas, and have no commute.

Upon popping out of bed in an annoyingly non-grumpy manner, I pet some number of dogs, pee, then head to the closet and put on appropriate clothing for the day, usually jeans and some bird t-shirt.

In the bathroom I brush and floss my teeth (hoping to avoid future bridgework). I got a Waterpick today, so that will be added to the endless morning duties. Next, I take morning medications and supplements. It’s not that much.

Excitement builds as I wash my face with rose-scented micellar water, smooth on my serum, and apply my lotion with sunscreen over that. The only makeup I do is to pencil in credible eyebrows. Gray, to match my hair.

I brush my hair and figure some way of getting it out of my eyes, then comes the fun part. I decide what jewelry goes with the day’s outfit. Usually no one sees it but the family, but it’s fun for me.

Latest acquisition, pendant by Art Tafoya (Diné) — it has a snake! I won’t wear this too often since it’s pretty big.

Finally I go downstairs and start a cup of coffee, which is Folger’s, because it’s mild. While the coffee makes, I take the birding phone outside to catch the morning birds. I then take the coffee out on the screened porch and relax with Lee for a while. We catch up on news, Facebook, apps, etc. This is a great way to start the day!

The only photo I took today is this lovely rabid wolf spider.

On workdays, I head to my office, and on other days I’ll go for a walk or sit in my bird hut and watch birds, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders, rabbits, and cattle. It’s new calf season, which is great.

Wow, that was a lot of detail. I did all those things today! Later in the afternoon Kathleen and I went to Temple (closest town with shopping centers) to look for a very specific outfit she needs to wear next week. We also had fun at Western store finding a couple of nice outfits that will fit her current size. I love Western stores.

We had dinner at Olive Garden, which was quite pleasant and laughed and talked about all the overwhelming “stuff” going on in our world right now. I think that helped our moods.

Never too much natural beauty, right?

Anyone other than me might have overloaded on nature today. I may have overdone walking, but not enjoying the sky, the trees, the water, and all the critters running around. It was great having the day off to explore the Ruidoso, New Mexico area on a pleasant autumn day!

Can’t beat a mountain lake for beauty! Grindstone Lake

Everyone has been relaxing in the mornings on this trip, but I wanted to GO while the weather was nice. I walked back to the National Forest trail near our cabin and was happy to learn the rain hadn’t made the trail impassable. It’s so peaceful in the mountain woods.

I thought I wouldn’t see any new plants, since I’d walked some of the path already. But no. There was one stretch of path that I found something new every few feet. it felt quite magical, like I was experiencing a gift.

Whole leaf paintbrush – ***Castilleja integra***

I had to rest when I got back from all that climbing. But soon enough Anita and Martha agreed to go with me to check out Grindstone Lake, a local reservoir, fishing, and swimming spot. It’s where it was so crowded last time that we couldn’t get in. Luckily, today was chilly for swimming, and the games of some kind that will be held at the lake aren’t until next week.

I have so many pretty pictures that it’s hard to choose from.

We had a blast wandering around looking at the plants, collecting rocks (not me), birding (me), and basking in the beauty. This made us very happy humans.

***Poecilanthrax californicus –*** a banded bee fly

Of course there were also flowers to see along Grindstone Lake. Here are just a few, I promise. I did leave some out.

We finally dragged ourselves away from the lake. Being me, I suggested we go to another lake, since we had time. This is Alto Lake, another reservoir, about 15 minutes away from Grindstone. It didn’t have such spectacular scenery, at least to the others, who didn’t like that there were houses on one side of the lake. It is also smaller but still popular with fans of fishing.

The reason I like this lake is that it’s teeming with birds. There were Coots and Mallards in the water, and so many tiny birds, goldfinches, bluebirds, and Bushtits, etc. The highlight for me was seeing and photographing a Townsend’s Warbler, one of my new lifers for this trip. It’s so beautiful!

After this, our legs were done, so we went to the store to get dinner stuff and sundries. I got myself some Old Fashioned in a bottle. After all that exercise, I was done for. I’m glad Martha made eggs and sausage that we could turn into dinner tacos (like breakfast ones, but at night).

I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring other than real estate stuff. That should be fun.

Getting my exercise

What are five simple exercises to do at home?

Today’s prompt reminded me of what I like about autumn: I can walk around as much as I want to without sweating. That’s what I did today in between meetings, and though I’m not home now, walking around is a home exercise for me. It breaks up the time of concentration, and gets steps in, even if I’m just marching around the house and getting Harvey all confused. At the ranch, just getting the mail gets steps in. I guess I count exercise on your own property as “home” exercise.

Walking around gives you bonus nature sightings.

Going up and down the stairs is another home exercise. Today I climbed nine flights, though some of those may have been hills I climbed.

What about weight-bearing exercise, you ask? Lee thinks lifting my Le Crueset (sp) cast iron pots counts. For me, my weight lifting is feed bags for the horses and chickens. The 50-pounders are hard. Lifting saddles onto horses really used to keep my arms in shape. I’ll have to figure out another exercise now, but I do groom them, which can be aerobic exercise.

I enjoy swimming at home, since I’m lucky to have a pool. I haven’t done enough this year, but last year I had good swimming muscles. I hope I’m more mentally perky so I can motivate myself to swim.

My final home exercise is yarn winding. Don’t laugh. It can get the heart rate going pretty darned well. That’s why I often wind my yarn skeins by hand. It adds up. Try it.

There’s always yarn to wind at my house.

I admit that walking gets me most of my exercise. It’s my favorite.

Of course nature interrupts me. Common Checkered Skimmer.

Today was a nice contrast to yesterday, though the wind was pretty fierce. It felt quite autumnal, which prompted Mike and me to probably walk too briskly at times. We had to catch our breath in the mountain air!

Lee and I went on a shorter walk later, and the hills were a bit much for him, too. I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, so I can get more walking in.

We had a nice dinner tonight, our last one with Martha’s sister and brother-in-law. We all were silly together and had good conversation. I’m off for the rest of our trip to Ruidoso, which means more fun is in store.

Such a trailblazer I am

Today was most certainly a Monday, but it had plenty of highlights to balance out the rest. I mean, in a place just crawling with wildlife and beautiful sights, it’s hard to get by without any highlights.

I’m not crawling, I’m standing here looking at you.

The work day wasn’t all bad, either. Mike found a folding table in the laundry room, and I was able to set up a perfectly good little office. The sun attacks early in the morning, but I made a shade out of my extra screen carrier, so I could do meetings and look at the trees. That helped a lot.

My first set of meetings were intense, so I took a nice long walk around the neighborhood afterwards. There are so many birds to see and hear, along with so many beautiful fall flowers! The houses and cabins range from scary to palatial, but together it’s all cozy.

I kept heading down streets that said “dead end” hoping to get to a nice birding spot. At the end of the final turn I found a trail! It had US government stakes saying no motor vehicles, so I knew it was okay for non motorized elders. I couldn’t believe my luck!

I had a fantastic time wandering up and down the path while listening to Bushtits and Nuthatches chattering away. I also enjoyed Western Bluebirds, Hairy Woodpeckers, and Flickers. The woods were so lush and green from recent rain, and some plant had a minty smell.

A mushroom called Kaibab Jack – ***Suillus kaibabensis***

I was going to sit on the rustic bench in the last photo and enjoy the peace and quiet. However, right when I decided to sit, what sounded like chainsaws started up. I reluctantly headed back to the cabin.

Found a flying grasshopper on my way back. Carolina grasshopper – ***Dissosteira carolina***

Once I got back, I went to the Maps app to see if the trail showed up. Indeed it did. It also showed me that the trail is actually quite close to where we are staying. I realized then that the chainsaws were in reality guys using gas weed-whackers to trim the house across the road. Argh. You can’t even escape lawn crews in this rustic area.

In the afternoon, when I was finished with work, Lee and I drove around looking at more properties. We ruled out an RV park, but enjoyed checking it out. On the way back we had to slow down for a school zone, then were stopped by young ones crossing the road. Elk. They know they’re in charge.

We tried to be festive, and took Anita out for dinner for her birthday. We were joined by Martha’s sister and her spouse, who came up in their camper, so it was a group affair! It was good to see them again. But we were all wiped out and came home to stare at our phones like good modern people. Now we’re reading, or will be when I quit keyboarding.

Tomorrow is big work day. Glad I have my fine office!