Here Comes the Sun - A Salute

DH and I stopped at the Riverside Nature Center in Kerrville on our way home from the Frio and experienced the eclipse of 2017 - 11 strangers in the parking lot. Pretty cool. Three folks worked in the center office; 7 of us (DH, Kat, Debbie, two teenagers, a man whose name I didn't get either, and me) just stopped by; and one fellow who was talked off the front-end loader and coerced into using the glasses. All stood swapping four sets of protective glasses (Thank you, BR!). The man from the center also had a pinhole viewer which reminded a few of us of past viewings.

The leaves in the parking lot.

Weird accidental selfie with protective glasses in hand.

So, to honor the sun, here are a few other sunny images from the weekend.

The next one will be a complete eclipse in central Texas in 7 years.  See you then.




NOTES:

For those of you who care about such things, in no particular order: sun, inner tube, incandescent bug light (the bugs thought it was the sun), Buttonbush, Greenthread, Cowpen Daisy, Old Man's Beard, Engelmann Daisy (maybe), Prairie Sunflower, Buffalo bur (flower and bur), Primrose, Two-leaved Senna, Mexican Primrose-willow, Turkey-tangle Frogfruit, Antelope Horns Milkweed, and others I have not yet identified.

Going on a Porcupine Hunt

We heard there were porcupines.*

We have never seen a porcupine in the wild.

Location somewhat noted - "They were here, nesting up in the trees, but now I think they have moved further into that low spot behind these campsites." - DH and I made a good faith effort to find the nest.

Where would I be if I were a self-respecting porcupine? I wondered.

We walk through an area unknown to us, all the while making sure we did not startle any porcupines. It was a wide drainage channel that would clear rain and floodwater. There were also wires and pipes running along this low spot.

Fallen trees and tree stumps slowly rotted. The earthen sides eroded. In at least one spot a pretty serious retaining wall had been built of railroad ties and re-bar. It too was slowly rotting. This is what you see "behind." I guess this is where the porcupines stay - behind.

We headed down and through the ditch, looking up into the tops of the trees as we moved toward the river.

Then we stopped when we saw the big dogs at the corner campsite. I'm sure the porcupines were staying clear of the dogs, so maybe they are camping further in the woods just before the river and cliff path.

We saw no porcupines today. But we are planning to be back in a few months. There will be fewer people and more time.

It's really just a low spot, but there is no question that water runs through here.

Them what know will recognize the "secret passage."

Limestone ledge with lots of smallish trees.

Logs and stumps. And rocks. We moved slowly in case the porcupines were on the ground.

Quite large retaining wall - we had no idea it was there.

This does not really capture how many Mexican Buckeyes grew in one spot. I love these tree and seeds.

No porcupines hiding in the rocks.

No porcupines hiding in the holes and small caves.

No porcupines preparing to leap on us from the rock ledge above.

This looks like deer to me, not porcupine scat.**

Nope, no porcupines here either.

We were going to lose the sun...

Another old tree trunk.

No porcupines here either.

Hmmm...what do porcupines eat?

NOTES:

*B, the owner told us that one camper, among other things, sometimes let's his dogs off-leash. The dogs found the porcupines. The porcupines weren't amused. Then the dogs weren't amused - nor was their owner. He wanted B to kill the porcupines. She said, "No. I'm not killing my porcupines. You keep your dogs leashed."

** http://www.arkive.org/north-american-porcupine/erethizon-dorsatum/image-G95421.html

Seeing With Different Eyes

The world is full of magic things, 

patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

 ~ W.B. Yeats

As years go by we are none of us as sharp as we once were. The eyes need more help. Hearing fades The legs give out earlier. Lungs and hearts are challenged to capacity.

Common Spotted Whiptail [The last observation of the trip]

So, when a little something happens that seems beyond even the normal - there are questions. Just what is going on here?

Yesterday morning we all sat around a picnic table eating our breakfast tacos. I looked up and saw what appeared to be a flash of light in a tree some ways away. It was a lizardy* movement and I excused myself from the table. "Excuse me, but I think I just saw a lizard on a tree over there."

Now, I really didn't really expect to see a lizard when I got to the tree. It was entirely too far away for me to have seen anything, much less a lizard. [AND, even if there was a lizard once, I am kinda slow. Critters often out run me.] But I was curious and investigated.

I've marked the part of the tree where I saw the "flash."  I paced it off. It's about 70-75 feet away from where I sat.

As I got closer I saw nothing.

Then - there it was.

A Green Anole

He moved around into the shade - which was where I wanted to be.

Yes, we are seeing with different eyes and hearing with different ears. We make the heart/lungs/limbs keep up as best they can.


So What Did We See?

Wandering the roadside we saw things familiar and unfamiliar.** I waded across the river to see what was growing in the piles of rock on the other bank.  It's late in the summer for some of the showier wildflowers, but there is always something to see. Some are tiny and hard to photograph. Some I missed. Many identifications elude me.

The insects and spiders are often a surprising presence in a photo, appearing while I am taking a photo of something else. And, if we forget and leave our porch light on all night, some beauties show up for breakfast.

Then there are the deer and squirrels and rabbits. We never tire of them.

Plants:

We were just short of our destination when I thought I recognized some milkweed sticking up in a ditch.

DH unloaded the car and I drove back to see (because I knew I would forget the location or get busy if I didn't do it right away).

Indeed, it was Antelope Horns Milkweed.

There was also some Turkey-tangle Frogfruit growing near the milkweed. I have found it growing everywhere.

At the edge of the riverbank was this Inland Sea Oats plant.

It really does look like the Sea Oats you see in the dunes on the coast.

A variety of trees, shrubs, and such growing in this "pile of rocks" on the far side of the river. Snow-on-the-Mountain is in the foreground.

Snow-on-the-mountain.

Still working on this one. [This just in - Indigofera lindheimeriana.}

Great Mullein

No clue what this is.

Mealy Sage

I love this sweet blue.

Cowpen Daisy

This makes a show in the bouquet (Do not judge. There are plenty blooming and seeding. Also, I am not on public lands.)

Common Lantana

So, what do you want to call this? I call it Old Man's Beard. Others call it Texas Virgin's Bower (Stop right now!).  Clematis drummondii.

It's a pretty little bloom.

This is what you usually see - a profusion of white filaments attached to seeds.

It grows all over south and central Texas. I think there is a slightly different Clematis in West Texas.

This is a Ruella. It's white rather than purple and I've not found the name, yet. We saw these in a couple of places.

Gregg's Tube Tongue (Okay. That just makes me laugh. I guess I stop making fun of Irish flower names.)

It's hard to see, but there is a Mountain Laurel in that mess of foliage. I have swiped seeds from there for years to burn siblings*** and plant later. It marks a trail.

Ruella

Remains of the seedpod of the Pearl Milkweed - we saw the blooms elsewhere.

Two-leaved Senna. Once I was reminded of the name I saw it everywhere.

Greenthread

All I saw was the milkweed seed...

Pearl Milkweed

An Oak

Still don't know what this is.

Purple tie vine

Carolina Snailseed

Side-oats Grama [Texas state grass]

Blooms from Old Man's Beard, Clematis Drummondii

Buttonbush

Pretty grass growing on the bank of the river. I think it might have been a wild rye. Someone identified it as

Seed head

Grass seeds

Texas Sage

Animals:

We saw all kinds of creatures (alive and road kill) - exotics, squirrels, armadillos, opossum, jackrabbits, cottontails, white tails, Fox squirrels, and more.

We saw loads of Fox Squirrels

Resident Mallards [some residents were missing]

There were many White-tailed deer.

On one "game crawl" we saw a herd of more than a dozen White-tailed deer. It was wonderful.

Town cat

Fish:

There are catfish, bass, perch, and minnows. These dark catfish were some of the largest I've seen here.

Insects:

Back in the day (when the kids were in high school) we collected insects for biology class. The river was a source for some exotic finds - things we did not see at home. We never collected late-summer or early fall. Even now I am surprised by some we saw - owlflies, robber flies, all kinds of bees, moths and true bugs. I did not identify all of them. Here are a few.

Reakirt's Blue

Moth

Rindgea

Imperial Moth - this guy was four inches across. I have never seen one before.

Five-lined Gray

Leafhopper Assassin Bug

Some insects were eating here.

A honeybee or relative

Bumble Bee

Bagworm

This looks like the work of leaf-cutter wasps.

We would say "Big Red Ants." These ants disappeared for a good long time. As they died off, we lost Horned toads. Both are back.

What the heck is this? It was almost three inches long. It's a robber fly.

The Snow-on-the-mountain attracted loads of insects... Honeybee here

Orange Assassin Bug.

Eastern Leaf-footed Bug

Frogs, toads, and friends:

I saw two Rio Grande Leopard Frogs - one on the river and one at the pond. My photos are at the pond. I was able to "call up" the Blanchard's Cricket Frogs multiple times on the river, but only once at the pond. I saw one tiny cricket frog and DH and I saw another. On the last hike we discovered a Gulf Coast Toad on the river trail. We are not "outfitted" to be catching frogs and so just enjoyed the calls and sightings.

Rio Grand Leopard Frog [Maps show no Southern Leopard Frogs in Real/Uvalde Counties]

He did let me play with the light a bit to get some decent photos.

Gulf Coast Toad

It put up with me for a short time.

Mediterranean House Gecko [Not supposed to be here, but always here.]

Arachnids:

The spiders usually were a surprise - hitchhikers on flowers I picked. One orbweaver was just outside our door, catching insects at the porch lights.

Crab spider

Crab Spider

Spotted Orb Weaver - much smaller than the ones we have at home.

???? - what lives here?

Big hole in the limestone shelf near the road. Surely something is living there.

I saw something "furry" run back into this hole. I have no idea.

NOTES:

*If DH can say a leaf moved in a "froggy sort of way," I can claim seeing a lizardy movement.

**We document many things, including road kill [We are part of a project that keeps the data]. I left out the less attractive photos.

***If you rub the red seed on cement it will heat up and burn the devil out of your victim. We were incorrigible.