Flowers, crawlies, and beasties along the river - late Spring 2015

We had lots of time, uncrowded roads, peacefully swift water and many things to see. The camera was working its magic for me this week.*

This will be mostly photos in broad categories.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we have. All of these photos were taken in the areas near the Frio River in the Texas hill country. If I get really crazy I will post some from a location not so far from the San Saba River as well (they are nice photos and you might have missed them).


I. Flowers/Plants

Some people say I have a prickly personality. Well, I was happy as this cactus as we wandered in the hill country.

Mom always had a glass of wildflowers at the river (mostly to aid identification). I added to this one the entire time as we came across different flowers. Since I forgot my wildflower book, I have to compare photos to photos.

Gaillardia and prickly pear

Finally saw the horsemint up close, surrounded by Ratibida columnifera

Milkweed pod** - missed the blooms, but the leaves and location indicate it is Antelope-Horns.

What is left of the bloom and seed pods forming on milkweed.

Centaurea americana, American basket-flower/American star-thistle, shaving brush, Aster family

My mother loved basket-flowers and I was determined to get a picture. We observed them blooming in a number of places along the road, but couldn't stop. This was near one of the low water crossings.

Distinctive basket-flower bud.

Wild verbena (Sweet William) with white asters or an Arkansas Lazy Daisy - little white composite?

Not enough flow (yet-it arrived a few days later) to clear the water plants.

At the edge of the river the sweet little bloom of the blue-eyed grass.

As I mentioned, we found pearl milkweed everywhere, including winding around this sapling. There will be more photos of it from around the river.

Pearl milkweed

I don't know. Rudbeckia? Sunflower? Tickseed? I may look it up later.

Silver-leaved nightshade or something. I just found another "cousin" that looks just like it. Still, don't eat any of it!

Upright Prairie coneflowers

 [See what I mean about cooperative camera?] Maybe this is an Engelmann Daisy.

Erect Dayflower

Agarita...pretty, sharp, tasty, tart.

Another smiling face - gaillardia - fire wheel

The roads were golden/orange with gaillardia.

Wild verbena, Sweet William (for Alice) - moisture from evening misty rain still on the petals.

There always seemed to be an under-layer of these low growing flowers with the cone flowers, thistles, and gaillardia growing above.

Even the dandelions were beautiful.

Yucca lined the roadways.

The morning we stopped for these photos was foggy and the drops hung on the florets of these yucca.

While walking down the cliff trail (just along the river) I came around a corner and gasped to see a whole group of purple leatherflower blooms before me.

The rain brightened the green and the purple.

I so love this fine and its bright curled bells.

It is a clematis, as is old man's beard, but we see the old man's beard mostly in seed at the end of the summer.

Bug eaten blooms of what? Is this a daisy?

Red salvia seeming to grow out of rock.

Old laurel tree growing where one climbs down to the cliff.

Moss and plants and tree roots growing from the face of the cliff.

Switch grass

Can this be immature pyracantha (fire thorn) berries growing along the river? When ripe the berries are bright red.  I hate this thorny thing.

Strange beard like growth down the cliff face.

More pearl milkweed against the river.

Is this a redbud?

Rain lilies (Oh my. Of course these were everywhere).

Many areas were mowed where we stay - for the convenience of the campers, but this spot is retained. It is almost a wildflower flower bed.

It included most of the flowers found elsewhere - coneflowers of course...

Of all colors...

Dwarf plantain (?)

What is this?

Cypress

Speargrass - the wind kept blowing and it was almost impossible to catch one still.

Looks suspiciously like vinca to me.

Ball moss, looking spidery against the cloudy sky.

New oak leaves.

Hmmm. New growth on this, um, well, tree.

Roadside riches

Sage (Mealy sage?)

Thistles and more

These thistle "buds" were stunning.

The thistles grew well over six feet high.

They were definitely a "look, but don't touch" plant. I finally found a bloom for the bouquet.***

Fogfruit

More coneflowers

You can see how yellow and orange dominate now.

Beautiful, but too lush to enter. Most of the trip was down roads decorated like this.

This historic oak is in someone's front yard. They aren't amused by folks entering for photos.

I just took pictures over the fence.

More pearl milkweed.

There's a fungus among us (sorry, couldn't help myself).

Mexican buckeye seed pods.

A different look of the Erect dayflower.

Spiderwort

We packed our bouquet to bring a little of the trip home with us. It doubled and tripled over the three days of the trip.

The basket flower bud in the middle decided to bloom for us.

We cannot forget the most impressive plant (or one of) the cypress.

II. Beasties - Bear with me (no, there's no bear), but some of these are a series.

While wandering on the "other" side of the river I looked up and saw these guys.

They marched along and stopped every now and then to eat.

We found them swimming in the river after dark.

There are almost always deer near the Rio Frio low water crossing.

They don't seem too afraid of us.

This little guy ran across the road and then waited for his photo.

My friends the goats and llama - we saw all these guys relaxing on the road. I got out to take a photo and they decided to come investigate me. I turned tail and ran. I am glad DH is a good sport and doesn't take blackmail photos.

There are always ducks at the pond where we stay. These two met us on the road and stood their ground, as if to say, "You shall not pass!"

Then they headed to the pond.

The pond is out of its banks and the ducks must be finding different shelter than normal.

There are also a pair of mallard drakes. These guys are constantly talking. They are fairly aggressive. The other ducks try to avoid them.

The last day we stopped to feed the ducks the last of our tortillas and bread. See the mallards heading from across the lake?

They moved fairly quickly and intimidated the other ducks. So DH went around to feed the others while I kept the mallards busy.

DH feeding the others.

It started to rain and I noticed a small dot heading over. It would disappear and reappear. It had to be a turtle.

Sure enough, you can see the distinctive head and just make out the shell below the surface. This guy cleaned up with the fish once the mallards left.

We saw two jackrabbits and three cottontails. This guy gave me some time to get a photo. We were in the Rio Frio cemetery. Once it was a good spot to see exotics and deer, but it is now surrounded by ranches with game fences.

We stopped for photos of yuccas when these deer startled and ran deeper into the field. They watched us for a long time.

Slowly they started to move again.

Another step away from the camera.

High stepping through the wildflowers.

Moving just a little faster.

Then there was a warning snort and she broke into a run. The other deer never seemed to move until just after this photo.

We saw a number of exotics, but my photos were not clear so you will have to use your imagination.

III Crawlies:

I despise fire ants. I guess I am fond of - or perhaps nostalgic for - "big red ants." You don't see many of these beds anymore, but there were 3 or more at this campground.

Something was eating these leaves along the river trail.

I found lots of these small white moths along the river.

Another of these white moths.

Odd little true bug (see the triangle on its back?)

Ant and another?

These butterflies were all over the thistles. Are they black swallowtails?

A butterfly and a bee here.

Another.

Wow! I had no idea this flower was this intricate. Oh, and the ants love it too.

Many of these spiders on the river.

We went out to see the lightning bugs (they are beetles) and found one was not moving in the dark. DH shined his flashlight and we found a spider madly working to wrap up the poor bug. The spider moved away in the light.

We went down by the river and I made a somewhat futile effort to catch the bugs mid-glow (Look closely - 5 here)

At least three bugs in the distance on the right, but one bright firefly in the foreground.

This photo is blown-up, but the firefly light is not retouched.

Here are a few bugs in the trees, one in the distance and one streaking past.

Sweet beetle in the basket flower.

Cactus and insects from our last stop on the way home.

One of the critters in the agarita harvest. Yes, you saw the triangle and realized it is another true bug.

NOTES:

*Don't ask how many pictures I took. The number is obscene. DH was amazingly patient. [I used my Cannon PowerShot SD3500IS, Fujifilm Finepix X10, and DH's android phone.]

**My Wildflowers of the Texas Hill County by Enquist shows 12 different milkweeds in central Texas. We only saw two.

***This was an unfamiliar thistle - at least it is not the one I know so I went looking. Of course it is a non-native invasive, the musk thistle.  http://npsot.org/wp/boerne/publications/native-grown-articles/no-mercy-for-the-musk-thistle-either/


RESOURCES:

http://www.greatstems.com/2013/05/a-pearl-of-a-vine.html#comment-11387