Another trip to the river - plants (fall wildflowers) and critters - I know you were waiting for them

It is unusual for us to travel to this area twice in one year. We were here just before Memorial day and, now, just after Labor day.* Of course more wildflowers were blooming in late spring. We expected that we would see fewer blooms. But we were a bit surprised that we saw so few deer.

There is still the "herd" in town. We saw a young buck and his harem regularly when we stopped by the library for wifi (yes, our campground offers wifi, but some folks forget to ask for the password). But other than the white tail does I call DH's "girls" on the Rio Frio road, we saw many fewer native and exotic animals. We saw no rabbits. There were more turkey vultures than anyone needs to see.

One of DH's "girls"

How about a profile?

She looked right at us.

What a beauty!

This white tail was having none of us.

Roseate Spoonbill - a vagrant - at the pond

It is the time of year for the fluffy seed dispersal plan of the clematis drummondii, Old Man's Beard** to drape the fences and cover bushes throughout the area. The seeds structure is so showy that I have scarcely noticed the small bloom in the past. The flower is a delicate thing and we saw a good number (in spots where I could wade through the weeds and get to them).

Old man's beard.

In masses, it is hard to see the delicate tendrils.

Some clematis blooms

This bloom is about the size of a dime.

More clematis blooms

The dreaded agarita!

A little yellow composite blooming midst the agarita.

Little yellow composite

 After the first day I thought I would have to be satisfied with the old man's beard and a few sunflowers...but then...I dropped the gang off for a float and walked up the riverbank finding a plants I knew and didn't know. [I will continue to work to identify those unfamiliar to me]

I was hoping to find snow on the mountain so I could compare the two plants.***

I am going to call this snow on the mountain. The plants were small - stunted by lack of rain over the summer. Note the "flower" is the small five-petaled bloom. The bi-color petal like things are leaves.

I started to take this photo and saw movement on the right...I kept shooting...

The insect kept moving too...up onto the flower...

...a strange looking thing...

and I moved before it did. [Maybe a flower fly?]

A blue sage - mealy (?)

Another blue bloom

Wild morning glory, tievine, bind weed (I have also heard it called pie vine, but that might be a child hearing tievine and thinking of food!). I saw it in singles...

...and then in masses. As I photographed I noticed the pollinators at work!

A few black butterflies never stopped moving. Here you can see the flutter. I think these were black swallowtails.

I didn't think I caught any of the bumble bees until I saw this guy - headfirst in a bloom!

I thought these were a true sunflower, but I discovered their faces did not "follow" the sun at all.

The seeds of another clematis. We saw the purple leatherflower blooming along the river in May. Cousin of old man's beard, the blooms are radically different as are the seeds.

Why do I believe this is allergy producing?!

I have seen milkweed here for some time now. It is just along the road from the upper part of the campgrounds to the lower. I saw some blooms in May and so I just KNEW there would be pods/seeds now. But I walked by and saw nothing. Later - walking in the opposite direction - I found them. The pods had recently opened and seeds were starting to spread. I counted 3, but I am sure there were more.

I tried to gather some seeds and was immediately greeted by red and black flying insects...I screamed (just a little) and jumped back. Later I was able to gather a few seeds for my monarch butterfly growing supporting friends.

Here is the milkweed series.

This pod was high and just beyond an arm's distance off the edge of the drop-off of the road.

The second pod was within reach. I believe this was just before the scream-inducing insects swarmed out.

Sometimes my camera works.

I took the "pod" pictures for my friends. Perhaps it will help them identify the type of milkweed. The flowers I observed in May were of the pearl milkweed.****

While the seeds appear to dance in the breeze, the "fluff" is sticky and the seeds were fairly easy to gather.

Maidenhair fern at the cliff.

One more scary critter at the cabin.

NOTES:


*I didn't get photos of everything and may had some as I find them - 4 different devices cause some confusion in this brain and each downloads differently.

**http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CLDR

***I am still not sure which is which - haven't done enough research. But I identify those in the hill country as snow on the mountain and those where I live (flatter land) snow on the prairie. I have found sites using the names interchangeably. I could be totally wrong. Here are photos of each with location. They are clearly "cousins."

Snow on the mountain  (Real County, Texas)

Snow on the prairie (Bell County, Texas)

****http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MARE4

Milkweed photo taken in May 2015.

The deer at the library:

We were sitting in the car, just outside of the library to access the wifi. DH said, "look over your shoulder, slowly." There was a herd of dear under an oak tree in the next yard.

There were 10 or 12 deer...only one buck.

Each time we were at the library, save one, we saw deer. On our last trip there was only one doe. Then the buck showed up and they wandered away together.