Category: Nature

DOWO.

With the Cooper’s hawk flying through regularly, my backyard bird activity has dropped significantly.  But the resident Downy woodpeckers are not phased by it.  I have at least one male/female pair.  They frequent the feeder all day, every day.   This is a photo of a female downy woodpecker (DOWO) on the finch feeder.  They love to pick the sunflower chips out of the mix.  Downy’s are notoriously difficult to ID versus the similar looking, but larger, Hairy woodpecker species.  In this photo, though, you can see a couple of the markers that confirms it is a downy:  the relatively short beak, and the black flecks on the outer white tailfeathers.  Here’s a link to Audubon guidance on differentiating the two species.

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Second chance.

I was sitting on the back patio today when four beautiful warblers decided to take a bath in the fountain, about 10 feet away from me!   I was treated to a yellow warbler, two black-throated green warblers, and a mourning warbler.  I had my binoculars so I enjoyed a nice long look.  But of course, the camera was in the house.   After they had moved on, I went back in for my camera.   The earlier photo opp didn’t repeat, but I did get a shot or two of a beautiful yellow warbler that dropped down to the fountain for a drink.   Fall migration is on!

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Who’s here?

Keeto often asks us, “Who’s here?”   Well, this morning, when I opened up the blinds to look at the back yard, I was excited to see a flock of baltimore orioles in the bird bath/fountain that I put out in the spring.  There were many more in the trees above, taking turns bathing.   The orioles are currently migrating south for the winter.  In the spring, on their way north, I only got a moment’s glance at a single male baltimore oriole.  Today though, I got to enjoy them for about 15 minutes.   And then, poof, they were gone.   I hope they remember to stop here on their way back next spring.

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Messing with my mojo!

Since coming home from our road trip, I have noticed a marked decrease in my backyard birdie population.   I suspected a hawk was the reason.  And today, sure enough, while sitting out back I saw one swoop through the backyard scattering the few birds that were at the feeders.   Later in the day, the hawk flew in again and perched on an oak across from me for a few minutes.  It is huge.  I believe this is a juvenile Cooper’s hawk.   Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks, both accipiters, are very hard to distinguish from one another.   Based on field guidance I’ve read online (e.g., here, here, here and here), the overall size, head shape, tail shape, thick legs, and breast streaking lead me to lean towards a Cooper’s ID.  Either way, it’s a beautiful bird, but I wish it would find another yard to terrorize.  I miss my abundance of birdies.  

September morn’.

As I walked into the kitchen this morning for my second cup of coffee, this glowing orange zinnia caught my eye, backlit by the rising sun.  

Good morning!

Back to black.  

We returned last night after our extended Eclipse 2017 trip; we took the opportunity to visit family in the area while we were up there.  We drove 19 hours straight across five states, and got home a little after midnight.  We wanted to get home to check on things, given Hurricane Harvey’s arrival the night before.   I’m thankful that the only bad thing so far is that our power is out.  I’ve no idea how long it will take to restore.  But it’s not a big deal for us; it’s nice to be home. 

This is a view of the sunset from the highway outside Dallas last night.  I’m praying for the folks on the Texas gulf coast and southeast part of the state.  

Eclipse day 2017. 

We’ve wandered a bit and saw some interesting things today.

We hung out at a park in Cross Plains, Tennessee with a couple hundred other people on the line of totality for the solar eclipse…

Some enterprising kids recognized it as a business opportunity…

Of course, we bought some.

And I took some pictures of the amazing display in the sky above…

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It was an incredibly amazing experience.   I’m looking forward to the next one in Austin on April 8, 2024!

The wild outside.

I love finding visitors just outside my kitchen window.

A napping fawn on the lawn Saturday afternoon:

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A rare migrating Rufous (or possibly Allen’s?) hummingbird this morning hiding out from the rain.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Every drop counts. 

I awoke at 3:30 this morning to the sound of rain falling.  I think I could hear the trees rejoicing as well.  We got half an inch.  I’ll take it!

Barton Springs, Lake Travis, and a shanghai’ed uncle.

Days 3, 4 and 5 of our visit with family brought a trip to Barton Springs, Sno-beach snocones, a brewery crawl, an overnight at anchor on the boat on Lake Travis, and pizza night.  The weekend was filled with swimming, diving and floating.   A brother-in-law from Houston drove to Austin and he spent the night with us on the boat – whether he knew he was going to or not 🙂

I love the chance to spend this time with family.  Keeto will be devastated when everyone leaves tonight.

This is a shot from the southern end of Barton Springs pool, looking north to the Austin skyline.  The background has changed much since Mary Doerr captured the same vantage point years ago – the Capitol building is now obscured by skyscrapers.  But the pool in the foreground is exactly the same.

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Sweaty betties.

I went birding and hiking today with my friend, Doray.  We started early, at Reimer’s Ranch Park, and then did the guided tour of the canyon and grotto at Westcave Preserve.  After that, we went back to Reimer’s to hike their River Trail.

Let me just say, “Whoo dogie, it was HOT!”   Whew!  100 degrees or so.  But it was beautiful, we did see lots of birdies, and we enjoyed a lovely day in our hill country.  Pretty good day.

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Sprinkler time.

The hummingbirds love to cool off in the spray from the sprinkler.

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A mess o’martins.

I checked out a Purple Martin Party tonight – a spectator event coordinated by the Travis Audubon Society.   Every Friday and Saturday night in July, from 8-9:30pm, people gather on the lawn outside the Texas Land & Cattle restaurant to watch tens of thousands of purple martins roost at sunset.  These guys are done nesting and breeding and are on their way south to complete the annual migration cycle of life.  They tell me that by the end of the month there may be hundreds of thousands of them.

How can one possibly photograph this event?  Here is one shot I took, a small portion of the overall scene.  Can you count them?

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Her third Fourth.

Our niece, Laura, has been visiting us for the last few days.  Yesterday afternoon we headed out to the lake to spend the night at our marina with a group of friends.  Today we enjoyed a great sail up and down the lake.  We figured that this is the third 4th of July that Laura has spent with us on Lake Travis.   I’m looking forward to the next one.

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