Walking Continues

  A grandparent is  a little bit parent,  a little bit teacher,  and a little bit best friend.  ~ Unknown The pond at the springs - The moon and a star (okay, it was a planet) were bright in the sky. Some friends gathered at the park to look and listen. Some "best friends," B, C, and M were on their first froggy/toady adventure. I don't think it will be their last. Heading down the path towards one of the springs. KM has been monitoring amphibians (among other things for over 12 years. She led the way this evening. As we headed down the trail we saw all kinds of interesting plants and creatures. We had some surprises - a herd of White-tailed Deer grazed in the meadow/prairie restoration area and ignored us while a Nine-banded Armadillo waited around long enough for everyone to get a look before disappearing into the underbrush. The plants were a reminder that spring wildflowers aren't the only growing things of interest to be found in the wild. Fall-bloomers cou...

[For RJH, JTH, RWH, HF and GF, young adventurers] On Saturday I went to a garage sale. I bought two bowls and a big soup pot at the sale. Can you keep a secret? One of those bowls is for my sister! After I put them in the car I saw slithery movement in the grass. Something was moving near a shell fossil.* This is a pretty nice fossil. It is some kind of a clam or oyster left over from when Texas was under a shallow sea (REALLY! It's pre-historic!) What was moving? It was a SNAKE! Do you see the snake in this photo? It was a LITTLE snake. But I did not know this snake and even a little snake can be dangerous. I followed the snake to take photos. I took MANY photos.  The snake tried to act BIG to scare me away. See the snake slithering along the ground? It stopped and decided to see if it could make me stop following. It puffed up to look bigger and acted like it might want to "strike" or BITE me!  I think the snake was afraid. So I stopped following the snake and picked u...

No amount of me trying to explain myself was doing any good. I didn't even know what was going on inside of me, so how could I have explained it to them?”  ―  Sierra D. Waters,  Debbie We had just finished a long hike - 2.5 miles. I thought I'd stop by the huge cactus I'd noticed in the industrial park. I wanted to take photos on a day there would be good light and no one in the building to bother me (it wouldn't be trespassing as there are no signs out on that parking lot or building).  The industrial area is sometimes good for observing all kinds of creatures. Few people "cut through" the area so traffic is slow on the weekend. And the "industry" is of the clean and quiet kind. I had slowed for some bird photos when I noticed what appeared to be a police car headed my way. Darn. Had I been stopped in the middle of the road? Was I practicing "safe naturalist behavior" or had I just put on the breaks? What do I do now...

                                                                 There was a little turtle.                                                                  He lived in a box.                                                                  He swam in a puddle.                                       ...

Where the wild wild flowers grow and the winter waters flow There's a place that I've always loved the best... ~ Ola Bell Reed* The tank is full and over-flowing. I'll be checking on them for a few more days (at least). One of the usual suspects, a Great Blue Heron, which often chases the Great Egrets away from the pond. The rains came at last. For two days it has washed the dust out of the air. Some of it came during the night. Some caught us unawares - out on our walk (and we hustled home). And how could we avoid one or two trips out to the ponds** to see if they caught a little water?  Seriously - wouldn't you want to know if the crows were calling, hawks flying, frogs and toads introducing themselves*** (one last chance for a dance, perhaps). Many of the ponds had dried up this summer. Only a few are expected to hold water during most of the year and even those were getting shallow and scummy. The rest are really wet-weather ponds, low spots that fill when the rains...

One for sorrow Two for joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for Silver Six for Gold Seven for a secret Never to be told ~ Irish Nursery Rhyme* Oh, the poor magpie, just another corvid considered a "bad omen."  I had no clue until looking at the art work of one of my favorite Irish artists, Sallyann Beirne** and she referred to the rhyme which she shared with me (and it certainly resonated). I'm a corvid (and nursery rhyme) lover. I suppose it was enough to encourage me to head to the ponds for a little drive-by. Well, the rhyme and the 5 or so inches of rain our area received overnight made me think there might be something to see. I saw no crows and no ravens (although one crow called from a distance).   The usual suspects were out at the ponds - three species of egret, herons, swallows, phoebes, scissor-tails, and mockingbirds. A few frogs and toads have begun to call. I missed a number of shots (must remember to bring a photo card with room on it. Birds do not wait...