Walking Continues

It's easy to locate the baby bluebonnets once you know what your are looking for. The glory of gardening:  hands in the dirt,  head in the sun,  heart with nature.  To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body,  but the soul as well.    ~ Alfred Austin  Bulldozers are moving across the road. They are breaking up the limestone shelf that underlies this area. And they are scraping off the surface - the rocks, fossils, trees, and native plants. It's one of the reasons I've madly saved seeds, taken cuttings, and dug up identifiable plants over the last 8 months.  Who knows if I'm making any difference in the neighborhood (although birds, butterflies, grasshoppers, and more are visiting my carefully planted yard), but I'm making a difference in me. I gathered a trowel, a pot, and some gloves to save a few bluebonnets.  Two large pieces of machinery - bulldozer and hydraulic rock breaker, silenced for today, will be busy tomorrow. The...

The experience was powerful and fundamental.  It seemed to me that it had always felt like this  to be a human in the wild,  and as long as the wild existed  it would always feel this way.  ~ Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail It was a strange day - cloudy and cool. The birds seemed to know that the weather would be changing. A flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flew up from the creek and away. I love these ducks - I need a video of 'em for "down" days... Great Blue Herons  flew low across the meadows, surprising us. We had never seen them so close. Later we saw many of the usual suspects - phoebes, shrikes, egrets, ducks, and the eagle. I'll never tire of seeing a Bald Eagle perched high over the ponds (although I don't cry anymore). We also saw a strange cat stalking along a fence line. One of the mockingbirds The Bluejays have been so noisy! Good to find one earring a meal. We have had 3 or 4 every morning. Okay. Here...

The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is a boisterous duck  with a brilliant pink bill  and an unusual, long-legged silhouette. ~ All About Birds, Cornell University We started our walk a little late today (I had to go back for my cell phone). We talked about the weather and our "to do" lists. I related what I'd seen at the ponds yesterday and promised to take my friend, VM, to see the Vermilion Flycatcher should it decide to stay in a spot easy to observe.*  We greeted other walkers and the park employees and noted the usual birds - herons and vultures. Then VM pointed out a group of ducks on a log. Odd. The "line-up" was quickly explained when we recognized they were our favorite ducks - Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Even before we could see them clearly in the dim morning light we could hear their goofy peeping. Over the last three or four years we have gone from noting them  stopping at the creek during migration to having nesting pairs here.  Here are some of t...