September 2020

The drought had returned to the Creek, reducing it to zero flow and the Pond to a shallowed bit of soup with new gravel bars.  But September 9 brought back the current. 

Before the rains, we sat one early morning mid-way up the Pond's west bank and watched these two beavers eating, swimming, scratching themselves, and finally retreating into their mudbank home.

And while we were watching the beavers, this juvenile black-crowned night-heron flew across the Pond and landed here.  

Here's the shrunken Pond and the exposed gravel bars.

And September 13, with morning light and flow restored to the Creek.

Stickleaf (Mentzelia)

Most of the images here were found in the Stonefield the morning of September 13.  This one has a watercolor feel to it that makes me want to throw away the paints and just sit in front of this sesbania. Really close.

The Stonefield is growing over with the Living.  Part of me is tempted to take a propane-flamed pear-burner to it and reduce the field once again to white limestones.  No need to prove once again how much I hate nature, though.

And this one just about epitomizes Texas September and its hint of fall that no self-respecting northerner would ever confuse for a changing of the seasons.

Seeds of the Little Walnut

Lindheimer's Senna

Again (May 2020)

Again

Rudbeckia with Genus Scudderia - Bush Katydids nymph (perhaps)

Scudderia.  Above, the Fork-tailed Bush Katydid (Scudderia furcata) most likely. Note the long black and white banded antennae.  So we're pretty sure that these nymphs, after six instars, will soon be looking like the adult female below. And the "fork-tailed" bit applies to the males. We read that katydids have excellent eyesight, and that proved true even with these nymphs that kept trying to evade the approach of the camera.

I liked this one because it gives the quintessential evening feeling of the primrose.

Here's a rescued yellow-billed cuckoo that had flown into a window, landed in the brush, been rescued from the nearest house cat, and left in that cat's carrier in the bathroom for a bit of rehab for the night. The next morning, it flew off nicely when released.

And this rock squirrel was limping around on the driveway. We did with it as we had done with the cuckoo. The following morning we let it out of the cat carrier box, and it ran healthily up the hillside.