Stream

After another hard day at the far end of a certain county road gathering up and tossing scraps of wood into fires (and inhaling significant quantities of dust and smoke), we bathed limbs and faces in The Creek, and sunned on a flat rock with a couple cold beers.

Here within the Stonefield near The Creek is some early spring growth of Mullein (Verbascum thapsus):

And within the shallows of The Creek, this lovely plant (water willow?):

Oh, and here is our water-meter by which we gauge the up and down of The Pond (currently down one inch from its installation a couple weeks ago).

I am trying to learn simply the fish of this small piece of water.  Are they Guadalupe Bass, state fish of Texas?  Here's something written about the species from the Nature Conservancy's web site:

Both the Guadalupe Bass’s common and scientific names are misnomers. Like all “black bass,” including smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass, the fish is not actually a bass at all; rather, a member of the sunfish family. The “micropterus” in its scientific name is Greek for “small fin,” referring to the misinterpreted damaged fin of an early specimen.

Generally green with black markings, the Guadalupe bass is smaller than other black bass, the largest individuals weighing only around 3.5 pounds. Found only in Texas, the fish are native to the Edwards Plateau, inhabiting streams in the Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe and San Antonio River basins. The species generally prefers quick moving waters, and preys on insects, crustaceans and smaller fish.

Like the smallmouth and spotted bass, male Guadalupe bass build gravel nests, usually in shallow water. A female enticed to the nest lays between 400 to as many as 9,000 eggs before the male chases her off and begins guarding the spawn. After hatching, the young feed primarily on insects, adding other fish to their diet as they grow. They reach sexual maturity after a year. 


[This small revision comes a month later or so when we've more closely identified this fish as our humble black bass.  Error is still a possibility, but we've been told that distinguishing it from the Guadalupe bass requires taking the latter by the mouth and feeling its additional teeth on the bottom row.  Is that true?  Eds.]


And here's the sound we are listening for these days:



That would be the sound of a golden-cheeked warbler, our special endangered species that should be migrating into the area soon.  If you are interested in this bird, try this link:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0013_golden_cheeked_warbler.pdf