Blog of the El Camino Real Chapter, Texas Master Naturalists, Milam County, Texas
Author: Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall
The person behind The Hermits' Rest blog and many others. I'm a certified Texas Master Naturalist and love the nature of Milam County. I manage technical writers in Austin, help with Hearts Homes and Hands, a personal assistance service, in Cameron, and serve on three nonprofit boards. You may know me from La Leche League, knitting, iNaturalist, or Facebook. I'm interested in ALL of you!
Yesterday, many of us mentioned hearing and seeing hummingbirds in the tree tops, gardens, and at some feeders. Today, just after noontime, this hummingbird posed for the camera. Enjoy the short narrative as to what happened.
I looked out the window and saw a hummingbird at the feeder. I grabbed the big camera and went outside, somewhat hidden, and stayed motionless for 15 minutes or so.
Can’t tell who it is from here.
It was still raining off and on, pleasantly mild, thundering, all foliage was wet. The hummingbird sat on a tiny branch on a large Crape Myrtle tree next to the feeder. Did he see me? Most likely! So it was standoff. I stayed motionless and was not going to move, no matter what was itching or biting me. This went on for many minutes; it seemed like forever.
Big raindrops began to fall again. A couple of Carolina Wrens landed in the same tree. The hummingbird was aggravated with them and chased them off. I waited a few more minutes, raindrops more frequent. Then, the hummingbird made his move.
Yummy!
My camera clicked rapidly at the fast-moving target. I wondered, “What type of hummingbird are you, who are you?” I asked repeatedly.
Then, after feeding a couple of times at the left feeder, he came right at me to the camera. I zoomed the lens back, he positioned himself in the upright position, and revealed his identity, proclaiming, “I am back.”
The Big Reveal!
Then he went to the second feeder to feed. Welcome home, Ruby Red-throated Hummer.
I wrote up a version of this for my personal blog, but thought I’d share it here, in case it inspired any of you to do something similar while you are sheltering in place (or any other time).
This fun project I did yesterday didn’t require any human contact nor leaving the property where our office is. I decided to see how many different yellow flowers I could find in the weed/wildflower collection known as our empty lot.
I simply ambled outside with my phone and tried to get good pictures. Yellows are difficult in bright sunlight, so it was good practice for me to try to get photos with a lot of detail and not just glare. As you can see, I managed to fill a whole screen in iNaturalist!
Most of the field actually LOOKS purple, because there is so much common storks-bill (Erodium cicutarium) growing in it, but when you look closer and closer, the yellows dominate (purple is in second place, with field madder and a little patch of grape hyacinth that must be left over from when there was a house here – I plan to replant them in the “flower bed” I’m making).
What have we got? Let’s take a look. Many of these flowers look really similar, but are different sizes or have other subtle differences. Note that I may have gotten something wrong in my identification, so if anyone corrects me on iNaturalist, I’ll correct it here, too.
Common Dandelion. Taraxacum officinale. Delicious and nutritious. Bees love them.
False Dandelion.Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus. Plus a tiny wasp and tinier beetle.
Prickly Sowthistle Sonchus asper. It’s everywhere. And very prickly. Note that there are aphids or something on it.
Smooth Cat’s Ear. Hypochaeris glabra. Looks like a teeny dandelion on a very long stem. Compare to the first dandelion and you’ll see how small it is.
Cutleaf Evening Primrose. Oenothera laciniata. Smaller than most evening primrose, but a beautiful buttery yellow.
Crete Weed. Hedypnois cretica. I thought it was a dandelion, but look at the leaf and the cool petal shape.
Woodsorrels. Genus Oxalis. I’m not sure which one it is, but it’s certainly oxalis. Sour tasty leaves!
Bur Clover. Medicago polymorpha. It’s about finished blooming and starting to make burs. Yellow is a hard color for my camera, and I couldn’t get a good shot of these.
Straggler Daisy. Calyptocarpus vialis. Lots of leaves, tiny flowers. They are pretty up close, though.
I got a lot of bugs and other things, but I’m just going to leave this parade of yellow-ness alone, in all their glory. I’ll see what other themes I can come up with over the next few weeks as all the flowers bloom away.
Do you have any suggestions? Share with the group!
These images are some Ann clipped from her reading.
I’ve been seeing that some areas of pollution have cleared up somewhat since people have been restricted in travel. Can this be true? The canals of Venice are clear, and dolphins have returned. Satellite images of northern Italy show a huge reduction in fouled air.
Small bits of good news.
Is this Mother Nature’s way of saying, “Hey people! Stop destroying this wonderful world I’ve provided for you?” If we can’t be responsible caretakers, we get a wake-up call in the guise of a pandemic and mandatory quarantines, huh?
Factories have shut down, travel is curtained, people are socked up at home (not so much running up and down the road at any and every impulse).
Just a reprieve
Sadly, the reports indicate that all will return to normal. Factories will belch poison into the air again, cars will spew brown smoke again, planes will dart about like flies in the sky. Here we go again! Didn’t we learn anything? Probably not. We have become so self centered that we won’t make even the smallest sactifice, even to save ourselves.
Mother nature has sent us to our rooms.
Sigh.
PS from the webmaster: We have learned that dolphins really were not swimming in the canals of Venice, though it’s certainly a lovely image. Let us know if anything else we share is not verified!
This past spring on a cool, clear day, my daughter Rosie and I picked up Master Naturalist Donna Lewis and Danielle Ramos in Milano at dawn. We traveled to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site for an enjoyable edible plant walk. Master Naturalist Patrick Still and his wife also attended.
The group of travelers (this was before social distancing).
Along the way we saw chickens, longhorns, and wildflowers. We then toured the “Birthplace of Texas” where in 1836 Texas declared independence from Mexico to become the Republic of Texas.
A new friend!
After lunch and Jet Fuel coffee to keep us going, we headed to the Antique Rose Emporium in Independence. Donna kept us laughing with her tales. Once she was visiting a nearby farm and a “nice” miniature horse bit her. The children on the tour got scared and ran away!
Beautiful gardens.
The Emporium was stunning, and we found our favorite blooming sweet peas. We also found artisan beer, wine and snacks at the new bistro there. While relaxing on a porch surrounded by flowers and wind chimes, we noticed a long black crack on a building which turned out to be a snake! We said nothing so as not to “scare the children”.
Yeah, kids, that’s just a crack in the wood.
As we left, we saw a bride having her picture taken among the roses. We were too tired to stop for dinner, so Donna got home by dark—–a perfect spring day in Texas.
I love this place! 5 stars! Photo by Pamela, through a window.
While we aren’t having meetings for a while, we are able to have our own adventures out in nature, or if we’re lucky, nature comes into our homes.
Chapter member Pamela Neeley is well known for having a home that’s welcoming to creatures of nature. People who have been to our meetings may recall that she recently had a skunk that liked to come in and check out her cat food.
It would come in through the pet door and make itself at home. It never sprayed or anything, but was quite clever.
They have the best restaurants here at Chez Pamela.
When Pamela tried to block the door, the patient skunk slowly but surely worked out how to remove the barriers, so he or she could search for snacks. Cat food is really delicious, apparently.
I guess the skunk got along well enough with Ruby the dog, though Ruby did alert Pamela to the skunk’s presence.
Skunks CAN make good pets, but that’s not something we Master Naturalists would suggest as an option. Besides, this is a wild one, and fully operational.
About that Snake
Pamela also has cats. They go in and out that same door the skunk used. Sometimes cats bring presents, as cats are known to do. Earlier in the week, the present Apollo brought was long, thin, and not dead.
The snake was first spotted heading into what Pamela calls the “scary room filled with boxes,” from where she had no chance or removing it. Since she’s so used to critters, she went about her business, until yesterday, when she noticed Apollo the cat was stalking the bathroom. Aha!
Well, hello!
The snake was taking refuge in a nice, damp place. That can scare the pee out of you!
After taking a bunch of pictures, Pamela contacted her team of friends on a group text for suggestions. And she got dressed. That’s important.
Ideas came quickly from her amazed friends. One idea was flushing, which was immediately rejected. That’s not being kind to our reptile friends!
Other ideas were use a mop, use one of those pick-up sticks that help the elderly, kitchen tongs, a net, and so forth.
Pamela chose the large towel method. She was ready to fling it into the bathtub if it got too wiggly, but it turned out the snake just curled up and she could easily get it in the towel. It was probably relieved.
Pamela took it to the woods a good ways from the house, and everyone was relieved.
What Was It?
Closer image of the scared snake.
Naturally, everyone in the Cameron ladies’ text group wanted to know what kind of snake it was, especially those of us who are Texas Master Naturalists. Pamela knew what to do, and uploaded it to iNaturalist, suggesting it might be a brown snake, judging from the markings she noted.
Soon she got feedback that the snake was a coach-whip snake. Now she’s glad it didn’t do its characteristic whipping action on her. Since the snake may have been in her house as long as a week, she also hopes it ate some scorpions or other annoying creatures while it was a guest in her home.
Share Your Stories!
Now that we are mostly sitting around looking at the nature around our homes, please share what’s going on with you! Maybe it will make up for all the meetings and classes that have been canceled. I already have one to share tomorrow, so stay tuned.
