March 14, 2024

Fennessey Ranch

March 14, 2024/ Gwen Morrison

Our last field trip at the Whooping Crane Festival began with another early morning because we had to drive to the place (taking the ferry to cross from the barrier island). We arrived just a few minutes before the gate at Fennessey Ranch was opened for our tour group (not the first in line but not the last either).

I took a few pictures in the soft morning light: prickly pear cactus with brambles and a bird house, the layered reflected color of sunrise with the moon, and then some mourning doves in a nearby tree just as the sunlight hit them.

We waited a bit for the trailers with haybales for seats to arrive; we would tour the ranch in the trailers pulled by a pickup truck.

A few minutes into the tour there was a song sparrow in sunlight surround by mossy limbs.

I found photography from the trailer even more difficult than the bus at King Ranch. We did see wild turkeys and a bobcat…..but I wasn’t able to get a good line of sight with my camera. The bobcat was very hard to spot until it moved!

I did get some good shots of two crested caracaras high in a tree. Were they a mating pair? The birds tend to be solitary except with their mate and offspring. Since I was almost under the birds…I took a picture of the talons.

There were a few wildflowers blooming.

One of the places we stopped included some sandhill cranes in the distance. There were feral hogs near them, and the birds flew off when the hogs got too close. The ranch does sponsor hunts of feral hogs…hopefully lowering their numbers.

The ranch has nine linear miles of river frontage on the Mission River. We stopped at a place where there is a blind and feeder. Only cardinals came to the feeder the morning we were there.

I opted to photograph more wildflowers and a post emerging from the water with what looks like barnacles (I forgot to ask if the river was tidal).

I also looked at the bank on the opposite side…lots of vegetation to the river’s edge in most places although there were places where cattle probably came down to the river. The bank on our side of the river was much steeper. It would be interesting to see the flood model for the ranch.

The Fennessy ranch field trip was a good winding down for our festival attendance. I learned that hayrides on trailers behind pickups over bumpy roads are hard on my back…probably won’t do that again. We headed toward home. I was looking forward to Czech pastries in West, Texas on the second morning of the road trip back to Missouri.

June 06, 2020

Gleanings

June 06, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Gleanings for this week

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Volunteers Spot New Sites in Aerial Images of England - Archaeology Magazine – Volunteers and lidar scans…a productive combination!

Seven highlights from 70 years of the National Science Foundation - The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy - AGU Blogosphere – Deepwater Horizon oil spill, public radio and television, ozone hole, strong curricula for introductory science, deep-sea exploration, student opportunities, and COVID-10 response. It seems like the list it too skewed to recent years.

We don’t need nearly as much protein as we consume - BBC Future – Another recommendation of getting nutrients from food rather that highly processed food or supplements….and moderation too. Skewing the diet toward protein at the expense of other nutrients is not healthy!

The Coolest Kingfishers from Six Continents – I’ve seen the first three! All three in south Texas and the Belted Kingfish elsewhere too. Kingfishers are an easily recognized shape….heavy bill, bigger head relative to body…etc.

How Americans are coping with COVID-19 stress -- ScienceDaily – This report was prior to the additional stressor of George Floyd’s death….the racism of police evident in the videos of the event and the response to protests that seems too militarized. It seems like 2020 will be a pivot point in our nation’s history and how we all respond to the stressors of the year is important in the outcome. I hope that we can show the best of ourselves…our utmost caring for all people and our planet that is our home.

Ice Arch Persists Despite Warm Arctic – It won’t last long…the ice arch which prevents sea ice from drifting south generally breaks up in June or July. Last year it broke up in mid-April.

'New' Footage of Benjamin, the Last Tasmanian Tiger Ever Seen Alive | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A 21-second video from 1935.

Top 25 birds of the week: Seabirds - Wild Bird Revolution – I’ve seen most the North American birds in these photographs….except for the puffins.

Babies know when you imitate them -- and like it -- ScienceDaily – Most parents probably realize this to some extent…but the research teases out more specifics about how babies respond to knowing they are being imitated.

The remarkable power of the prickly pear - BBC Future – Grown as a crop for food in arid areas and then using the waste left after the food is extracted to generate biofuel. Wish we had more processes like this.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Aftermath of thunderstorm. I did another early morning in the outdoors – noting the aftermath of the thunderstorm the night before. Both birdbaths had been filled by the rain. The one in front is surrounded by day lily leaves…I’m not sure how often it is used by birds, but I like the way it looks from our front door.

2020 06 IMG_0077 (7).jpg — The sycamore tree trunk still looked very wet. I had forgotten the Virginia creeper climbing up. There were a few sycamore leaves that were blown into the yard…but the wind must not have been too bad.

The wetness of the leaves kept some of the maple leaves flipped over. It’s always surprising that the underside is so light in color.

Finally, I noticed a dead bee just before I settled into my chair. It must have gotten into the screened part of the deck and not been able to escape.

The rest of my outdoor time I spent making a couple of Zentangle tiles….and listening to the birds.

Mint as a fresh veggie. Mint grows so easily and comes back year after year. My front flower bed has a lot of it…enough to use it for more than a garnish. I cut a handful of stems and strip the leaves – it is the leafy green in a smoothie with chocolate protein powder. Yummy!

A Zentangle Prompt

Make a two tangle tile today with ROSCOE and SAND SWIRL.

Here is a tile I made yesterday based on the prompt: Three patterns to combine in a tile today: FAUX WEAVE, FEATHER FALL, and MEER.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

November 25, 2018

Festival of the Cranes – part 6

November 25, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

After the Point and Shoot Photography field session, I headed to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge's Desert Arboretum. The entrance was hidden by the large tents put up for the festival expo and a classroom, but I managed to find it. There was already a larger group than I expected for the tour. The garden has been developed over many years by botanists and horticulturalists from seeds. I didn’t take many pictures during the tour since there were so many people --- waiting until the area was quiet again afterward. Most of the plants were cacti and agave; I took two pictures that were other types….the legume type plant for the color of the flowers and the other for the fibrous tendrils.

Now to the cactus. There were several kinds of prickly pear – many that still had fruits. The horticulturist talked about the various kinds of spines and that some were so fast growing that they had to be pruned. I noticed one that had been pruned and that spines had grown on the cut surface – probably to keep animals from borrowing into the soft flesh of the rest of the plant.

The barrel cacti are colorful – fruits and spines. One specimen had yellow spines and fruits. Barrel cactus have been collected by so many people as whole plants rather than just the seeds which has caused some to become almost extinct in the wild…but prevalent in gardens. They evidently grow easy enough from seeds…with patience.

There were several kinds of cholla. My favorite had red fruits.

The agaves have prickles on their edges and a sharp point on the end. There was a century plant that had bloomed two years ago but didn’t produce any seed since there was not another century plant nearby to cross pollinate it. The parent plant died after it bloomed but there is a ‘pup’ coming up under the dried parts of the parent plant…a little clone that will maybe grow up to bloom.

The garden also is popular with birds because of the feeders and the plants. There are white-crowned sparrows,

Finches,

And red-winged blackbirds.

The birds were not around during the tour….but came back as soon as the crowd of people were gone.

As I left the arboretum, I saw the sculpture of the crane nearby. Once the expo tent is gone – it will be easier to spot.

November 22, 2017

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

November 22, 2017/ Gwen Morrison

Our third day at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival did not start out well: our bus has a mechanical problem and our departure was delayed by about 3 hours. Fortunately, the replan included a lengthening of the trip by three hours and provisions (picnic lunch). On the plus side – we avoided some rain showers that moved through while we were waiting; on the negative side – we could have slept later (getting up at 4 AM is common at birding festivals!). Our destination was the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. We didn’t seen any ocelots that the refuge is trying to protect…but we did see plenty of birds. The days was very cloudy and misty – not good for photographing. I picked a few that were good enjoy enough for identification.

There were snow geese coming and going. I liked this line because of the different morphs visible.

There was a Little Blue Heron fishing in the shallows

And a Great Blue Heron standing on one leg surveying the shore.

A group of Forster’s terns, with the black feathers around and back from their eyes) were grouped along the shore (looks like the birds behind them were snoozing).

The Forster’s tern is in the middle of this image. The largest bird is a Caspian Tern and the one in front is a Royal Tern. The Royal Terns I’d seen in Maryland always looked like they were wearing a black cap but that is only during the breeding season…not this time of year in South Texas.

A brown pelican flew above – following the shoreline.

White Ibis wandered through the other shore birds.

The Crested Caracara were new to me. Since the ones I saw on the field trip were a little far away – I took a picture of a captive bird as the Expo.

I took a close up of a prickly pear tuna (fruit)…note the spines.

Side by side – a Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs.

We were all on the bus when a male Northern Harrier swooped down into the field beside the road and hovered over prey. I did pretty well taking this series through the bus window since there was no time to do anything better.

There is a platform where aplomado falcons are nesting. This is an exciting recovery story since this bird was gone from the area for years and has only recently been reintroduced and is breeding again in south Texas. I took a picture of the captive falcon at the Expo just as I had the Crested Caracara.

We stopped at the visitor’s center and walked around the cards there. Red-winged blackbirds are all over North America!

The white winged doves are summer birds in south Texas according to allaboutbirds but there were still a lot of them around in mid-November; I wonder if they are really year round in the Rio Grande Valley.

It was a longer day that we’d anticipated but better than we thought might happen in the hour or so after we initially learned of the bus problem. In the end we decided that the Laguna Atascosa trip was well worth it.