Prior to visiting the art show at the Migration Celebration at the San Bernard NWR I took a tour of the San Bernard Oak, the largest live oak in Texas. The trail had been freshly mowed and maintained so it was not nearly as buggy as I was expecting. I took my time, meandering along, snapping photos of the way the light hit the vegetation along the trail.

Fairly certain this is a mustang grape…

A gas pipeline provided a nice opening for the sun-loving plants to thrive like these Mexican hats Ratibida columnifera.

Finally I arrived at the oak tree, however due to the tours (they were mostly self guided, however a guide was available to lead the tours too) there was quite a crowd and it was difficult to get good photos or to hang out very long there.

Some day I would like to return when it is quiet, to sit and enjoy it without a crowd.

I was chatting with the tour guide for a few minutes when I looked up into a nearby oak and saw those honeycombs up in the tree—only my initial look suggested they were some kind of tree fungus. I squinted a little bit and realized the mass next to it was instead a giant beehive I pointed it out to the naturalist who later recalled, after thinking a bit, that the hive had been there the previous year.

I highly recommend visiting this tree and trail if you are looking for something to do in the greater Houston area. Maybe a stop on your way to the coast?

Finally, some backpacking time! A week ago Chris and I went with my dad, brother and some of their friends from my brother’s old Boy Scout troop to the Eagle Rock Loop in Ouachita National Forest. I was very happy to be getting some hiking in—on mountains especially. I was hoping that part of it would be reminiscent of the Appalachian Trail and I was pleasantly rewarded with birds, vegetation and smells that we saw on our hike of the A.T.

We split the drive up, leaving Houston for Dallas at noon one day, then jumping in the car that my dad, brother and another hiker were in to finish the rest of the way to the forest. We were meeting everyone else at the Little Missouri/Athens-Big Fork Junction Trailhead. Unfortunately the directions we had to get there, once inside the forest, were a little jumbled—turning at forks and somehow we managed to end up taking the wrong split. At Bard Springs we found a map and managed to figure out what forest roads we needed to take to get where we were starting the hike, finally arriving at nearly midnight.

Headlamps on, we found an area with the least amount of poison ivy to set our tent up and hit the sack.

The next morning the rest of the group emerged from the woods near the parking area to eat breakfast and chat. I was happy to see two other women on the hike, the wife of one of the other hikers—also the mother of the other female on the hike. We set off by 7:30 am, crossing the Little Missouri River, which at this point is merely a small creek we could rock hop across—vastly different than what we would see later on in the hike.

We started off on the Athens-Big Fork trail, a trail with 8 ‘peaks’ to go over. If we had been on the Appalachian Trail I’d say it was a mini-rollercoaster. Since it had been awhile since any of us had been on mountains, the first mountain took some time getting up. Slowly, but surely we made it up and over the first peak. Beyond, we saw the next couple we would have to go over.

Going down the first mountain I was reminded of my knees and how badly they hurt after finishing the A.T. I never thought they would recover, but 2-3 months later I finally woke up one morning and realized I didn’t wince getting out of bed or kneeling down to grab something off the floor. Most of the downhills were mild but there was one or two that were more steep than the others and caused a bit of pain going down.

This time of year, with the number of water crossings in this section, carrying a lot of water isn’t needed. Between every mountain is a small creek, mostly rock-hopping sized, and water is easily collected from there.

Chris was excited to find a lot of big leaf magnolias around the forest. He’d just bought one for us to grow at our house, someday—it is currently in a container, so seeing an abundance of them were quite exciting for us.

Due to the varying speeds of the hikers most of the time we waited near the creeks for everyone to catch up. Since we weren’t on any sort of time crunch to get to a destination for the evening it was nice to relax and enjoy the trip instead of breezing by everything.

Chris’ big goal was to be able to fish along the creeks and streams while we hiked. It was late morning before we came across one with a deep enough pool to warrant fishing. Had it been mid-afternoon and the weather warmer, a dip in this little pool of water would have been wonderful!

At lunch we came to the first stream that required taking our shoes off to cross. My brother, Chris and another hiker had gone up ahead and were already there when we arrived. Ahh, hiking lunches—leisurely and relaxing, time to take a snooze, and eat hiker food. Chris and I opted to boil water for every meal—oatmeal for breakfast, beans and tortillas for lunch and hiker meals for dinner.

Luckily we had lunch where we did because the next mountain we climbed was long and arduous, not to mention the afternoon humidity skyrocketed. We didn’t even hit the top of that mountain, a short side-trail would take you to the top, but we rested on makeshift wood benches at the top before heading back downhill.

I’d been looking forward to this vista, Eagle Rock Vista, the whole day as it was the only one providing a real view. Most of the other mountains were shrouded with vegetation and offered no views. The side trail up to this view as short and easy from a campsite near the top.

I didn’t see the cottonmouth, Chris took that photo, but I did see some of the crawfish. Really bright, aren’t they?

Ahhh, the campsite, time to eat and relax. It all just made me want to do it for many more consecutive nights…nights that turn into months.

I’ve still got two more days to share, so stay tuned!

I.
We followed the trail
Up and over many peaks
With sweet, humid views.

II.
Water crossed our path
Hop, skip, jump, across the streams
Splish, splash, don’t fall in!

III.
The woods smell divine
Wafting heady aromas
Can I soak it in?

IV.
Dusk falls, night begins
The woods come alive with sound
Who cooks for you all?

V.
Hiker stench sets in
Sweat drips, bugs bite, stomach growls
One more hill to go.

VI.
Back at the trail-head
Feet ache, hiker hobble, tired
Ready for some food.

Been awhile since I’ve written a haiku—ok, probably since high school which was 14 years ago—so I hope I got the syllables right. If not…oh well!

What? A post from me on the weekend???

Swamp mallow leaves….

Two banded water snakes, well, this is the same snake, but there were two hanging out where we were in the swamp the last day I was out.

+I ended up in the swamp for two days for work at the end of the week. Thought it was going to seep into the weekend but it thankfully didn’t. I was back in the Big Thicket where I was working last spring/early summer. It felt like coming home—which is funny because it is a swamp and very wet.

+It got a little boring for awhile though because we had to wait and wait and wait for the guys we were out monitoring to get their equipment up and working. And it was slow going and in the swamp there is rarely anywhere to sit. The second place we ended up yesterday I managed to find a set of cypress knees up against a cypress that allowed me to cautiously sit on them, pokey as they were. When we arrived out there the water was down and mostly muddy with some areas of water. This section is tidally influenced despite being a freshwater marsh, but also influenced by a salt water barrier (read: dam…ugh) up the way and our boat driver, who lives on the Neches, thinks they closed the dam off which further increased the amount of tide water that came up by the time we left the swamp. It was pretty deep some in some channels when we left, up to nearly our waist.

+I think I am weird. I love the smell of rotting sargassum and I love the smell of swamp mud and all it sulphur glory. I also prefer sulphur to sulfur.

+Being out of the office was definitely nice! But, I missed my garden and my cats too. I miss my old job in this sense…I was able to get out in the field or swap it with the office whenever I wanted, but then was able to go home at the end of the day. At this job if I am in the field I am definitely away from home, as most projects are not in the immediate vicinity of my house. There are always tradeoffs with any job.

+Chris is coming home from Pennsylvania today! Very happy to see him again! I think we are going to try to get a hike in tomorrow as long as these mid-western storms don’t come to SE Texas earlier than their anticipated Monday arrival.

+The garden managed to stay alive despite two days without water. Well, mostly. Two eggplant seedlings bit the dust. They were weak looking anyway. We’ll find some starts elsewhere I suppose.

+Bought myself a cheap journal to turn into an art journal after being inspired by The Art Journaler a new website started in part by Mandy Steward. I have a feeling it will be art journal/easy scrapbook. I kind of like the idea!

+Was bummed to miss the Migration Celebration dinner that was last night due to my work commitments. The opening of the photo contest and the winners were to be announced so I have no idea if one of my five photos submitted won anything. Next weekend is the main celebration events and I’m hoping to drive down to Lake Jackson and check it out.

+As we are launching pretty much straight into summer already, I love seeing the blogs of those further north, the ones that are just now awakening to spring.

+Hope to get some more posts up this week from things I’ve done over the last several weeks….”Just keep swimming”as Dory always said.

What are you up to?

While in Austin two weekends ago we took advantage of an opportunity to see the colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that live under the Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin. We didn’t really do much research when we got there only knowing about when to go (dusk—but earlier to get a spot in the crowd) and the location but when we arrived we quickly realized we didn’t know where to park. We ended up in the Austin American Statesman parking lot, which I am pretty sure we weren’t supposed to be in, but a few others were parked there and a gate was open to the little green space near the bridge.

We arrived about 30 minutes before sunset and found a place to sit and people watch.

The crowd grew larger as time went on and kayakers and tourist boats were in the Colorado River beneath the bridge too. Next time I am definitely doing this via kayak!

Finally bats started flying out but the light was so low and we weren’t in the best position for photos. Chris opted for a video only and when he processes that I will get that up here too.

It was bat chaos!

Yes, those blurs are bats!

Finally, the thrill of the bats over and the darkness settling in, most people left. We decided to walk under the bridge where others had been, taking the chance of random guano falling on us, to see what we saw there. It was insanely loud with bats! These photos just don’t do the awesomeness any justice!

Before we went under the bridge, you can see the bats streaming out and hear them along with the crowd.

And a video under the bridge, the flashes from the cameras giving you a chance to see the mass of flying mammals!

If you are ever in Austin I highly recommend checking this out! It might be better viewing from the water and on the bridge, the bats seemed to funnel towards the middle of the bridge.

One of our favorite areas to visit in the Austin area has three parks right near each other making it optimal for seeing the a variety of ecosystems right around the Pedernales River. Westcave Preserve, Hamilton Pool, and Reimers Ranch Park. The latter we have not had much of a chance to explore as it is newly opened and Travis county is still working on finishing the park. It will have many biking trails, rock climbing areas, and water access to the Pedernales River. We popped in Reimers Ranch just to see what was in the climbing canyon, not having much time to explore the park before we had to eat dinner and scope out the Congress Avenue bats. I hope to get back to this park sometime in the near future and explore the rest of it.

Several climbers in this canyon. I would love to watch them more and learn a little about the sport. It is much more difficult than I imagined!

Another climber out there in the distance.

The trail/creek down to the canyon area; a little slick and tricky.

Cedar sage, Salvia roemariana. This grew all along the canyons at all three parks. I might have to find some seeds!

This little sneak preview has me wanting more! I can’t wait to go back!

Finally sharing the rest of the photos I took when I went to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory a few weekends ago with Keely and her boyfriend. These photos are from the grounds of the GCBO and the Wilderness Park across the bayou from GCBO.

Nature is my medicine. ~Sara Moss-Wolfe

As I walked to the corner where I start my runs the other day I was admiring nature as I walked. A ditch is to the right as I pass by, and there wasn’t much blooming. At first I thought the dark color was a browning leaf, stuck on top of other vegetation. Nearly continuing on without stopping I changed my mind and backtracked. Peering into the ditch I saw it was an iris. I waited to go back to get a photo because it was beginning to sprinkle and I didn’t want to get my camera wet. The next day it poured and poured, and that evening the flowers looked worn. However, new buds were getting ready to open and so yesterday I padded out to the ditch in flip-flops, silly because I had to cross a dewberry laced slope first, to wade a bit in the water and get a few photos.

My first thought was that it was a Louisiana Iris and after looking around I think the species is likely Iris fulva. Now, whether it was planted there, naturalized from a nearby garden (bird dropped a seed?) or if it was naturally there, I don’t know.

But it sure is pretty!

A few months ago Keely from State of Wilderness commented on my blog and after a quick look at her blog I realized she as in the greater Houston area too. This was exciting for me because I am in need of a naturey friend here, someone willing to go on hikes and explore and talk science-geek stuff. When I replied to her via email, as soon as I had hit send I worried I had come off a little too excited, too needy. But, no worries, all was well and soon she invited me and Chris to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. Unfortunately that weekend we had camping plans and so I had to decline attending. Well, she offered up the outing again this past weekend and since I had nothing planned I decided to go for it.

We met in Lake Jackson for the bird banding at the observatory and then went on a short hike on the observatory grounds before heading across bayou to the Wilderness Park where we went after a geocache, my first in years. That will be a completely other post because today I bring you photos of the bird banding. My bird knowledge is minimal, I mostly know some raptors and wading birds with a few of the little brown-jobbers. It was fun to see the birds being banded and then to watch the kids take the birds from the main man banding them, and then release them.

The most entertaining bird was by far the female cardinal. She was noisy and bit what she could, including the bander’s hand!

Before he was done with the cardinal though, he hypnotized it somehow. It was completely still, lying on its back on the table while he tapped next to it. Then with a flush and flurry it was gone, to the tree right outside the pavilion. It was pretty incredible!

The house wren was mostly tame and quiet with little fuss.

This Carolina wren was a little more blustery. I only know most of these names because the bander was telling the group around the table.

This was the most exotic bird that was banded while I was there, a Carolina chickadee. It’s beautiful!

This bird was one of the first birds banded when I arrived and I am unsure what it is. If someone knows, please inform me!
*Later Edit*: A few birding friends tell me this may be a Savannah Sparrow. Anyone else conclude the same?

Getting inspected for fat percentages and measuring wings.

This eastern bluebird was not banded but made a nice appearance for long enough to get a few photos. I was standing under the pavilion and not close enough for a great shot.

How they catch the birds are by a thin, black net strung out near some boardwalks and trails on the property. Someone from the preserve continuously monitors the nets, bringing birds back to band and then release. Banding the birds assists with monitoring migrations and these birds may be caught in other locations throughout their flyway. I’d love to attend another even in the future, apparently when the hummingbirds come through they catch quite a few…I’d like to release one of them!

Happy Vernal Equinox!

Remember back in February how I photographed trout lilies at Tandy Hills? Well, I finally finished processing my macro shots taken with our 65mm macro. And let me tell you, I think this lens is the sweetest thing ever! The photos were awesome and now that we bought the flash to go with it I’ll be able to do more with lower light conditions, which happen easily when using the higher ‘X’ magnifications.

Here they are…enjoy!

Today I’m also over at Sprout Dispatch, so come by and say hi!