Mother Nature Still In Control

A high meadow planted in wildflowers that have bloomed for a couple of weeks now, had another surprise as these peony poppy like plants have come up through the bed of prairie grasses that were cut in the fall and were bedded down over winter after being  sown with wildflowers.

The point is this: one must visit the meadow three or four times a week as plants come up almost over night with the warming temperatures and the large amount of rain that we have had this year already. The flowers are stunning and coming into the last phase of such beauty.The view changes as more species come up and bloom.

For a better look at the beauty, you can click on the image and it will open up at a higher percentage for viewing. See the total beauty of these wildflowers that nature held back until the very end of her spring run.

Never To Old To Learn

Dad puts himself in between himself and his chicks as mom escorts them to safety.

Snake paces back and forth along shoreline for a reason.

Dad Duck Watches Out For Snake

While I have always loved wildlife and being outdoors, looking back now, the last twenty years of my life have been a new learning experience with a triptych of cameras by my side. In the course of events during that twenty years, going to zoos has been fun, but this isn't about going to zoos. It's that red tail hawk that you first notice by its shadow that it cast on the ground as you walk a trail. It's about seeing fluffy little owl chicks poking their heads out of a hollow of  a tree hole, seeing this world for the first time. Discovering a couple of dozen of Rocky Mountain long horn sheep living less than the number of fingers on one hand from me turned out to be a WOW experience. Or finding not one but two houses where a pair of burros roam a side yard. Kestrel hawks, great horned owls, ospreys, bald eagles, are now spotted on a regular basis as I have learned about their habits and how they go about their days as I take time out of mine to watch such majestic beauty for the majority of the days in a year.

But the most amazing thing that I have always heard about, but never had  observed in detail has been the colorful and sometime funny, wood duck family. This season, I have seen no less than ten pairs, observed how the male and female are seldom seen alone but when you do, its because the males are keeping watch over the females and their chicks.

Yesterday and the day before all the pieces of the puzzle came together and my eye spotted unusual places where wood ducks go. Never observed  in those places observations became answers. For example, the male was seen coming out of the water and flying with the female up into two separate trees. Animals, especially birds, have diversion patterns that they fly when going to their nest. They never go direct to the nest with people around. But why did the female go here and the male flew there?The answer was the nest tree up the side of a old oak  more on the short side of 20 feet rather than the short side of 15feet. That lead the following day to more answer. The female watched as her 12 chicks jumped out of their nest to the ground below and collected around mom on the ground as dad called to the chicks from the branch of the tree where he had been seen the day before flying up into the different tree than the female.

But the big event was yesterday as I observed a big water snake swimming along the shore where I had seen it and another in areas. I have never seen them at that location before. They had been hanging out at the edge of the lake and then a mallard built a nest and was sitting on the nest. She later disappeared. after about three days on her nest, as did the snakes. The sighting of the snake swimming back and forth along the shoreline just a couple of feet offshore gave way to my sighting of the male wood duck on a dock. After a while when he had determined that all was well, he flew from the dock to where the shake had been seen earlier. Shortly after that, mom and her 12 chicks headed across the channel toward the marina  with dad in patrol of the shore back and forth between where the snake had been seen an where the chicks were following closely behind mom. It was nature at its best right here in the middle of 7.5 million people.

Check Out The Boat Cover

Oftentimes, I have mentioned that I enjoy the edit as much as securing the image. As in photography, light always plays a critical part of the image and sometimes that shift in light at the split second a shutter clicks shut will yield added bonus that give that image the same thing that gives an old piece of furniture that je nes se quois. One of the images presented me with one of those experiences on Saturday. It was rather small, but still, my eye caught it when I scanned at 100%. Nearly missing it then, also, it just struck me as one of nature's  wonderment. When putting that in perspective with life in general, we humans, are not as special among the animal kingdom as we would like to believe. I love finding those moments.When we are casually put in our place by nature. Some humans still don't get it, but for those who do, it is a humbling moment.  I'll point out the specifics of this on the following image so be sure to click on the image to enlarge so you can see what I writing about here.

See the Covered Rowing Crew Boat on the left? Look just left of center at what is sitting there. High, Dry and Very Happy Birds!

And of course, with the release of the coach's rankings for week 10 of college football, Michigan remains in No. 2. Would you look at this......it s Maze and Blue!! How ironic! Oh, it's a rowing crew boat on the top tier of a transport trailer. Top tier-- I could not make that up!

After the Floods----

the water is finally beginning to go down, nearly a week after the last rain drops stopped falling.  That kind of indicates how much like a sponge the earth really was with 24 of 31 days of rain. Still, there are areas where acres of standing water exist, but the lakes are being opened to anxious boaters and their wakes will not rush water into someones living room like before. There was plenty of that as it was.

With so much rain, it has given me plenty of time to play with camera settings and  the mastery of what I have learned is paying off. Every thing in life is a trade off, however. Officially, Texas is out of a five year drought in less than four weeks, but now, with the rediscovered sunshine, temperatures are filling the next seven days with low 90 degree readings. It is June already for sure. Temperatures in the low 90s happen this time of year down here. Here's hoping that the evaporation, which does cool the air, will keep the temperatures out of the triple digits during July and August! 

Who would think that a cactus could be so pretty.

This is a beautiful bud just ready to open.

The blooms are awesome!

So, since I have worked so hard to refine the macro of shooting, I did fine some subjects that were a test  and some came out well, others came out alright. I'll show you the alright ones here.

Make sure you click on one of the images to get the HD version.

Run This Through My Herr-Voss

When you see "Run This Through My Herr-Voss" it's  a way to say that I've got something on my chest that I need to get off.

Yesterday afternoon,  with the temps going back into the triple digits again,  even the cat was trying to push me out the door for a little while. Since I had a low tire (a down side to front-end drives) I set out to see my friend,Jamal. He operates a stop and shop with gas and an air machine. Also, he had found a new Mediterranean restaurant from our visit of last week and I wanted to touch base with him as to when he wanted to go for dinner.

 On the way home, my eye caught a large ground movement in an area that is mowed regularly by the city and I slowed down enough to see a very large Red Tail hawk on its prey. I drove to the parking area, got out the camera and walked back along the road several hundred yards. This was the second big Red Tail that I have seen in as many months. Last month, I posted one on a squirrel dinner. This one had the same taste buds. One thing for sure, Red Tails keep the squirrel populations in check.

While watching this amazing bird feast on its kill, keeping movement down is always essential if you want to observe the food chain at work and learn about urban life of such amazing birds. The traffic is in a residential area but its on the edge of a popular park. Looking out for traffic on my side of the road and maintaining an eye on the bird, this one car was coming back and forth and pulled into  a near driveway. Thinking it was the property owner, I didn't pay much attention to the car beyond that. A bit later, along came a girl and two guys walking two dogs on the other side of the creek. There wasn't much concern with that in as much as they presented little disturbance with the creek between them and the Red Tail. In a split second, the people follow the dogs down into the creek and the lady in the car comes forward in a fast walk with camera in hand. Both converged on the hawk from both directions. Fear had already registered in my brain what was about to happen. Sure enough, the Red Tail stirs anxiously, stands at full tallness and the wings come out in lift-off position. Sure enough, it took flight with the squirrel that wasn't finished. It flew across another street into a wooded area that is part of a flood plane and wet land. No use looking for the hawk, I didn't feel like running from cottonmouth snakes!!

Here is the "RUN THIS THROUGH MY HERR-VOSS".
Some people are so self-centered, they have no respect for others in public areas. The lady had no clue what was about to happen. She actually thought that she was going to get as close as I had gotten to the Red Tail. And, she might have had a 60/40 chance had she been aware of the dogs on the other side of the creek.

As far as the people with the dogs, they were young 20-somethings and didn't care what a old man with a camera in his hand might be observing on the fringe of a park known for its wildlife-in-Urban splendor. The young couple and friend and the lady with her point-and-shoot in hand immediately backtracked in the other direction when the hawk took flight. It was like watching to cue ball on a billiard table hit to balls at once and one goes to the left pocket and one goes to the right pocket. They knew what they had done. People don't know how to share common space with others who might be enjoying nature  while they occupy or consume their afternoon with no purpose in mind.

Earlier, a business owner had come by, pulled off the road quietly, sat in his Jeep and watched the hawk, got out his camera and snapped a couple of shots. I walked across the road to talk to him. He lives in the area and had experienced the  same two American Bald Eagles seen in the area earlier in the year like me. The point being, you got three people stopping. One can share the common public land with another while the other two groups have no clue how to share nature and respect the observers as well as the feeding animal or fouls. That's what "ruffled my feathers" or as and old steel man would saw: "Run This Through My Herr-Voss".

Here are a couple of pictures from of the beautiful tail feathers of a Red Tail hawk.

 

Architecture Comes in Varied Forms

Yesterday, while looking for something interesting to blog about, this little wren's nest could not be passed up for its architecture elements and stringing. It seems that every winter, I run across something like this that is unique and interesting. What is so amazing to me is the size of the wren overall. It's not a very big bird.
I have seen some hummingbird nest that are smaller and more detailed, but this one caught my interest because of its location right over a busy bike trail.

Strange Park Sign

This is a somewhat scary sign with the "Beware of Wild Animals"added to the sign.

 

 

The White Rock Trail is a pretty amazing trail in the heart of an urban setting. From this very point you can travel to White Rock Lake which is a distance of some 9 miles. It is approximately 9 miles around the lake itself. That mileage total is now up to 18 miles and of course another 9 miles back to this point  and you have 27 miles walking, running biking. The amazing part,still, is that from White Rock, you can take an offshoot to Fair Park, through downtown and pick up the Trinity Trail on the other side of downtown. And, if that isn't enough, you can travel back to the lake via the Katy Trail beginning at the American Airline Center and cutting through the heart of Uptown, Highland Park,University Park and into Lakewood where you will pick up the White Rock Trail again  Dallas does not fully appreciate the trail system that they have, even though it is very popular by so many already. Atlanta has a new trail on old railroad right aways and they are going nuts. Dallas has had this for sometime and its never been unpopular. Dallas does have some advantage over Atlanta too. In the article about Atlanta's new tail, it shows a beautiful view of downtown Atlanta in the distance. The article talks about that view very much. In the next paragraph, the author talks about the hundreds and hundreds of trees being planted, which in 40 years will block the beautiful view of downtown!  Dallas is a bit more advanced than that, folks but we do have at least one strange and worry some wild animal sign.

 

 

Several times I have wanted to take this 3/4 mile off shoot tail to Hillcrest Park. There is a Greek Orthodox Cathedral that is absolutely in the worst location to shoot. From the angle of Hillcrest park, I am thinking that it would be possible to get a spectacular view of the Cathedral. But, in a city park, I have never seen a beware of wild animals warning on a sign. Wild animals covers a lot of territory. I need to call the Parks and Recreation for a meaning of "wild animals" since I have seen wild animals in the city and in local  nature areas. Those wild animals (raccoons,coyote) are not that scary. To me, wild animals would be bear,moose type and oh,my, bob cats and cougars would be in that wild animal book,too. Bob cats are stealthy and hard to spot. It is a bit strange, don't you agree? I think I will call Parks and Recreation. I'll get back witch ya.

 

Timing Is Everything and ..........

On Sunday's last trip to Fair Park before the State Fair, the Chinese Lantern Festival had created some very tall Lotus Blooms. The thought did cross my mind as to how they would be used. Today, a sky crane helicopter lifted them from the staging lot near Gate 5 to the Lagoon where they were placed. Now only did I miss the lift, I missed seeing them in the large lagoon where the big swan paddle boats can be rented. It's just one of those things......you cover what you can and sometimes it works out and some times it does not.
The train move has occupied some time. The Chihuly glass exhibit has been at the Arboretum for nearly five months and it leaves the first week of November and the pumpkin display opens this Saturday for it's annual run. On top of that---the Perot Museum of Science and Nature opens in it's new building in downtown much earlier than first announced. The new 5-acre deck park opens too! There is a lot of stuff happening! The old adage that it never rains but what it pours seems to be holding true.

Waiting to move to Frisco

Most likely, the big boy will be the last to leave Fair Park
 

With just the things mentioned here would  add another $100 just for parking and admissions. Gas and food would be extra, of course. The cost of an enjoyable hobby today is an expensive undertaking, though not complaining. So for now, since timing is everything and I came up short today.....here are a couple more shots from this past Sundays shoot.

 

Perot's House of Dreams

Ross Perot donated 50M. That donation was directed toward moving the Museum of Nature and Science from Fair Park into the heart of Downtown and an ever-growing Uptown. The new 174-foot tall building (that's the equivalent of a 15-story building)  which  has an impressive glass box on the outside  houses a 54-foot escalator. The behemoth staircase at Busch Gardens in Florida isn't enclosed in glass. But, where technology and history meet there is sometimes a chain reaction and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science certainly will create that chain reaction. Columbus,Ohio's COSI is an amazing place for science and industry, but the Perot Museum of Nature and Science will surpass COSI in short order.

This image was taken from on board the M Line as it crossed Woodall Rodgers.

Absolute Absolutely

An afternoon walk through the tall grasses.

Texas Wildflowers rise above the tall grasses.

It was an absolute that it was a perfect spring afternoon in North Texas,absolutely! Enjoyed an e-mail from an old friend who had just returned from Charleston, South Carolina. It inspired me to get out and take some pictures today.