Snakes are Crawling Already Around North Texas Lakes So Be Careful

Everything has been about a month early so far this year. After seeing the first red bud tree in full bloom during the middle part of January, it was obvious that nature had pushed up its spring schedule and speed for some reason. As in the past, it opens up a lot to observe and pay more attention to what stands out. It also points the way to watch where you step and what you lean up against. Snakes are in the trees as well as crawling out of their dens. Some will give birth almost immediately out of den while others will look for mates to breed with. The key factor to remember here is that for those who are new to the area, don't go walking through new green grass in your flip flops.Some baby snakes bites are as dangerous as their parents, so look down while you are walking or standing. So far, what I've seen crawling are mostly water snakes which give birth early. Every year the hospital ER's will be reporting the snake bites so yes, they do happen year after year. The rattlesnakes in West Texas are already producing larger numbers that in years past.

Out side of beginning with a few words of caution, the stand out tree this season so far, besides the traditional red buds, seem to be the tulip trees. The blooms are outstanding. The annual Mardi Gras Parade in  Oak Cliff kicks off this weekend and of course, the troops of little green men with bagpipes and drums will soon be parading down Greenville Avenue with that party mode gleam twinkling in their eyes.

The Dallas Blooms gets underway the last days of February, all of March and into the first week of April at the Dallas Arboretum.

Last couple of days to get those selfies in. The wrecking ball and crane begin to swing Monday at 0900 hours on Dallas' Leaning Tower. ( which is actually the core elevator and stairwell section of the old Affiliated Computer Services Building on Haskell Avenue at North Central Expressway aka US 75 aka President George Bush. To me, it's overkill.[ George Bush Turnpike, George Bush Expressway, on Bush Street. and George H W Bush turnpike.]

Tulip trees are outstanding this year, especially on the larger trees

The first crawl I have seen this season. But there are many many more out there already. Look down at your feet and watch where you step. Leaning up against the trunk of a tree isn't to be ignored either. You might find one crawling onto your shoulder. I was reminded of that last season watching a pair of hawks in their nest.  Luckily, someone saw the snake about a foot away from my head and called out.

 

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.

Bluebonnets and Caution Alert

Every year people grab their babies and toddlers and plop them down in a patch of bluebonnets and then leave them as they focus their cameras. While the moment is not only precious for the memory book and that favorite picture of your cute pet, you need to be aware and exercise caution.The snakes are already crawling and I've seen some big ones like this guy, too!

Since the mid part of February, this is the third one that I have seen this year already. They are crawling folks. They love the bluebonnet patches and don't think for a second that where you are it's okay to sit baby down on the ground. A word to the wise. 

 

All six species of blue bonnets are included in the Legislation of 1901 that made the bluebonnet, Texas' sate flower. Every thing is bigger in Texas...that's why we have six state flowers and they are all Lupinus species.

They should be around about another two to three weeks depending on the weather.

The Heat

Today was the 16th day of 100F or above--mostly well above. Here is the official National Weather Service Record at DFW International:

June had 4 days of 100 degrees F.

July 1 @ 102F
July 2 @ 100
July 3 @ 101
Then----

July 14 @ 100
July 15 @ 100
July 16 @  101
July 17 @ 104
July 18 @ 106
July 19 @ 108
July 20 @ 108
July 21 @ 109
July 22 @ 109

The rest of this coming week will be at 100 to 104 and it will not be until next Monday that we see temps fall back to 95.

Traditionally we get 18 days of 100-degrees F a year. It's just not as oppressive as this has been.The overnight temps never fall back below 80 and this morning, it was 85 just starting the daylight hours off.

Still, I have started out early and head for the barn at 4 hours or 100 which ever comes first. Tonight, I went outside at 9 to watch the space station cross Dallas, but the heat was still at 103 at 9 pm. Plus there was some blotchy clouds right over the path. I could see the moon and the evening star but the space station which at this time of year is usually visible for 6 minutes as it crosses the sky, was obscured.

So, I came back inside not so disappointed ---just glad that 6 minutes went so fast. There were lots of pictures to submit from the week after editing. Some interesting ones so be sure to check out the website's last tab and click on the portfolio under those that are linked. I do not have Dreamstime linked and  Featurespic and Alamy are listed on the blog so click that on as well.

I have been down to the Convention Center twice as Mary Kay Seminars began on Friday and run through August 4th.

This is next to my Kroger store. A lady stepped on the accelerator rather than the brake and drove into the Dry Cleaners. It was reported that she hit some equipment as well and that was the reason for the HazMat Crew Once they arrived on scene, the police and fire truck left and went back into servcie.

The is not your average cell tower. It sits atop a massive high tension power line net work which is like twice as high as a normal cell phone relay tower. But, the most amazing thing here is that all the Purple Martin Swallows (the largest of swallows) are lined up on  the lightening wires but if you go to 100% you will see as many inside the reply pods on braces, wires and even on the relays at various points. In short. There are birds all over the place within the structure. The monk parots normally nest there in the winter because of the heat it generates. They were flying around chattering like crazy and  were not happy that the martins had taken over.

 

This bunny I found today. It is the second one that I have seen this week and birds have been highly successful as well. From the Road Runner at the National Cemetery to the Red Tail Hawk chasing the crows out of his territory yesterday. SO, I can only conclude that the hot weather has had its effect on nature's critters including the snakes that have tried to get to cooler places. I almost stepped on a 5 footer a couple of days ago. Snakes do good things for enviroments, but they are not my favorite little helper. I would just as soon to not see any.

Wait! I'm Not Done With 2016 Yet!

Yes, we have all heard the old adage that, "time waits for no man"; brilliant statement since time always moves forward, but I get the jest of its  meaning. The problem with that also is that I don't always work at most efficient speeds and creating imagery tends to cause me to slow down even more.

The local weathermen had been advertising for nearly a week that the coldest weather of the past two years was about to invade north Texas on Saturday.The past week had already been a roller coaster of temperatures with one day in the 60s and one day in the 30s and so on and so on during the course of the week. But, Saturday was to be the cherry on the banana split, sprinkles on the ice cream, the marsh mellow floating in the hot cocoa. It was going to be in the upper 70s.

The thing about that was also the yippee dippie weatherman advertised a 52 degree drop in temperatures with an immediate shift in winds to the north as the cold front passed. No, it was not going to be one of those frontal passages and the next morning you feel a little chill. This one was going to strike and strike quickly. Within less than a couple of hours of the passage of the front. It did give cause to pause. Might want to think about this before you head out, I though. Take the jacket. Add the scarf. Run the errands before being creative with the camera. It was kind of fun to start to go into blizzard mode again (if you ever lived up north during a severe winter, you know that mode well).

It was amazing to see people in tank tops and shorts and sweating in mid December. Amazing because some of these would no doubt be surprised to be shivering before their chosen activity was over that day. People just do not listen or pay much attention to weather that is negative. They only listen and pay attention to weather that is favorable to their cause. In other words: people only half listen today (have you noticed all the white ear buds growing out of every ones ears?)  Just look at one of them in direct eye contact and just move your lips. The face look you get as they pop one ear bud out of their ear is how cartoon animators got that "look" in some of the best cartoons of the 50s. Sure, ear buds were not even an ideal then, but there were ways to produce that same look of being highly annoyed. There it is---that word that I was looking for. Annoyed. Yes. That is it for sure.

When I am not looking for birds, or trees with that special look of fall, I am usually looking to see what the City Park workers are doing. They do a super job at keeping the lake in amazing shape on a daily basis. Sometimes, they have extended projects that can or cannot turn into something special. But, to ignore them or blow by them like there is a 5-alarm blaze somewhere else is a great disservice to them as individuals, their jobs that go unappreciated with every bottle cap or plastic bottle that I see floating and bobbing in the water, or the crews that keep the grass cut as the seasons progress and the prairie grasses turn golden or wildflowers come up and they mow around the wildflowers. That is not to mention the loss of all the tree limbs from age, disease, rot, storms, wind, or what may come next.

When the city takes down one of those magnificent trees, the stumps get painted red. There is a crew that comes along and drills out those massive stumps into sawdust mulch. Saturday, I had stopped and gotten out of the car to look at a recent drilling. It wasn't that long ago that I had shot that tree because it was one of those top 25 trees with character that grow at the lake. Now, I'm looking at the place where it had stood watch over the north shore of the lake for years older than I am at this writing. What that tree witnessed over the years would be an amazing time capsule of humans on earth, most likely.

Any who, I stopped to talk to a man that walks the lake daily with his dog and holds a like interest in those amazing trees that grow around the lake. In fact, there are more people that hold an interest in the trees there than those that cut themselves off from everything around them but some birds. Don't get me wrong here. I like birds. I'm just not obsessed with them so much as to get somewhat hostile when a family comes along with a bag a bread to feed those birds under the sign that says, "don't feed the birds" and then explains why you should not feed the birds. In a way, to me that is...it is... karma at its finest! I have to chuckle and turn away. Imagine a grown man or woman with a three-thousand dollar camera and glass foiled by a young family, kids and a couple of loaves of bread and sees that family as an invading army. Share the lake, people. Life is to short!

The lake walker and I walked together to one of the new trail benches overlooking the lake and sat down and talked for nearly an hour. I could not help but notice that the sky was filling in with clouds and I also had in mind the ETA of the cold front. Long story short, Us 'ole

The astonishing color

The cold front nears and a 50-degree drop (after the fact) hit within two hours of this shot. 

 

 

 

 72 degrees at 12:53. At 23:53 it was 22-degrees.

The paved trail is to the left. The short cut path has long been here.

tree hugger  parted and went in opposite directions. There was still some time to get some great creations focused onto the mirror before the Polar Vortex struck.  But, time waits for no man.