Breaking news, part 2

May 1, 2014

First stop this morning was the bird blind. There I met Josh and Warren.

Haven't figured this one out yet and Josh turned me on to a field guide that
seems like it is halfway user friendly so I'm waiting for my copy to arrive.

Warren is the volunteer that is currently taking care of the 8 AM feedings at the bird blind as well as general maintenance and Josh is a very interesting young man. After various sales jobs, including selling and installing home theaters in some very fancy houses, spurred on in part because his father spent 45 years at a job he wasn't very passionate about and now is limited in what he can do by health issues, he has opted out of a traditional career and will be starting an internship at Bastrop State Park in a few days. He is currently a volunteer docent at the West Cave Outdoor Learning Center not too far away from here. He also has been awarded a fellowship which will take him to Yosemite National Park, all expenses paid, for a naturalist's course later this summer. He hopes to gradually translate his experiences into a park services job.

Painted Bunting

Warren, Josh and I spent more time at the bird blind than I was originally intending but it was all good. Nobody expected me to be anywhere at any particular time, so I hung around soaking up what I could.

















Apparently this Ladder-back Woodpecker was quite a catch but I was alone
in the blind when it came by.















Maybe an American Dipper but I have my doubts

After finally leaving the blind I headed out on a trail at the north end of the park




Turkey tracks. Maybe out enjoying the trail this morning too??

Deer butt



Think she's pissed that I was looking at her butt??



Bluebonnet seed pods. These will dry out in a few weeks then burst open
on a spring-like mechanism to scatter the 5 or 6 large seeds in each pod.



Mesquite pods



I don't know for sure but I'll bet this is called fiddle back something



I tried to get a better angle on this twisted cottonwood growing out in the middle of the river but I had to work my way
across a rock field along the bank and, just as I suspected, it was prime snake territory. I disturbed an OK sized one. (By OK sized I mean my thumb and forefinger making the OK sign just might have fit around his body.) I saw him slipping under a rock about 10 feet away. He wasn't a rattler since he had a thick, blunt tail, but other than that I don't know what it was. So anyway, I was limited in my ability to wander freely to get a better angle.




    

I guess this Black Vulture is either a little camera shy or had drunk his fill just as I snapped the shot 

Today's hike

After my hike I headed on over to Fredericksburg, a town that was founded by the 19th century German immigrants of the area and was the boyhood home of Admiral Nimitz of WWII fame. A nice historic looking town but now days chocked full of touristy shops and high end gallery's, though there is a really cool herb garden on the west end of town. At any rate it was worth wandering around town a bit.



The photo doesn't do it justice but I really like how they present this WWII submarine located just outside the National Museum of the Pacific War. The bow is breaking the surface over on the right and waves sweep back towards the conning tower over on the left.



And since I was in the area I stopped by the Lyndon B Johnson NHP. The family cemetery is just to the right of this photo. As a naturalized Texan, Ladybird Johnson has a place in my heart and has been here along side her husband since 2007.

Had to take the above photos for my brother and nephews. This is the plane the president used to get into the small airstrip on his ranch.

And I had to take these last three because back in the dark ages I had some small part in presidential communications. In fact, though he was no longer president, Lyndon Johnson was still alive when I was doing my communication-sy thing and the equipment and facilities weren't all that different than seen here.

Breaking news

We interrupt out regularly scheduled programming for this special bulletin.

Apr 29 2014

What a glorious day!!

Which is why I'm back at Pedernales State Park tonight. It got up to the 70's today and is heading for the low 40's tonight. The forecast for the next several days is for more of the same and this could very well be the last really comfortable camping weather around here until fall.

Since I can, I took off this morning to take advantage of the opportunity.

Dinner guest, or dinner??

Apr 30 2014

I left the van sitting in the campsite this morning and headed out with my pack on my back. After some serious bushwhacking up a ridgeline to the west I intersected a horse trail I knew was up there and turned north to follow it towards that end of the park. It seems a bit early for school to be out but for a Tuesday night the campground had quite a few 'family units' in it last night and I like the equestrian trails at times like these because people on foot seem to avoid them and there really are few if any riders out on weekdays.

 

This is what's left when all the soft parts of a prickly pear pad

decay away. Pretty cool isn't it? I can just imagine shrinking

down and playing 'fort' in this maze!

 

The owners of the ranch that became the state park built this pond in the mid 1900's, called the duck pond, to create habitat for migrating waterfowl. On my way there I had in mind sitting around and doing some bird watching of my own, but when I got there this didn't look too promising. Of course the area has a drought classification of extreme right now so it wasn't all that surprising to find the pond in this condition.

 

 
 
 

But I hiked on around the corner and found this little surprise at the base of the dike that forms the pond. When I first stumbled on it there was a turkey at the edge of the water but he took off running then flew on over the trees before I could get my camera on him. This shot here, which I really like with the foreground in sharp focus and the pond and trees in the background fuzzy, (Photographers like to call that soft focus but it's still fuzzy.) was supposed to have a purple finch sitting on the spindly plant in the left foreground, but he pulled his cloak of invisibility on (OK, maybe he just flew away.) just as I clicked the shot.

 

 

 

But this little gem of a spot wasn't done with my yet! Soon I spotted a herd of feral hogs wandering into the area as they fed. It's very unusual to see these creatures out in full daylight like this! Fortunately they stayed towards the far side of the little meadow there in front of me as these things can put the hurt on a person! I couldn't spot any boars, which isn't unusual as the females usually want a man around the house only for as long as it takes to - well - you know, then they kick him to the curb again. It's difficult to see them because of the height of the grasses, but there was a whole mess of brown little ones mixed in there with the bigger ones.

 

 

I don't know if these big ants, about a quarter inch long, create circular hard-pan areas with their activity, and boy are they active, or if they are drawn to places like this that already exist, but I saw quite a number of colonies during my hike.

This was as close as I came to seeing a horse all day.

The northern limits of the park are defined by the Pedernales River and I eventually ran into it, but don't let the photos fool you, it was quite a climb to get down this close to the river!

And on the way down you have to do battle with these little guys. They look so sweet and delicate with their tiny quarter-inch leaves.

 

But like so many things out here they have their dark side too. And it's always the dark side that gets you!

 Over time the flood waters of the river (Seems kind of surreal to think about floods in this currently parched landscape but I personally witnessed one of these floods many years ago and it was impressive to say the least!) have carved the occasional cave into the limestone. As I came up on this one I caught a glimpse of a bird that flew inside. Thinking there might be a nest in there I sat down with my camera (On a not too comfortable rock I might add.) and waited, and waited, and waited.

Eventually I got impatient (And my butt hurt.) and I very cautiously stuck my head into the cave, only to discover that it was only 5 or 6 feet long with an opening on both ends. . .

I eventually made it to the feature for which the park is named.

The 'falls', created by giant slabs of inclined sandstone interspersed with marble, might not look like much right now but when the water is higher they are scary.

 

It can be a sunny day like this, but if it rains over to the west on this hard landscape the water can rise 20 feet in 5 minutes. No rain forecast, anywhere around here, for the next 8 days but I'm keeping a close eye on the water level anyway! 

 These ripples in the sky reminded me that gas and fluid, air and water, have very similar flow characteristics.

 On my way back south towards the campground I make a stop at the coral right next to the bird blind and spot these guys doing spring stuff. Or rather he's doing the spring stuff, she's just sitting there.

These brown-headed cow birds are not the most beloved of birds around here. Like the cuckoo, they lay their eggs in other bird's nests and the large hatchlings throw the smaller 'native' nestlings out while the confused parents work their beaks to the bone trying to keep the large chicks fed. The endangered Golden Cheeked Warbler, which will only build nests with the shredded bark of the particular juniper that grows around here, is often the victim of this game of duck, duck goose.

Nope, not a Golden Cheeked Warbler, but rather a female Painted Bunting. Oddly enough, the garishly colored male is spotted more often than the completely differently costumed female.

A female Black Chinned Hummingbird coming in for a landing on one of the feeders at the bird-blind. Obviously the bees also like this particular spot but in this case the birds and bees seem to cohabitate well.

After some more cross-country bush-whacking, this time across flatter, savanna type terrain which was easier to negotiate than the steep, heavily wooded bush-whacking I did first thing this morning (But the trade off is there's far more prickly and stickery things out on the savanna than on the rocky sides of the ridge.) I eventually end up back at the campground for some rest and relaxation.

Today's hike. About 8.5 miles.





 

Arizona vacation with Mom: Mt. Lemmon

Apr 4 2013

 

The Coronado National Forest is one of Tucson’s gems. Drive to the northeast corner of the city on Catalina Highway and you run right into the mouth of Solder Canyon. Here the road changes name and starts switch-backing up the mountain range. The road ends some 30 miles later at a locked gate giving access to some transmission towers near the peak of Mt. Lemmon, having climbed from about 6500 ft. at the city’s edge to about 9000 ft at the gate. The journey involves leaving the Saguaro desert behind and traveling through several different habitats; first through oak forests which give way to pine forests which give way to fir forests.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We are still low enough to be in the desert but the
view of Tucson in great.

There’s plenty of turnouts along the way for taking in the view and getting a close look at the changing vegetation; and campgrounds too if you’re looking for a place to stay.

At about the 25 mile mark, if you take a side road down to the small community of Summerhaven and drive all the way to the end of the road, there’s a small park down there right alongside a stream in the bottom of Marshal Gulch. One of Mom’s wish list items for this trip was sitting beside a running stream. My daughter’s intimate knowledge of the area led us straight here.

Now we're starting to see some habitat changes as we
climb higher.

A bit further up the mountain the road passes under the Mt. Lemmon ski hill then finally peters out at that locked gate.



And along the way we're being watched over by the hoodoos.

The classic mountain view.

You can't see it because it's not my place to plaster her face
on the internet, but this is my favorite photo of the whole trip.
A face-on headshot of Mom as she comes back to the picnic
table after sitting alongside Marshal Creek for a while. She's
grinning from ear to ear between the dark green brim of her
Tilly hat (Which is a lot cleaner than mine!) and the fluffy
purple collar of her jacket with several out-of-focus fir
trees in the background framing everything.



Strolling in Marshal Gulch

The slopes of the Mt. Lemmon ski hill still have some
remnants of snow clinging to them.





And then it was time for the long glide back down the mountain.

There are numerous hiking opportunities all along the way but I think we used up a couple days of Mom’s hiking ration yesterday so we didn’t try any of them out this trip. Instead we coasted back down the mountain, grabbed some dinner and called it a day.

Arizona vacation with Mom: Tucson and memories

Apr 3 2013 Tucson

Picked Mom up this morning from the friends she spent the night with and we headed on down to Tucson.



Our timing was good and the desert was blooming

When planning this trip Mom had a few items on her wish list. Visiting some old haunts, driving up a mountain and sitting beside a stream were some of the items on that list and we’d be able to do all three in and around Tucson.

as we drove the winding Kinney Road through Saguaro National monument,
making plenty of stops along the way



The first thing we did was drive Kinney road through the Tucson Mountain district of the Saguaro National park. Mom and Dad drove this twisting and scenic route many times and we took our time, stopping often as she went back through old memories and breathed in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A peek of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum visitor center
from inside the vast grounds

 

From there we made a stop at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. This is a great place and big! A person could easily spend days exploring the many habitats here.

The obligatory photo

A well camouflaged resident 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, not wanting to kill Mom our first day out, we did a slow and abbreviated tour of the museum grounds before heading a couple miles down the road to a campground within walking distance of Old Tucson that she and Dad spent quite a bit of time in over the years. Stopping at the headquarters to get permission, we slowly drove every loop and revived many memories.

The afternoon was getting on by now so we went exploring for a place to eat. It was a surprisingly difficult hunt which eventually took us down East Broadway in Tucson where we also made note of several hotel possibilities for Mom.

While eating we decided to get me set up in a campground I’d stayed at before when in town for my daughter’s graduation from the master’s program at the University of Arizona, then we’d work on finding a place for Mom to stay. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision.

The Far Horizons Tucson Village is a 55+, combination long-term/permanent park model community and campground. It’s right in town within walking distance of shopping (They even have a pedestrian gate in the southwest corner that goes to a Home Depot.) The park is extremely well kept, hosts tons of activities during the season, has a clubhouse that includes meeting rooms, library, laundry, mail room, showers and spa, pool, sewing room, art room, bocce ball court and just about anything else you can think of. There’s even a woodworking shop over in one corner of the park, and they have their own traffic light making getting out onto the street in either direction a breeze, yet the park is set back in behind some apartments so there’s no street noise. http://www.tucsonvillage.com/welcome.htm

While inside the gatehouse checking in I asked about local hotels. After I explained what we were doing the woman behind the desk said, “She can stay right here in one of our rentals if she’d like to.

Are your kidding me?!!

Turns out they have several rental units there in the park, bedding and utensils included, and will even rent them by the night! So tonight Mom, making an early night of it after an adventurous day, is just a few sites down from me in a 400 sq. ft. one bedroom park model that costs about the same as a decent hotel room. How great did that work out?!!