Some of our outside plants thrived in the cold wet weather we’ve had for the last few weeks.
But after the freeze, some of them not so much…
But after the freeze, some of them not so much… For the last three weeks of 2017
We did everything we could to get one more year-bird. We searched The Valley. We drove to Houston. We drove to Salineno. Couldn’t get one no matter what we did. We finished the year one shy of my predicted count. Today we’re out birding at Falcon State Park, a hundred miles away, starting off a new year-list, and we get a text from Jon. There is a long-eared owl at Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, five miles from our house. Long Eared owls *never* come to the tip of Texas. So two hours later, we’re standing on a trail, looking past a cactus, into a small tree, and there is a perched long-eared owl. A walk-up lifer! He wasn’t out in the open, but we could see enough for a positive I.D.
Birding is a funny thing.
Birding is a funny thing. I’ve been thinking about the Supreme Court
In High School I learned that there were three branches of government. The President and Congress are political elected positions. The third branch is an independent judiciary. The ultimate judiciary, the Supreme Court, is not a political body, it is the arbiter of what is ultimately right and wrong, constitutional or unconstitutional. So what’s up with all the political upheaval over Supreme Court nominations? If they are political too, then they’re just another political branch of government, but they don’t even have to campaign and get elected. They just get appointed and approved by the party in power! How independent is that? The most revered independent court in the land. Political cronies? It feels so wrong.
Comfortable dogs
Willow and Bailey. Come to our house for a visit.
If Willow and Bailey are going to lie on cushions or stuffed animals, then so is Henry!
Trees
I really like this tree.
It’s so tropical.
Although that’s not all one tree. The vines growing all around the trunks could be strangler fig. Sometimes it’s a beneficial relationship between the two plants, one providing additional support for the other. You can tell by the name that it doesn’t always work out so well for the host tree though. Whatever, that’s how it works in the tropics.
It’s so tropical. Although that’s not all one tree. The vines growing all around the trunks could be strangler fig. Sometimes it’s a beneficial relationship between the two plants, one providing additional support for the other. You can tell by the name that it doesn’t always work out so well for the host tree though. Whatever, that’s how it works in the tropics.