Bluebonnet time in Central Texas

Man, it has sure been a long time since I have posted to the 'blog. I have been so busy that March went by in a flash! I have several posts to do this weekend to catch up, so I'll try to get them done over this weekend.

These photos were taken on one of my usual trips to Houston from Austin on Hwy 290. Even though the weather has been exceptionally dry, the wildflowers were blooming in pretty good numbers near Brenham. There were so many families along the side of the road taking photos of the kids in bluebonnets that I wondered if I could find a spot that hadn't been trampled or squashed to get this year's bluebonnet photos for the weblog.

This year there is lots of Indian Paintbrush among the bluebonnets. It really adds to the color of the roadside, and is one of my favorite wildflowers this time of year.

The sun was setting fast as I took the photos.

It was hard to pick the "best bunch" of bluebonnets for these photos. I did my best.

The next photos are of Coreopsis, I believe. I spent some time on the Wild About Texas Wildflowers website looking at each yellow variety, and Coreopsis looks closest to these flowers.

They really looked great among the bluebonnets.

The last photo is an attempt at an "arty" photo of the sunset with wildflowers.

Hope you like them. I will be posting our March 25th hailstorm pictures, and some photos of the Zilker Garden Festival soon. Till then, enjoy!

All the best,
Mike Z

Pink Sunsets at Our House

Wow! I can't believe a whole month has gone by so fast. No matter that February is the shortest one, it really was a blur. But here I am with another small bit of life in Texas. I hope this message finds you in good health and spirits.

These first photos were taken Sunday evening around 6:30pm. The clouds were the most beautiful pink that I can remember seeing in a long time. Just over the roof of the house among the leafless branches (the elms haven't leafed out yet, but are starting to up the street) were colors that ranged from pink to salmon to almost orange.

Of course I ran in to get the camera and try to capture a little of the light show. I snapped off several images, and sent them to PicasaWeb for a quick edit.

The next images are from yesterday. I saw a little different "color scheme" leaning more to the yellows, golds and oranges. Still a little pink in there. I went down the street to get a little more of the sunset, and I think I got it pretty close to the best time.

I am not sure what is causing these colors in our sunsets. We are having lots of grassfires around Austin lately due to our exceptional drought that has been going on for several months now. I didn't know there was a category beyond extreme drought, but now I do.

I hope you enjoy the photos. I have some more that I will post from last month as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll leave a note to say you've been here.

All the best,

Mike Z

Birds at Choke Canyon State Park

Coming back from Corpus Christi TX to Austin, I passed a sign on the Interstate that beckoned me to Choke Canyon State Park. Truth be told, I was more interested in taking a break from driving than anything else, but I thought it would be good to see a canyon and take some photos. How naive! As has been done in Austin and many areas of Texas, the canyon is long gone. It has been dammed up and is now a lake! Lots of boating, and some camping, but no canyon.

I had just about given up hope that there would be anything interesting at this park, when I drove past this sign and decided to at least take the walk and see what there was along the Bird Trail.

As it turned out, the trail was very short, but did allow me to try my hand at photographing a couple of the local birds.

Might be a Great Kiskadee? Mikael B. thinks it is a Vermilion Flycatcher female.

This one is a bit of a mystery, mainly because the branch hides it for the most part. Best I could do. WhatBirds tells me it might be a Yellow-breasted Chat, but I am not convinced. I will go with Mikael's note that it's an Orange-crowned Warbler. There were several warblers on the list that I pulled up, so it makes sense to me!


At the end of the walk, I saw a bright red bird perched in the scrubby trees beside the reservoir. I was much too far away to get a close up, and as usual I had not brought the tripod, so I began to walk slowly closer, and got this image as he flew to the live oak tree beside the parking lot. My birding buddy Mikael Behrens, who writes about and photographs birds in his blog Birding on Broadmeade, helped me identify this good-looking guy as a Vermillion Flycatcher. After Mikael helped me with the names, I went back to WhatBird.com and had better success with the Expert mode. He has also recommended a birding book, and I will pick it up soon.

Vermilion Flycatcher

I kept moving closer to the bird, trying to go fast enough to get a decent photo, yet slow enough to keep him from becoming too nervous, and got a few shots like the one above. I had to crop a lot out of the photo to get this "close up," but I think you can see generally what he looked like.

Canvasbacks

As I was moving along the path taking shots of the birds in the brush and trees, I kept hearing noises off to my right at the water's edge. Not having great luck with the tree birds, I moved toward the scrubby trees and bushes along the shore, and scared these three Canvasbacks out onto the water. There were many coots out there too, but these redheads were much more interesting.

There were several Turkey Vultures soaring overhead, so to make the day complete, I took several shots of them. I liked this one's wing markings. and he got closer than the others, so I include him here.

I am going to try my hand later at stitching together a panorama shot of the reservoir and boat launch area. I will add it to this post if it turns out ok. I hope you will come back and see if it's here. I am glad that you visited and promise to have more later.

Very best regards,

Mike Z

PS Thanks again Mikael, for your help identifying these birds. To all my buddies out there, please go by and check out Birding on Broadmeade. You won't be disappointed!

Oreo Cows in Brenham TX

We have passed these cows many times as we drove from Austin to Houston, and had always called them "oreo cows." As I drove back to Austin, with my trusty travel camera aboard, I decided that now was the time to take some images of these unusual bovines, and report to you on what I found.

The cows were so interested in eating that I had some trouble getting any of them to look up. I yelled a couple of times -- no response. Finally thought to honk the horn (that's what gets the goats' attention at the ranch), and one lady did get curious enough about what I was doing to look half-heartedly in my general direction.

The sound of the horn did attract the attention of some other cows, who came over the hill to see what was going on.

In doing the research on this particular breed of cow, I can only say thank goodness for Google! I typed in "black and white oreo cows" and Voila! several dozen chats and websites about the Belted Galloway or Highland Cow came up. The most interesting website that I found was Aldermere Farms in Maine. Lots of the chatters were impressed with this site as well. Check it out if you'd like. Lots of good info about these classy cows. Click on "Belties" on the left column for information on the heritage of the cattle on this historic farm.

Well, that's what is happening with me these days. Hope you and yours are doing well. Till next time,

Mike Z
UPDATE 1/17/09: We saw more Belties just south of Waco yesterday on our way to Dallas. I will try to get some photos on our way back if it's not too dark.
MONDAY: Well, it was too dark when we drove by last night, so I will try to get some more photos when I am up that way again.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Thanks to John and Alice for commenting on the post and letting me know about their findings about Dutch Belt cattle. Thanks, that was great!