Double Pots of Gold?

I found a photo of a double rainbow which I took over 5 years ago.

This view is towards the east, in the afternoon, so the sun is behind. This is the classic condition to see a rainbox, always opposite the sun. Sunlight reflects in water droplets and is also refracted, like light through a prism, into the rainbow colors.

Do you remember the order of the colors? VIBGYOR - Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.

The second rainbow is always outside the primary one and its colors are reversed. It's quite faint here, but you can see it if you look closely. It's caused by light reflecting twice in the water droplets. Only a small part of the sunlight reflects twice, which is why it's dim.

I think there must be two pots of gold out there, near Buda. One may be bigger than the other.

What do you think?

Naturescapes 2012

I was lucky to have four of my photos chosen by the juror for the 8th annual Naturescapes 2012 Exhibition. The Exhibition will run from September 15th through November 9th at the San Marcos Activity Center's Walker's Gallery. There are a total of 60 photographs in the exhibition.

The opening reception and Award Ceremony is Saturday, September 15th at 5pm.

This one is "Foggy Morning Oaks", taken on our property last month.

Here's "Misty Morning Bluebonnets" taken along FM150 in April.

I like this one, "Wet Web", taken along Old Stagecoach Road, also in April.

And finally, "White Burst", taken on our property, also in April.

A Midsummer Hike

Here are a couple of photos from our bluebird nestbox walk last week.

We've been checking the nestboxes every Sunday evening, around 6 pm and it's been getting hot! The bird activity seems to be tapering off - the end of July is the end of the bluebird nesting season. I'll summarize our first year's results in a future post.

Early in the hike, we saw a large rat snake stretched out in a shady spot in the grass. It was about 4 feet long and didn't move as we walked up. However, as I reached for my camera, it slithered away. How does something with no legs move so fast?

A rare bit of red in the landscape caught my eye! It was some agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata) leaves, beautifully backlit by the setting sun.

Almost at the end, I saw a snake skeleton scattered in the debris-filled ground under a live oak (Quercus virginiana) tree. This snake was quite small - the skeleton was around a foot long, but in several pieces.

Spotting the skeleton at the end of our hike formed a nice bookend with the sighting of the live rat snake at the start.

Foggy Morning Oaks

It seems to me that foggy mornings are rare in central Texas. They might be more common in the fall and winter, but summer ones are few. It's certainly special when one arrives.

I took this photo one morning last July as I was driving out of our property. I glanced to my left and was treated to this scene. The almost-invisible dirt road leads you into the mist where all detail disappears. The live oaks frame the scene nicely.