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.

The Next Wave

The katydids seem to be dying out now. Don't get me wrong, they're still around - their calls fill the day and night, but they are definitely reduced in numbers.

No problem - Mother Nature sends the next wave of insect invaders: grasshoppers!

It's almost biblical, one pestilence followed by another, but I don't think there is anything supernatural at play here. On the contrary, what's happening is completely natural and part of a large pattern.

Earlier in the year, we had very timely rain fall. This led to a great wildflower spring and all the plants benefited and thrived. With such a great amount of food available, the insect populations soared. Most noticeable were the katydids, the walking sticks, and now the grasshoppers.

This photo, shows a female standing on our house's exterior rock wall. You can see the ovipositor, or egg-laying organ, sticking out the back. She has tiny wings on top and of course the giant rear legs for leaping. The legs have tiny spikes on them and her body is quite colorful - green, yellow, white, brown, and red.

This one is unique in appearance, which is why I took its photo. There are many out there.

I wonder what the next wave of invaders will be?

More Water Dish Visitors

I was reviewing all the game camera photos that we've taken. We first put the camera up in January of this year. It's set up along a dirt road and pointing at one of our wildlife rainwater collectors.

I found some interesting ones that were missed earlier.

This one is from January 15th, when we were experiencing a robin invasion. I think they were on their way south. The camera took many photos like this. I can count 7 and maybe 8 in the photo. Do you see the 8th one?

The next photo is from February 22nd and it's of a possum. I know possums are common but we hardly ever see them and the game camera has only caught this one.

The last photo is fairly recent, from June 23rd. It shows a young white-tailed deer buck nuzzling a fawn. You can see the velvet on the buck's antlers. The fawn's are usually with their mothers and I've never seen one with a buck. The bucks are usually solitary or in a group of 2 or 3. The does and fawns are usually together in larger herds.

Tiny White Flowers

I took this photo at the end of April and I've been trying to identify the plant ever since. The flowers are tiny, maybe 1/8 inch in size and the plant is very short - just 3 or 4 inches tall. What attracted me to it was the way the flowers are grouped into little squares. These square-shaped arrangements were rare. Most of the plants just had clumps of white flowers.

I think it might be Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota), but I'm not positive. It's also known as a wild carrot. Another possibility is Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).

I like the nearly symmetrical arrangement and thought it would make a nice black and white photograph. With the conversion, I emphasized the white flowers and de-emphasized everything else. This makes the flowers pop and along with a slight glow, give them a dreamy quality.

 Please leave a comment if you can help me identify the plant!