June and July 2014

Morning of June 10, not long after a rood rise on the Creek,
as evidenced by the fine drift-log on the boulder.

Damsel.

Incomplete clutch of turkey eggs found between gate
and house. Three days later, they were gone.

Juvenile red-shoulder hawk at the edge of its nest (June 10). 

  A couple days later on June 12 a nice storm tore of the tops of many cedar elm trees, but not this one. The hawks never returned, though.

  Beneath the nest, I found these items:

Red-shouldered hawk kitchen midden.

Toppled over in the July 12 storm

Dogs' graves beneath the fallen elm.

June 13 after a fair rain and wind.

Field leading up to our place. Most beautiful field in the world.

Turkey chick ("Tennessee") among chicken chicks.

First week of June harvest from the greenhouse

Heirloom. June 6.

Fresh from the terraced pesto garden against the hill.

Dead. Desiccated. And still beautiful.

  Now for a short button-bush series:

Mid-July

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) 

Buttonbush is another in a growing list of beautiful poisonous plants out here. (Thank you, Harlin, for the shots.)

White tridens ( Tridens albescens)

    A tall perennial bunchgrass, this white tridens grows several feet north of the orchard.

    And for yet another very, very sweet web site for all things living and worth some perusing, check out the Encyclopedia of Life.

Swift setwing (Dythemis velox) 

I cannot watch these small fish

feed on stream algae

without pausing to write

this poem about me watching them

All in the Details

I went to The Creek this morning to burn more leftovers from the demolition of last week, but our county dispatcher from the sheriff's office advised us this is a Red Flag day, meaning too dangerous for fires.  So we gathered the old identification books, binoculars, field journal, and camera for a couple hours of exploration.  I loaded the green backpack I've carried on longer walks and around Guatemala (thought of that when a worn paper bill worth about 5 Quetzales fell out).  I probably didn't need a backpack full of so many books just to walk a couple hundred yards . . . .

Some nice algae.  Not all of it is the classic green, you know.  Much of this consists of gazillions of single-celled diatoms. 

When I take a few drops of diatom-crowded creek water (often resembling a snotty white glob), the view looks like the image below.

I agree with this cricket frog.  The camouflage works reasonably well.  Only reasonably well, of course, because I DID see it long enough to grab an image of it.

Pennywort.

Pennyworts.

Looking south down to the lower pool.

Unflowering bluebonnet.

Dried remains of a buttonbush.

Sycamore working its way out into the springtime.