Tag Archives: Dry Creek

VAPOR

Posted on April 19, 2015 by | Leave a comment

 

March 14, 2014

 

Awakened slowly,
drinking promises of rain
with people on time.

 

 

“photo_challenge/early-bird”/

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Killdeer Update

Posted on April 10, 2015 by | 7 comments

 

 

Keeping track of our cattle is never perfect, but keeping track of the Killdeer, even for a short time, requires so much assumption and speculation that it verges on fiction. Nevertheless, our Killdeer, defending the eggs in her nest, disappeared with her babies for the creek last week. Due to the drought and a creek that hasn’t run much for the past three years, we’ve had only one Killdeer nesting in our gravel driveway so far this spring.

Robbin noted that one of our pair of crows was carrying what appeared to be the white fluff of a Killdeer chick back to their nest earlier this week. We know how it goes, everyone is someone’s breakfast. But yesterday, crossing the remaining puddles in the creek, we found two chicks and an attentive, adult Killdeer in the cobbles and grass.

Getting two out of four to the creek, 200 yards and across the road, is a good percentage when one considers the gopher snake on the prowl for eggs, the crows and a variety of other predators. It’s a leap to assume this is the same Killdeer, but with no others around our driveway to the house, not as far as you might think.

 

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SHE

Posted on April 8, 2015 by | 8 comments

 

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It was good to see her,
visiting like a sister
forty days late
with much on her mind.

Never aging and beautiful,
she spent the afternoon
outside in the gray—
left a rainbow behind.

 

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JUST A THOUGHT

Posted on April 7, 2015 by | 6 comments

 

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Never really green with grass,
the south slopes tried to hide the clay,
standing naked in underwear

these past three years. Too late for rain,
precursor clouds let their shadows run
up canyon walls on gusts that stir

our dry flesh, that lift the hair—
each excited follicle reaching
to dance with the thought of rain.

 

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HOW MANY MOONS?

Posted on April 4, 2015 by | 5 comments

 
IMG_4154

 

If we measured life
in moons misused and wasted,
how many left full?

 

 

                              And as the moon rises he sits by his fire
                              Thinking about women and glasses of beer
                              And closing his eyes as the dogies retire
                              He sings out a song which is soft but it’s clear
                              As if maybe someone could hear…
                                        – James Taylor (“Sweet Baby James”)

 

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Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

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AFTER RAIN 2

Posted on March 31, 2015 by | 8 comments

 

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Dawn’s soft light steaming,
rain’s last embrace still clinging,
love spent overnight.

 

 

photo_challenge/ephemeral

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Killdeer Nesting

Posted on March 30, 2015 by | 5 comments

 

 

Not far from the Roadrunner’s cactus nest, a Killdeer is also sitting on eggs. The shoulder of our gravel driveway usually offers three or four Killdeer a good place to hide and incubate their eggs. To keep from running over them, we’ve been known to place a rock close to the nest. Once hatched, the Killdeer takes her babies to the creek about 200 yards away. But barely running this year and last, we’ve only this one Killdeer nesting.

I had hoped to get photos of her broken wing act, her ploy to lure the dogs away. But she stood her ground yesterday to protect her nest.

 

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Mule Ears

Posted on March 27, 2015 by | Leave a comment
Wyethia angustifolia

Wyethia angustifolia – March 18, 2015

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Drought: Blue Oaks

Posted on March 26, 2015 by | 3 comments

 

March 24, 2015

March 24, 2015

 

The impact of three years of drought on the Blue Oaks shows up well as the trees that have survived begin to leaf out. (Click to enlarge) These Blue Oaks are across the creek from our house, on a north slope at the 1,200-foot elevation. No rain in sight, the grass has turned 30 days earlier than normal as we prepare to head into an early summer.

 

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Eurasian Collared Dove

Posted on March 25, 2015 by | 7 comments

 

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After a brief visit last spring, our count of Eurasian Collared Doves increased to four yesterday, including what appears (above) to be a juvenile, in just a matter of weeks. In order of appearance, the first pair began breeding and nest building almost immediately, followed by another male, then yesterday’s juvenile.

Pretty birds bigger than a Mourning Dove and slightly smaller than a Rock Pigeon, we’re not sure their presence is a blessing. Time will tell whether the most invasive species in Texas will become as big a nuisance as the Rock Pigeons, who thankfully disappeared last fall as their numbers dwindled through the summer.

The Collared Dove makes what has become an annoying two-syllable cooing sound just before it lands in a tree or on the ground where it feeds, that I can only describe as a distant baby crying, like the 1950s dolls that cried when you tipped them. Wiki notes that the species is ‘not wary’, that has connotations of stupidity for me, but I’d agree they’re fairly tame and unafraid, but observant enough to find our bird feeders immediately. The bird has many unique and interesting characteristics described in the links included here.

All About Birds

 

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