Window on a Texas Wildscape

Monday, March 17, 2014

Yellow yellow yellow

Golden groundsel

Our agarita

Four-nerve daisy

Same golden groundsel

Same groundsel

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Gourds up and ready for purple martins

Yesterday, James spent several hours, working on our two natural gourds. He drilled out entrances and drain holes.

Then I emptied out the seeds. There were SCADS of seeds! (Maybe we'll try planting some.)

Next James put on a coat of white exterior latex paint. Plus two more coats.

This afternoon, we hung them up! Now if YOU were a purple martin, wouldn't you be impressed with our new housing opportunities? We are!

Now we just have to wait and see. But we're betting someone notices and moves in. Last year, our martin couple moved in about mid April.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

First hummer!

James just spotted our first hummingbird of the season! I missed it–a male black chinned. We put up a feeder last Sunday. Welcome back!

Aren't they cool? I've been chatting with Tim in Alabama, who's hosted purple martins since he was NINE YEARS OLD! He suggested that we try using gourds this spring and nearly guaranteed that we'll get martins with them. So I ordered two from Front Porch Crafts (gourdgrower5 on eBay) in Horse Cave, Kentucky. We'll paint them white and drill entrance holes. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Lost Ladybug Project

Harmonia axyridis, the multicolored Asian ladybug. Photographed Feb. 23, 2014, found inside our house and contributed to the ongoing Lost Ladybug Project at Cornell University.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Spider presentation

A big thank you goes out to the Friends of the Kingsland Library for inviting me to be a guest speaker at their February meeting today. My presentation was on -- what else? -- "Spiders of Central Texas." I enjoyed my time with everyone! (Thanks, James, for capturing the true essence of me in the photo below. Ho ho ho.)