Then came the vultures....

Yesterday at supper time, we happened to notice a black vulture, hopping around in our back yard. About that time, our neighbor dropped by. We showed her the vulture through our dining room window. "Oh, yeah," she said. "You've got a WHOLE BUNCH right now in your meadow!"

That was news to us!

We went outside to investigate. She was right! There had to have been 50 or more of them on the ground and in the live oaks. James got ahead of me and took the video (below). He also took the photos. Sadly, a white-tailed deer (probably a yearling) must have been hit and died in the Meadow. We are letting Mother Nature's cleaner-uppers take care of the carcass.

 

By this evening, they’d nearly picked the entire carcass clean!

O Wise Cenizo rebounds

This is O Wise Cenizo on Friday, August 26. It half-heartedly bloomed a week AFTER our August 19 downpour of 2 inches. Hey, no one's perfect, right? The blooms dropped off within a day or two.

This morning, I looked out a window, and behold! O Wise Cenizo is re-blooming with all its might! I walked over for photos and observed lots of honey bees nectaring all over the flowers. So folks... look out, rains are a-comin'! (See the seven-day forecast below.)

AFTERNOON UPDATE: IT'S BEEN POURING!!! For real! Honest!

  

Ahoy, mate!

We've been collecting condensation water from our air conditioner unit for years in a bucket. The "free" water has been great, especially during our past extremely hot, dry summer months. The downside: Insects and spiders jump or fall into the water and can't get out. We're usually good about checking the bucket every morning for potential drowning victims. But every once and a while, someone ends up lifeless on the bottom (except for Lazarus, which I blogged about several times). So I've been trying to figure out a raft of some sort. Behold my tongue depressor solution! The click beetle climbed right on! The only problem now is that once the sticks absorb water, the raft sinks. Which means I have to remove the raft in the morning so it can dry out. My next idea is to maybe attach some Styrofoam foam pieces on the bottom so it can float indefinitely. We'll see! 

UPDATE:

Styrofoam pieces

 

UPDATE May 6, 2023

Look who stopped by to float! An indomitable graphic moth (Melipotis indomita). It didn't stay long.

 

Blessed rains!

Non-native Jerusalem sage and Gregg's mistflower

Last Friday afternoon, we had a downpour of blessed rain. I was at our local DQ with a dear friend so I missed seeing the show. But all said, we received 2 inches of rain! Since then, we've had 3/4 inches more. I took a few photos the next day after Friday's rain. The plants perked up right away! Faucet water can no where near provide the nourishment that Mother Nature's sky water brings. It's been amazing to see my friends look so happy and GREEN again.

American beautyberry

Fall aster, Turk's cap and 'Eyelash' salvia

Floratam St. Augustine grass, planted by original owners and we NEVER water it.

 

July 2021 vs July 2022 = SAD

If you happen to feel brave, take a look at these comparison photos  from July 2021 and July 2022 photos of our native plant gardens. I tried to shoot photos this evening from the same angle as the 2021 pictures. Since May, this has been the longest periods of hot and dry conditions in recent memory. We'll be losing plants this summer....

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Hard, hot days

Ironweed

This is hard. Real hard. Since early May, we've hardly had any rain and every day temps in the high 90s or sometimes 100-plus degrees. Even if we put faucet water on plants that are struggling, it does little good. At least during our 2011 drought, the dryness and heat started later in the season. Last summer we KNEW we were blessed to have the rains that we did, even in August. It was amazing! Now here we are with no rain in sight. My mother's water well struggles. How many others have dried up? And yet we continue to build, build, build, and bring more people into a region that cannot support the rapid growth. I'm trying to be optimistic. As they say, this, too, shall pass. But it's just hard right now. Real hard.

Salvia

The Meadow...very few wildflowers this past spring.

Antelope horns

Zizotes (milkweed)

Another froggie tale(s)...

Treefrog from the dryer

Remember my recent post about the treefrog above our front door? Well, I've got another frog story(ies) for you! Last week, I washed sheets, a normal thing that we do every week or so. After a wash, I  throw the sheets into our dryer and turn on the machine. But not this time. Because there was some leaf debris in the washing machine that got onto the sheets. So, one by one, I shook the sheets and pillowcases outside (while I inwardly grumbled at my husband for not shaking out his work clothes, which I know he does but still...just being honest). Before placing them all in the dryer, I leaned down to clean out some little pieces of leaf debris. Then a lump of what I thought was gray lint caught my eye on the bottom inside of the drum. I reached down to get it out, and HE JUMPED! A Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)! In the dryer!? I was stunned! How'd he get in THERE? I still don't know. After a few photos, I released him near our little stock tank pond. Thanks to James and the leaf debris, that frog lived to see another day. Or else he'd have cooked in the dryer with the sheets! Oh, my, would that have traumatized ME if I'd found him!

Back to my frog tales.... Two days later, James texted me the photo above. A treefrog in the WASHING MACHINE!? Then a day later, he reported that he'd felt something slimy under the kitchen/garage exterior door knob. A treefrog! Another release in our pond.

Fast forward to this morning, when I was about to drop a load of towels in our washing machine. Just to be sure, I looked down to check for frogs and...you guessed it...THERE WAS ANOTHER FROG! I have no clue what's going on with this "frog infestation," but I find it all rather entertaining and very mysterious. With the lack of rain right now, where are they tadpole-ing? I don't see any little frogs around the pond. If you've got some ideas, let me know. In the meantime, I'd better go check the dryer before I throw in the towels. 

UPDATE June 22, 2022 

Another treefrog in the washing machine this morning!