Clearly, the webs are a few days old since they are falling apart. |
No Turn On Red
Friday, May 3, 2024
Spider Webs
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Turkey Time
It's turkey mating and nesting time. Since mid-March, we've been seeing turkeys on our game cameras. It's time to share.
Choose me!!!! |
Two weeks later, it's still no interest from the ladies. |
Friday, April 19, 2024
The Bats Emerge
8 April 2024
The second big event of the day - watching the bats emerge from their cave at dusk. With over 10 million bats, the Frio Bat Cave has the second largest population of Mexican free-tailed bats in Texas - probably in the world. It’s the largest population that is accessible to the public. It can take up to three hours for all the bats to exit the cave. We watched until it got too dark to see the bats. During that hour, we estimate we saw between 2 and 3 million bats leave the cave!
The gate opens at 7 PM for bat viewing. A long line of cars had already formed for the dusty drive in. |
Ready for the bats to emerge. |
Bats flying out of the cave. |
The chaos of bats coming out of the cave. |
The bats organize into a stream. A red-tailed hawk (upper left) is ready to pick off one at a time for his evening meal. A merlin also came for his dinner. |
Streams of bats from the two main cave entrances converge. |
A river of bats. |
The bats head out to eat insects over agricultural fields. They look like smoke in the distance. They even show up on weather radar. |
An Afternoon at the Frio Bat Cave
8 April 2024
After the eclipse, we hung out at the Bat Cave, rather than leave and return later to see the bats.
One of two main openings to the cave. The other opening is usually off-limits to visitors. |
An end view of the kiln. |
Lon, with a view back to the road, parking area, and the news crew’s vehicles. |
Texas Hill Country. |
Our vans in the parking area, along with ready-to-ship guano. This is where we had our picnic lunch and dinner. |
Since we were the only group at the cave in the afternoon, the ranch manager let us see the other large entrance. Guano operations had been suspended for the summer, but it was thick on the floor. |
In addition to being a home for bats and cave swallows, there was a large bee colony in the cave. |
One of several holes in the ceiling near the main entrances. These holes are too small and too steep for the bats to use. |
Sage could be found throughout the viewing site. |
Prickly pear cactus was also ubiquitous. |
A green lynx spider eating a bee on a prickly pear. |
We finally got to see a pyrrhuloxia - southern cousin to the northern cardinal. |
We were entertained by a rock wren who had a nest deep in the large rocks that served as “bleachers” for the bat cave. She was constantly bringing back insects to feed her nestlings. |
Rock wren with cricket or grasshopper. |
Total Solar Eclipse
8 April 2024
The main event has arrived! We arrived at the Frio Bat Cave around 10:30 AM after a 3 1/2 hour drive from Laredo. Now all we had to do was settle in and wait.
Gathering at the viewing area - for both the eclipse, and later, the bats. ABC News and National Geographic were there to broadcast live. (Blogger won’t let me upload even a single frame screenshot.) |
The clouds were rather thick - not a good omen. But occasionally the sun would poke through. |
Patrick Treuthardt, astronomer with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, explains the eclipse with a model. |
More explanations from Patrick. |
Ready for totality. |
A crescent sun through light clouds. In some respects, the clouds made it easier to photograph the partial phases, since a solar filter was not needed. |
Getting closer to totality. |
Almost there. |
The partial phase after the eclipse. This photo was taken with the solar filter on my camera (hence the orange color), and you can tell that there were still some light clouds in front of the sun. |
The ABC News / National Geographic crew packing up. |
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Estero Llano Grande State Park
7 April 2024
Estero Llano Grande State Park near McAllen, TX, is another birding hot spot.
Yellow-crowned night heron. |
Yellow-crowned night heron. |
Hooded oriole. |
Great-tailed grackle. |
Northern cardinal (female). |
White-winged dove. |
Golden-fronted woodpecker. |
Javelina (collared peccary). |
Alligator. |
The brown anole, originally from the Caribbean, is highly invasive and is threatening native anoles, such as the green anole. |
Prickly pear cactus flower and buds. |
Prickly pear cactus bud. |
Coral bean (Erythrina herbacea) |