Hail, Wind and Rain

We were hit late last night by a major storm with very high straight line winds and marble sized hail that partly defoliated many of our trees and left leaves and small to some large limbs along the road and patio. Over an inch of rain fell during the 15-20 minutes of the storm all of it almost horizontal as the walls of the ranch house are still coated with wet leaves. The hail hitting against the metal ranch roof and large plate glass windows was so loud it actually hurt my ears for a minute or so during the peak of the storm.

The freshly filled seed feeders were almost blown off their hangers and are now mush. I will need to walk the ranch today to see if there was any significant damage to the large Oaks. Will pull out the gasoline powered blower to clear the drive, patio and gravel walk ways. The Cow Pen Daisey's were blown flat and may have to be pulled up as they were already top heavy.

Cold air is due later today with a high around 90 before final frontal passage and then we can expect lows in the high 30's to low 40's by Wednesday...

This is life on the ranch....Always a new challenge....

Home from Peru

Sherry and I returned this past weekend from a birding and nature tour of Peru. We are still compiling our list of both lifers and total bird species seen. Part of the tour was spent at Machu Picchu - we had seven participants and one leader. Sherry and I were the only participants from USA.

While gone our rain gauge measured 1.7 inches and the KR Bluestem has again taken over much of the landscape. I will be out a lot over the next couple of weeks spraying the pest with Round-Up and mowing some of my trails and census lines where I walk as the local name for KR Bluestem is "Tickle Leg" which is does.

The hummingbird feeders were mostly empty as were the seed feeders. I expect the Ruby-throats have pretty much left the Hill County. It will take a while for the birds to re-locate the seed feeders and I will put out 2 hummer feeders.

Rubby-throated Hummingbirds in Full Migration

The last few days have been a war zone around the hummingbird feeders. We have hit a peak migration of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. This pretty well ends the year with any Black-chinned Hummingbird still coming to the feeders. Most of the male birds left much earlier and now with all the Ruby-throats massing around the feeders, the Black-chinned left have moved out. Even if one was here, it would be practically impossible to pick it out as they are all moving so fast and attacking each other, that no single bird can sit at a feeder very long.

Occasionally they appear to reach a truce and all perch together feeding frantically before resuming the battle. A single large feeder with two cups of sugar water will last about one day. In a few days most will be gone and feeding all along the coastal communities.

MORE RAIN AND SNAKE

I went to bed around midnight watching a far off line of storm with significant lightening. I awoke at 3:30 to thunder and the sound of rain on our metal roof. Woke again at 6:30 to more rain and finally got out of bed to see the rains starting to stop. As the yard was still holding a good amount of visible water, I knew we had had a heavy rain. Since the rains were almost over, I walked up to the rain water tanks where the rain gauge is located. 3.70 inches of additional rain overnight. Two day total is over 6.5 inches.

Decided to take a walk around the ranch later in the day and scared up 4 large Axis Deer and on the return found this beautiful Western Coachwhip which gave me time for one picture before it did its speedy coachwhip exit.

RAINS AND SKUNK

Well we are finally getting some much needed rain. The rain gauge showed we had 2.88 inches of rain from last night and early this morning. While the rains were stating to let up, I noticed this small black and white animal far off in the front area moving under a cedar tree. Soon it appeared and I could tell it was a Striped Skunk: Family Mustelidae : Mephitis mephitis. It was soaked and kept shaking its body to remove the water. I called Sherry and she was able to get a short view of it before it disappeared in the brush. I quickly went out and closed the garage doors to ensure we didn't have an unwelcome visitor seeking some dry ground.

Lesser Goldfinch

This has been a great year for Lesser Goldfinch. It appears they have raised at least two families and maybe three. Yesterday while I was putting out wildflower seeds, I found one very young chick that was still trying to fly and mostly jumping from one brush to another in short flights.

The thistle feeder has been overrun with Goldfinch for weeks and they manage to empty it almost daily.

Fire Protection Mowing

Spent another 3 hours mowing around the ranch house to clean the land of tall grass and dried wildflowers. Any fire on the ranch with all the dead vegetation could be really serious for any structure too close to the heat or flames.

Unfortunately I also have a barn, pump house, and two rain water collection tanks that also need a cleared area around each The worst part is that everything is so dry, you create large dust clouds that follow you around in the stagnate air.

Brown Recluse Spider

Sherry called me in to the bath to get rid of a spider. After seeing it was one of the cobweb spiders, I decided to capture it in a small magnifying cube (1"x1") and study it.

Upon close examination I was able to the key diagnostic of a Brown recluse Spider - the Violin shaped figure on the upper surface of the head.

Take a close look and remember this....

New Amphibian for Ranch

This afternoon as I stepped out onto the porch, I found this little guy all bunched up against the door jam. After taking a couple of pictures I decided there must be a better place for a Gray Treefrog to hang out so I moved it to the bird water drip station. I believe this to to be Cope's Gray Treefrog, but impossible to separate it from the Gray Treefrog.

Waiting on Fall

This morning it was 61 degrees at the ranch house. Sherry thinks Fall must be close because they are playing football. Looking outside I only see dead or dying vegetation.

So far this month we have had "0" inches of recordable rainfall. So it's not as hot or as dry as last year, but if you consider how dry it was last year and add this year's rainfall to it, then we are still in a drought here. None of this year's rainfall was greater than 2" on any given day so there has been little really deep soil watering penetration.

Some of the Hackberry trees are starting to lose leaves and as I recall during last year's drought I lost several of them. I had to water my Oaks out in front yesterday to make sure they continue to grow during the season as I need a some more high branches to shade our front porch in the morning.

Lots of tropical activity, but none doing us any good...

Summer Time in the Hill Country

These last few days of August can turn the landscape brown with the intense heat, cloud free sky and strong south west desert winds. As the wildflowers go to seed and the grass sends its roots deeper searching for moisture, the risk of grass fires increase so much that much of my time is spent mowing the tall dead vegetation down and building a barrier away from the ranch house and out-buildings.

Our rainwater supply remains high and the well continues to give me water for irrigation. We drink, bath and wash with the rainwater that contains no minerals and has no taste. The well and rainwater also serve as our emergency fire water.

In mid-September the first front will push through and hopefully deliver some rain and cooler weather.

Last Male Painted Bunting Departed

This past year we had at least 4 pair of nesting Painted Buntings on the ranch. Yesterday was the last day for Sherry and I to see the remaining male coming to the feeder.

The story is that male Painted Buntings depart south Texas on or before August 8. However I was also told that birds on the EP may remain a little longer.

With the last of our adult males gone, the feeder is now overflowing with the juvenile Painted Buntings - at least 6 to 8 birds.

Checkered Garter Snake

I was surpried this after noon when I stepped out the back door and watched this beautiful little Checkered Garter Snake go slithering across the porch just under my feet.

Ranch Pets

Some ranch folks have dogs or cats for their pets. For us it appears the Rock Squirrels have become our default pets. We now have at least 6 of these guys hanging (digging) around the ranch house.

Arogos Skipper - Kerr County Record

While doing the Center Point NABA Count that includes our ranch, I came across a skipper I could not identify in the field, but took several pictures before it disappeared. After submitting it to the local Lepidopterist Society contact, I got an immediate reply that my bug was an Atrytone arogos iowa (Arogos Skipper). This skipper is on the Texas Watch list of only 5 butterfly species and becomes very rare in all of it's range.

This was a new Kerr County record and the second county record for our ranch, the first being a Red Rim seen on 11/13/2007.

this also brings our ranch list up to 71 species.