The Glorious Colors of Autumn

Here are some lovely trees in autumn shades of reddy brown near the house:


Except those are evergreens. Pine trees.

Evergreens, of course, don't turn colors in the fall - unless they are dead. The scene is common - large clusters of pine trees dead all over the area. We had a particularly hot summer which was particularly devoid of rain. We had a few days of rain in August, but by then the trees were stressed considerably.

The drought didn't kill them, however - a tiny little pest did. The Southern Pine Bark Beetle has been active in the area. It's a quick and lethal creature - it takes down stressed trees easily, but will destroy healthy ones just the same. We lost three or four massive pines on our property a few years back - the invoice for removing the trees was a whopper and we were pretty upset that the extra cost to purchase the heavily treed lot was wasted in a matter of months. Still mad about that, truth be told.

There are very few signs that your tree is infested with beetles - once you can see the damage, it's really too late to rehabilitate the tree. Once the tree turns noticeably brown, the beetles have left for another host and it's "Sayonara, Pine Tree." There are a few ways to control the pest, but they aren't very effective or practical.

So anyway - this is our Fall color this year. Whee. In case you are wondering, the rest of the trees (both deciduous and evergreen) are still very green. It was in the low nineties this week, so I expect it to be green around here for a while. Our seasonal color goes something like this: green, green, green, green, brownandfalloff, buds in January, green, green, green.....

Oh, we do have one tree variety that does make gorgeous colors in some years, but the Chinese Tallow is considered nastily invasive in Texas (and probably everywhere else) and we've been asked not to plant any - it reproduces quickly and edges out the native varieties. Annoying, that, but what are you going to do?

But hey, we aren't shoveling snow like some states, so I guess I shouldn't complain. For the record, there has been no need to shovel snow in this area since....well....ever. And you will never see me complaining about that.

p.s. Tomorrow, the boys and I are making Autumn Leaves as a craft - it's the best I can do for them this year. If you have any groovy Autumn kiddy crafts, feel free to link me up, ok?

Yellow Crowned Night Heron....in Love

I ran across a Yellow Crowned Night Heron yesterday at the arboretum.

"The Yellow Crested Night Heron is a very rare and elusive bird. To find this bird, like any bird, it is necessary to understand what its life is like.

When and where it will be is predictable, but sometimes it is just luck. The sun going down and coming up sets a timetable of activity. High tide and low tide can provide for many a time to eat or a time to build nests.

The Yellow Crested Night Heron is a difficult bird to see. It is called a Night Heron because of its nocturnal habits. It likes cool sleeping spots and nesting over still water. It seems to pick dark shade deep in the woods or caves at the edges of lagoons or in a gallery of trees that stand in water."

The park worker said that this particular one had shown up in the early morning and had been there at the pond all day; unusual behavior for a nocturnal bird.

We'll call him Romeo. Romeo fell hard for a pretty little thing we'll call Juliet. Juliet is lovely, attractive, and graceful, and unfortunately for Romeo, made entirely of plastic.

Despite his sexy suave bird moves, he is unable to get Juliet's attention and pines for her. Predictably, she continued to play hard to get:



He strutted left and right, showed off his wings, did a thing with his beak (see video) and tried so hard to impress her...it was a little sad, actually, knowing he was going to get shot down again and again. Hopefully if he remains there, they will remove the plastic bird - at least until he moves on to a lady friend who will appreciate his charms.

Lace

Went to the Arboretum today. More shots coming soon.

Whoo-whoo are you?

Sighted today at my parents' house:

We think he is a juvenile screech owl, but it's possible it's full grown. He's about 7" long and full grown, he will be closer to 8-10". Considering how far I had to zoom in, a tripod certainly would have helped, I know.

There is a purple martin house about 10' from where this little guy has been roosting. The bird book says screech owls will nest in nesting boxes and sure enough, the birdhouse has been chewed away by squirrels on one side, making room for a larger bird to get through the hole. So the thought is that this owl is pretty fresh out of the nearby nest and so he roosts every day in my mother's fig tree (I've been getting daily owl-updates).

Double Geranium:


Ginger about to burst into bloom (See the yellow bloom popping out on the right? I must go back when it's in full bloom!):

Flowers Today

And one leaf.