Meow?

Last weekend we went for a night hike on one of our transects. For the past two years, we have seen plenty of evidence that a big cat lives around there, and a lot of the transect smells like cat pee. Zac put his recorder up last month and soon after, said cat peed on or near it to mark it's territory. So. We thought it would be a wise (and fun) decision to stumble over the rocks at night. Within a short amount of time, sure enough, we hear a deep irritated growl. We hear it twice before our heart rates rocket up and get the hell out of there. Oh Transect 7, you will forever terrify me. It was Transect 6 last year - we found a fresh mountain lion kill (a deer) right undernearth one of our flags.

It gets better. Yesterday, Ken (a swell guy who works on the ranch) told us that someone on the HEB property (the ranch that backs up to Big Springs) was attacked by a cougar while jogging. Along the property line - where transect 7 is, where we heard the growl. Oh boy. 

Also, I am pleased to have hot water again after ten days, so I don't have to shower in the horse shower (it has hot water) at the barn anymore.  

Get out of my ear!

Before I forget, I must mention this: I found my first tick of the season yesterday morning. Would you like to know where I found it? No, not there. It was in my ear. Like, wedged all up in my ear, in a pretty nasty place. When i pulled it off (thank god for the compass mirror!) I could hear each individual leg of the bastard come off cause it was IN MY EAR. I mean, really, seriously, how disgusting is that? I felt dirty. I still feel dirty.

Onto subjects of less displeasure...Here's some bird photos from around our 'yard.' Most are not great quality, but whatever. The birds are still pretty birds.

This Yellow-throated Warbler flew right up to the window the other day, I guess seeing his reflection. i was sitting at the table and thought he was a butterfly for a second- he was just fluttering there for a a good 20 seconds. I would have invited him in for a cup of tea or something but he seemed pretty busy.

This Black-throated Green was hanging out in the tree outside our front door for 2 days. Zac has some better pictures of him, but not on this computer.

This Orange-crowned Warbler was in the same tree...

This very vocal little White-eyed Vireo was on the front of one of our transects. I took the picture before sunrise, so the light was pretty awful. But it was the one of the very few times I've seen a White-eyed actually come out into the open.

And of course a Golden-cheeked. This would have been a lovely photo but there's a bunch of greenery in the way. Oh well.

And the Summer Tanager - they are ALL over the place right now.

The next guys we saw on our drive to Uvalde, via Utopia. That's right Uvalde and Utopia. Dickcissel, Western Kingbird and tons of Scissor-tailed Flycathcers! That one had an exceptionally long tail. Hot damn!

This, That and a little bit of that other stuff.

Well hello there. I need a Duran Duran greatest hits album. Desperately need it. I'm going to order it now, it's gotta happen. 

Zac and i went for a good hike this weekend on our day off. I stumbled upon this Western Coachwhip, who quickly climbed to the top a juniper. This was the first snake sighting of the season, so I was pumped. It was really windy (seems it's always windy in Texas this year) and the tree was blowing all over the place, but a few photos came out okay. He was pretty big, a little more than five feet I'm guessing? I also found a little snake last night, but can't identify it. Maybe a milksnake of some sort? I think he's all weird looking because he's young so the guidebooks are not being helpful. I must turn to the experts. Yes. 

Not a whole lot going on in Leakey. Really, you ask? Really, I say. The GCWA's should be having little babies soon, so I'm looking forward to that cuteness. I found a Black and White Warbler nest yesterday - I sort of stumbled upon it. They nest on the ground and I had put my backpack down to look at the GCWA I was following and poof there was the female BAWW right by my feet. I did a quick look and found the nest in about .3 seconds- with two nestlings that looked like they had just hatched within the last 24 hours. One egg was steal working on it. I was very happy with my find and wanted to stay and admire the little guys but gotta outta there cause I didn't want to bother them.  

Speaking of babies, this little guy is about 2.5 weeks old now. He doesn't have a name yet, but I'm sure it will be something midly cheesy because i think the kids on the ranch are naming him. The mom let me in the stall when he was about 3 days old. I was surprised, but she was pretty cool with it. He was so soft and snuggly! He's getting a little more crazy-horse now and the mom is a bit more protective of him. 

Hmm, here's a picture of the cave we checked out a few weeks ago. I had found it a couple days before out in the field but was too scared to go in myself. It's weird cause it is in the ground, kind of in a sinkhole type thing. Don't usually see caves like that around here. It went back about ten feet and there were some fancy rocks in there, and it looked like something had been living in there recently (beds and scat and stuff). There were definitely a few tunnels that went back further, and I think if you took time and a lot of effort to move them, you could somehow squeeze in there, but we are not pros and don't want to die. So, I explored no further. 

Zac and I are going backpacking in the Guadalupe Mountains the first weekend of May I think, once we get weekends off. Definitely looking forward to that, and getting far far freaking away from the living situation here. Because it sucks more than most things suck- not Leakey, just the trailer, and living with a girl who has never ever once cleaned, never takes the trash out, has absolutely NO idea of personal space and boundaries. Last night I came extremely close to snapping. She better get a freaking idea of common courtesy or shit's going to get ugly. Ahem, I will release on the venting...

I was just invited (by the lady who works at the Beverage Barn) to crash a wedding reception tomorrow. I think she was serious. It could be entertaining...For good measure, I'm putting this picture of Zac up. Because I think it's hilarous. 

Devil's River Birds

To keep up with the nerdiness, here's a list of the birds heard and seen in Devil's River. There are more but I couldn't identify everything. Also, it was so freaky windy the whole time, it was not condusive to taking bird photos :( So sad.

Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk
Common Black Hawk - a pretty good find. Saw a pair building a nest. Fun!
Zone-tailed Hawk (quite a few of them)
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Wild Turkey
Spotted Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
White-winged Dove
Inca Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Great Horned Owl
Common Nighthawk
Common Poorwill
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher (i like him)
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Willow Flycatcher - Yes Lisa, it's true! I told him you said hello
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Great Kiskadee
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Bell's Vireo
Black-capped Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Common Raven
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Bushtit
Cactus Wren
Rock Wren
Canyon Wren
Bewicks Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Orange-crowned Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Summer Tanager
Spotted Towhee
Canyon Towhee
Cassin's Sparrow
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Norhthern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Hooded Oriole
Scott's Oriole
House Finch

Zac saw an Elf Owl but I was peeing, so I didn't see him.

Lark Bunting looking a little rough

White-crowned Sparrow

Devil's River

So I spent the last almost two weeks in a place called Devil's River State Natural Area. Pretty cool place, I urge you to go if you're in the area - which is funny because you will probably never be in 'the area.' Devil's River SNA is pushing a two hour drive to the nearest town (Del Rio) and the surrounding properties are owned by the obligatory ranchers and surprisingly, the Nature Conservancy - very nice!

Anyway, Texas A&M University sent me over there to help out with another research project concerning Black-capped Vireos. It's the first year of the project and very loosely organized and the leadership skills could be upped a whole bunch of notches. But, I'm glad I got to spend a little time out there, because it's really freaking beautiful and no one is ever there (less people the better, as you know). There was some gnarly wind most of the time I was there and the temperature got pretty chilly a few nights, but I'm a badass so that was no issue. (By the way, I have been sleeping in my tent for a month straight).


The wildflowers are starting to come out and the cacti are starting to bloom in the desert and things are getting nice and green. The field sites there are rather dangerous. Thorns. Thorns and pokey crap everywhere. Tons of cacti and good prickly stuff like that. But hey, a little scratches never hurt anyone. A few thorns imbedded in your toe are just fine.
I took my bike and rode around when the wind wasn't 40 mph. I spent a lot of time playing and exploring on the Nature Conservancy land (yay for gate combos!). I stumbled upon a little grotto/small slot canyon that had a cave. I got all excited and then much to my dismay and horror found a dead deer that looked like it had been killed by a big cat. Then I left the slot canyon.

Zac came to visit for a couple days before I left, so we went back to the cave and because I had a big strong man to ward off any top predators, I played in the cave a little more and found that there were various bones and lots of fur. Stumbling on mountain lion caches always makes for a great time. This happens to us much more than the average person.


We went to a place called Dolan Falls (also on the Nature Conservancy land) and hung out there for a while. Swam in the river, which! is SO clear and green. It's the healthiest watershed in Texas and I give it two thumbs up.