Photo for Wednesday: Great Horned Owl

Travis County TX

October 2017

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

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Photo For Wednesday: Nap Time

Looks like Baby Deer is getting an earful from Mom. Maybe a nap-time story?

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Photo for Wednesday: Rock Squirrel

Doing his best Meerkat

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Stones: Stacked, Not Rolling

Stacked stone circle, Llano TX, March 2015

Stacked stones, Llano TX, March 2015

Click on photos to enlarge.

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Texas Hawk

Travis County TX, October 2013

Possibly Red-tailed Hawk?

Taking off

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by 

Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer:

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,

please visit the website here.

Tarantula Hawk Wasp and Dinner

The tarantula hawk is a large wasp (about 2 inches long) that hunts tarantulas. The wasps don't actually eat the spiders, but they feed them to their larvae. Only the females hunt, so I'm supposing this is a mom.

We watched this one spend most of a day hunting down this fairly small tarantula -- well, it was small for a tarantula, but still bigger than the wasp, about three inches or so.  Once she got it and had it under control, she dragged it all the way across our yard, across the driveway, across the sidewalk, and out of view.

She didn't do a lot of flying, but then I guess her victim was a little heavy. The tarantula was still alive during all this, and struggling to get away, but apparently the tarantula hawk's sting is one of the most powerful stings around, so the spider didn't really have a chance. And although they're supposed to be pretty docile, the wasps have been known to sting humans when they think the human is threatening. Needless to say, THIS human stayed well away from the hawk and the spider, and used her telephoto to grab these shots.

(Click on photos to enlarge. Sorry that the lightbox feature doesn't seem to be working on these. Blogger moves in mysterious ways.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by 

Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer:

Capturing the Roadrunner

We have a roadrunner living nearby. Probably more than one, of course -- but we only ever see one at a time. He (she?) likes to hunt for insects in our yard, and now and then comes right up onto our front porch to look around. Up close, he's really lovely to look at. I've been trying to get a photo for months now, but he's just too fast for me (I feel a little like Wile E. Coyote in the old Looney Tune cartoons). This is as close as I've come, so far. If you enlarge the photo and look closely, you can see the giant grasshopper in his beak.

(Click on photo to enlarge)

I snapped this with my iPhone, but I'm determined to get a really good shot with an actual camera (remember those?) one of these days. Stay tuned.

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by A Southern Daydreamer

Outdoor Wednesday: It's beginning to look a lot like....Autumn?

On FM 1431 outside Austin TX

Here in the Hill Country in central Texas, we don't get a lot of fall color.  Most of the trees in this area are evergreen - live oak and various kinds of cedar.  And the change tends to come later than it does up north, and lingers around longer.  Here in the middle of December, it's just about reached its peak now, and leaves are starting to drift off the trees.  Having spent so many years in Virginia, I have to admit I do miss that riot of color every October.  But I think I really appreciate the changing colors more, now that the whole process is so much more subdued and elusive.

The view from our back garden.

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by 

Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer:

Hidden

...and waiting for Mom.

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer.
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Hill Country Bike Race

Bicycling is huge in the Austin area.  Won't get into the Lance Armstrong controversy, but this is his place -- the LiveStrong Foundation has its headquarters in Austin.  Biking has always been popular in this region: great weather most of the year, and lots of open roads and tough hills for riding and training.

Now, it's been years since I was actually ON a bicycle (not since the day I almost ran over a guy on a hike-and-bike trail -- a story for another post another day).  But biking is something I used to enjoy a lot, and Michael keeps talking about wanting to get another bike and maybe even train for some competition (which I will NOT be doing).  So we were excited to learn that our little community here in the Hill Country outside Austin has a bike race every March -- La Prima Vera.  It was held last weekend, and we had a lot of fun driving around, following the racers and taking snaps -- these are just a few (click on images to enlarge):

I never could really get a photo of the entire mix of competitors -- they were spread out in various groups.  Above, you can see the main contingent ("peloton"?)  with Lake Travis in the background.

Some of the hills in the area were pretty formidable, which was good for me if a little hard on the racers -- it slowed them down just enough to get some nice shots.

These photos were taken about midway through the race, I believe.  So the racers had another couple of hours to go.  I can't imagine having that much stamina!

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer.
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Outdoor Wednesday: Rivals

We get a lot of deer around our place, but generally there's only one buck in each group (family? herd? gaggle?).  Recently, though, these two guys showed up together.  And if you look VERY closely towards the middle of the photo, you can see what they were interested in -- there's a very cute little lady deer there, playing hard to get.

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer.
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Outdoor Wednesday: The Finches and the Fans

We have ceiling fans on our front porch. We've never really turned them on because the wind up here on the mountain (OK -- on the hilltop) blows most of the time and cools things down without the use of electricity. We also have some House Finches who keep trying to build their nests in/on those fans, even though all the surfaces are completely flat, with no cubbies or crevices to hold a nest. The birdies keep taking their twigs and bits of fluff up there, and the twigs and bits of fluff promptly fall right off onto the porch below. But the stupid persistent birds go right on trying.


Sometimes, though, when the wind is really blowing and making the fans whirl, the Finches do take a break; they hop out onto the blades of the fan and just ride around and around and around....



I guess it's like a carnival ride for birds.

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.
To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

Outdoor and Wordless Wednesday: Flyleaf

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.
To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Outdoor Wednesday: Festival Time in DC

One of the nice things about living where we do is that we can take advantage of all the wonders of Washington DC without the hassle of actually living there. Not that there would be anything wrong with that. But I'm a suburban girl, born and bred, and although I love city life, I don't really think I'd like to try coping with it full time.

Anyhoo -- some of the most enjoyable things about life in our nation's capital are all the various festivals that go on there, especially at this time of year. In fact, the annual Folklife Festival put on by the Smithsonian every summer is happening right now. Haven't visited that one yet, but a month or so ago, the hubby and I were in the District to take in a couple of exhibits at the National Gallery, and chanced upon a celebration going on outdoors, behind the museums. Naturally, we had to investigate and discovered the National Asian Heritage Festival in full swing. It was colorful and noisy and smelled delicious! And, of course, made for a wonderful photo op. Here are a few more glimpses:

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.
To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.