I'm getting closer...

The painted buntings are still here. Soon I may get a good picture.

Ninety Six

Mother had her ninety-sixth birthday yesterday, May 24....

Out cruising looking for a meal......

While I was out getting bird pictures yesterday this guy swam up and eyed me I guess trying to figure how big of a bite I was.

Back at the waterhole

These little painted buntings are still at the ranch. You will notice that the female is a lime green and doesn't have the multicolors of the male.

Baby Alligators

I spotted these baby alligators today while checking for stray cattle on a ranch near a large creek.
They are about one foot in length and were swimming in the rapidly drying up pond.


This shows all that remains of the pond. If you look carefully to the right side of the far point of water you will see the hole which the adult gator dug.
Large alligators dig holes in the bank to have a cool place to retreat to during hot days and a moderate temperatue place to escape to during the cold days of winter.

A female Cardinal down for a drink...

The Painted Buntings are migrating through now...

They are such a pretty bird but so hard to get a good picture of.

Filling up the protein feeders for deer...

I got a delivery of bulk protein pellets today. This is supplemental feed for the deer inside the ranch. With the drought the deer are hungry and have been eating feed that previously I had been putting in the feeders a sack at the time. Needless to say this was much easier.

Thirsty Cardinal

Oliver Semmes the fisherman!

Oliver drove in this morning from Navarre, Florida. He was out catching fish this afternoon. Nice mess of fish to, right?

Building sheds for my deer troughs.

You have to be a little creative when you take on a project like this by yourself. Note the ladder holding up one of the pieces of lumber.
Nail one side then go around and nail the other side.
The idea is to keep rain from getting on the feed.
The troughs are made to where they can turn.
The framing is complete. Now it is time to put on the tin roof.
Another one is completed.

The Mothers on Mother's Day

Sandra and Doris after going out for lunch with Sam, Peggy, Nicki, Jarette, and me.
Mother.........
I took Mother's picture then showed it to her. She looked at it and said, "Don't I just look like a peach"?

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is wishing all of you Mothers have a wonderful day.

Growing Antlers

It doesn't take long after bucks shed their antlers that they start growing new ones. You can get and idea about what they will have later by noting how large the bases of the new growth is. Both of the deer pictured here appear to have a fine start to what they will end up with.

Painted Bunting, "Siete Colores"

The painted bunting is easily the most colorful bird we have migrate through south Texas. I borrowed the first pictures. Only the last one here is one I took.

The Painted Bunting is the most breathtakingly colorful of North American birds. The male has a blue head, green in back with a red rump and underparts. The female is green above and yellowish-green below. And though not as brightly colored as the male is still easily identified.
This southern cousin of the Indigo bunting is found mainly in southern states and Mexico, where the brushy, weedy shrub-scrub habitat that this bird prefers abound.Although colorful, this bird can be hard to spot as it forages for seeds in shrubs and on the ground.
Though in the past this bird was a frequent visitor of our eastern seaboard, its numbers there have declined about 3 % per year since the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) began in 1966. Declines are mainly due to loss of shrub-scrub habitat that this birds prefers. The nest parasitism of the Brown headed cowbird also contribute to there decline.
Length 5 - 5 1/2 inches