Selah Moments

If you are regular reader of this blog you have undoubtedly read of Selah Moments before now. However, I think I should define them again for those of you who are perhaps reading this journal for the first time, or who have forgotten what it means.

I think that it probably started when a really special thing happened and one of the kids called it a "National Geographic moment". Colleen, our executive director, and one of our wonderful teachers liked the idea of focusing on special moments, but wanted them to be anything, no matter how simple or seemingly insignificant, that moved the viewer and made them feel closer to nature. A Selah Moment can be something as simple as a breeze on your skin, or a bird chirping in a nearby tree, or as thrilling as looking into a tree and seeing thousands of monarch butterflies together during their fall migration to their winter grounds in the mountains of Mexico.

During the Grasses Workshop when the participants were looking at grasses in the open area to the west of the Madrone Lake patio, someone noticed movements in the bald cypress in front of them. When they focused on the masses of Monarch Butterflies on the slender branches, some of which were actually bending from the weight of the butterflies, they ran over to where I was sitting, yelling, "Bring your camera, we have a 'Selah Moment'"!

Usually the underside of their wings look flat, but when the sunlight is at a certain angle, you can see that the wing in not flat, but has shape to it, and you can see shadows on the surface. (Click to see the large version).

When we were first seeing the Monarchs, they seemed to be resting. It was still fairly cool in the morning.

Across the trail from the Monarchs on the bald cypress trees, the Queens were enjoying the Greg's Blue Mist flowers. The underside of the wings of Queen butterflies looks a lot like the underside of the Monarch's wings.

The dorsal or upper wings look very different from the underwing, and different too from the upperwings of the Monarchs which are shown in the photograph below.

Monarchs warmed up in the sun and became animated. Amanda Fulton took this photograph and the one below during the afternoon of the next day.

When sufficiently warmed up the Monarchs were very active, and each time a new butterfly would arrive on the branch, the others that were already there would exercise their wings, or fly away a short distance and return to settle down. Amanda caught them in the midst of a period of activity.

While watching the Monarchs, I noticed some activity on the Frost Weed blooms, (Verbesina virginica) and took some pictures, which was not easy because they were moving so fast. I managed to catch this very small native green bee which I believe is a Green Sweat Bee of the Family Halictidae, (Augochloropsis metallica). They are quite small, only 9 mm long (3/8 of an inch), and they are the  most brilliant metallic green imaginable.

This Honey Bee is enjoying a drink of nectar and perhaps some pollen from the Frost Weed flowers.

There is a lot of interesting activity around the flowers, trees and grasses at this time of the year. Take a child, spouse, friend or grandchild out to investigate, or go by yourself, -- and have fun! Before long we'll have cold weather, and the insects and spiders will be less active.

Critters, Flowers, and Seeds

This past week was very busy and very rewarding.

While out taking pictures of flowers, I mananaged to catch a few nice photographs of critters that were out visiting flowers for their nectar.

This Purple Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens) with exceptionally deep color lavender blooms was being visited by a number of bees. They were moving fast, and I had a hard time catching up with them, focusing and shooting a picture before they were off and away.

Shrubby Blue Sage (Salvia ballotoeflora) is blooming by Madrone Lake. It has small blue flowers that were attracting several bumble bees. Note the orange pollen on his right leg.

Queen butterflies were going nuts over the Blue Mist (Eupatorium coelestinum) flowers. It was magical to see them all fluttering around the patch of flowers.

I was focusing my camera on an unusually handsome Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) when a little female Black Chinned Hummingbird few into my view.

There are some new blooms out as a result of the two inches of rain that fell as Dolly made her way into Texas, and the 1/4 inch this past week due to the tropical depression.

I think this is a Bush Sunflower. There is a huge number of yellow sunflower type plants, and I don't know them all, but the description in Marshall Enquist's book "Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country" sounded like the one I was looking at. If you are a botonist and see that I have misidentifed a plant please let me know.

These are the leaves of the plant in the photo above this one. They feel rough, and so does the stem.

This is a plant that was probably planted outside the window of our workroom. It looks like a color variety of the Gregg Salvia (Salvia greggii). I've seen them white, pink, and red, but not pink and white on the same flower.

These are the flowers of Shrubby Blue-sage (Salvia ballotoeflora). I've seen this lovely plant growing wild on the West Nueces River. We have had a specimen here next to the trail going down to the patio at Madrone Lake for years and it has done very well. Check out the image enlarged and see the fuzzy tops of the flowers.

Silver-Leaf Nightshade (Solanum eleagnifolium) is a common wildflower here at the ranch. I like it, and look forward to seeing the combination of purple-blue flowers and silver leaves in thick patches.

This is one of the Wild Petunias. I'm pretty sure that it is Low Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis). It certainly has pubescence on its leaves which is mentioned in most descriptions of it.

I have been trying to note and document the progression from flower to seeds, and have a few pictures of some outstanding ones.

When Milkweeds go to seed they can be quite dramatic. You can see the seeds still holding onto their fuzzy parachutes.

Queen's Delight (Stillingia texana) has yellowish-green male and female flowers on a spike that don't look much like flowers. The spike dries up and the fruit are green smooth pods with 3 lobes that appear at the base of the spike. In the photo above you can see 2 green fruits, and 3 remains of fruit.

There are rumors that we'll get some rain tomorrow, and today (Monday, August 11) is cloudy. We need rain, so I'm going outside to do a rain dance!

J David and I are going to West Texas for a little vacation. We leave tomorrow and will be gone a week. The gentleman that was at Big Bend and took our reservations, said that they have had rain and there are lots of wildflowers. Goody!