After ten Mondays of physical therapy it was great to go see old friends at Oak Point and feel a cool breeze off the lake. Still staying on the paved trails and boardwalks for now, but very grateful for a pain-free stroll.

© 2014-2019 Nancy L. Ruder

Perfection

Not even a bum knee could keep me from the soft trail at Oak Point on this glorious day. I'll never be a prima ballerina or steal second base again, but my knee is holding me up and getting me where I need to go today. I'm extremely grateful.

This lovely lady Common Green Darner showed off beside the trail near the amphitheater. She made up for visual confirmation that I missed the trout lily blooms during my limping spell.  It's okay, there'll be another spring. So humming Peggy Lee's "There'll be Another Spring," I headed back toward the car. The knee made it under the fallen limbo tree on Bur Oak Pass, too.

How low can you go?

Peggy Lee and George Shearing first release.
Diana Reeves version from "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Chubby Checkers limbo song

© 2014-2019 Nancy L. Ruder

Fresh wind

In a shocking development, it did not feel muggy this morning. The wind whipped up waves on the lake, where the water level was much higher than a week ago.

Cooperative widow-skimmer (male)

This black-and-yellow argiope spider seemed to glow in the shadows near the picnic pavilion. Its relative down by the lake was blowing gently on its web between shrubby plants.

© 2014-2018 Nancy L. Ruder

Butch & Sundance

In this remake of my favorite Western outlaw movie the characters are Saddlebags and Long-jaw.

 This is Black Saddlebags.

 Long-jaw is sneaking up the stalk toward Saddlebags.

That Long-jaw is a joker.

 

And here's the golden orb-weaver spider, if not the Union Pacific RR gold.

© 2014-2018 Nancy L. Ruder

Mother Nature is such a nag

"Don't you dare nap on the sofa! I keep the temp well below triple digits on your day off, and this is the thanks I get??? You haven't even stepped out the door!"

Okay, mom. Got it. Going  to Oak Point.

It's all golden.

Basket flower.

Fear of chiggers kept me too far from the hummingbird clearwing moth for a good photo.

This Eastern Pondhawk was more cooperative than the Saddlebags overhead.

Yes, Mother Nature is an incredible architect!

Compare the flowers from back on May 20th. Skyscrapers are London's "Gherkin" and Bangkok's "Pearl."

The Mother Nature Appreciation Lap around the Oak Point pond was time well-invested.

© 2014-2018 Nancy L. Ruder

Big N, little n, FX nature

Recently a  coworker took time off to go swim with sharks in an aquarium. Today I spent time staring at schools of tiny fish in the lowering waters of the Heard Nature Center wetlands, at mating Eastern pondhawks, at Mr. Big Ribbit, and listened to a warbler sing about the inch worm it ate for lunch. We each have our own bucket list, I guess.

Inchworm still in its beak.

Eastern pondhawks ensuring the future of their species.

Last evening leaving work I drove past a protest march outside a French restaurant. The marchers carried placards demanding an end to torture of ducks and geese. I don't know much about foie gras, but I was offered a sample of gourmet hummus on a pretzel stick at the grocery store today. A radio opinionator carrying on about Scott Pruitt's disregard of climate science suggested letting hungry polar bears loose in Congress. Congress gras. Congress hummus.

Walking the boardwalk over the wetlands an older couple was torturing two granddaughters with forced exposure to nature. The girls could not spy the warbler, or hear it singing over their own exasperated sighs. "You must learn to love nature," the grandparents kept saying in between phone selfies. March on! Or as the girls thought, "YRMLM."

Passing the spot where I saw snakes* on a recent visit to the Heard I found instead the biggest frog I've ever seen outside of captivity. It was bigger than a 24 oz. bucket of probiotic Greek yogurt.

*4/22/18

© 2014-2018 Nancy L. Ruder

Glorious October, so thankful for you!

How wonderful to be outside without pesky mosquitoes, horrid humidity, and Texas heat! Nature's show beats anything at halftime. Top to bottom: Painted Lady on lantana on my doorstep. cloudless sulphur butterfly, goldenrod, roseate skimmer dragonfly at Oak Point today, and at Heard Museum wetlands yesterday.

© 2014-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Solar eclipse day sightings at Oak Point

Hummingbird clearwing moth at the pond 11:45 a.m.

Lots of catocala moths ready  to surprise the unwary.

At noon the mosquitoes in the shady woods were ravenous. So glad I had my Deep Woods OFF towlette packet. After that they left me alone.

Widow skimmers

Obelisking dragonfly tries to keep cool.

 

Fun shadows on Rowlett Creek

 A small group gathered at the picnic pavilion. Two people had cereal box viewers. Three had eclipse glasses which they shared. I had a collapsible colander. Park employees stopped their mowing to chat for a minute. The mowing really had the dragonflies busy chasing stirred up insects. A red-shouldered hawk hung in the air overhead screeching. I wonder if it screeched about the mowing or the eclipse.

 

It never got very dark.

 Time of maximum coverage in Plano was 1:10 p.m., and coverage was about 75%.

Shadows seem to jump!

The most entertaining of today's sightings defied attempts to photograph. Three juvenile five-line skinks were chasing each other over and under and around this long fallen log in the shadows having a dandy time. A picture of the log can't tell the story, but at least a public domain photo can show the almost neon blue of the skinks.

Photo by Michael Holroyd, Public Domain. 

© 2014-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Refueled

Bee-like robber fly

High occupancy blanket flower

© 2014-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

ABC perfect visit to OP

A

About improvements at the park: I'm excited to see this step in the master plan underway.. 

Anticipating:  "New concrete recreational trail approximately 0.5 mile in length connecting from the Nature and Retreat Center to the Oak Point Amphitheater parking lot. This trail will include a prefabricated corten steel pedestrian bridge over Rowlett Creek and a scenic overlook in the wooded area on the west side of the creek. A portion of the trail will be built as an above ground boardwalk system through a sensitive environmental wetland zone."

The map on this sign is available here.  The text is available here.



B
Bees and basket flowers

Some very large native bees with black abdomens as shiny as patent leather Sunday School Mary Janes in the noontime sun declined to be photographed.

Basket flowers return and make me ridiculously happy, almost as glad as spring's herald, the trout lilies.

C

Caddo Trail sightings:

Skipper

Snout

Camouflaged moth: 

Can you spot it?

D

Dicksissels were calling their loud "dick sissel cham cham cham cham" in the low meadow.

This dam spider, a long-jaw, is dressed up in its best jasper bolo tie, reminding me of my Granddad.

E

Etiquette question: What is the proper way for a turtle to eat a fish larger than itself? No photos of this bizarre sight down at the dam, but I do have a red admiral butterfly dining upside-down.

© 2014-2017 Nancy L. Ruder