Tag: photography

What Stuff Are

“Why are you up so early, before everyone else in the family?” A young mom says to her 3 year old.

The 3 year old replies: “To See What Stuff Are!”

This was told to me by my mother many times throughout my life. I was a curious child and continued wanting to know what was going on around me. What were mommy and daddy doing when I was not around? I can remember sneaking out of bed and watching t.v. with them ( I was undetected behind a chair!). Maybe it was/is a sort of “fear of being left out.”

When I was 8 my maternal grandparents gave me a transistor radio. I listened to music and news and talk radio. I remember being at a sleepover at a friend’s. We were in a tent in her backyard and she was sleeping and I was listening to my little radio with an earpiece. I found the Christian radio programs being broadcast from over the border in Mexico. Hell fire and damnation sermons that fascinated me and were so different from my Unitarian church services. Hey, I could even send in some money and buy a piece of the cross Jesus was crucified on…not sure I am remembering that correctly.

As I grew older I wanted to know what was going on in other places. My brother and I got walkie talkies. I was excited to learn that not only could we talk to each other from the next street, we could pick up some police radio chatter! This is how I learned that someone was shooting people from the University of Texas tower. I went into the house and told my mother and some visiting friends what was happening. We turned on the t.v. and watched a live photo of the tower.

A year or two later we were visiting some friends of friends. The dad of the family introduced us kids to a shortwave radio. So cool! We could hear people talking all over the world. I wanted one and finally got one at Christmas or on a birthday. I would spend an hour or two tuning the dial. I would hear ham operators chatting with each other, morse code…which I briefly attempted to learn…and broadcast channels like the Voice Of America, Radio HCJB from Ecuador, and Radio Havana, Cuba. I listened to all sorts of languages, often having no clue to what language it was.

I got rid of my last shortwave radio about the time it could be accessed over the internet. And then only checked out the stations a few times. I have no idea how to do that now. Instead, I have discovered live streaming on You Tube! Lately, I have spent a lot of time checking out a few regular feeds to watch the anti ICE protests in U. S. cities. One or two of the reporters seem to be unbiased journalists. Others are pretty open on their point of view. I mostly watch the liberal leaning ones, but sometimes check out the right wing feeds.

Imagine a bear in a cave, supposedly hibernating, but actually watching You Tube on her Ipad…that is me. Last night I was up late watching a fire someone had set near a detention center in Los Angeles. But, I can only stand so much of people chanting and yelling F*** ICE and watching people being dragged from cars or houses and being shot.

So, I tune into live bird and animal feeder streams from all over the world. I have watched live (and sometimes old clips) views of jackals and gnus at a watering hole in Namibia; hummingbirds in Costa Rica; Pandas in China (in captivity); badgers in Denmark; and birds coming to snow covered feeders in upstate New York and Canada.

A recent discovery is live feeders in South Texas and in South Carolina.

You Tube Feed South Carolina-Deer and Raccoon
Raccoons And Fox-South Carolina
Raccoon, Armadillos, and Opossum (in background) -South Carolina
Javelina, Skunk, Raccoon, and Opossum-South Texas Feeder

I have seen some tussling (usually within the same species) and growling and other threatening behavior between species. But, mostly they are feeding right next to each other…aware of their differences…but tolerating each other as they eat. I know these feeders do not replicate their lives in the wild…but it does make me think that maybe different people can get along better and even be kind to each other and share resources…?

Meanwhile, I will go check out videos of the venerable Monks and their Walk for Peace day 98.

*photos taken off You Tube from my Ipad

*Teenager with head down taken by Barbara Downes

Youtube.com

South Carolina Crittervision Critter Cam: Do a search for this on Youtube…I think this is going 24/7

Blue Indigo Trails Camera in South Texas-do a search on Youtube.com…they may only be streaming at night

Good Ground

The first time my husband proposed to me I was stopped at a red light while driving him to the airport to fly off to a work conference. I said “Yes!” and managed to drive the rest of the way to the airport (we were only about a mile away when he proposed) and drop him off.

The second time my husband proposed a bit differently. We were out on a drive through the Hill Country outside of Austin. He was doing the driving this time and after we had been driving for awhile, he pulled over at a State Historical marker near Pack Saddle Mountain. The marker says that at said mountain in 1873, the last “Indian battle in this region” was fought when a group of 8 white men (I am assuming they were white) “routed a band of Indians thrice their number.”

I had been here before with my brother and Dad on one of my Dad’s long Hill Country drives, where he would point out various Texas landmarks and tell about the history.

Here is the historical marker:

Here is Pack Saddle Mountain:

On this occasion, my husband got out of the car, walked around and opened the passenger door, rummaged around in a brown paper bag, got on one knee, and asked me to marry him while holding out a toy ring. At least this is how we have remembered it all these years later. I again said “Yes” and we did eventually get married after I got a proper engagement ring.

Recently, on our way to San Angelo, we again stopped at this marker and took a few photos and reminisced.

Here are some flowers near the marker:

I wrote about our trip in my May and June blog posts, but didn’t tell about something that happened on this trip. On the way back to Austin, we stopped again at the pullout for this roadside marker and view of the mountain. We stretched our legs and I got back in the car. My husband comes up to my window and presents me with a pretty little flower! How sweet.

Here is the flower:

I thanked him and we did a little kiss. Then, while I was proceeding to put the flower in the center console area to take back home, I noticed some webbing. And then a little spider was dropping down out of the flower on it’s spinneret thread. I didn’t want a spider in the car with us and I didn’t want to hurt the spider. So, I scooped the spider up in the flower and put the flower at the base of a nearby tree to protect it and the spider from the wind.

Below is a photo of the replaced flower (circled in blue):

Talking about this recently…about the second proposal…he mentioned that it seemed like “good ground” when describing the place by the mountain. He said that was an old army term when they were looking at topographical maps. It meant a good place to be in terms of a being able to have the advantage in a battle. I don’t know who had the advantage in the 1873 battle…maybe the white guys since they won. The marker was defaced a few years back with grafitti reading “White history celebrates genocide.” It did get cleaned up and no trace of those words remain as of the last time I saw it this spring.

My husband and I will celebrate our 28th anniversary next month. Our marriage is on good ground and we have both worked at defending it over the years. Many small battles after which we both emerge with a stronger marriage bond. Happy Anniversary Honey!

Photos by B. McCreary

Check out a web page about the marker at The Historical Marker Database:

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=20643

Just A Name On The Map

(Or San Angelo Trip Part I)

On the 10 o’clock news I hear the weatherman say “And today in San Angelo it hit 100 degrees” and i see the name San Angelo on the big televised map of Texas. I have seen this name for years, but it meant nothing to me. I had never been there. I didn’t know anyone who lived there. And then one day, on Facebook, I saw a post about the San Angelo State Park. The poster had gotten some nice bird photos there. It was Spring, and I thought: “Road Trip.”

San Angelo is 205 miles to the northwest of Austin. We drove through rolling hills and interesting towns, the elevation gradually rising with each mile. The state park is on the outskirts of San Angelo. It has 7,677 acres and is a fairly new state park, having opened in 1995. There is a north shore area and a south shore area with a large reservoir made from damming up the Concho river. Check out the website for more information:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/san-angelo

Here are just a few of the other things we saw during our all day visit:

Texas Longhorn Cattle

American Bison

Blooming Mesquite

Prickly Pear Cactus And Daisies

Female Red Wing Blackbirds and White Wing Doves Up Close At The Bird Blind

Turkeys

Scissortail Flycatcher

And as we neared the park exit…

Road Runners Mating…note the lizard in the male’s beak. When they separated he still had the lizard…maybe to attract another mate?

We also saw deer and ground squirrels and a fox. And we saw other unidentified birds that I didn’t get shots of. This is a wonderful place and I recommend it to all who love spending time in the great outdoors. Now, when I see the name on the map, it will bring back the happy memories of all that I saw.

Squirrel and Hawk

While we were eating breakfast yesterday a bit of drama played out in our back yard. I like to face the windows to the back yard just so I can watch yard critters while I eat. My husband spotted a Cooper’s hawk sitting on our back fence…in the same spot I had seen it at dusk the day before. I got my camera and took a few photos through the one window without a screen (removed for just this purpose, to be able to focus my camera). A squirrel appeared moving along the back fence towards the hawk. I was about 45 feet away (that is what my husband’s range finder says) and just had my little Nikon Coolpix A900. But, I think I captured the scene.

Eastern Fox Squirrel approaching Cooper’s hawk on the Squirrel Highway

Squirrel Moving Closer to Hawk (see the tail behind the tree?)

Squirrel displaces Hawk

Hawk flies into nearby neighbor’s tree and then:

Hawk is back. It briefly spread both wings and it’s tail out, perhaps to look bigger. I didn’t get the shot before the wings closed back down. I think the squirrel was down in the bush behind fence at that point.

Squirrel is back!

Standoff!

Squirrel nonchalantly grooming it’s tail while hawk watches.

After this, the hawk flew to a side fence and then flew off out of the yard as another squirrel approached on a perpendicular squirrel highway. Blue jays had been squawking in the background but never got very close to the action.

Neither my husband or I had ever seen this kind of squirrel behavior before. Usually, when a hawk is around the squirrels are frozen against a tree trunk/branch or nowhere to be seen. The first batch of baby squirrels start being born in January and so maybe the squirrels are being more protective of the area? The squirrel was a male squirrel and so maybe just defending territory? The hawk is probably hanging around to get at the fat white winged doves that come to our feeder and may not prey on the squirrels. If the hawk attacked the squirrel I think both would give a good fight.

I had been hoping to come up with a fun political metaphor for this little drama we witnessed, but so far I have not.

I find much joy in observing small bits of interaction from the non humans around us. I hope some small joys of your choice come to you today and every day in 2025!