American Kestrel

                    
It's finally getting a little busier over here. I guess people have waited, and were counting on, some cooler fall temperatures to visit the Parks, but unfortunately we're having a kind of Indian Summer around here at the moment.
The mornings are much cooler, true, around 65 degrees, (love it!) but than the sun comes out and brings the afternoon up to a nasty, toasty 95! Oh well!

The Terlingua Preservation Society was very happy with the weather though since they were having their yearly Terlingua 'Shelby' event.
Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver and entrepreneur. He was best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and later the Mustang-based performance cars for Ford Motor Company known as Shelby Mustangs which he had done since 1965.

The Terlingua Preservation Society is a 501(3)(c) non-profit corporation headed up by a group of friends who share a love for Carroll Shelby-designed vehicles and the Carroll Shelby legacy, in particular the very special part of the world he would go for R&R in his heyday: the Texas Big Bend country.
It is dedicated to raising funds in support of the Terlingua, TX, community, while sharing the Carroll Shelby tradition of automotive excellence and it does this by operating an annual event in the Big Bend region for cars designed by Carroll Shelby.

 

The event is largely a big group of people who love the cars of Carroll Shelby of all models, who get together for socializing, fun, ½ mile drives, slalom, meals, a closed road speed run of 16.5 miles and an auction and car wash from which the proceeds go to local Terlingua beneficiaries.

Can't beat this technology for documenting your event!




Although this is not really my 'scene' and I don't know anything about cars it was sort of fun to watch since the slalom races were in the campground right in front of our RV!
I'm just no fan of these kind of shows (cars, planes, etc) when they involve races or demonstrations. Too many accidents, very often involving innocent bystanders, and all 'just for fun'?

Now this is more MY sort of fun:
                                                                                       


My first American Kestrel (in the wild)! At the first sight of him I almost broke a leg in my haste to get the camera and get outside before he'd fly away. I misjudged the steps of the RV while running out and did my own version of 'fly like a bird'. 
Not as graceful though ... better leave it to the experts.

In hind side, I could have taken my time because over the last week he has become quite the 'regular'. He hangs around the RV, perching often in the dead tree next to us and annoying the heck out of my friend the Shrike who thinks that tree is his and his alone!

See the Shrike at the top right?

        

Isn't he beautiful? I know it's a 'he' because of the blue/grey of his wings. See what I mean:

OK, that was probably a little Kestrel-overkill but he's my first so you have to deal with it!

Oh, and look who are back?

It's the Crackle clan!

                                                                                                                                              
I haven't seen them all summer, who knows where they've been (somewhere cooler I presume) but they're back and it's so good to hear them whistling and 'crackling' again, especially when they all gather around sunset!                                                                                

Sunrise over Big Bend

The 'cooler' weather has held all week, which was wonderful, but the forecast talks about a 'coming back of summer' for the weekend and the rest of next week. Yak! I thought we were done!

So we tried to get an early morning walk in while it's still cool since we haven't done much of those, or of anything, all summer and we're sooooo out of shape.

Nothing spectacular, a moderate, short hike just outside Lajitas, on the Dog Cholla Trail which is part of the 25 mile Multi-Use Contrabando Trail.

In the early 1890s this East Main Trail was part of the supply and stage route that connected Lajitas and the Terlingua Mining District to the Marfa Railhead of the Southern Pacific Railroad located 80 miles to the north.

From the 1890s to the 1950s, prospectors blazed many of the trails in this area in search of cinnabar and Candelilla wax smugglers used them to smuggle the wax to American buyers.

The recent rainfall has coached some wildflowers into flowering (again?) and part of the trail was practically overgrown by grasses.

As usual (for us?) we lost track of the trail within a mile. Well, it might be us, but we feel the trails around here are very poorly marked.

Fortunately the terrain here is very open and we picked it up again shortly before we made the turn onto the larger trail that was bringing us back to the trail head.

                                           

 

Butterflies and dragonflies are everywhere. They seem to try to soak up as much moisture they can get from the wet sand and little creaks between the rocks.

                                           

The Ocotillos are looking almost fluffy now they've sprouted tiny leaves all around their branches.
They're as prickly as ever underneath it though!

Inca Dove

 

shrike

As I've said before, the wildlife isn't really 'in your face' around here but if you look carefully you find enough of it around.

I'm looking at a Desert Millipede there. 'Common after summer rains', my guide book says. Yup!

Funny how your mind works (mine, at least). My hip hurts a little at the moment and I'm just thinking I'm glad I don't have as many legs, and hips, as he!

I was really surprised to see these cacti flowering! Apparently they sometimes have a second bloom in September.

   

A different view from Lajitas Mesa as we hiked around to the other side.

Even closer to home, as in right next to the campground in the wash, I came across these slabs of layered Limestone or flagstone. Nothing special around here but when I looked more closely these were just riddled with fossils.

I had to tread carefully because the stone is very brittle.

 

       
Sea layers of limestone known as the Boquillas Formation (100-95 million years ago) preserved numerous marine fossils all over this area. It shows that Big Bend has not always been a desert land. Oyster-like creatures lived here during the Cretaceous Period. About 135 million years ago, this area was a warm shallow sea that deposited lime mud and housed sea-dwelling organisms such as oysters, clams and snails.

 

On my walks around the grounds I frequently pass this limestone outcropping and although I often find some buzzards sunning themselves at the top, this week I noticed someone else that calls this area home ....

It's a Rock Squirrel. Looking out over his kingdom ....

A big guy (they can be up to a foot long) and from the looks of him a feisty one, with that torn ear.

Just opposite of this squirrel's hill is the brand new residence of our brand new First Citizen Clay Henry!

 

Eh, yes, it's a goat! Remember these cute kids that were born somewhere around the first of the year and that were descendants of the original Clay Henry III?
                                                                


Well, they've all grown up and this summer one of them was elected as the new Mayor.


                                                                      


              
                                            
This is him his-self and behind him you can just see one of the of the horns and a black leg of his wife, the First Lady ;-).
Boy, oh boy, we've really gone to the dogs .....eh, goats, around here!

And last but not least (sorry, Judy) I baked these cute mini apple pies in a muffin tin!
I came across them somewhere on the web and think it's a great idea to each have your own little personal pie, don't ya think?
Very easy to freeze them this way too!

 

Yes, finally, it's Fall! Yahoo! My favorite time of the year! 

I just love the cooling down and the crisp air, the changing of colors, Halloween and Thanksgiving, pumpkins, turkeys, parades, hot chocolate, apple pies and getting cozy in front of a fire!

I didn't waste time decorating! It's not much due to the lack of storage but it gets the message across. Fall!
(just ignore the sleeveless summer dress I'm wearing)
Last year the Resort organized a pumpkin carving contest and brought in a whole bunch of pumpkins so I hope they'll do it again and I'll be able to snatch a few up!

 

Even nature here in the desert got 'in the mood' and cranked out a few

mushrooms for me!

These are Coprinus Comatus or 'shaggy ink caps', 'lawyer's wigs' or 'shaggy mane'. Very common and edible when very young. (these are old).

They appeared after the rains we had recently which also filled the Rio Grande to (and over) the rim and flooded the golf course's cart path between the front and back nine!

(and that's a sinkhole in the upper right)

Together with the rain, lots of ducks seem to have arrived and some other water loving birds like these:

A Great Blue Heron. It's dark coloring and the pretty rusty coloring on his thighs, wings and neck make it a Western Pacific variety.

                       
                                        He was huge!

Next one up is a Black Crowned Night-Heron:

 

















I think it's a fairly young one, maybe in it's second summer, since the breast feathers still have a little light brownish 'hue' to them.

You can see how 'wild' the river is at the moment, it's a pretty strong current.

And than there's this white one on the tree trunk, above the river, a Cattle Egret.

 

Enlarging the pic made him go kind of fuzzy but you 'get the picture', I think?

I realize this post is sort of heavy on the animals but there hasn't been much else going on so it'll have to do for this week.

So here's two more:

 

 

Merl has found a new favorite spot, for the moment, on the cool marble tiles of the step to the bedroom area. 

It's like it's made for him, a precise fit. If he stretches out any more he'll have to put his head through his cat door on the right!