Wildflowers at Hagerman (June 2018)

At the tail end of June, there's not an abundance of wildflowers blooming at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. What's left is mostly sunflower, coneflower, and coreopsis.

Coreopsis

Coneflower

When I was going through my pictures, I was really annoyed that my coneflower pictures were focusing at the wrong depth of vision. Then I realized that my mistake was actually a good thing. My camera was focusing on a tiny little spider. I'm not sure what kind it is – it reminds me of an orb weaver but very tiny -- but I'm glad I got a photo of it.

American Lotus (Yellow Lotus)

The waterlilies are starting to bloom, too. I think these are yellow lotus, but I'm not sure. I read somewhere that waterlily flowers sit on the surface of the water and lotus flowers are on stalks above the water, so that's what I'm basing my identification on. (Super scientific, I know!)

I'm not sure what the purplish flowers are. They're definitely a water plant. They remind me of pickerelweed.

With these photos, I saw another surprise guest. Right in the middle of the reeds, there was a great blue heron just hanging about.

Cattle Egrets at Hagerman (June 2018)

I previously mentioned that I don't see a lot of cattle egrets inside Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Usually, they flock to the pastures around the perimeter of the refuge, hanging out with the cattle. On my last visit to the refuge, however, there was a large group of them roosting in a copse of dead trees.

Frisco, Texas - The Old Water Tower

The Old Water Tower is one of the historic landmarks of Frisco, Texas. It's visible from almost all of the old downtown area.

Frisco was founded in 1902, but the water tower wasn't built until 1924. Until that point, everyone in the area used well-water.

I took these photos around lunchtime on a typical cloudless summer day with the temperature hovering just below 100°F:

Red-eared slider at Hagerman (Jun 2018)

There are always turtles out sunning on rocks and logs when we visit Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Unlike the birds, the turtles are much less forgiving of gawkers. They usually slip into the water the moment I see them.

On my last trip to Hagerman, however, a large red-eared slider hung out long enough for me to take a nice photo. I love how mossy its shell is! And if you zoom in super-close, this turtle has an awesome smirk on its face.

Cattle egret at Hagerman (June 2018)

I see more cattle egrets outside of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge than I do inside it. Usually in fields with cows. Which, I guess, is why they're called cattle egrets...?

This is a breeding-age adult cattle egret. You can tell that from the tan feathers and yellowish beak.

Cormorants at Hagerman (June 2018)

This visit was the first time I noticed cormorants at the refuge. I'm sure they've been around on other visits, but they're not exactly flashy-looking birds so it's not surprising that I didn't pay them attention. Cormorants look like someone crossed a goose with a duck and a heron. They look a bit out of place sitting up in a tree, and yet that's where they were.

I'm half-convinced that we saw juvenile Neotropic cormorants but I'm not 100% certain. It's possible that they were juvenile double-crested cormorants. Looking at pictures of both, they are very similar. Most of the differences are marked in comparison to each other and it's hard for me to tell if the ones we saw had shorter or longer beaks (or lighter or darker breast feathers) than the variety we didn't see.

Later on, I saw this cormorant in a dead tree with a red-winged blackbird. It's an odd combination but I love the contrast – especially when the two birds appear to be mimicking each other's body language.

Eventually the blackbird got annoyed with me watching them and it flew off. The cormorant didn't gaf though.

These juvenile cormorants weren't particularly pretty or interesting to watch, but what they lacked in excitement they more than made up for in a chill-ness that allowed me to take some decent pictures of them. I'm not very good at catching good photos of birds when they're flitting about. I'm less "agitated blackbird" and more "slo-mo heron hunting" speed.

American White Pelicans at Hagerman (June 2018)

Pelicans are really weird-looking birds. They don't look like they should fly, swim, or even catch fish particularly well. Overall, they look like they should be really awkward at everything – they're not, but they look like they should be. Being around the pelicans at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge has made me realize that they look creepy as all get-out up close. Creepy in a vaguely prehistoric way. And they watch you as closely as (maybe more closely than) you watch them. I still love watching them fly and bob around in the water; I just get a little creeped out by them now and again.

I didn't realize that American white pelicans get a strange fan-shaped protrusion on their upper bill when they become breeding-age. The first time I saw one with the plate, I thought there was something wrong with it. It definitely adds to the illusion of awkwardness.

These are juvenile American white pelicans. You can tell by their greyish feathers (and lack of weird bill plate). These three pelicans were catching all sorts of fish.

Snowy Egrets at Hagerman (June 2018)

The snowy egrets at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge are stunningly beautiful. They're not particularly afraid of humans either, which (combined with their predilection for moving very slowly to catch prey) makes them great subjects for me to practice with my camera.

This poor bird was trying to get away from us but kept flying just ahead of where we were headed. I love the shapes their wings make when they fly.

I don't know for certain if this is the same snowy egret I photographed in this location on my last visit, but I'd like to think it is. The fluffy feathers photographed really well, even with the wind. In the last photo, you can see the egret is eating something (a small fish?).

This is my favorite photo of the day, I think:

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (June 2018)

This weekend's trip to Hagerman was much hotter than the last. Texas is well into summer already and the temperature was in the upper 90s with almost no clouds in the sky. Along with the uptick in the temperature, there were fewer wildflowers and more "brown stuff" in the landscape. Still beautiful though.

Around the water, the grasses and reeds have gotten a lot taller. Everything is a vibrantly green to the point that it's almost difficult to focus on anything.

On this visit, we actually saw quite a few boats, including a sailboat. Unfortunately, the air was pretty hazy. North Texas has had a lot of "ozone action days" so far this summer.

Insects

Even with the heat, there were a lot of insects. Many were the "annoying" kind that bite (like flies and mosquitoes), but there were also a lot of friendlier pollinators like bees, moths, and butterflies. I think this photo is of a Mexican Fritillary (Euptoieta hegesia):

Juvenile waterbirds

The babies we saw last month have gotten a bit bigger. The Canada goslings were easier to take photos of than the juvenile mallard ducks. Although the ducks were much closer to us, they kept very near the brush along the shore line. And when they thought we were too close, they doubled back, hopped out of the water, and crossed the road behind our car to get to the other side of the water!

We saw a lot more birds than I expected. With the weather so hot and us being there in the afternoon, I thought that we'd see a few blackbirds and egrets and that would be it.

Red-winged blackbird

There were plenty of blackbirds around and most of them were getting very territorial. Weren't able to get any clear pictures of it, but we saw a couple of blackbirds fighting with an egret; I assume the egret got too close to where the birds were nesting.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

This is was super exciting for me -- I've never seen a bald eagle in the wild so close up before. This juvenile was perched on top of an old telephone(?) pole. At first, I thought the dark "blob" was just a control box or something. As I watched, the "blob" moved and I thought it might be a vulture of some sort. The sun was extremely harsh, so it was hard to make out any details. We drove up really close to the pole and, once I saw its beak, I realized it was an eagle. (It wasn't until I checked my birding guide later that I realized it was a juvenile bald eagle.) This bird was very interested in watching things, but not particularly interested in watching us.

Roadrunner

Another exciting sighting was this roadrunner. It ran across the road (literally) in front of us and flew into a bush where it patiently waited while I snapped a few photos.