June 24, 2010

The Pecan Grove was quiet when the sun was not in the horizon this morning. I parked my car at in front of the Pecan Grove and walked toward the Glass Bottom Boat dock to observe the Great Blue Heron. There was no sighting of the Great Blue Heron; I thought that it was too early.

At the boardwalk, Nutrias were already busy having their breakfast. Those two juveniles were chasing each other as sometimes they do, but they displayed an interesting act this morning. One young Nutria quickly dove and sprung its tail high in the air making cool splashing sounds to escape from the chase. The other young Nutria which was chasing also flipped up its tail high in the air, making cool splashing sounds and dove into the water continuing to chase the other. Three older Nutrias nearby did not care about that acrobatic play of the young ones, and continued with their breakfast.

When I walked toward the exit, I saw the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron perched on the rail looking down at the water, but the bird flew away toward the Golf course.

I heard voices of Red-Shouldered Hawks and other birds after things gradually became visible. I went back to the Glass Bottom Boat dock to see the Great Blue Heron. I concentrated on looking toward the bushes on the other side of the lake, but I did not realize that the Great Blue Heron was on the fence near the Glass Bottom Boat gate. When I approached the boat gate, a Great Blue Heron flew up graciously and flew away toward the river.

I was happy to see that flowers of the Century Plant finally bloomed! It was only the lowest layer of the branches, but light green buds finally opened, and I saw a bee collecting honey from them. Each of the long pistils was growing high toward the sky just like the stalk itself adding elegance in that gorgeous plant.

At the Pecan Grove, a Red-Shouldered Hawk flew back from the Golf course and perched on a picnic table. I thought that it was the young bird. A Thrusher like bird appeared and started to fly closely to the hawk harassing it. One more Red-Shouldered Hawk flew back from the hill, and perched on near Pecan tree branch, but the Thrusher like bird did not care for the other hawk either. The bird cried “Jee! Jee! Jee!” and flew closely around the young hawk, but the young hawk did not respond to the harassment and just stood still. The other hawk, which I thought was the parent hawk, was just quietly observing the two. The young hawk flew up to the branch of the Pecan tree, and the small bird cried “Jee! Jee! Jee!” following the young hawk. It was a puzzle to me why the small bird kept harassing the young hawk.

At the headwaters of the river in front of the Texas Rivers Center, two young men in light green diving suites were busy preparing for a dive. They were busy strapping oxygen tanks on their back, putting on flippers, and then slowly went into the water. Under the water, their green suites became shinier in the greenish/bluish clear water then disappeared from my sight.

Then I saw a Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron flying toward the wooden raft that the two divers had parked in front of the Texas Rivers Center. The Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron walked slowly around the edge of the concrete, the same as the Great Blue Heron did yesterday morning, and came toward the steps that were painted in blue. The bird saw me, but did not care about me, and stopped on the blue steps in front of me. The bird was looking into the water. I was glad that I could see the Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron so closely. I saw at once that the bird was not the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron. The bird’s feathers and beaks had lost their shine, which indicated the bird was older. The clear identification of this bird was the blackish dots on the white feathers of the head and forehead. The bird also had longer white occipital plumes than the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron. The young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron doesn’t have dots on the white feathers on the head and forehead. I was glad to know that there were at least two Yellow-Crowned-Night Herons on this lake now. The bird could not find any crayfish from that area and flew away toward the river.