On the way to the boardwalk entrance, I saw part of the lawn in front of Dr. Rose’s shed was disturbed. I thought that the excavation was done at that site by the Center for Archaeological Studies yesterday. I did not see any members working in the Aquarena Center area this morning.
When I went through the covered entrance, the mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron just caught a big crayfish. The bird held the struggling crayfish between its beak and hurried up the bank. The bird stood at the site where the tub the Sammy, the sick Snapping Turtle was once placed, and turned around and adjusted the crayfish many times then gobbled it up.
The three American Coots were on the way to the feeding place. One of them started beating the water with its wings. Then, the bird started flying on the water surface beating and splashing the water around with its feet still half emerged under the water. The bird landed in the middle of the feeding place and started hunting as if it was very hungry. The other two birds calmly swam near the Great Blue Heron, several Green Herons, and three Snowy Egrets.
A short time later, all birds left for the river except one American Coot and several Green Herons.
When I was standing on the boardwalk, I remembered how busy the feeding place was last year, compared to the quiet wetlands this year. Last year they were filled with excitement with many busy migratory birds and resident birds all summer long. The behaviors of many Tricolored Herons stirred up the wetlands and a pair of the Egyptian Geese enhanced the lawn in front of the diving facility. There were rare visitors; a Roseate Spoonbill and a Glossy Ibis had a short stay at the wetlands and hunted in the feeding place with other birds. An Osprey showed gorgeous flight over the wetlands one day.
It is interesting to see and I feel lucky to see the changing of the wetlands, the behavior of the nature.
July 29
Five Snowy Egrets were flying low, near the surface of the water and appeared from the edge of the woods beside the river. It was beautiful to watch. As soon as they landed beside the Great Blue Egret, they started hunting hungrily. After hunting for a while, they flew away back towards the river again. The regular resident American Coots was reduced to one in the feeding place. I saw three of them, but then two disappeared. I was glad to see a Black-Bellied-Whistling duck hunting nearby stay with the lone American Coot.
The Algae has not gone a way, without any sign of disappearing as I wished. And also, the leaves of the Yellow-Pond Lilies are growing quickly and covering the feeding place. The aquatic birds need better feeding place. Sadly, the wetlands are having a quiet midsummer this year.
Most of the aquatic birds left towards the river this morning, but there were plenty of Black Phoebes around the boardwalk. The characteristic shape of the head, a small rise on its top, creates a little imbalance to its slim body, but these friendly birds were busy catching insects around the boardwalk.
The mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was hunting on the barrier beside of the diving facility this morning, and the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was at the kayak dock in front of the Landing.
Mrs. Leezer, Associate Director and five students from the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University arrived and they moved the excavation site on the lawn in front of the diving facility and the biological research site. I learned that the Indians had organized living conditions 7,000 years ago. From the artifacts, other research, and her experiences, Mrs. Leezer could see a cooking area site, tool making site, and a possibly burial site, etc. Current excavation is a survey, but the members of the Center for Archaeological Studies will conduct the excavation later for more artifacts and more research. It is an exciting project!
I was worried how the birds would react, but it did not have much effect on the birds around the lake.
I saw the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron hunting under the Bald Cypress tree beside the biological research site. I was glad to see the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was not bothered by the excavation project; a student was digging in the lawn near the bird.
The Chinese Domestic Geese family was taking a morning nap under the Bald Cypress tree beside the Swiss Sky Ride. Many flowers of the Fire bush opened this morning and a couple Blue-Throated Hummingbirds were busy collecting the honey from the flowers.
The Algae has not gone a way, without any sign of disappearing as I wished. And also, the leaves of the Yellow-Pond Lilies are growing quickly and covering the feeding place. The aquatic birds need better feeding place. Sadly, the wetlands are having a quiet midsummer this year.
Most of the aquatic birds left towards the river this morning, but there were plenty of Black Phoebes around the boardwalk. The characteristic shape of the head, a small rise on its top, creates a little imbalance to its slim body, but these friendly birds were busy catching insects around the boardwalk.
The mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was hunting on the barrier beside of the diving facility this morning, and the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was at the kayak dock in front of the Landing.
Mrs. Leezer, Associate Director and five students from the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University arrived and they moved the excavation site on the lawn in front of the diving facility and the biological research site. I learned that the Indians had organized living conditions 7,000 years ago. From the artifacts, other research, and her experiences, Mrs. Leezer could see a cooking area site, tool making site, and a possibly burial site, etc. Current excavation is a survey, but the members of the Center for Archaeological Studies will conduct the excavation later for more artifacts and more research. It is an exciting project!
I was worried how the birds would react, but it did not have much effect on the birds around the lake.
I saw the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron hunting under the Bald Cypress tree beside the biological research site. I was glad to see the young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was not bothered by the excavation project; a student was digging in the lawn near the bird.
The Chinese Domestic Geese family was taking a morning nap under the Bald Cypress tree beside the Swiss Sky Ride. Many flowers of the Fire bush opened this morning and a couple Blue-Throated Hummingbirds were busy collecting the honey from the flowers.
July 28
This morning, under the direction of Mrs. Carole Leezer, the Associate Director of the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University, five students were digging in the lawn in front of the Aquarena Gift Shop.
The students already found some artifacts and Mrs. Leezer was listing these artifacts on a form. One of artifacts was a rock. To me, it was a piece of rock, but from the eyes of Mrs. Leezer, the way of chipping was not natural, but by men. She considered the rock was a tool for making other tools. I found out that one of the artifacts was a shell, but it was a snail shell, not a sea shell. She mentioned me that the Aquarena Center area was the camp site for Indians about 7, 000 years ago. She also added that the excavation of the lake, near the submarine indicated that there was human activity around 12, 000 years ago. Mrs. Leezer gave me the web site for the organization.
http://www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/
Yesterday afternoon, I briefly stopped by the Pecan Grove, at the excavating site again. At that time, five students were still digging, shifting, examining, and listing all information on the brown bags and the forms. Mr. David Yelacic, a staff of the Center for Archaeological Studies was examining some artifacts on the picnic table. There were three chunks of soil which came from the same excavation site, but interestingly, each soil had a different color. He was comparing each sample of soil with the Mensell Soil Color chart, and listing each on the form such as the color, collection site, and the depth.
Also, Mr. Yelacic found a small piece of flint from his digging site. To me, it was just a tiny flint with sharp edge, but he drew the picture of an arrow-head and placed that flint in that picture. Amazingly, that small flint did fit in that arrow-head picture. He was able to analyze each artifact from his experiences, knowledge, imagination, and his passion. He held that flint and said that the part of arrow-head was in the hand of a person who lived many thousands years ago.
A squirrel was acting strangely in this morning at under the Bald Cypress tree beside the biological research site. The squirrel was digging a shallow hole and rolled over in that shallow hole as if scratching its back. The squirrel repeatedly rolled over and did that scratching acts in that hole. Then, it started walking toward the lake with its tail high, and the squirrel brought the tip of the tail to its head, but turned around to walk toward the Bold Cypress tree and jumped. I was surprised to see that the squirrel jumped that high. Then the squirrel started digging another hole and rolled over in that shallow hole too. I wondered whether the squirrel was trying to rid of something from its back, or just a showing off its young energy.
July 27
Two Great Blue Herons were taking an early morning flight around the lake and the wetlands, this morning. One of them flew down to a tree branch while the other stood under a tall palm tree that grew across the lake from the Landing. Both birds stretched their necks to look around. It was a picturesque scene.
The young yellow-Crowned-Night Heron was looking into the tiny inlet at the right side of the kayak dock, where erosion created a tiny inlet, and sometimes, small fish and crayfish are trapped in there. The bird seemed knew that the crayfish was unable to escape. I could see the bird was relaxed, following the movement of the crayfish for a while and then gobbled it up.
Mr. Wallendorf, a manager of the Lake was on the way to the diving facility with his diving partner, Mr. Heard. They were to clean the bottom of the lake. I was glad that he gave me the location of a black chinned Hummingbird nest at the Bald Cypress tree, and he added that the nest was tiny. I was surprised about his excellent observation. I tried for weeks, but I was unable to locate it.
Mr. Wallendorf also told me about the web worms that are quickly spreading around Aquarena; especially, two trees beside the closed Aquarena restaurant and one tree next to the diving facility. Parts of those trees were covered with webs. I asked him what the solution was to get rid of these worms. He said that as they would not be able to use chemicals, the only way is to open up the web and let wasps eat the worms, solving the problem the natural way. Mr. Wallendorf and Mr. Heard hurried to the diving facility for their diving work.
Rick, the landscaper who has been working at the Aquarena Center for 26 years was busy pruning the branches in front of the Aquarena Gift Shop. After he pruned drooping branches, the gift shop became brighter as if the gift shop took its hat off to welcome the people.
When I tried to drive off the Aquarena Center, I saw something going on in the Pecan Grove. There were five Archaeology students digging three small square holes near the headsprings. They were looking for artifacts left by the Indians who lived here centuries ago. An instructor told me that the survey was for the future development plan of the Aquarena. I was excited to see the excavation!
The shovel was narrower than a regular shovel and each shovel of soil was poured into a rectangle soil shifter. Students shifted the soil and what remained l was carefully examined by hand to see whether there were any artifacts left in the shifter. It is hard tedious work. One student said that she found a shell. It was interesting to hear that there were shell fish in the lake decades ago. How about current time?
Every artifact they found was listed with the location and the depth on the brown bag and individually stored. I asked the instructor how deep they would dig. She said that about two feet.
Mr. Ron Coley, the director of the Aquarena Center came to see how the project going. He told me they did an underwater dig in the lake last week, and found several interesting artifacts from the bottom of the lake. The Aquarena Center is filled with excitement.
July 26
The mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron showed interesting behavior this morning. When I went through the covered boardwalk entrance, she was standing on the left side of the railing facing a pair of Yellow-Crowned-Night Herons; one juvenile and one grown bird that I thought was the mother of the young bird. The pair of Yellow-Crowned-Night Herons stood not far from the mother of the chunky, juvenile bird. I had seen and I knew her strong character, defensive attitude such as, lowering her head towards in-coming birds showing her readiness for a confrontation, and if the bird did not go away, she attacked.
However this morning, the mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron didn’t have a defensive posture, but just stood there watching. Interestingly, after for a while, the mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron turned back to the pair of herons, looking down at the water for a couple minutes, and flew down to the floating dead tree trunk to hunt.
I was puzzled. The strong mother accepted the other pair of Yellow-Crowned-Night Herons in her territory and they stood together without any incident. It was an unexpected scene to observe. I wondered whether the female heron was her offspring of past years; and also, I wondered whether the Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron had the ability to recognize its offspring from past years or not.
A juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron and its mother stood there and watched the mother of the chunky, juvenile Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron hunting for a while; but eventually, flew out and perched on the dead tree branch near the “Keep Off” enclosure.
A single swallow like bird was flying around the wetlands. The speed and elegant flight brought a moment of freshness. From its white cheeks and the under parts, I thought that it was a Violet-Green Swallow. The bird might be strayed from the flock, but I was glad to see that beautiful passerby.
I saw some Nutrias in the wetlands, but I noticed that the number of Nutrias in the lake were less than yesterday.
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