Visiting biologists

We had some biologists from Texas A&M out at Gault in search of salamanders. It appears that they were unsuccessful, but we'll still keep an eye out...

Whitetails

The herd has been hanging out near the tent frequently, not seeming to mind us going about our business around them. We have had above-normal rain in the region, but the site remains fairly dry (except for the water table in the deep pit, of course).

Peek-a-boo!

It must be getting dry again... we're attracting frogs to the tent. Deer and turkey are gathering in larger numbers, and the pigs are back...

Back from New York

It's been almost two weeks since I returned from New York. It's hot.

Tent visitor

This ground skink was climbing around in the pit the other day, perhaps on pest control duty.

For the birds

Monday we were greeted by three male turkeys competing for dominance in the field near the tent.
Freckles was having none of that... (sorry about the annoying background noise)

Inside the tent, a female Black-chinned hummingbird tired herself out, and took a brief nap before taking off into the blue sky.

Snake alert!

This afternoon at lunch, quite a commotion arose in the big pecan. First a couple of tufted titmice began flying erratically and tweeting incessantly. They were soon joined by three or four black-crested titmice and a summer tanager. The focus of their attention was the crotch between two large branches. It seems that there was an intruder in the tree. This small Texas rat snake was hiding its head from all the harassment.