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21 August 2011
Kidneywood Ecosystem
Despite the heat and drought, the kidneywood (Eysenhardtia texana) is beginning to bloom. It's making the best of a bad situation. And the critters are happy too. This drought has meant that there are very few bugs flitting about. A summer of almost no butterflies, few cicadas, no locusts. I hate that.
But staring out the front window from a cool repose on the couch, I watched bugs like the beautiful little native bee (below), honey bee and beetles (above) flit about the opening blooms.
Then, I saw this fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus, jumping from branch to branch munching on the bugs. A full on ecosystem! I love that.
And, in real time right now, a pair of lesser goldfinches - the male black and yellow, the female dusty yellow - just alighted on the a small bunch of spent echinacea seed heads just in front of my window. They are picking out the seeds. Lovely. There's a reason I leave those ugly black things around. Too bad I don't have a telephoto lens...
But back to the kidneywood. It's pretty much painful to be outside right now, even for a heat-lover like myself. So, it's nice to have these little pleasures, and to occasionally catch a whiff of the sweet sent of the kidneywood flowers wafting over the yard in the hot breeze. There's not much else to recommend being outside these days.
Thank you ffor writing this
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