By Karen Gleason
It was cloudy, cool and breezy when I headed out to the creek on Sunday morning.
I started by looking around once again to see how plant life was recovering from the days of extremely cold weather we had last month.
The plants seem to be recovering nicely: All of the pecan trees are beginning to bud out, and there are clumps of Argula blooming throughout the Rincon Del Diablo.
I also found a small Texas Prickly Poppy plant. This plant, which produces a lovely, lemon yellow flower, is heavily armed with long, sharp thorns along its leaves, stem and seed pods. One of those things best admired from a distance.
What worries me now is the lack of rain. According to the National Weather Service, we’ve had less than three-quarters of an inch of rain so far this year, and everything is dry, dry, dry.
As much as I love the clear and sunny days, I wish we would have a few days with heavy, soaking rains to freshen things up a bit.
There were lots of birds in the Rincon, as usual.
The winter species still here are getting ready to head for their breeding grounds to the north.
I found the Northern Flicker pair again, along with a number of Yellow-rumped Warblers.
The flickers and the warblers were busy foraging, bulking up for their upcoming trips.
Northern Flickers can be found throughout most of the U.S. year-round. We only have them in the winter here in south-central Texas, but populations of this woodpecker species can be found in far west and far north Texas.
The Northern Flickers we had along the creek this year – and most years – are of the “red-shafted form,” meaning the undersides of their wings and tails are red. This variety of flicker is found mainly in the western U.S. Its eastern counterpart is the “yellow-shafted form,” and there is a separate species, the Gilded Flicker, that lives in the Saguaro forests of Arizona.
Another interesting thing about Northern Flickers is that, unlike other woodpeckers, they can often be found on the ground, where they forage for ants, which are their favorite food source.
Our resident species are busy, too.
I saw several different species of birds, including House Finches, Northern Cardinals and Eastern Bluebirds, flying to and fro carrying nesting materials.
The Northern Cardinals were busy singing. I saw both male and female cardinals singing the species’ typical territorial song, which sounds to me like, “What-cheer, cheer, cheer!”
Spring is coming to the creek, a season of new life, hope and plenty.
