Return to Little Piney After being away for a month, I was happy to be heading home to Little Piney, and anxious to see what the 100+ temperatures and scarce rain had wrought. As I pulled up to the house in hot mid-afternoon, Little Piney was silent and still except for three squawking crows.Continue reading
Category: Bastrop Lost Pines Nature
Wildlife, insects, native plants and living respectfully in the native environment at Little Piney, home and wildlife habitat in the Lost Pines of Bastrop, Texas.
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Home to Little Piney
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Bluebird Nest Boxes for Total Beginners
How to Install Bluebird Nest Boxes Little Piney hosts a healthy population of Eastern Bluebirds. They are encouraged to settle here by good habitat and available real estate. We have 7 bluebird nest boxes put in place several years ago by previous owners. Recently, I removed all nest boxes for cleaning and fresh paint,Continue reading
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Slash: A Mixed Use High Rise Development for Birds
What is Slash? When our wildlife plan suggested we create brush piles and maintain “slash” I had no idea what slash meant. Well, below is a photo of slash, an architecturally stunning, mixed use high rise for birds in a prime location in the Little Piney area of the Lost Pines, Bastrop, Texas! Maintaining slashContinue reading
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Butterflies at Little Piney
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear You’re a butterfly And butterflies are free to fly Fly away, high away, bye bye –Elton John and Bernie Taupin, 1975 I love how much I’m learning at Little Piney! With every butterfly, wildflower, bird, bug, and animal I discover at Little Piney, I find out more aboutContinue reading
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Dragonflies and Fairytales
Dragonflies rule the insect kingdom at Little Piney, at least in my mind. Like their namesake, the mythological dragon, they are both beautiful and fierce. Swift and deadly hunters, dragonflies fly forward at about 100 body-lengths per second, and backwards at about 3 body-lengths per second. This translates to up to 38 miles per hourContinue reading
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Nest Box Surprises
Newly hatched Eastern Bluebirds When I checked Box 2 by Dragonfly Pond today, I found two tiny baby bluebirds nestled together with three unhatched eggs . I’ve never seen baby birds this young before, all pink and blue with little wispy beginnings of feathers on their heads. If you zoom in you can seeContinue reading
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Dragonfly Pond at Little Piney
Gift from the rain: Dragonfly pond at Little Piney The rain left a gift for us at Little Piney–a beautiful pond. The pond was carved out by previous owners in a lovely curved shape, but the sandy bottom doesn’t hold water. For now, thanks to record rainfall, it’s full of water and life,Continue reading
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Waterlogged But Safe
Memorial Day Weekend Floods The Memorial Day Weekend floods had tragic results in Texas. Bastrop had it’s share of weather disaster with the Colorado River flooding and a dam breaking on small lake in Bastrop State Park. We were fortunate not to sustain any damage at Little Piney. and as new property owners, to findContinue reading
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Texas Wildflowers in Bloom at Little Piney
The wildflowers splash color across the fields and under the pines out here at Little Piney. Decorative and delightful to our eye, these blossoms are also very important to the ecosystem. Look up close, and you see that the blooms are little planets teeming with tiny flies and spiders. Or maybe I should say theyContinue reading
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Snowberry Clear Wing Hummingbird Moth
Don’t you love it when you have your camera ready with the right lens attached, and along comes a beautiful creature willing to ignore you while you shoot? That’s what happened this morning when this Hummingbird moth–a Snowberry Clear Wing, to be exact– caught my eye. Hummingbird moths can hover like their namesake. They haveContinue reading