Fall visitors Temperatures range in the nineties yet there are hints of fall in the air at Little Piney. Early mornings feel pleasant, and migrating birds stop by for seed and berries. I’ve spied two early ducks, a Black and White Warbler, and a Baltimore Oriole. I hear lots of new calls and songs and seeContinue reading
Tag: Bastrop Tx Lost Pines
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Hints of Fall
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Home to Little Piney
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
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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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Wet Weather Spring, Robber Fly, and Nest Box Blues
Wet-weather Spring Dragonfly Pond was a gift of the Memorial Day weekend rains in Central Texas. This lovely pond is usually more of a shallow bog, maybe a foot deep at the deepest point. Water seeps out of its sandy bottom with the usual light rains we have. When we first saw a reddishContinue reading
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Birding with Greg Lavaty at Little Piney
Last January when I began identifying the winter strangers at my Little Piney feeders, I discovered the work of Greg Lavaty. On his Texas Birds website I found intimate and detailed views of the Texas birds I was looking for. Many times these photos helped me more than my guidebooks, and they were a treatContinue reading
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Gophers, fire ants, and poison ivy, Part II (But let’s add chiggers and call in reinforcements)
Gopher, fire ant, and poison ivy offensive foiled by rain The true story follow-up to Part I of this post is that my plan got almost completely rained out. After the rain fell all morning, and I allowed a few hours for drying time, all I managed to do was spray some poison ivy withContinue reading
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Alligator and Bobcat at Little Piney…Or Are They?
Bobcats for Sure Now that we have been at Little Piney for 2 1/2 years, we know we share the land with bobcats. We have had daylight encounters with the spotted cats as they cross our property into the woods. Our game camera captured a bobcat tossing its prey into the air and leaping upContinue reading
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Best online lists for Bastrop birds, wildlife, native plants
Lots to learn As a newcomer to Bastrop and the Lost Pines, I’ve spent many hours online accumulating information about the wildlife and plant life of the area. Here are the best online lists for Bastrop birds, wildlife, and native plants for information specific to Bastrop: Best bird list: Birds of Bastrop and Buescher StateContinue reading
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Dinner at Baxter’s on Main in Old Downtown Bastrop TX
Ken and I celebrated our anniversary at Baxter’s on Main. Baxter’s has a special place in our hearts–we stopped there the evening we first saw little Piney. We had cocktails and dinner at the bar watching people come and go, eavesdropping, and imaging what it would feel like to be locals. This was our firstContinue reading