deer and cows and sheep, oh my!

As the title suggests, Matt and I have seen more mammals/ungulates lately than anything else. Even bipedal hominids, which is something of an anomaly for us!

Most of June has passed uneventfully, with a few key exceptions of Matt finding a Black-capped Vireo nest and our trip to Buffalo, NY for a former roomie's wedding at the Buffalo and Erie Botanical Gardens. Robyn is one of the most brilliant examples of genius that I know and it must have taken her quite a bit of courage (and faith) to ask me to don a dress. I must say, for grungy field folk, we do clean up remarkably well! It should be noted that my sister independently asked two dear friends to document my bridesmaid-ness.



Dave and Robyn

The public "Buffalo" album has a selection of relevant photos courtesy of Stephanie Golmon, a dear friend from college, who documented some remarkable "firsts" for Matt and myself. We fed each other wedding cake (Robyn & Dave's, of course), danced our first dance, and are still talking after our first plane trip together... very long story there, involving a 12 hr delay en route to Buffalo. So, yes, you can take the birders and scrub them down and dress them up - but they will still find a way to delight in wildlife:



Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), John, Matt, Heidi - photo by Stephanie Golmon

Among the dear friends present were Froggi and John, from the St. Louis area. Froggi is the first person that made me think that I could possibly be normal - or that other people like me were out there. So there's documentation of my documentation and there's a very happy Froggi, flinging cake icing to the gulls. Both photos below are by Stephanie Golmon.



Now back to the actual title of the post - Matt and I most recently ventured down to Rocksprings, TX for another vireo run on Thursday. What we saw along the road was pretty normal, but everything was fenced in. Cows, goats, some exotic deer-creatures, a few donkeys and llamas. Friday morning's drive down to the property, however, included unfenced bunnies, unfenced cows, ~15 unfenced sheep and the ubiquitous deer.

At some point I need to post some damselfly photos from our previous Rocksprings/Junction/S. Llano River State Park trip, we had a few very cooperative subjects. Until next post, happy trails!