The face of politics

 

 

Local elections.  It seems there is always an election going on here in the Valley.  And election time means many billboards and yard signs.  We were noticing recently how one candidate had so many more yard signs than anyone else.  Did that mean that that person had more money, or had more money behind him?  Probably the latter.  That person won the election, which left us to wonder: “Did we just elect that person on the billboard, or did we elect the person with money, whose name we will never know, behind that person?”

 

 

Can you spot the Greater Roadrunner in this bush?

 

 

 

 

We noticed him hanging around the yard.

 

 

A little spooky.  Not a lot, but sometimes he did have to sneak.

 

He hopped up into the firebush for a while.

 

 

 

 

And for our Wild Kingdom moment, he blasted out and snatched a sparrow!  I didn’t get a photo of him with a sparrow in his mouth.  He left the yard as soon as he got it.  Then a few minutes later, he came back for another.  No harm to the house sparrow population here, we’ve got plenty, but now I guess we know the serving size of sparrows.  Two.

 

 

A walk a day

 

 

This time, Frontera Audubon Society Nature Preserve.  A little 15 acre preserve in the heart of Weslaco; a Tamaulipan thornscrub forest.

 

 

It’s a neat walk, and includes a native sabal palm forest.

 

 

Incompatibility

 

 

Two incompatible functions taking place at the kitchen sink and counter.  Cooking and cleaning.  I guess it’s okay if food gets in the way of the cleaning, but I cringe at the thought of a splash of dish soap compromising our food prep!

 

 

Quinta Mazatlan

 

 

A huge adobe mansion from the 1930s.

 

The City of McAllen saved the mansion and grounds in the 2000s and now it’s a history and education center.

 

 

 

History and nature together.

 

 

 

 

 

Becky and Brian

 

 

Standing on a lake.

 

Sal del Rey.  The King’s salt. 

 

Hypersaline lake.  Source of salt for centuries.  Probably for all of human habitation in this area and for local animals from long before.

 

They’re here at Sandpipers visiting us this week, before they go back to the island.

 

And the bad hair day

 

 

Of a yellow-crowned night-heron.