Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Center: June 2020

As much as I fancy myself the major outdoorsy person in our family, it's actually my wife who's planning to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in September. I'm admittedly a little jealous. But I at least get the opportunity to help her prepare by doing some short hikes now and getting used to things like carrying a 30-pound backpack. THAT I'm not jealous of.

Our first destination was the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Center in McKinney, which really needs a much shorter nickname.  The Bluestem, Wood Duck, and Cedar Brake Trails there all connect and cover about three fairly flat miles.  The center itself has some great gardens that include local plants like Coneflowers...

... and Passion Flowers.

The trails go through some of the little remaining blackland prairie in the country.

The trails have at least a mile of elevated boardwalk through wetlands.

Where one has water in North Texas, one invariably has Red-eared Sliders.  Especially on sunny days.

I found the Cedar Brake Loop really interesting and unique.  I should have paid better attention to the signage to understand just what we were walking through, though.

There was one short section of trail that was fairly flush with a variety of wildflowers.  Otherwise grasses seemed to dominate the prairie.

I thought I'd see more dragonflies like this Widow Skimmer, but there were surprisingly few.

Pickerelweed is not the prettiest name for a very pretty aquatic flower.

I know almost nothing about fungus, but iNaturalist claims this is Oak Mazegill.  Now THAT'S a cool name.

It's always good to see pollinators at work, like this American Bumble Bee on a Texas Thistle.

I didn't see many butterflies on the trails, but the center has a nice enclosed butterfly garden with species like Black Swallowtail ...

... and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail ...

... who I captured one final shot of once the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

Two hours in 90-degree heat to cover three miles.  Danelle's journey to Georgia has officially begun, and I got a few pictures out of it!

The Heard, February 2015

One method of shooting wildlife -- the method I usually employ -- involves covering a lot of ground in the hope I run into something.  Yesterday at The Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary I tried a different approach.  I set up at a blind pointed out to me by a very helpful member of the Heard Nature Photography Club for an hour and waited to see what came to me.

It was a very good choice.

The best news came quickly -- I finally got the Northern Cardinal shot I'd been hoping for.  Good light, good pose, good background.  I love the combination of red plumage and red berries.

After the cardinal, everything else was gravy.  Yummy bushtit gravy, for starters.

The cardinals weren't done with me yet, though.  While the branches obscure the body somewhat, I love the light on the eye and the raised crest of this shot.

The chickadees were actually the first to return to the bushes after I settled in behind the blind.  But they don't stay still long enough for me to get a good shot of them.  I was fortunate to catch this one.

As the sun gradually set, mourning doves came and took up what I assume were their roosting spots for the night.  Beauty in the everyday never gets old.

Speaking of the everyday, I miss the house finches we had at our home feeders in Colorado.  I hope we'll eventually get more visitors at the ones we have set up here.  It's just taking the locals a while to embrace them.

The female cardinals proved more elusive than the males this day.  It wasn't until shade had nearly completely covered the bushes I'd been focused on for more than an hour before one treated me to a halfway decent shot, even with that one branch behind the eye that I just want to reach in and yank out of the way.

As much fun as I had shooting, the best part of my visit was actually getting my first exposure to the photo club.  The members were so open and energetic that I joined before I left.  Looking forward to getting to know them better, and getting back out to The Heard to see more!