LLELA: February 2018

After a week of heavy rains, the sun reappeared to spread its warmth last Sunday.  In addition to having good light for the first time in a while, I figured they'd be releasing water from Lewisville Lake at LLELA which would in turn attract pelicans looking for fish.  I had fun a couple of years ago shooting those birds.  So off to LLELA I went!

Well, they weren't actually releasing water from the lake.  So the only fishing (besides humans) was being done by a few Greater Yellowlegs.

I wandered the trails hoping to catch sight of raptors in the trees or maybe armadillos or bobcats on the ground.  But instead I got songbirds like this Savannah Sparrow...

...and an Eastern Bluebird.

Speaking of Eastern Bluebirds, I got my best shot ever of one in flight.  Unfortunately, it came with about the ugliest possible perch, too.

I headed to the Cottonwood Trail where I'd seen my first armadillo in the wild three years earlier shortly after we moved to Texas.  There was no armadillo today, but three brown ribbons extending across water left by the rains caught my eye.

Upon closer inspection, the ribbons turned out to be living bridges of red fire ants -- structures I'd heard about but never seen in person.

Like most folks, I have no real love for fire ants.  But I did admire the ingenuity, cooperation, and dedication to the colony it took for this undertaking.

The wriggling, writhing mass didn't seem to have an obvious purpose.  But it did give them connection back to the trail where presumably they could scout for food.

I'm not sure how many of them die, sacrificing themselves for the good of the whole.  But I have to believe some of them do.

I pointed the activity out to a number of other people walking on the trail, all of which I imagine would have walked right by without noticing if I hadn't.  There was unanimous fascination, and a little revulsion.  And yet again I was reminded that nature won't always provide you with exactly what you're hoping for, but if you look hard enough you'll almost always see something interesting!