The largest dense bluebonnet colonies this year

I got to experience my largest dense bluebonnet colony for 2022 on April 14 in the southwest quadrant of Metropolis Dr. and US 183 across from Austin’s airport. Because bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) vary in height, en masse they often seem to have waves passing through them, even without any wind. The few daubs of red in the blue-purple sea were Indian paintbrushes (Castilleja indivisa). A little earlier that morning on FM 1327 slightly west of US 183 down near Creedmoor I saw a bluebonnet colony that was even larger but it was fenced, so I couldn’t go in and experience it the way I did with the colony along Metropolis Dr. Instead I shot over the barbed wire fence with a telephoto lens, as shown below.

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman

Not red this time

Every now and then I’ve shown you a photograph of the many little red fruits that adorn yaupon trees (Ilex vomitoria) at the end of the year and into the new year. You’ve also occasionally seen some of the gluttons, both avian and mammalian, that feast on those fruits (the last two links take you to cute little animal pictures; check them out).

On April 15th in Great Hills Park I found a couple of yaupons in full bloom—something I hadn’t previously seen (at least not consciously). The top picture provides a close look at a sprig of buds and blooms. In contrast, the bottom photograph pulls way back to give you an overview, a gestalt. In neither picture do you see the many insects that the flowers attracted.

 

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“Our task is that of making ourselves individuals. The conscience of a race is the gift of its individuals.”
— Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, 1952.

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman