Summertime

It is summer in San Angelo, Texas. I watch the local weather report each night, and it is starting to look like a broken record. At the close of the each report, they give the forecast for the week ahead, and the daily highs are all triple digits. We are expected to hit 107 at least twice in the next couple of days. And since we can't get any rain, everything is burning up.

This is the plot of ground along the entrance to our neighborhood. The grass here could burn easily.

But just because it is hot and dry, that doesn't mean there isn't some color out here. I pulled out of Market Street (local United Grocery store) yesterday and saw this beautiful purple sage in bloom.

Purple sage in front of apartments across the street from Market Street.

So, when I returned to our subdivision, I kept my eyes open for any color in our area. I didn't see much.

Many yards have this plant. I believe it is a Mexican Bird of Paradise, but I am not positive. It's good color for San Angelo in the heat of the summer.

The not weather doesn't seem to stop the animals. Last week, Donna and I walked to the clubhouse for a birthday dinner. As we were leaving, we came across the little critter in the picture below.

Horned toad

As boys, my brother Larry and I would see horned toads everywhere. You just don't see many anymore.

I get a lot of my neighborhood information from the "walker's grapevine." There is a core group of walkers at Rio Concho West, and we visit during our walks. One gentleman, Dave, is the one who alerted me to the ring tail cats I've discussed before. Lately, Dave told me about a family of hawks he had spotted nesting in the trees at the end of one of our streets. I've been watching the area during my walks and have seen movements, but no clear sightings -- until this morning.

As I turned a corner this morning, I caught a glimpse of movement on a rooftop and paused to look. Sure enough, I spotted 2 hawks on the roof. I snapped the photo, but when I got home, I noticed there were 3 hawks rather than 2 in the photo.

2 hawks are on the roof, one on the left and the other on the right, turned facing one another kind of like bookends. The 3rd hawk is on the tree limb branching left, directly above the hawk on the roof.

I need to carry my camera with me to get better photos on my walks, but I never seem to be able to remember to grab it as I'm walking out the door. The phone camera is alright, but it does not zoom as well, nor does it seem to focus as well. Of course, these photos are taken in the early morning when the light is not that good.

Later, I came across a hawk in the road. It could have been one of the hawks from the picture above. I do know that he was a confident rascal. He was standing next to a pool of water in the road and he was not going to yield that puddle to me. I walked past him as I snapped several pictures, and he was not bothered by my presence.

Hawk in the street.

The hawk fluffed itself up in this photo. I don't know if it was trying to scare me -- it did --or if it was getting ready to bathe. I screamed like a little girl and took off running.

Same hawk, with morning sun reflecting in the puddle.

I ran into Dave and Geneva (another walker) a few minutes later and shared these pictures with them. Geneva mentioned that she had heard that a hawk had carried off a small kitten recently, and Dave said that he had seen one of the hawks catch a smaller bird. They may be looking for me now. I need to keep a low profile.