Natural History Wanderings

Rob Greebon Photography reports on 4/13/14:

This bluebonnet panorama comes from a dirt road outside of Shiner, Texas. I drove a long way this past Saturday, covering the areas between Gonzalez, Yoakum, Shiner, and Luling. I didn’t find as much as I had hoped, but there were some fields of blue on some of of the Farm to Market Roads between Shiner and Yoakum.

Wildflower Haven has the following new wildflower reports:

Ennis – some areas nice but not much in others 4/12/14

I went to Ennis today and started off along FM 85. There were some areas along the roadsides that looked very full. Most of the fields that had bluebonnets weren’t very full, either there’s not many blooms or it’s just starting to bloom. There were a few fields that had nice blooms. One was east of Mach Rd. The field on Mach Rd doesn’t look as good as 2012 but looks a lot better than last year. Creechville Rd didn’t look as nice as last year. Fields were people were stopping in last year, had only a few blooms this year. The field by the Texas flag gate looked nice. Hornik Rd had very few blooms. I took Hwy 34 to FM 660 then Union Hill to Andrews Rd to Slate Rock Rd back to FM 660. I went up FM 660 and then drove west along Sugar Ridge Rd. Union Hill had a few places along the road where people would stop and take pictures but not much else. The house that looks like a barn didn’t have much in the yard either. Along Andrews Rd, there were some fields on the south side that had nice blooms. On the north side of Andrews Rd, close to the intersection with Union Hill, there is good bloom coverage farther back on the top of the hill. Sugar Ridge Rd is very disappointing. I think this year is the least amount of blooms I’ve seen along there. At the intersection of Old Gin Rd, fields along the north side that have typically had good coverage have almost nothing. Even the open field that the Ennis Garden Club owns is only partly covered. There are some places along Andrews Rd and Sugar Ridge Rd that have quite a bit of Paintbrushes in the field but nothing that makes me go “wow”. There are some areas along FM 813, west of Sugar Ridge, that have nice spots but again, not a “wow”.

Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures didn’t come out good in the color of the bluebonnets. Maybe it was the light filter I had on it or trying to lighten it so they weren’t as dark. Guess I might have to learn how to play with raw (took the pictures in both raw and jpg today).  https://texasbluebonnet.shutterfly.com/pictures/1673

290 to Giddings, then to Industry, 71, and back to Austin  4/14/14.

Today I went on 290 to past Giddings. There were numerous photo ops. Towards Giddings the bluebonnets gave way to more paintbrush. Around Giddings there were a couple of places down the embankment where phlox made a dense pink patch on the roadside, wandering into a little clearing past a fence.

I turned down Roundtop Road, just to see it, and there were flowers on the roadside. Then I went down CR237 through Roundtop and turned on 1291 to Fayetteville, then 159 to Industry. There were numerous bluebonnets and paintbrush. I did see a road into a pasture where there appeared to be dense bluebonnets and cattle past a band of trees, but since it was private, I went past. After Industry there were some nice fields of bluebonnets bordered by multiple colors of phlox on the roadside. Then I turned back and took 109 to Columbus. I found a large field of bluebonnets and paintbrush by a church, and there were lots of bright yellow flowers by the road going to Columbus. Then I turned up 71 and back to Austin. It was getting late, but there were pleasant flowers to enjoy. The bluebonnets do seem to be going to seed a lot on 71.

See more reports at: Wildflower Haven