This morning it seemed that all the Robins and Cedar Waxwings in Texas were visiting my back yard. And they sure did appreciate my little pond I built in summer. Here they are sharing a little sip from the pond. The water level was a little low so when they left I filled it up with some rainwater from my tanks.

Aren’t they just the sweetest birds? According to the books Robins live year round in eastern Texas. Now I am in Central Texas, so I assume they came for a Saturday picnic. The Cedar Waxwings are just here for the winter and have been appreciating the berries from my Youpon Holly tree. They showed their happiness by pooping the berries all over the driveway!

It’s 71 degrees today and their giving us a 90% chance of rain Tuesday night. I can’t wait.

Isn’t he just lovely? He was feasting on my lemon blossoms and an Ice Plant I bought at a nursery on Saturday.

Ice Plant (Carpobrotus edulis)

I also bought another Yaupon Holly that is full of berries and put him right next to the holly we have next to our window. Earlier this fall when our holly was covered in red berries the mockingbird would sit in it, eat and then attack the window, probably thinking his reflection was another imposter mockingbird trying to steal all his berries! He would spend hours banging against the glass until I lowered the blinds and he stopped. Well he did a great job of clearing out all the berries from the tree so that not even the sweet cedar waxwings could get any. It’s been a rough dry year and the holly was probably stressed and did not make that many berries.  Once the berries were gone, so was the mockingbird. I was sad to see him go. I loved his melodies.

When I added the new Holly to the area on Saturday – all covered in berries – our little mockingbird friend was back, banging on the window. I just wish the cedar waxwings would come back to get some berries before the mockingbird eats them all!!

On Saturday we also spent the morning planting tree saplings in one of the many Austin parks. The city has allocated 2 million dollars to remove invasive plants, and plant native trees and shrubs in their place. These were: Texas Mountain Laurel, Pecan, Mexican Plum, Black Walnut and Sycamore along with many others. This will add to my volunteer time for the Capital Area Master Naturalist program.

This is a sight for sore eyes in the middle of December. A Pipevine Swallow tail and a lot of bees on my lemon tree.  According to the database this fella is supposed to be in Mexico by now. I guess he couldn’t resist a little snack on the lemon tree blossoms. It’s been freezing at night and so when I bring the trees back outside in the morning when it’s warm enough, I usually have some pretty irate bees and butterflies buzzing around me wondering where the heck the trees have been. Even though I have explained to them countless times that I need to bring these trees in at night so they won’t die, they seem just as impatient each morning when I bring them back out. (Sigh)

One of the few Monarchs I have seen this year.

A cold front is moving in tonight bringing some much needed rain. Sadly it is also the last day we will have warm temps and the flowers will probably be gone by the time next week rolls in. Frost is forecast for 4 days and I don’t think I will be able to keep my flowers from freezing in 25 mph winds. So I went out today to take a look at my garden and there was the monarch sitting happily with his buddy Painted Lady and an Orange Sulphur, slurping up the last of the nectar in my Blue Spires Sage. The bees were humming around like crazy too. The garden is positively buzzing with activity right now.

Let’s hope we at least get some substantial rain.

Thanks to the few rain showers we’ve had over the last month, my flowers are still in full bloom. And the butterflies have finally come to visit them! I haven’t seen many butterflies in my garden since moving here. I am assuming it’s because the drought had such a large impact. I was out there today planting my rain lily and daffodil bulbs and the butterflies were buzzing around me. They were getting pretty frisky too. I watched them laying their eggs on the tips of my Dalea flowers. There were several species of caterpillars munching around under the sage leaves. I wonder what they will be doing once the cold temps settle in on Saturday. I’m just grateful that I had covered the flowers from those short bursts of frost we had over the last weeks. I am certain I would not have had the bee and butterfly population right now if I hadn’t.

A lovely painted lady blessing my garden with her presence.

From what I can tell this is a Reakirt’s Blue. They were just so sweet hanging out together on my Dalea.