Purple Martins, thousands of them, have found a temporary home in Round Rock before moseying onto the South America, where they will spend the winter.   Each night, these hardy little birds fly above the Greenlawn Crossing Shopping Center before settiling in for the night.   Travis Audubon members are hosting free watch parties here tonight, followed by two more gatherings on August 7th and 8th, beginning at 8pm.  These birds are nifty, but the migratory birds at Taylor’s rookery are still the best for this photographer.  It’s still neat to watch these Purple Martins.

Another post from a recent weekend drive.   Offered here are photographs from the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin St. Mary’s Catholic Church in High Hill, Texas, one of the Painted Churches  in Texas.   The church, opened in 1906, is  in Fayette County, just a few miles north of Schulenburg.   It’s one of the Painted Churches documented for Texas Highways magazine about a dozen years ago.  The sanctuary is remarkable.  

These were taken at Berry Springs Park & Preserve just before last week’s cowboy wedding there.   Each critter and flowering plant is identified with the Google search feature on most everyone’s phone, but a friend, a Master Naturalist, can identify almost every plant and small animal out there without having to do that.  Things aren’t identified here.  You’re welcome to guess.  This was mostly an excuse to use a 105mm Nikon Z lens that’s remarkably sharp.

Late-July sunsets, friends. Two are from Wednesday evening, the windmill from tonight.   All from East Williamson County, close to Granger.   Let’s leave it at that.

There’s no adequate way to visually describe the  mass of avian life that arrives each Spring at Taylor’s Murphy Park, but we try.   These photographs are from  two recent outings.   When moving here in Summer 2009, the visual radar soon gravitated toward this site.   Granted, there are too many posts from here, but there could be more.   The impetus for tonight’s offering was prompted by a friend’s visit here this week.   The friend was captivated.   On one of these outings another first-time visitor was also enthralled.   If you plan to visit the site and want to see hundreds of migratory birds gathered, it’s best to be here in the time nearing sunset.   They’re around during the day, but at night they’re abundant.  

Photographs from tonight’s Full Moon, as seen from the Blackland Prairie.  Farm country. friends.

One from tonight at the rookery in Taylor’s Murphy Park.   The Waxing Gibbous moon was at almost 98% visibility.  Other photographs have been made here recently, but tonight, just this one.

A Waxing Gibbous moon, at nearly 93%, rises over Saint Peter’s Church of Coupland on Sunday evening.   Coupland is a beautiful community minutes south of Taylor.  

The walk photographs continue.  All from this collection were taken in Taylor.  Algae on the creek is almost interesting, but pesky.   The oppressive heat is slowing things down, but we’re good to go.   A water bottle is now a part of the stroll toolkit.   We soldier on.

Let’s be clear, friends.  Weddings are not part of my toolkit.  During a career spanning almost 57 years,  wedding photography has only been undertaken a few times.    A visit to Georgetown’s Berry Springs Park & Preserve this morning was just to look for butterflies, flowers and other botanical things.   When packing up to leave, however, a group of folks, many wearing cowboy hats, made their way to a grove of old-growth pecan trees.   A wedding was about to take place.   The bride and family gave permission for photographs.   If they had said no,  so be it.  So a nice slice of life was documented. .  This wasn’t the planned post tonight, but a photographer colleague posted a beautiful photograph this afternoon, a cowboy under a beautiful Nebraska sky, a photo taken years ago with Kodachrome film.     It is National Day of the Cowboy, mentioned in his post.   How many know that?   Thus this offering posted tonight.  A member of the wedding contingent mentioned the groom had been a bull-riding athlete.   Bull riding brings out the real cowboys.