Katydids on dead trees

Some old pictures from a weekend trip Ben and I took up to Balcones Canyonlands (the "hill country" around Austin, TX) back in late June.  We really wanted to see a black-capped vireo, but it was getting late in the season.  We did hear one beez-beezying in the brush though.

Western kingbird and a baby

Some skinky dude.

A lark sparrow.

Plant and bird sketches

A couple drawings I made with markers and pen:

White throated sparrow with bog plants (sundew, butterwort, pitcher plants)

Black-capped vireo with passionflower. 

Shrews and bats

Today I listened to a talk by a mammal paleontologist about high-resolution stratigraphic records using mammal fossils from the Bighorn Basin, WY.  The talk of pygmy hippos reminded me of a really neat exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History in NY: