Texas Creatures

I’ve been going on my morning walks and seeing various animals. I saw a fox, but it was fairly far away and long gone before I could take a picture.

While I was on the plant walk, the leader talked about the Cochineal. This insect is encased in a web like cocoon on the paddles of the prickly pear cactus. It’s funny that I’ve seen this cactus for years and never noticed. Now I see these bugs everywhere. Anyhow, the little insects are carefully removed (it’s a cactus!), dried, and processed into a red dye called carmine that is used even now to color food and lipstick. Back in the 15^th – 17^th centuries, the dye was used for fabric. Since the insect only lives on prickly pear cactus, it could only be found in South America and Mexico area. The dye was highly sought after around the world along and even quoted on the London Commodity Exchange. It takes 80,000-100,000 insects to make a kilogram of dye.

Pretty much I see at least one deer during my morning walk. But they run away fast!

I haven’t seen any feral hogs lately, but lots of signs of them when they tear up the sides of a path.

 There were 14 turkeys in this flock.

There are two types of vultures here, black vultures and turkey vultures (in that order in the picture). For some reason they liked to stay in a tree near our campsite every evening. The second picture shows ~40 vultures in the tree. Can you say “creepy”!!!!

OK, these aren’t creatures. These are the rangers teaching us how to cook over the fire. Actually, we were just here for the monkey bread and casserole that they cooked!