Texas Bluebonnets!

Bluebonnets and paintbrushes

I mentioned in my post on the 2024 solar eclipse that one of the reasons we had chosen Ennis, Texas, to view it was the possibility of bluebonnets. And, we lucked out on that. 

We got 'em!

Plus, there was a nice contingent of paintbrush flowers (AKA Indian paintbrushes). 

Sometimes the paintbrushes dominate

The Ennis Welcome Center has lovely glass sculptures

Ennis, Texas

Ennis is a town of 22,000 people just south of the DFW area that is surrounded by farms and ranches that turn into the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails in April. The Bluebonnet Trails Festival, held at the end of the month, celebrates the state flower of Texas and the vibrant bloom of wildflowers in the surrounding countryside. 

Trail map

First hosted in a town park in 1938, the Bluebonnet Trails have expanded into a 40-mile route along rural farm roads through the countryside east and northeast of the city. 

The Trails have been hosted and mapped out by the Ennis Garden Club since 1951. 

In 1997, the Texas Legislature designated Ennis the "Bluebonnet City of Texas" and the official "Bluebonnet Trail of Texas." 

Why is this Flower Special?

Bluebonnet is a name given to any of a number of purple-flowered or blue-flowered annual wildflower species of the genus Lupinus predominantly found in southwestern United States. The multiple species are collectively the state flower of Texas (it is too hard to identify one from another to select one species). 

They are lupines

Do you see a bonnet?

The shape of the petals is said to resemble bonnets worn by pioneer women to shield them from the sun.

Bluebonnets mean spring in Texas and Former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson has a lot to do with that.

When her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, was President, Lady Bird was involved in highway beautification. After they left the White House and returned to their beloved Hill Country, she began encouraging planting wildflowers and native plants along Texas highways. 

Click here to see my 2021 post about visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center near Austin. 

Becca in bluebonnets, 1991

A common sight in springtime, bluebonnets serve as a popular backdrop for family photographs. The Department of Public Safety even issues safety recommendations with regard to pulling off highways to take such pictures (it's not usual to see groups of children on Interstate medians).

Bluebonnets thrive in degraded soils in full sun with little competition. That means that you'll often see big fields of bluebonnets on heavily grazed land, land that has experienced recent fires and land that has been mown, such as a roadside. 

Bluebonnets in a field

In fact, TxDOT times roadside mowing to allow for bluebonnets and other wildflowers to reseed for following years. TxDOT also buys and sows about 30,000 pounds of wildflower seed annually. While it isn't illegal to pick bluebonnets or to walk through them on public lands, Texas encourages people to avoid crushing or picking them so that everyone can enjoy them.

We were careful walking in the fields (to protect the flowers and avoid snakes)

Bluebonnets germinate in the fall and their rosettes (clusters of leaves) grow over the winter. In late winter and early spring, after the warm rains begin to fall, the rosettes grow into larger plants and begin to blossom. 

Right on time this year

The amount and timing of fall and winter rain determines the success of germination and the blooming season. Cool spring weather will slow down the show while warm weather speeds it up. 

While peak bluebonnet season is usually in early April, it's difficult to predict exactly when bluebonnets will bloom from year to year.

With a lovely scent, they are attractive to pollinators and serve as host plants to several species of butterfly, including Northern Cloudywing, Gray Hairstreak, Henry's Elfin, Orange Sulphur and Painted and American Lady. 

Pollinators love them

They also put nitrogen into the soil, which enriches it for other plants.

Photo: PlantAnswers

Although bluebonnets are typically blue, occasionally there are light blue, white or pink variants caused by genetic mutations. Plus, other colors, such as purple, have been commercially developed. The variants generally don't stick around in wild populations because the blue flower color is dominant. 

When pollen from the blue flowers pollinates flowers of the other colors, the resulting seeds will more likely develop into blue-flowering plants.

I have seen a few light purple and white ones, but most I have seen were blue.

While we often speak in terms of bluebonnets, in actuality, it is wildflowers we seek, especially the brilliant scarlet-to-orange paintbrush that often blooms in concert with bluebonnets.

Dramatic

Paintbrush flowers can also be cream, yellow or occasionally purple, but that is far less common. 

We found a few yellow ones

The bright tips of the petal-like bracts look like they've been dipped in paint. With their contrasting colors, the two flowers boost each other's vibrance when blooming together.

So, we toured all the trails, stopping in parks and on roadsides to photograph fields of ... 

... pure bluebonnets ...

... bluebonnets and paintbrushes ...

... and, occasionally, bluebonnets with other flowers

Some of the highlights (and very Texas sights), included ... 

Some domestic Swans in a private pond ...

... Longhorn cattle ...

... including a few calves ...

... mixed herds of cattle ...

... with even more calves ...

... old farm equipment ...

... and the most perfect Texas barn that you could imagine ... 

In fact, the barn was so perfect that it is featured on a full-wall mural at the local Denny's!

Caty comparing her shot to theirs

Before the eclipse, Scott, Caty and I toured part of the trails and then Caty and I went back and did the rest of the route. 

The weather was gorgeous for these excursions, so we had to declare this part of the visit a success! 

Win!!!

Texas Longhorns

I mentioned that we saw some Texas Longhorns, so let's just talk a little about this iconic critter ... 

Texas Longhorn cow

A uniquely American breed of beef cattle, the Texas Longhorn is characterized by (not surprisingly) long horns, which can span more than eight feet from tip to tip. Steers generally have the longest horns. The records are 10.58 feet for a steer, 8.67 feet for a cow and 8.58 feet for a bull.

World record holder, Poncho Via; Photo: NPR

Longhorns can be any color or mix of colors. 

 About 40 percent have some shade of red, often a light red

A black bull

The cattle can also be variations of black, blue, brown, cream, dun, grey, yellow or white, either with or without patterns, including a striped pattern, brindling, speckling or spotting. Despite the diversity of colors seen in Texas Longhorns, just one or two pigments produce all of the hair colors (this is true for all mammals). Eumelanin is black that can also look gray or brown. Phaeomelanin is red that can look orange or yellow in lower concentrations. 

If neither pigment is produced, then hair is white. Therefore, all of the roans, brindles, speckled patterns, linebacks, grullas, reds, yellows, oranges, browns and blacks seen in Texas Longhorns come from varying amounts and patterns of expression of these two pigments on different parts of the body. However, the distribution of these two pigments is controlled by a large number of different genes, which makes the inheritance of the two pigments somewhat complex.

A typical look

The breed originated from cattle brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas by Spanish Conquistadors from 1493 until about 1512.

The Andalusian cattle I saw in Spain looked similar (because they are)

Spaniards used the cattle in Mexico and gradually moved them north to accompany their expanding settlements. They reached the area that became known as "Texas" near the end of the 17th century. Eventually, some cattle escaped or were turned loose on the open range, where they remained mostly feral for the next two centuries. Over several generations, descendants of these "hardy" cattle developed to have high feed- and drought-stress tolerances.

Painting: Peakpx

Still, Texas Longhorn stock slowly dwindled and faced extinction. The breed received significant attention after a Texas Longhorn named "Bevo" was adopted as the mascot of The University of Texas at Austin in 1917. 

The first Bevo

In 1927, the U.S. Forest Service collected a small herd to breed on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Lawton, Oklahoma, basically saving the species. A few years later, small herds were kept in Texas State Parks.

Longhorns were cared for largely as curiosities, but the stock's longevity, resistance to disease and ability to thrive on marginal pastures resulted in a revival of the breed as beef stock. They are inextricably linked to Texas history.

This one lives at Pipespring national Monument in Arizona

In 1957, Charles Schreiner III created a Longhorn herd on his YO Ranch in Mountain Home, Texas, as a tribute to the ranching legacy of his grandfather. In 1966, Schreiner organized a cattle drive of Longhorn steers from San Antonio, Texas, to Dodge City, Kansas, as a centennial commemoration of Chisholm Trail drives. As part of the festivities, Schreiner had local members of the Quanah Sheriff's Posse stage a simulated "Indian attack" as the steers crossed the Red River. The attack was so authentic that the cattle stampeded. Four hours were needed to reassemble the herd.

Texas's official large mammal

In 1995, the Texas Legislature designated the Texas Longhorn as the state large mammal. Now, Texas Longhorns from elite bloodlines can sell for $40,000 or more at auction. The record was $380,000 for a cow and calf in 2017.

When we were photographing Longhorns, we witnessed a female moving a calf along using her prodigious horns ...

That must have hurt

... and, the bull charged the fence ...

That could have hurt

Gotta Go

Selfie time!

So, after spending our time enjoying wildflowers and watching the eclipse, we hurried back to the DFW area so that Caty and Scott could fly home the next morning. We even had a great lunch at the historic El Fenix restaurant in Dallas.

Caty had to go back to work and Scott was leaving the next day to drive back through Texas with a friend to attend the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

I was heading south and (as it turned out) saying good-bye to bluebonnets.

A last look

Trip date: April 7-17, 2024

Total Eclipse!

2024 total eclipse, Ennis, Texas

Back in 2017, Caty and I went to Idaho to view the total eclipse and it was amazing. 

2017 total eclipse, Driggs, Idaho

We decided about two seconds after it was over that we had to see another. We looked it up and determined that the next, most logical, one was April 8, 2024, with a wide path scooting diagonally from Mexico through the eastern United States to Maine. 

The path with our location; Chart: National Eclipse

The most logical place for us to go was Texas because: #1 weather in Texas in April might be pleasant, #2 the path was just a little over 12 hours away and #3 bluebonnets! 

Texas is famous for a lot of things, including bluebonnets

It seemed so, so far off, but, here we are in 2024 and I just got back from my second total solar eclipse that I watched with Caty and Scott. Yes, we invited Becca, but she declined and was able to see a pretty good partial from Oklahoma City. 

In between, last year, Caty and I went to Nevada to a see an annular eclipse and Scott saw it in Texas. 

2023 annular eclipse, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

In my earlier blog, I didn't explain a whole lot about eclipses, so let's dive in.

What is a Total Eclipse?

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses, only part of the Sun is obscured. Unlike a lunar eclipse, which may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth, a solar eclipse can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world. As such, although total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average, they recur at any given place only once every 360 to 410 years.

Straight line; Chart: timeanddate.com

The Moon's orbital path around Earth is inclined at an angle of approximately 5° to the Earth's orbital plane around the Sun (the ecliptic). Without this slant, we would be able to see two eclipses per lunar month: solar at every New Moon and lunar at every Full Moon. But, that doesn't happen because to have a solar eclipse, the New Moon must be at or very close to one of the two points where the orbital planes meet, called lunar nodes. If the New Moon is not near a lunar node, it passes just above or just below the Sun as viewed from Earth.

This is how the nodes work; Chart: timeanddate.com

On April 8, the New Moon was at a lunar node. But, that's not enough.

The Moon's path around Earth is elliptical, with one side of the orbit closer to Earth than the other. The point closest to Earth is called the perigee and the side farthest from Earth is known as the apogee. Earth's orbit around the Sun is also elliptical, with the Sun closest at perihelion, and farthest away at aphelion.

Earth's and the Moon's elliptical orbits mean that Earth's distance from the Sun and the Moon's distance from Earth varies throughout the year.

Fully covered

It also means that from Earth, the Sun's and Moon's apparent sizes change during the year.

When the Moon is about 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun, the Moon's and Sun's apparent sizes roughly match, Total solar eclipses can only occur when the Moon is near perigee. This is the only time when the disk of the Moon is big enough to cover the entire disk of the Sun.

When that happens, the Moon's shadow creeps across the Sun, reducing it to a crescent (this is called the progression), slowly darkening the sky. 

Just a few slices

When the Sun is totally blotted out, the sky is dark, which allows you to see the corona: rays of light streaming out from the Sun. You can also see prominences: flares of flames exploding from the Sun's surface. 

What you can see!

As the relative positions of the Sun and Moon continue on their paths, the shadow pulls away and the crescent grows larger until the full Sun is revealed. This is the regression.

With eclipse glasses; Photo: Scott Stevens

During both progression and regression, the Sun's full fury can be seen and you must protect both eyes and cameras from the intense light. We had several types of eclipse glasses and special filters for each lens.

During the total eclipse, none of the Sun's surface light is viewable, so you can remove glasses and filters and look at the corona with naked eyes.

The corona in full blaze

When you photograph an eclipse, you can vary the exposures to get difference looks of the corona. 

Nothing changed here except the camera settings and PhotoShop processing

And, just before and just after totality, if you are fast you can see the "diamond ring," a burst of light that looks like, well, a diamond ring. I caught it both times.

I got better flare in 2017, left, and better focus in 2024

Scott got it coming in and Caty got a nice one going out

Annular eclipse, 2023

An annular eclipse is similar, but because the Moon is not at perigee, the Moon only partially blocks the Sun, leaving a full viewable ring around it. 

You can't take off the glasses for this because the visible Sun ring would burn your eyes.

The annular eclipse is cool, but nothing compared to a total. 

During any total solar eclipse, totality lasts the longest near the center of the path, widthwise, and decreases toward the edge. The time in totality falls off slowly until you get close to the edge. Past the edge, you can see a partial eclipse, with only part of the Sun obscured and no chance for a corona. 

Almost all of the U.S. could see some degree of eclipse; Chart: Celestron

For both eclipses, we were right on the center of the totality.

More time to get the shot

This year's eclipse had lots of pluses, making it even cooler than 2017 (plus, it was Scott's first total eclipse). 

The 2024 eclipse had a longer time in totality than 2017. Back then, the maximum totality was 2 minutes and 42 seconds. This year's maximum was 4 minutes and 28 seconds in Mexico and just a few seconds shorter where we were. 

The 2024 eclipse had a wider path than the 2017 one, making it more accessible to more people (plus it ran through much more populated areas). 

Two very different paths; Chart: NASA

This is because, as the Moon orbits Earth, its distance from our planet varies. During the 2017 total solar eclipse, the Moon was a little bit farther away from Earth than in 2024, making the shadow a bit smaller. In 2017, the path ranged from about 62 to 71 miles wide. In 2024, the path over North America was 108 to 122 miles wide.

Hot stuff!

Immediately evident when the eclipse entered totality was a higher level of solar activity. 

Every 11ish years, the Sun's magnetic field flips, causing a cycle of increasing then decreasing solar activity. 

During solar minimum, there are fewer giant eruptions from the Sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. 

But during solar maximum, the Sun becomes more active.

In 2017, the Sun was nearing solar minimum. The corona was more uniform and we could see only one major prominence and only when we looked at our photos. This year, the Sun is near solar maximum. The corona was more lopsided and there were numerous major prominences, visible to the naked eye.

2017, left, and 2024, right

The biggest one we could see was, according to NASA, the "size of several Earths."

Imagine a flare bigger than Earth!

It reminded me of Arctic Henge in Iceland ... 

It just kept popping into my head

Why Ennis?

Caty selected Ennis, Texas, as the best possible place because, as I mentioned, weather seemed more predictable than farther north and (a big AND) Ennis is famous for its spring bluebonnets (and other wildflowers, such as the very evident bright orange paintbrush flowers). 

Caty loves her some bluebonnets! And, why not?

Bluebonnets are the most beautiful aspect of Texas. And, despite that, we had never visited Ennis' Bluebonnet Trail. I will talk about the bluebonnets in my next post.

Ennis has a bluebonnet festival in late April and had added on to that with an eclipse festival of sorts. 

A welcoming town obviously excited to be in the center of the action

But, I do need to address weather. As the eclipse approached, weather forecasts kept getting worse and worse: rain, clouds and wind. Indeed, we drove through some horrendous wind (you know, the kind that topples trucks, sandblasts you with dust and requires an iron grip on the steering wheel to stay in your lane).

Then, when we got to Ennis, it was lovely: sunny with passing clouds and a light breeze.

Lookin' good!

But, eclipse day dawned foggy and overcast. When the eclipse started just after noon, we had full clouds. Rats!

Would everything be masked?

But, as the Sun started eating the Moon, the clouds started to dissipate.

The progression through the clouds

For totality, we had a clear sky except for one brief passing cloud that did nothing to dim the experience. And, it was a great experience.

We were afraid we'd miss the corona

We had opted to watch from a field behind our hotel in Ennis. 

Foreground didn't matter because the eclipse started just after noon, making the Sun so high in the sky that you can't capture foreground and have a big enough Sun image in your photos.

Being that high also made looking through the camera tricky (a stool made it easier). 

Someday I'd like to see one early of late in the day, so the Sun would look bigger and there would be more color in the sky.

We ended up on the sidewalk behind the hotel next door and I actually set up in front of my car in the street because the pavement was more level and secure for a tripod.

Crescent-shaped shadows (caused by the progression) on "our" sidewalk

A small group of people had gathered on lawn to watch and everything was blissfully uncrowded and peaceful. 

Waiting for the eclipse; Photo: Scott Stevens

Right before the eclipse started, a rather nasty woman came out from the Days Inn and demanded that everyone leave their field. It didn't affect us, but it was rude and uncalled for. 

In a town that was inviting people to come to see the eclipse (and benefiting financially from that), this was oddly off-character for the town. 

Shame on Day's Inn.

But that and some restaurants' inability to deal with crowds were the only issues. 

Otherwise it was a lovely day.

And, even with all the predicted heavy traffic, we had no trouble driving back to Dallas so that Scott and Caty could fly home the next morning.

But, I'll talk what I did after that later.

Yep, I went birding!

Trip date: April 7-17, 2024