![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/plum-thicket0721.jpg\" "\\"plum-thicket072\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis tiny fly is one of many flies and bees working on the plum flowers today.<\/p>\n Scarlet Buckeye flower bud showing between the barely-opening leaves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have both the Scarlet (which is actually a deep dusty red-rose) and a pink-flowering one, both native to Central Texas.\u00a0\u00a0 They’re sun-sensitive and the leaves\u00a0 “burn” and fall off by early summer.<\/p>\n The Scarlet Buckeye leaves are elegantly pleated when they first open.<\/p>\n Just as tiny are these little blue flowers that appear singly and scattered over the low-growing plants–one of the speedwells.<\/p>\n Out in the east grass, we flushed a lot of sparrows from the grass, but most were too fast and made it to good cover before we could photograph them.\u00a0\u00a0 This one, however, perched up in an osage orange tree and let me get close enough.\u00a0\u00a0 It was hard to see against the gray-white sky (even with binoculars, I could see only that it had a streaked breast–the rest was silhouette.)\u00a0\u00a0 The camera, however, performed well…it’s a Savannah Sparrow.<\/p>\n Back in the yard, we sat outside and watched birds at the feeder and the artificial stream.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This male House Finch was a slightly different shade of red from the first to appear; we’ve had three pairs around for over a month, all redder than our usual ones.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Although these flowers are tiny, their clean white\u00a0 shows up well against the dark green leaves.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n