Late March on Zarzamora Creek

 A few of the joys and wonders:

• The first cypress to leaf — or should I say “needle”? — on Elmendorf Lake is usually the ancient one near the dam. I call it the hawks’ tree. But it’s been two years since the red-tails nested there. Most cypress are evergreen, but in Texas we have deciduous cypress in the genus Taxodium, hence the common name, bald cypress, T. distichum.The botanists usually say they have “needle-like leaves.” The first green I saw was on March 28. Before long we’ll see balls, i.e. cones.

• The redbuds flower first then leaf. First flowers I saw on the creek: March 2; first leaves, March 25.

• I love Rapistrum rugosum, an annual in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. It has yellow flowers on long stems, which are branched and angular. It looks like flowers on a contraption made of Tinker Toys. It’s usually about 3 feet tall. The common name is bastard cabbage, but it’s also known as mustard weed and turnip weed, the latter coming from its taproot. It’s on lists of invasive species. First flowers: March 20.

• Baby ducks, about a dozen, but they were bunched so closely to mother that the many ducklings looked like one solid mass. These are the domestic ducks that were released on the lake in some time long forgotten. The climate is such that we see baby ducks even in winter. These are the first since the last freeze. We first saw them March 29.

At the Medina River Natural Area, the blooms on the yucca were spectacular.