Fall Woods

The central Texas autumns are not known for their color, but the colors are out there. While not overwhelming, there are splashes of yellows, reds, and oranges.

These photos were taken about a week ago in the woods behind our house. The woods contain Live Oaks, Post Oaks, Blackjack Oaks, Red Oaks, Cedar Elms and Ashe Junipers.

The Live Oaks and Ashe Junipers are green throughout the fall and winter. The Post Oaks usually turn brown, but this year they seem to be redder. The Red Oaks turn yellow and red and the Cedar Elms turn yellow and orange.

You can see that there's quite a bit of leaf litter on the ground already. The Red Oaks leaves are just turning and some are still green.

Here's a close up of the Red Oak leaves.

A Hole In The Ground

While on a recent hike I came across a karst feature on our property. We've seen it before, but this time I decided to photograph it and see how deep it was. I hiked out today and found it again.

I've posted about karst features on the Onion Creek Water Quality Protection Land, but it's neat to find one on our property. Karst is a geological feature, basically a hole or cave, that allows rain water to enter directly into an aquifer. They are formed by water percolating through limestone and are widespread throughout our part of Texas. Mary found this one years ago but we never paid much attention to it and haven't always able to find it.

It used to be surrounded and almost hidden by a very large prickly pear cactus, but that has died and the hole is now easily visible. The entrance hole is about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide.

Here's a better view of the inside. The rock at the top of the  hole is about 8 inches thick.

I lowered a weighted string into the hole to see how deep it was. The weight went down 5 feet! I think the  hole actually veers to the side, so the actual depth may be greater.

I wonder how long it took rain to form the karst? Is it relatively quick, by geologic standards? Maybe a few hundred or a few thousand years? Or did it take hundreds of thousands or millions of years?

And why there? Is the rock especially soft right there? The spot doesn't look like it's in the middle of a wet-weather creek, so I don't think water runs through there regularly.

I also checked the wildlife water supplies today. The recent rains have them operating well. It's been over a month since I last trucked water out to them. Both of them are full. Here's a photo of the newer, smaller one. The re-bar spikes I put in to keep the dishes from being moved around by animals also seem to be working.

Birds Of A Feather

As part of our Wildlife Management activities, we hired Jesse Huth, a local bird expert, to conduct a bird species census on our property. He and his mother, Jaci Kroupa, who served as scribe, came on a Saturday morning after it had been raining all night. We were going to start at 7 am, but were delayed until about 10:30 am, when the rain stopped.

It was misty, windy, and a cool 68 degrees. We were out for about 2.5 hours and there wasn't much activity for the first 45 minutes. Jesse explained that the birds were still hunkered down after the night's rain, but would need to start moving around and feeding soon to maintain their metabolism.

He made quite a few of the identifications by hearing the bird's call. I was fascinated by the experience and his ability to identify the bird calls. He had binoculars and made many identifications visually too.

In total he identified 31 species in that morning. Here's the list:

• Crested Caracara
• Northern Cardinal
• Carolina Chickadee
• American Crow
• Mourning Dove
• White-Winged Dove
• House Finch
• American Goldfinch
• Lesser Goldfinch
• Blue Jay
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Killdeer
• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Northern Mockingbird
• Eastern Phoebe
• Greater Roadrunner
• American Robin
• Chipping Sparrow
• Field Sparrow
• Black-crested Titmouse
• Tufted Titmouse
• Spotted Towhee
• Wild Turkey
• Black Vulture
• Turkey Vulture
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Yellow-throated Warbler
• Golden-fronted Woodpecker
• Ladder-backed Woodpecker
• Bewick's Wren

Jesse explained that the birds form mixed species foraging flocks. The birds take turns feeding and serving as the eyes of the flock, issuing warning calls as trouble approaches. We encountered several of these in our hike. There would be little or no bird activity and then we would walk into the middle of one of these flocks and the activity would pick up tremendously. Then, either because the flock was moving or we were walking, the activity would die down.

They were quite excited to encounter the Golden-crowned Kinglet. They considered this bird quite rare and we had many of them. Jesse said he'd found gold on our property!

Many of these birds live here year-round, but some of them just winter here. I'm looking forward to conducting the bird species census again in the spring to see how the identifications differ.

When The Rain Comes

It's been raining steadily now for about three days! I love it!

The ground is soggy, our rain tanks are full, and although it's been gloomy the entire time, I say "give us more!".

Since Friday, we've had about 3 inches of rain which means that within the first week of December it is already one of the wettest months of the year. We're closing out 2011 with some of the wettest months of the year: October had 2.4 inches and November had 3.4. The total so far is 15.8 inches. Last year we had 43.1 and an average year is about 33, so we're still behind.

I went for a hike today because I wanted to see what the property looked like during the rain. It was only drizzling lightly, but earlier it was raining pretty heavily. I took my chances - I didn't want to get my camera wet and I don't have a rain cover for it.

Scattered about our property are depressions, usually with rocks in the bottom. My theory is that they're small sinkholes where the underlying limestone has collapsed, but that's just a guess. Here's one that's near our house and it was full of water. The miniature pond is about 5 feet long and 4 feet wide and maybe 8 inches deep. It will hold water for a few days.

I actually got wetter walking under trees than out in the open because their canopies are soaked. Here's a shot of a live oak's leaves covered with water drops.

Finally, we have a wet weather creek running along the southern edge of our property. A wet weather creek is normally dry, but carries water during heavy rainfall. Along the creek are water holes, I suppose you could call them wet weather ponds, which will hold water for a week or two after a rain. They are quite large, maybe 60 feet by 30 feet and about 1.5 feet deep. They attract quite a bit of wildlife. We've seen cranes there and can hear frogs during summer nights from the house, which is about 1/2 mile away.

My attitude toward rain has definitely changed. I used to think that it just ruined the day, but now I wish we had more. I think I'm just paying more attention now.

Stranger In A Strange Land

I recently visited my brother who lives southeast of San Antonio near Floresville.

I was reminded of how varied the Texas geography is. My normal haunts are in the Hill Country and I've become pretty familiar with the land and many of the trees and plants. This was a nice opportunity to explore another part of Texas.

Floresville is in Wilson County and is in the South Texas geographical region. It's amazing to see how much difference a 100 miles makes.

My guess is my brother's property is pretty typical for the region. The soil is very sandy, not like the rocky, limestone and caliche we have here.

He only had a couple of Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana) while they are the predominant tree here. He also had a Walnut (Juglans nigra) tree and I think there were quite a few in the neighborhood. They are rare in our part of the Hill Country.

The predominant tree was the Blackjack Oak (Quercus marilandica). We have some on our property but it is not common. The ones in South Texas were also taller than the ones we have, probably due to the soil and rainfall.

Many Blackjack Oaks

He also had a nice stand of Little Bluestem  (Schizachyrium scoparium) grass. It was the predominant native grass in his neighborhood. The predominant grass we have is King Ranch Bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum), which is not native. We have some Little Bluestem and it might be the most common native grass we have. It was nice to see it doing so well down there.

Little Bluestem everywhere!

What Is It?

I want to share a bit about how I identify many of the species of plants and animals that I write about. You may find this useful if you need to identify a specimen.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm an expert. I do have basic knowledge, most recently gained from my Master Naturalist training. I'm also just curious and eager to learn. Over the years, I've learned to recognize many of the local trees, shrubs, and grasses. I treat it as a game or puzzle and am always looking for ways to improve my "score".

I'll take a photograph when I don't recognize the specimen. This is much better than relying on memory. I then use Google image search to try to narrow down the possibilities. For example, I'll search for terms like "central texas lizard", or "hill country pink flower". This results in hundreds of photos which I'll search through, trying to find a match. This works remarkably well.

The Wildflower Center also has an excellent native plant database which I use. This database allows searching by growing conditions and plant characteristics which is sometimes a good approach. The Wildflower Center also has a service, "Ask Mr. Smarty Plants". I haven't used this before, but you can send in a photo of the plant and they'll try to identify it.

Another approach I take is to ask my local group of experts. Many fellow Master Naturalists are very knowledgeable and are always very willing to help. If possible, I'll take them a sample of the plant to help with the identification. I've also met experts who speak at our chapter meetings and they are also very helpful. I relied on Dr. Travis LaDuc recently to help identify a small tortoise I rescued. You can find my post on that here.

Finally, here's a moth caterpillar which I'm still trying to identify. I think it might be a tiger moth caterpillar.

In this case, I asked Dr. Chris Nice from Texas State University for help. I saw him at a Master Naturalist event and didn't have the photograph with me. I gave him a verbal description and he thought it might be a tiger moth caterpillar.

Here's the Google image search. What do you think? Is it a tiger moth? Please leave comments!

Tiny Kamacuras or Praying Mantis

I saw a tiny praying mantis on our kitchen door frame this week. I was surprised to see it so late in the year, but the hot summer and the recent rains have confused the local flora and fauna.

I remembered taking photos of some a few years ago and dug through my archives to find these from 2007.

They are each about 3 inches long. I think they're the coolest-looking, most alien-in-appearance insects. Their triangular heads, bulging eyes, and spiked arms all contribute to their oddness. In addition, they are good leaf mimics. Their wings are leaf-shaped and even have leaf-like veins in them. I had only seen green ones but they also come in a gray/brown.

I thought the common name was Preying Mantis, because they are predatory, but Wikipedia says it's Praying Mantis because of their "prayer-like stance". They belong to an Order called Mantodea which contains 2,200 species in 15 families worldwide. Their closest relatives are cockroaches and termites.

Their diet consists mainly of insects, but they've also been known to eat lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, and rodents. They make a good biological pest control for gardeners.

Bluebird Nestboxes

As part of our Wildlife Management Plan, we spent an afternoon a couple of weekends ago putting up 8 bluebird nestboxes. The nestboxes fulfill the "providing habitat" part of the part of the plan.

The Eastern Bluebird (Siala sialis) is a small cavity-nesting thrush. Their natural habitat has been disappearing as more of our land becomes urbanized and developed. The nestboxes simulate their natural cavity nests and will attract them. The small hole in the nestbox will keep out larger birds, but other small birds may decide to use the nestboxes too.

We mounted most of them on fence T-posts in meadows spread across our property. We tended to face the openings south and near a wooded area. This allows us easy access to monitor them during nesting season, typically in the spring and also gives the fledglings nearby trees. We placed a couple of them on existing fence lines which otherwise met the above criteria.

We tried to place them about 100 yards apart, but they're fairly uneven. If they're too close, the birds' territoriality may cause problems.

For our first attempt, we didn't provide predator guards below the nests. We'll try to monitor for predators and add guards if they become a problem. Possible predators include raccoons and snakes.

I also recorded the GPS coordinates of each nestbox and used Google Maps to display their location. This forms part of our record-keeping for the Wildlife Management Plan and was quite simple to do.

We'll probably need to put up another 8 boxes next year and possibly around 20 in total. They are all easily accessible from our driveway and a dirt road on the property and form what is called a bluebird trail.

We're members of the Texas Bluebird Society. You may learn more about these birds and the efforts to help them there.

Tortoise Identified

I contacted Dr. Travis LaDuc at the Texas Natural History Collections at the University of Texas at Austin for help with identifying the small tortoise I found last weekend.

He's the Assistant Curator of Herpetology at the Texas Natural Science Center and I thought he might be able to tell what I had. We heard him speak at a Hays County Master Naturalist Chapter meeting earlier in the year.

He was most gracious and responded almost immediately.

He said he doesn't think it's a native and that we don't have any native tortoises in Texas roughly north of the San Antonio Metropolitan area. His best guess is that it's an African spurred tortoise (Geochelone sulcata), which is what I thought it might be too. Here's a photo of a juvenile and it does look similar.

He said that a number of people keep these as pets in their backyards and some of them don't realize what happens when you put a male and female together! Their incubation periods are something like 5 months, so it would be easy to overlook any juveniles.

I've been feeding it grass from the yard and also some carrots and lettuce. It seems to prefer the grass.

It looks like I have a new pet!

Tortoise Rescue

I saw a small tortoise crossing the road in our neighborhood yesterday afternoon. It was about halfway across and I carefully avoided it and backed up to see what it was.

I've rescued many turtles and tortoises over the years. If I see one on the road while driving the backroads, I'll get out of the car and either put it on the side of the road it was trying to get to, or pick it up and take it home for later release. A couple of times, I've released red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) into a pond near our neighborhood.

I always feel sorry for them because they take so long to cross the road and I know there's a good chance they'll get hit by a car.

This isn't one I'm familiar with. The most common turtles or tortoises in this area are the red-eared slider, which are mainly aquatic, and the box turtle (genus Terrapene) which is mainly terrestrial. This one didn't look like either. It reminds me of some of the ones I've seen in pet stores, the African Spurred tortoise (Geochelone sulcata).

Here's a photo of it in a small animal cage. It's only about 2 inches long and 1 inch tall. I was lucky to see it in the road while driving by at 30 miles per hour.

I'm going to need help identifying it and figuring out what to feed it. For now, we're giving it lettuce and carrots.

If it's an African Spurred then it's not native and is probably an escaped or released pet. In the research I've done so far, it might be a native though, either the Texas (Gopherus berlandieri) or Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii).

If any of you recognize it or know some who might, please let me know.

Wildlife Water

Now that the days are cooler, I decided to get out there and do some work!

We bought a small rainwater collector from RainwaterGuzzlers at the Rainwater Revival last weekend. The company is owned by two of our fellow Master Naturalists, Randy Garst and Tom Hausler. The guzzler is a little smaller than the one I built a few years ago but the idea is the same: a small metal roof collector and a water tank and water dish. It makes a good source of supplemental water for wildlife.

Randy delivered it on Wednesday and we set it up near one of the deer blinds on our property. It's also near some old cattle water troughs and I hope to eventually have it supplying water to one of them.

Last weekend I also bought a small 125 gallon water tank that I can use to take water out to the wildlife water guzzlers to make up for the lack of rain. You can see it in the pickup bed in this photo.

I  filled the water tank at our house and then drove out to the two guzzlers. I have a small electric water transfer pump which runs off the truck's 12V battery and used that to put water in the guzzler tanks.

I transferred about 45 gallons to the small guzzler and 205 gallons to the large water tank in two trips. Each trip took about 2 hours, including the time it took to fill the transfer water tank at our house, drive to the guzzlers and transfer the water. I spent about 4 hours this weekend working on this.

I'm hoping the wildlife gets good use from them. The next step is to put a motion-activated camera by one or both of them and see who's coming in for a drink.

Rain, I Don't Mind

We went to the Rainwater Revival in Dripping Springs yesterday. Appropriately, it rained.

The event is billed as a "A celebration of  collection, conservation and common sense!" In it's second year, the event promotes awareness of rainwater harvesting. There was a good crowd and even though the skies were threatening, everyone was enjoying the day.

Our house saw 0.4 inches of rain on Saturday and then 2.0 inches on Sunday. This makes October the 3rd wettest month this year and is much appreciated. Our rainwater collection tanks are now a little over half-full.

Even with the little rain we had in September, I've started to see signs of the plants taking advantage of it. Some of the oaks have put out acorns, and some of the native grasses are turning green. I'm expecting the 2.4 inches from this weekend will really have a noticeable effect.

On the drive home, I noticed a burst of color along the road. I doubled-back and even though it was starting to rain, I photographed this small plant with bright pink/purple blooms with my phone's camera. There were many of them along a 20 foot stretch of roadside. I don't know what the plant is, but it's definitely taking advantage of the recent rain.

Rain

We finally got a bit of rain in September! We saw 0.1 inches on the 16th and again on the 23rd. We had 0.3 inches on the 29th for a total of 0.5 inches for the month.

The last time we had rain was June 22nd. It was nice to get even a little bit.

We are now three quarters through the year and unless we receive unprecedented amounts in the last quarter, it's going to be a very bad year. We've received 8.6 inches so far.

Our annual average in this part of Texas is about 30 inches. Last year was wet though, and we received 43.1 inches.

Here are the last few years:

2007 - 28.2 (incomplete, didn't start recording until May)
2008 - 16.4
2009 - 36.7
2010 - 43.1
2011 – 8.6 (three quarters)

Here's the 2011 Monthly Rainfall at our house.

I posted monthly rainfall charts for prior years here.

I'm hearing the drought will continue at least through next year and perhaps longer. A drought has several definitions. The most common one is "a period of below average rainfall".

I try to remind myself that being in a drought doesn't mean that it won't rain, just that it won't rain as much as average. It doesn't help much, especially when the effects are so visible.

Cusp Blazing Star

I took this photo of a Cusp Blazing Star (Liatris mucronata) four years ago, when it was much wetter.

The plant is also known as a Texas Gayfeather. I looked it up at the Wildflower Center and there are many different kinds. From the appearance, I pinned it down to a Cusp Blazing Star, but I could be wrong. It's a member of the Aster family and is a perennial.

The plants were near the house, inside the fence. I've never seen them anywhere else on our property, or anywhere else, for that matter. The Wildflower Center doesn't mention that they're particularly rare, though.

They don't need much water, so hopefully they survived this terrible drought. I know roughly where they were and every time I walk by, I look for them.

These specimens were about 2 feet tall and I don't know if they're a single or multiple plants. They attract butterflies and are certainly very pretty. They would make a great addition to any garden.

My Naturescapes 2011 Photographs

The Naturescapes Exhibition opened at the San Marcos Activity Center last weekend. It runs through November 4th, so please be sure to go by and enjoy the beautiful photographs.

Two of my images were selected by the contest Juror, Amanda Smith, for the exhibition and she picked one of them for an Award of Merit.

Here's the first one, "Mexican Plum Cluster".

Mexican Plum Cluster

It was taken last spring, on the north end of our property, along an old rock wall. The small Mexican Plum (Prunus mexicana) tree was covered in white flowers. I meant to make it back later in the spring to see if any plums had developed, but I never did.

I took many shots, but this is the one I thought was best. I like the triangular arrangement of the white blossoms, the simple, bright colors, and the limited depth-of-field makes them fade nicely into the background.
The drought this year meant no flowers and definitely no plums. I'll check it again next spring. I think there are still many good photos left here.

The second one, "Black-eyed Susans", won an Award of Merit.

Black-eyed Susans

This too was taken last spring, when we were still getting signficant amounts of rain. The Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) were all over our property, it seemed. This little meadow was also on the north end of our property, along the rock wall.

I got down on my stomach to get a better vantage. I wanted it to look like the flowers went on forever.

7th Annual Naturescapes Awards Reception

We held the Naturescapes Awards Reception last night at the San Marcos Activity Center.

It was a nice evening with music provided by the band "Friends of Music" and over 100 people attended. The reception opens the Naturescapes Exhibition at the Walkers' Gallery at the Activity Center. This year's Naturescapes is the 100th exhibition at the Activity Center and marks a significant milestone for the Gallery and it's curator, Linda Kelsey-Jones. Congratulations to Linda and many thanks for all her hard work in support of the arts!

I was fortunate to have two photographs selected for the Exhibition by the Contest Juror, Amanda Smith. One of them even won an Award of Merit.

Here's the complete list of Award Winners.

Awards of Merit

• "Lost in Lavender" - Lisa Kay
• "The World is Turning Upside Down" - Abby Linam
• "Full Moon" - Winifred Simon
• "Black-eyed Susans" - Art Arizpe

Awards of Excellence

• "White-Crowned Sparrow - Zonotrichia leucophrys" - Stephen Ramirez
• "Dragonfly Landshark" - Lynny Moore
• "Bee and the Candlestick" - Carolyn Whiteside
• "Water Strider" - Winifred Simon

Best Youth

• "Life Through the Lense" - Hannah Whisenant

Best Natural Habitat

• "Dragonfly Reflection" - Carolyn Whiteside

Best in Show

• "Sculpture by Cypress" - Herb Smith

The Naturescapes Exhbition will be in the Walkers' Gallery until November 4th. Be sure to see it!

I'll post my photos next week and also post a link to all the photographs in the Exhibition when we put them up on the web. Something to look forward to!

A Sunset From Happier Times

I've noticed that with the current drought, the sunsets are not as dramatic as they sometimes are. There is little moisture in the air and that means fewer clouds and fewer opportunities for great sunsets.

I took this photo over three years ago, in March 2008, and just came across it while reviewing my old photos for the blog. The view is from the road out of our development. I was struck by it's beauty and stopped by the side of the road to take a few shots. Sunsets can be overdone, but it's obvious why.

The road, in the lower left, drops off just in front of my vantage point and I like the way the two trees frame the picture. I've adjusted the shadows a bit to bring out a little detail, but not too much. In the original photo, the foreground is completely black. The sun has just dropped below the horizon and the streak of clouds adds a dramatic touch.

It's now September and there's a cool front coming through which will drop the daily highs from around 105 to the low 90s. It's still hot, but I'll take a 10 degree drop.

The trees are continuing to drop their leaves and it looks like an early fall. The amount of daylight is the main cue to trees that the days are getting shorter and fall and winter are approaching. This year the trees are dropping their leaves sooner than normal due to the drought. Hopefully, cooler weather will bring some rain.

The Drought Continues

We recently broke the record for number of consecutive days with high temperatures above 100 degrees. We're currently at 73 days but the forecasts say it may break in four days. We've had no rainfall at our house since June 22 and I'm worried about the impact on the plants and wildlife.

The grass has been brown for several months now and that's not really unusual, but the trees are starting to show signs of stress. Their leaves are turning brown and dropping. Trees lose quite a bit of moisture through their leaves through the process of transpiration. A fully-grown tree may lose several hundred gallons of water in a day. The trees minimize this loss by dropping their leaves and entering a dormant state.

I've noticed that the smaller trees are the ones turning brown, so they may be more susceptible to the water loss and stress.

There is no way for us to water all the trees so they're going to have to make it on their own. On the other hand, they've been out here for hundreds of years and have seen worse drought conditions, so they'll probably be fine.

Here's a photo of a grove of live oaks. The taller ones are still green but the small ones in front are not.

 Here's another one showing the same effect.

This is a photograph along our driveway in which the trees don't show much signs of stress. I think much depends on the soil and the general health of the trees.

The grass and trees are very visible signs of the heat and drought. They remind me though that many of the effects are not so easily seen. The wildlife especially has to cope with the lack of water too. The deer especially seem thin right now. I hope they make it.

Edible and Useful Plants

I was given a wonderful book as a gift a few months ago by my son and daughter-in-law. They hear me talking about my Master Naturalist adventures and also follow the blog, so they knew this one would interest me.

The book is "Edible and Useful Plants of  Texas and the Southwest" by Delena Tull. Ms. Tull is an environmental science educator and naturalist who lived in central Texas for twenty years and earned her Ph.D. in science education form the University of Texas in Austin.

The book was originally published in 1987 and was updated in 1999. It's in paperback, with about 500 pages, and has many plant illustrations and photographs.

She divides the book into seven sections:

1. Edible and useful wild plants
2. Teas and spices
3. Edible and poisonous berries and other fleshy fruits
4. Poisonous and harmful plants
5. Colorful dyes with Texas plants
6. Fibers from Texas plants
7. Rubber, Wax, Oil, and Soap: Industrial resources from Texas plants

In a brief introduction she discusses the vegetation regions in the state, the problems of using plants as medicine, and the dangers of trying mushrooms. The main problems with plants as medicine is the variability of the effect from plant to plant because of varying growing conditions and life history of the plant. You're never sure of the dose.

In each section she includes many warning about the dangers inherent in sampling native plants: poisoning, allergic reactions, etc. Nonetheless, there are many plants and fruits are quite safe to eat - the challenge is in making sure you've identified them correctly. She includes the history of usage, going back to Native Americans, and many recipes. There is much useful knowledge and folklore which we've lost in modern times.

I never considered the possibility of using dyes from native plants, although I knew the wood of agaritas (Mahonia trifoliolata) is a bright yellow on the inside and that the cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) insect found on prickly pears (Opuntia sp.) is bright red when crushed. I found that section quite educational and she has many procedures listed for creating dyes.

The other interesting part was in the last section of industrial resources from Texas plants. Did you know there are at least two plants in Texas which are a source  of rubber? They became important during both World Wars, when imported rubber was scarce, but commercial interest has since died off.

I doubt I'll ever be able to "live off the land", although that concept fascinates me. This book will help me find snacks, though, as I hike up and down the Hill Country.

7th Annual Naturescapes Awards Reception

We're holding the 7th Annual Naturescapes Awards Reception on Saturday, September 10th, at the San Marcos Activity Center, from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

The reception opens the exhibition which runs from September 10th through November 4th in the Walkers' Gallery at the Activity Center. This is the first chance you'll have to view the beautiful  photographs showcasing the natural beauty in Hays County. There will be snacks, music, and social time before the awards ceremony.

In addition to the Best in Show prize and the Awards of Excellence we've had before, this year we will award a prize to the best photograph entered by a youth photographer and a prize to the best photograph which shows a natural  habitat. The Best Youth Photograph prize is sponsored by the Hill Country Photography Club and the Best Natural Habitat Photograph is sponsored by the Hays County Master Naturalists.

We had a record number of photographers and images enter and the contest was very competitive, which is great because it leads to a high quality exhibition. I'm especially excited by the number of young photographers who entered and were chosen for the exhibition. I'll have details at the reception.

It's a great chance to support our goals of promoting public awareness of the importance of protecting our natural  areas and recognizing photographers for their beautiful and inspiring images.

Tell your friends and family! I hope to see you there!

Flint Ridge Cave

Last year I got to work on a Hays County Master Naturalist project at a special place in South Austin, Flint Ridge Cave.

Flint Ridge Cave is one of the largest known cave systems in Travis County. It is also one of the most important recharge features in the county. It drains a 70 acre internal drainage basin which means that the cave entrance is the bottom of a 70 acre bowl. This is different than the typical watershed where small streams flow into rivers which eventually dump into the ocean. This watershed drains only to Flint Ridge cave which goes directly into the Edwards Aquifer. Annually, Flint Ridge cave alone contributes about 57 million gallons of water to the aquifer.

The cave entrance.

Leading our project was Matt McCaw from the Austin Water Utility, and Hays County Master Naturalist Tom Watson. The volunteers were Terry Tull, Cindy Luongo, Ruben Garza, and me. Flint Ridge is on a portion of the Water Quality Protection Lands in South Austin. The project involved planting grass seed in the area immediately surrounding the entrance to Flint Ridge Cave to stabilize and stop erosion and optimize the capture of sediments before they enter the cave itself. The grass seed consisted of several shade-loving species such as Canada Wildrye (Elymus canadensis) and Purple Top (Tridens flavus) and included the Broadleaf Woodoats (Chasmanthium latifolium) that had previously been colleted by Hays County Master Naturalists.

The city has installed three water flow monitoring chutes around the cave entrance. They measure and record the water flow as well as quality that flows into the cave.

A water flow monitoring chute.

The first step in the seeding project was to clear the leaves and debris to expose the soil.

After raking the leaves to expose the soil.

We then broadcast the seed by hand. The main goal is to make sure the seed has good soil contact and is evenly distributed.

Spreading the grass seed. Left to right: Terry Tull, Cindy Luongo.

Since the point of the project was to minimize the amount of erosion and sediments that enter the cave, we couldn't leave the soil uncovered. The next rain (this was last year when we still  got rain!) would wash our seed and some of the soil into the cave. We prevented this by spreading an erosion control mat - basically hay in a biodegradable netting. The mat protects the seeds and sprouts until they're big enough to take hold and eventually decomposes.

Preparing the erosion control mat. Left to right: Terry Tull, Matt McCaw, Cindy Luongo.

We then used landscaping stakes to hold the mat along the edges and also weighted the area with stones.

Almost done. The mat is staked down and weighted with stones. Lef to right: Cindy Luongo, Matt McCaw, Tom Watson.

As a special treat, at the end of the project, Matt McCaw, Ruben Garza, and I entered the cave and were able to explore for a short distance. I'll cover that in a future post.

Silly Rabbit

I took this photograph of a small cottontail rabbit earlier this year. It's actually an Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), one of the most common rabbit species in North America.

We have ideal habitat for them and we see them frequently. They like open, grassy areas with shrubs along the edges for cover. This one was near our house, inside the fence and that is normally deadly territory for them, but our dogs were inside at the time.

They have a two-stage defensive strategy. First, they will freeze, which is what this one has done. Then if you approach closer, they will run away in a zig-zag pattern. They are quite fast and you never get really close.

They are mostly vegetarian although they sometimes eat insects. In turn, they are predated by coyotes, racoons, hawks, and owls.

There is another species of rabbit which we see on our property too, the black-tailed jackrabbit. They are larger, have longer ears with a black trim and have a long rear legs.

Texas Persimmon

I went on a short hike this afternoon even though it is quite hot. The current temperature is 101. It's not bad if you're in the shade, but the sun is a killer.

I've been indoors all weekend, working on the Naturescapes contest and the Hays County Master Naturalist newsletter, so I just had to get out.

I've noticed the Texas Persimmons (Diospyros texana) have put out fruit and wondered if they were ripening yet. The mustang grapes are. I'm surprised that these plants produce any fruit at all, given the drought, but there must be enough water for them to do it. The persimmons are shrubs or small trees, usually multi-trunked, about 5 to 15 feet tall. I noticed today that when they grow in the understory of trees they can get quite tall, probably because they're reaching for the light. When they're out in the open, they are more compact.

Here's a typical one, in the shade of some live oaks. It's about 10 feet tall.

They have beautiful, peeling gray - white bark.

The fruit are small berries, about 3/4 inches in diameter. They're green at first, but turn a deep blue, almost black, when ripe. I've eaten them before and they're quite good - very sweet. They are a favorite of birds and mammals. The juice leaves a stain on your fingers and lips for a while.

It's nice to know that even in the middle of this deep drought, the plants keep producing fruit, propagating into the future.

Prickly Pears

The Prickly Pear cactus (Opuntia) fruits are ripening right now. The fruits are edible and you can find many recipes for preparing them. They can be eaten raw and also made into jelliies and drinks. The pads are also edible and can be purchased at local grocery stores as nopales.

The prickly pear are also known as nopales or paddle cactus and there are 200 species in the genus, distributed throughout most of the Americas. They are native to the New World but have been distributed throughout the world.

We have many on our property, although I would not say they are so widespread as to be a problem. They are indicators of land which has been over-grazed, becoming more frequent as grass is grazed away, so they may be a sign of damage done to our land before we bought it. Although there are cattle grazing on our land, they are very few and not confined to only our property, and are definitely not over-grazing at this point.

We've taken a few out, by digging them out, but you have to be careful to remove all the plant material. If a pad lays on bare soil, it will root and a new plant will grow. They grow in clumps, usually only a foot tall and a foot in diameter, but some are larger: three feet tall and three or four feet in diameter.

I'm not sure exactly what species we have. The Wildflower Center lists two for our area and we probably have both: the Plains Prickly Pear (Opuntia polyacantha) and the Tulip Prickly Pear (Opuntia phaecantha).

They have beautiful, large blooms, which are about 3 inches in diameter and usually yellow. The cactus bloom right after a good rainfall. In this photo you can see a fully-opened flower and two others which are not yet open.

Some of the cactus have red in the flowers as you can see in this photo. You can also see the green, unripened fruit just below the spent flowers on the left.

Here's a photo of a large plant with many fruits. The photo was taken today, just outside of the fence around our house. The fruit turn a deep red, almost purple color, when ripe.

Finally, this photo, taken at the San Marcos Nature Center, was in the Naturescapes Exhibition in 2009. I like the clean, smooth curves of the pads and the texture provided by the short, almost knobby needle clusters.

Onion Creek Karst

A couple of years ago we were able to go on a guided hike along Onion Creek to see the karst features.

Our tour guide was Kevin Thuesen, Ph.D., Program Manager for the City of Austin Water Quality Protection Lands. The Onion Creek WQPL is located in central Hays County and was purchased by the City of Austin to help protect the Barton Springs recharge zone. The property is being managed to restore it to a grassland which will improve the quantity and quality of the water that makes it into Barton Springs.

The hike was in November of 2009 and the creek was dry in many places. This provided an excellent opportunity to see the karst features up close. Karst is a geological feature, basically a hole or cave, that allows rain water to enter directly into an aquifer. They are formed by water percolating through limestone and are widespread throughout our part of Texas. There are several right in the Onion Creek bed and many scattered throughout the WQPL property. They're an important resource for recharging Bartons Springs and the City of Austin is mapping them. They're also monitored regularly. A die is injected in one and then the length of time it takes for the dye to reach Barton Springs is measured. The duration is typically on the order of a few days.

Here's Kevin discussing a large karst. You can see that it's in the middle of the creek bed. The grate was installed to try to keep too much debris from entering. The grate has to be cleaned regularly and sometimes it's under water, but that is easier than cleaning debris out from the karst itself. 

Here's Kevin at a smaller karst. It's about 1.5 feet long and who knows how deep?

Here's another small one, about 1 foot in diameter.

This photo was taken in March, 2010 and the spring rains have filled the creek. The grate is about 5 feet under water. Although it's hard to tell from the photo, the water is actually forming a whirlpool as it enters the karst, kind of like water draining out of a bathtub. The leaf debris you see on the surface is swirling around.

Katy Lied

The katydids (Tettigonidae) are out right now although not nearly in the numbers of recent years. They start calling in the evening and will go all night. Their calls are a chirping sound, similar to crickets. They seem to go in waves as if a group is calling in one tree and then being answered from a different tree. To me, nothing says summers in central Texas like the katydids droning into the night. Along with the high temperatures, of course!

There are more than 6400 species in the Tettigonidae family. They look similar to grasshoppers but are more closely related to crickets. They closely resemble leaves.

The central Texas Leaf Katydid (Paracyrtophyllus robustus) has two forms, a green and a red, shown below.

There was an outbreak in central Texas in 2007, and I took these photos in June of that year. The katydids live in the oak trees and during an outbreak can defoliate major areas. We didn't see that happen around our house. The red form seems to predominate during outbreaks and I haven't seen a red one since then.

Soaring Cedar Elm

I think that cedar elms (Ulmus crassifolia) are the second most common tree on our property, behind live oaks.

They are deciduous and grow fairly straight, commonly with a single trunk, to an average height of 40 to 50 feet. Their crown's shape is circular to oval and provide nice shade in the summer and a bit of yellow color in the fall. The young trees have wings on the trunk and branches. They are susceptible to Dutch elm disease, but I've never heard of that being a problem around here.

Here's one right beside our garage. It has three trunks but might actually be three different trees growing together. It's shade made a nice spot for our picnic table.

A shady spot

Here's a closeup of a young one further down our driveway to show the wings on the branches.

They have wings!

I took this photo of a particularly impressive specimen along the banks of Onion Creek while on a volunteer project there.

Soaring Cedar Elm

This tree appeared taller than average, probably because it was growing in good, deep soils along the creek. It reminded me of photographs I've seen of redwoods with a straight trunk shooting into the air and branches didn't begin until very high up.