The Invaders

Mary and I attended a full-day class yesterday to become trained citizen scientists for the Texas Invasives program.

Texas Invasives is a operated by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and supported by partners such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and others. The purpose of Texas Invasives is to manage non-native invasive plants and pests in Texas.

What is an invasive species? An "invasive species" is defined as a species that is non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. (Executive Order 13112).


An invasive species succeeds because in its new environment, it lacks predators, diseases, and competitors that would normally regulate its population. As it spreads and takes over ecosystems, it decreases biodiversity by threatening the survival of native plants and animals. Invasives are a significant threat to half of the currently listed endangered species. In addition, they have a large financial impact because of efforts to prevent, monitor, and control their spread.

Be sure to visit the Texas Invasives web page for more information and to see how you can get involved.

The class consisted of learning about the problem of invasives, some of the history, and identifying some of the common problem species in Hays County. We also learned how to record data for a report, including noting the GPS coordinates, taking a photograph for validating the identification, keeping field notes about the size or extent of the patch, and the local conditions. Our instructor was Travis Gallo, who is the Texas Invasives Program Coordinator.

The class consisted of lecture and field work, where we learned to do an actual report.

Travis Gallo, our instructor, discussing filling out a data report.

The report data is entered through a web page and after validation becomes part of the Texas Invasives database which is available to professionals who can assess the problem and decide on what steps are appropriate to manage or control the invasives. The database is accessible through a Google Maps interface so the geographical distribution is easy to visualize.

Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)

Our local group is called the Hays County Invaders and we'll be concentrating on reporting in our county. Mary and I look forward to reporting our share of invasives.

Leapin' Lizards

The high temperature today was near 80. Just two weeks ago it was in the teens and snowing. I just love the Texas weather!

There are signs of spring starting to show even though we're still in February. The grass is starting to turn green. The live oaks are out of sync though, as normal; they are starting to drop their leaves.

We walked by a wild redbud (Cercis texensis) tree on our property because I wondered if it was starting to show buds. Sure enough, it was! Now I'm worried that a late freeze in the next few weeks will get it.

The reptilian activity is still very low, though. Since they're cold-blooded, I'm sure they need it to be consistently warmer before they venture forth. I dug through my old photographs and found these two representatives of the lizards we find around here.

The first one is an anole (Anolis carolinensis). It's actually a Carolina anole, but it's also known as a green anole, an American anole, and a red-throated anole. It's sometimes also called a chameleon because of its ability to change color, but it's not a true chameleon.

The male has a red dewlap, a flap of skin along the throat, which it extends to court females. We used to play with these when we were kids. If you pick one up by the tail, it may drop the tail, leaving you with a wiggly tail in your grasp, to distract you, while the lizard gets away.

This one was on our kitchen door frame. The main body is about six inches long, but the tail is even longer.

The second one is a Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus). This one was on our house's rock exterior rather than the tree he would normally inhabit. He stood out against the white limestone, but when they're on a live oak, they're very hard to see. I've seen Dixie, our Border Collie, chase one around and around a tree, the lizard always keeping the tree trunk between itself and Dixie. I first heard Dixie chasing it and then could hear the lizard scurrying around, but I didn't see the lizard until I got closer.

Crazy Like A Fox

Mary sent me these photos, taken with her cell phone last week, of a gray fox at her school.

Keep in mind that her school is in the middle of Kyle, Texas. Kyle is not a big city, but it is nonetheless fairly developed. It consists of residential neighborhoods around a small downtown area. The fox found his way onto the school grounds and decided to sun himself and take a nap on the school's air conditioning evaporator units.

Of course, this caused quite a stir at the school and many of the teachers went outside to get a better look and capture the moment. They were able to get quite close. Mary and her friends think that maybe the fox was sick, but I think he's just enjoying the day.

The facility folks came to catch him and release him elsewhere and that ended the excitement.

Foxes are canids and are related to dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes. Gray foxes range through the southern half of North American and as far south as Venezuela and Colombia. They were once the dominant fox in the Eastern United States but human development allowed the red fox to become predominant.

The gray foxes  must be very resilient and adaptable animals for this one to make his living in Kyle. They are omnivorous and will hunt rabbits and birds. They also eat whatever fruits they can find. They gray fox, in general, eats more vegetable matter than the red fox. I like the fact that even in the middle of our civilization, animals can make a home. Maybe all is not lost.

We sometimes see them on our property, but they are quite elusive. Usually we just catch a glimpse of them running away. I've seen dens on the property which might be theirs, but they could also be used by other animals.

Magic Mushrooms

Sometimes it's the small things that are worth observing.

We're usually attracted by the large, the loud, the brightly colored. We're also limited by our senses. Many animals use or emit sounds, but often the sounds are beyond our hearing range, both in frequency and in magnitude. We see only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum and many plant and animals exploit frequencies in the infrared or the ultraviolet. We're also subject to our physical dimensions. We can't see the very small or the very large. We don't notice phenomena that occur on very short or very long time scales.

Given all this, it seems there are many things that I'm going to miss on a hike, and that's assuming I'm really paying attention! Nonetheless, it's the little surprises that make it worthwhile - the things that make me think "hey, I never noticed that ..."

These tiny mushrooms fall into that category. I noticed them growing on the bark of an Ashe Juniper fence rail at the entrance to our property. It helps that they're bright orange, but they really are very small, less than a quarter inch tall. They are easily overlooked and I've never seen them again. They were growing in the small crevices of the juniper's bark. I'm assuming there was a tiny bit of decaying organic matter there, perhaps the bark itself, on which they were feeding.

They only grew on the horizontal fence rails. I didn't see any on the vertical posts. I wonder what caused that. They were also only growing on the top fence rail, not the bottom one. Does that mean anything? Do they only grow on Ashe Junipers or do they also grow on other trees? Do they have to grow in tree bark or might they be found in a pile of leaves? How long do they live? What triggered their growth? Was it the temperature or humidity?

I have no idea what kind of mushrooms they were and I'll probably never find out. The magic of these mushrooms is the sense of wonder they stirred. It's amazing that such tiny things can hold so much mystery. Is there anything that you walk by all the time, but never notice?