Mother Nature's Son Has Moved!

Mother Nature's Son has moved! I will not be posting to this site anymore.

You can find the new site here: http://mother-natures-son.com

All the old posts have been moved there.

Why the move? I've been doing the blog now for almost three years and while it was nice to get started for free on Blogger, I found the tool a bit limiting.

I bought my own domain and am using Wordpress to write the new blog. For now, I plan to mainly use it for the blog, but I may expand the site in the future.

I hope my readers will visit me at the new site! Please leave comments and let me know what you think about the new site or if you have any suggestions for improving it.

Thanks!

Hazy Shade Of Winter

My hike today was pretty easy. Although it's already early December, it has yet to get really cold. The high today was in the 80s. The official start of winter is still 3 weeks away, on December 21st, but from where we are today, I'm not sure it's ever going to arrive.

Although the sky was overcast when I set out, one hour later the sun was popping out. Most life is going dormant but there is always some activity.

I spotted this small woolly caterpillar because I nearly stepped on him. I've posted about this species before and I now think it's a tiger moth caterpillar, but I'm not positive. There quite common during some years, but this year I've only seen this one.

I also saw this small bagworm cocoon. These are really hard to spot, because they're small and usually in a tree or bush. I also found one earlier this year.

There is still some fall color showing. This time, it's yellow grapevine leaves.

Hays County Master Naturalists

We attended the annual Hays County Master Naturalists Graduation and Gala last weekend.

117 members and guests attended the event. We graduated 31 members of the Class of 2012, the Texas Live Oaks. The chapter also presented many awards, including 57 members who recertified this year. Certification requires performing at least 40 hours of volunteer work and attending 8 hours of advanced training.

We also elected the Chapter Officers for 2013 and I'm now the President. Joining me as the elected Chapter Officers are Karen Archer, Vice-President, Tracy Mock, Secretary, and Beth Ramey, Treasurer.

I'm looking forward to serving the Chapter in my new role and know that I'll have plenty of help.

No Mother Nature's Son post is complete without a photograph. Here's one at Jacob's Well, looking downstream along Cypress Creek. I took it several years ago, but like it for it's fall color.

The Cycle Of Life

Here's a photo of a fungus I spotted growing on a tree trunk today.

The tree is a live oak and though dead, it's still standing. The fungus is known as a bracket fungus, shelf fungus, or conk. It's brightly colored and zig-zags along the trunk. It's part of the recycling process, returning the nutrients and materials which the oak extracted from the ground during it's life, making them available for new life.

Also on my hike today, I saw a small live oak grove which I thought would make a nice black and white image. The trees are all fairly young, judging by their four inch trunk diameters. They're at the edge of a small meadow.

Before The Front

There's a cold front coming in tonight, so I decided to hike while it's still a bit warm.

I noticed this beautiful bit of bark on a Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana). I've posted about Texas Persimmon before, but didn't have a good picture of the bark. The bark peals away to reveal a smooth underlying layer. It usually crinkles at the joints, giving it a skin-like appearance.

Following up on last weeks post, I spotted another bit of fall color, this time in the bright red berries of a Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria). There aren't as many berries as I've seen in past years. I don't know if that's a general case or just applies to this plant.

Finally, here's a view from our property and overlooking the valley below. I like the dramatic sky and the sun beams. You can see the grass is yellow and the green you see is mainly Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana) and Ashe Junipers (Juniperus ashei).

Red, Gold, and Green

Central Texas is not famous for its fall colors. Nonetheless, I went on a hike today to see what I could see.

My search was rewarded with a few splashes of color. I prefer to think that our land isn't gaudy with its offerings. Its gifts are more subtle and their rarity is what makes them more valuable.

I first came upon a bright red vine in the lower branches of a small tree. It's a Sevenleaf creeper (Parthenocissus heptaphylla). It's very similar to Virginia creeper, which has five leaves, but much less common. It's endemic to the Edwards Plateau region. The leaves are about 2 inches long and bright red - quite striking.

Next, I saw that some of the cedar elms are starting to turn yellow. Here's a couple at the edge of a woods among Ashe Junipers (Juniperus ashei) and Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana).

This small cedar elm is even brighter. It's in the middle of a forest and maybe that's why it's further along the color change.

Did you know the fall color change is caused by the leaves losing their chlorophyll? The trigger is the reduced amount of daylight in the fall. This causes trees to shut down their chlorophyll production and prepare for winter. The leaves' intrinsic colors are then able to show, not masked by the chlorophyll's green.

Autumn Days

The Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) is blooming at the end of October and one month into autumn. It's known as frostweed because with the first winter freezes, the stems will exude water that freezes into beautiful shapes.

Here's a photo of the white blooms with four butterflies and a bee enjoying the offering. The plants grow to about 4 feet high. It's interesting that we still have butterflies so late in the year. I think the only time we don't see them is in the deepest part of winter.

Since it's so close to Halloween, I thought I'd share a part of our woods which I thought looked a bit spooky today.

As Long As The Grass Shall Grow

The native grasses are thriving after the recent rain. Our back yard is thick with Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). It's about 3 feet tall right now. I think it does well in our backyard because of the partial shade. Here's a photo taken today; you can see how dense it is.

It's one of the components of a tallgrass prairie along with Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Yellow Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), and Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). We have 3 of the  tallgrass prairie grasses on our property. In order of frequency: Little Bluestem, Yellow Indiangrass, and Big Bluestem. We haven't found any Switchgrass.

Here's a photo of a small stand of Yellow Indiangrass in our front yard. The seed heads are eye-catching.

Where The Grass Is Greener Still

I planted a mixture of Buffalo Grass (Bouteloua dactyloides) and Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis) grass around our house 10 years ago. We had just moved in to the newly-constructed house and there was no lawn. This was 5 years before I became a Master Naturalist, but I had a bit of knowledge and knew that I wanted a grass that was native, drought-tolerant, and, above all, low-maintenance.

I did a bit of research and found the Native American Seed company. They offered a mixture of these two grasses and I thought they met my requirements, so I ordered about 20 pounds of seed.

Planting the seed was pretty simple - I rented a power tiller and prepared the area. I started spreading the seed with a small, hand-cranked, rotary spreader, but that didn't work too well. The seed was too fine and didn't dispense well. I found the best method was to just broadcast it by hand. I wasn't sure that I would get even coverage, but just kept going. After that, I lightly raked the soil to cover the grass seed.

I had to water it every day for about 2 weeks, but the seeds sprouted in just a few days. I noticed birds eating the seed, but they didn't seem to do much damage.

Here's a stand of Blue Grama along our driveway. This is taken after our recent rains and the grass has put out seeds. It seems to do this opportunistically after a good rain. I like the fact that it re-seeds itself and is getting thicker every time.

Grama grasses have a characteristic eyebrow shaped seed head and you can see that better in this closeup.

Ten years later and I'm happy with the results. I never water the grass; our normal rainfall, even through drought periods is enough to keep it going. It turns brown, but doesn't die. I've never fertilized it and only put a thin layer of compost on it once, about 2 years after planting. I only mow it a few times a year, mainly when needed, although it doesn't grow much higher that about 6 inches.

There are some potential negatives though. It's not a turf grass. It's never very thick and this allows weeds and other grasses (like bermuda (Cynodon dactylon) and King Ranch Bluestem) to move in.

I don't mind the negatives and the no-watering and low-maintenance more than make up for them.

A Flock Of Turkeys

A flock of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) visited our water dish in late September. They're actually a sub-species, Rio Grande Wild Turkey, native to Texas.

I count 10 birds in the photo and that seems like a good sized flock to me! A couple of them are at the water dish, near the rainwater collector and the rest are foraging in the area. The 50 gallon tank is full right now because of the recent rains and it's good to see them making use of it.

I think they're all female but it hard to be sure since I can't see all of their heads. Based on their relative sizes, though, I think it's a good guess.

I've read that in a foraging flock, like this one, the birds will take turn being lookouts. While most are scratching or eating, a couple will be looking out for danger. That seems to be what's happening here. The near one is looking right at the camera. I wonder what it thinks?

Let It Rain

September ended up being a very good month for rain.

We got 5.9 inches at our house and that puts it at the third highest this year. May had 6.6 inches and July, surprisingly, had 6.1 inches. The whole year has been good, actually. Especially when compared with last year. So far, three quarters of the way through, we've had 31.4 inches and last year we had 20.5 total.

We had a good storm pass over this weekend, so today I went out on a hike to see what it had brought. Our wet weather ponds have water in them again. I've seen leopard frogs hopping across our neighborhood streets and I've seen them in the ponds before. I didn't spot any today.

I spotted this small shrub, just bursting with yellow color. I don't know what it is. It's about a foot high and the flowers are about an inch in diameter.

This small mud patch had some animal tracks in it. Most of them are racoon, but I think there is a turkey print there too. The turkey is the three-toed, dark one near the center of the photo. The toes point  to the right. It's deeper than the others which is why it has darker shadows and indicates a heavier animal.

Croton

That's croton, not crouton!

I'm talking about a small plant, only about 1 foot tall. We've always seen it on our property, but this year - what I'm starting to call "The Year That Everything Came In Waves", it has taken over huge swaths of land.

I thought this was Texas Croton (Croton texensis), but close examination of the photos at the Wildflower Center say it's something else.

I poked around and think what we have is actually One-seed Croton (Croton monanthogynus). The leaves, color, and size of the plant are all a match.

Here's an overview shot, showing it covering the ground quite thickly.

Here's a close-up of a single plant so you get a better idea of the appearance. They look like miniature trees. They have woody trunks and a small canopy of leaves.

Finally, here's a photo of a small clump of crotons. As you can see the canopies merge together and actually form a dense cover. I heard our county agriculture agent say that young quail will hide from hawks under the crotons. I thought he was kidding, but I now see how effective a hiding spot it is.

8th Annual Naturescapes Awards Reception

We held the 8th Annual Naturescapes Awards Reception last night at the San Marcos Activity Center. The reception opens the Exhibition at the Walkers' Gallery and also gives an opportunity to recognize the award winners.

About 100 exhibitors, family, and friends attended. We were treated to snacks, drinks and music by the ensemble, Music Among Friends. Many thanks Linda Kelsey-Jones, the Walker's Gallery curator, for organizing the reception. She told me that Naturescapes is the only juried show at the Gallery and is the most popular one with the public.

Here's the complete list of Award Winners.

Awards of Merit

• River Tree – Noah Medina
• Butterfly I – Larry Alford
• Ghostly River – Erin Reid
• Blue - Larry Alford
• Bee on Cactus Flower - Winifred Simon
• A Touch of Red and Black – Raena Wharton
• Wildflowers – Joanne Salas

Awards of Excellence

• Untitled (deer herd) - Terry Serur
• Mexican Blankets – Michael Smith
• Lazy Day in the River – Carol Serur
• Scissor Tailed Flycatcher – Carol Serur

Best Youth

• Lost in Blue - Abby Linam

Best Natural Waterscape

• San Marcos River Splendor – Carolyn Whiteside

Best in Show

• Hangin' On – Herb Smith

There are 59 beautiful images on display. The Naturescapes Exhibition will be in the Walkers' Gallery until November 9th. Be sure to go see it!

8th Annual Naturescapes Awards Reception

Please join us at the San Marcos Activity Center on Saturday, September 15th from 5pm to 7pm, for the 8th Annual Naturescapes Photography Contest and Exhibition Awards Reception.

The contest is sponsored by the Hill Country Photography Club and the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists.

A $100 prize will be awarded for Best in Show, $75 for the best Youth Category photo, and $75 for the best Natural Waterscape photo. Up to four $50 Awards of Excellence will be presented for the next most outstanding photographs. Additional Awards of Merit will be presented at the discretion of the contest juror.

The unique beauty of the natural areas within San Marcos inspired the first Naturescapes Photography Contest. The contest includes photographs taken in greenspaces and natural areas throughout Hays County.

Goals of the contest and exhibit include increasing public awareness of the importance of protecting our natural world and giving photographers at all levels of experience a chance to capture, share, and receive recognition for beautiful and inspiring images.

The Exhibition runs from September 15th through November 9th, so you'll have a chance to see the photographs even if you can't attend the reception.

Wildflowers Revisted

I found this wildflower photo in my archives. It was taken in May of 2009 and the wildflower were in full celebration of the spring rains.

The location is an empty field along Kohler's Crossing Road between Buda and Kyle. The entire area long IH-35 is being rapidly converted into homes and shopping malls, so it was a great pleasure for me to see this field as I drove by a couple of years ago. I got a couple of funny looks as I parked the car on the shoulder and tromped around the field looking for the best shot.

The red/yellow flowers in the foreground are Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella). The blue ones are Mealy Blue Sage (Salvia farinacea).

I like the way the flowers are segregated into the two regions. With a bit of maneuvering and squatting, I was able to isolate them into the two bands. The photo reminds me of an impressionist landscape and I like the impression you get that the flowers just go on forever.

Double Pots of Gold?

I found a photo of a double rainbow which I took over 5 years ago.

This view is towards the east, in the afternoon, so the sun is behind. This is the classic condition to see a rainbox, always opposite the sun. Sunlight reflects in water droplets and is also refracted, like light through a prism, into the rainbow colors.

Do you remember the order of the colors? VIBGYOR - Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.

The second rainbow is always outside the primary one and its colors are reversed. It's quite faint here, but you can see it if you look closely. It's caused by light reflecting twice in the water droplets. Only a small part of the sunlight reflects twice, which is why it's dim.

I think there must be two pots of gold out there, near Buda. One may be bigger than the other.

What do you think?

Naturescapes 2012

I was lucky to have four of my photos chosen by the juror for the 8th annual Naturescapes 2012 Exhibition. The Exhibition will run from September 15th through November 9th at the San Marcos Activity Center's Walker's Gallery. There are a total of 60 photographs in the exhibition.

The opening reception and Award Ceremony is Saturday, September 15th at 5pm.

This one is "Foggy Morning Oaks", taken on our property last month.

Here's "Misty Morning Bluebonnets" taken along FM150 in April.

I like this one, "Wet Web", taken along Old Stagecoach Road, also in April.

And finally, "White Burst", taken on our property, also in April.

A Midsummer Hike

Here are a couple of photos from our bluebird nestbox walk last week.

We've been checking the nestboxes every Sunday evening, around 6 pm and it's been getting hot! The bird activity seems to be tapering off - the end of July is the end of the bluebird nesting season. I'll summarize our first year's results in a future post.

Early in the hike, we saw a large rat snake stretched out in a shady spot in the grass. It was about 4 feet long and didn't move as we walked up. However, as I reached for my camera, it slithered away. How does something with no legs move so fast?

A rare bit of red in the landscape caught my eye! It was some agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata) leaves, beautifully backlit by the setting sun.

Almost at the end, I saw a snake skeleton scattered in the debris-filled ground under a live oak (Quercus virginiana) tree. This snake was quite small - the skeleton was around a foot long, but in several pieces.

Spotting the skeleton at the end of our hike formed a nice bookend with the sighting of the live rat snake at the start.

Foggy Morning Oaks

It seems to me that foggy mornings are rare in central Texas. They might be more common in the fall and winter, but summer ones are few. It's certainly special when one arrives.

I took this photo one morning last July as I was driving out of our property. I glanced to my left and was treated to this scene. The almost-invisible dirt road leads you into the mist where all detail disappears. The live oaks frame the scene nicely.

The Next Wave

The katydids seem to be dying out now. Don't get me wrong, they're still around - their calls fill the day and night, but they are definitely reduced in numbers.

No problem - Mother Nature sends the next wave of insect invaders: grasshoppers!

It's almost biblical, one pestilence followed by another, but I don't think there is anything supernatural at play here. On the contrary, what's happening is completely natural and part of a large pattern.

Earlier in the year, we had very timely rain fall. This led to a great wildflower spring and all the plants benefited and thrived. With such a great amount of food available, the insect populations soared. Most noticeable were the katydids, the walking sticks, and now the grasshoppers.

This photo, shows a female standing on our house's exterior rock wall. You can see the ovipositor, or egg-laying organ, sticking out the back. She has tiny wings on top and of course the giant rear legs for leaping. The legs have tiny spikes on them and her body is quite colorful - green, yellow, white, brown, and red.

This one is unique in appearance, which is why I took its photo. There are many out there.

I wonder what the next wave of invaders will be?

More Water Dish Visitors

I was reviewing all the game camera photos that we've taken. We first put the camera up in January of this year. It's set up along a dirt road and pointing at one of our wildlife rainwater collectors.

I found some interesting ones that were missed earlier.

This one is from January 15th, when we were experiencing a robin invasion. I think they were on their way south. The camera took many photos like this. I can count 7 and maybe 8 in the photo. Do you see the 8th one?

The next photo is from February 22nd and it's of a possum. I know possums are common but we hardly ever see them and the game camera has only caught this one.

The last photo is fairly recent, from June 23rd. It shows a young white-tailed deer buck nuzzling a fawn. You can see the velvet on the buck's antlers. The fawn's are usually with their mothers and I've never seen one with a buck. The bucks are usually solitary or in a group of 2 or 3. The does and fawns are usually together in larger herds.

Tiny White Flowers

I took this photo at the end of April and I've been trying to identify the plant ever since. The flowers are tiny, maybe 1/8 inch in size and the plant is very short - just 3 or 4 inches tall. What attracted me to it was the way the flowers are grouped into little squares. These square-shaped arrangements were rare. Most of the plants just had clumps of white flowers.

I think it might be Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota), but I'm not positive. It's also known as a wild carrot. Another possibility is Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).

I like the nearly symmetrical arrangement and thought it would make a nice black and white photograph. With the conversion, I emphasized the white flowers and de-emphasized everything else. This makes the flowers pop and along with a slight glow, give them a dreamy quality.

 Please leave a comment if you can help me identify the plant!

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

I went out for a short walk this morning. With the daily highs above 100, the best times for a hike are in the morning or in the afternoon. Nicely though, that is also the best time for photography with a soft, diffuse light which eliminates harsh shadows.

Usually on my hikes, I'll notice common patterns. I think this is due to my mood or mind-set, but whatever the cause, the theme that I picked up on this morning, is that various plants are putting out fruits or seeds. After the spring rains and before the peak of summer, these plants are producing fruit,  perhaps as an insurance policy for the future.

There's a patch of bristlegrass right in our front yard. I've seen it many times before, so why did it catch my eye this morning? It was something about the beautiful way it waved in the breeze. The seed heads are about 2 feet above the ground and they are turning a yellow color as they mature. I'm not sure exactly what species it is, but I'm pretty sure it's a native.

A little further along, just outside our gate, I saw a Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana) with many berries. Most of them are still green, but you can see a ripe, black one. The berries are edible and quite sweet. I've tried them before. The only drawback is that the dark juice can stain your fingers, mouth, and clothes!

And finally, many of our Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii) cactus are bearing fruit. The deeply-colored pears are also edible, but I've never tried them. They too have spines, so you have to peel them carefully.

A Brief Break

I'll be traveling for work for the next ten days, so no blog posts for a couple of weeks.

See you again on July 8th!

Water Dish Visitors

The game camera caught some nice shots of visitors to our wildlife water dish recently. The game camera doesn't seem to bother the animals although I think some of them do notice it, because they appear to look right at at.

In any case, I enjoy retrieving the image card every week and the Christmas-morning anticipation of looking through the typically hundreds of images to see what we caught.

First is a nice white-tailed (Odocoileus virginianus) doe. She looks young to me, but I'm certainly no expert. Speaking just from what I've observed over the last few years, the older does appear heavier than this one. This one looks sleek and graceful.

Next is a young white-tailed buck. You can see his fuzzy antlers coming in. They're covered in velvet which is a living skin-like tissue which provides the growing antlers with blood, oxygen, and nutrients. The antler starts as cartilage and becomes mineralized. Once the antler is full-size, the velvet sheds and the antler bone dies. Male deer re-grow their antlers every year. We frequently find discarded ones on our property. Interestingly, about 1 in 10,000 females have antlers and this is usually associated with hermaphroditism.

Lastly, we caught an elusive gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in daytime. This photo was taken at 4 pm. We've caught gray foxes before but always when it was dark. They're nocturnal and very shy. It's a rare treat to see one in person.

Odds & Ends

I went for a  hike today and even though it's not officially summer yet, it was HOT! I declare summer here, not matter what the calendar says.

The black-eyed susans are still out in force and the Texas thistles are past their peak, which is a good thing. They are nasty.

A few weeks ago, while checking our nest boxes, I spotted this prickly pear heart. More appropriate for Valentine's Day, but it's a reminder that all you need is love.

Our game camera caught a doe and her fawn walking by.

We keep our glass and cans for recycling in plastic tubs behind our garage. A few weeks ago I took the recycling to the local place in San Marcos. I tossed the containers in the pickup bed and drove into town. I emptied the tubs and threw them back in the truck. When I got home and was putting them away behind the garage, I noticed something hanging from one of them. It was a monarch chrysalis!

The butterfly was almost ready to emerge. The chrysalis was turning transparent and you could see the butterfly inside. I checked it the next day and the chrysalis was cracked open and no sign of the butterfly.

I learned several things. First, the chrysalis is attached with something approaching "crazy glue" in strength. I remained attached and survived a round trip to San Marcos and fairly rough handling, since I didn't see it until after my return. Second, the monarch caterpillar is not picky about where it decides to metamorphose. The female butterfly is particular and lays her eggs on plants that will be a food source to her caterpillars. Where the transformation into butterfly takes place is apparently not critical.

Walk Softly And Be A Big Stick

Following on the steps of the red katydid outbreak is a walking stick invasion.

They belong to the Phasmatodea order of insects. There are four families in North America and many species in Texas. They are also known as stick insects and stick bugs. They are herbivores, so their increased numbers are not to take on the red katydids. I think that for both the red katydids and the walking sticks, weather conditions were favorable for them earlier this year and now their populations have boomed.

They excel at camouflage are are quite difficult to see unless, like these two, they're on our driveway or house.

This one is on our driveway and it's displaying a defense posture because I annoyed it. It's curling its abdomen and trying to look like a scorpion. I don't think it can actually sting, but I didn't take any chances. It's funny that it doesn't know that all I want is a photograph so it's not taking any chances either!

Like all insects, it has six legs, but only four are obvious. It's holding its front two legs together and ahead. I think this is to make it appear big and scare me off. As far as it knows - it worked!

This one is resting on a post on our front porch. They will sometimes stay in the same place for hours; longer than I'm willing to track them, anyway. It's also holding its forelegs in front.

These specimens are both about 6 inches long but you sometimes see smaller ones.

Mike Quinn, a local entomologist, has an excellent web page with more information here.