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.