Wildlife Management & Prairie Restoration, Small Scale
Yesterday morning as I went outside, I saw a very small cicada on the kitchen storm door. I thought immediately of one seen some years back (turned out to be four years) in the same place, photographed then and identified by Bill Reynolds, an expert on cicadas at BugGuide.net. First I went back inside and […]
Yesterday morning as I went outside, I saw a very small cicada on the kitchen storm door. I thought immediately of one seen some years back (turned out to be four years) in the same place, photographed then and identified by Bill Reynolds, an expert on cicadas at BugGuide.net. First I went back inside and got the camera, then photographed it, then went to BugGuide to compare…and sure enough, it’s the same critter. Length about 1/2 inch (not counting wings.) <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1327" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Small-cicada-bright-06-01-2017-300x176.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="176" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Small-cicada-bright-06-01-2017-300x176.jpg 300w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Small-cicada-bright-06-01-2017.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Pacarina puella Little Mesquite cicada This is a much better picture than the one from June 8, 2013, when it was nearly dark and lightening the image was by histogram adjustment, not “one stop photo fix” as above: <img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1328" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/small-cicada126-300x216.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="216" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/small-cicada126-300x216.jpg 300w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/small-cicada126.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> <img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1329" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/hist-adj-wings-small-cicada123-300x193.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="193" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/hist-adj-wings-small-cicada123-300x193.jpg 300w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/hist-adj-wings-small-cicada123.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> I’d like to find this little cicada on something other than manmade material–although there are a few mesquite trees around (and a “mesquite flat” east of town) we don’t have many on our place, and none in the back yard. So what else does this cicada inhabit and what use does it make of it? I have no idea, but if I see it on a tree (we have three species of oak in the yard, two species of maple, native ash, pecan, soapberry, redbud, roughleaf dogwood and smaller woody plants including non-native Rose of Sharon) I’ll try to get a picture and then figure out if that’s just a resting place or…whatever.
There’s a site that will generate imaginary moths if you retweet its Twitter account (@mothgenerator) and tweet you an image of the same. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get it to do an 80-acres moth. And it did. Turns out whatever message you send that account turns into a […]
There’s a site that will generate imaginary moths if you retweet its Twitter account (@mothgenerator) and tweet you an image of the same. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get it to do an 80-acres moth. And it did. Turns out whatever message you send that account turns into a moth named whatever you sent, with “the” in front and “moth” after. Here’s the 80 acres moth <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1323" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/80-acres-moth-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/80-acres-moth-300x169.jpg 300w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/80-acres-moth-768x432.jpg 768w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/80-acres-moth-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/80-acres-moth.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> And when I forgot that it’s a bot, and sent a thank you note to the account, I got another moth, this one named for the entire thank you tweet, but I’ve shortened it to the WOW moth, the first word of the thank-you. It fits. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1324" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WOW-moth-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WOW-moth-300x169.jpg 300w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WOW-moth-768x432.jpg 768w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WOW-moth-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WOW-moth.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> Since these are imaginary moths, I can give them imaginary scientific names, right? Right. Both moths are in the same genus, since they are related through the Bot-father of both. The genus name is Pseudoktizo (which means roughly “false-created,” not “created” like natural things.) Not the only word I could’ve used but I like the look of it more than “poieo” which also means simply “make.” Probably got the right person/tense wrong, but since I’m the maker of the name, first person singular works for me, even though I wasn’t the machine that generated the moth images. You can overthink these things. So, species names. The 80 acres moth: “chloros-epiblema” (green shawl) or “epiblemachloros”….I’ll think about that. The Wow! moth just has to be “exclamans.” Let me introduce to the world, therefore, two hitherto unknown, uncollected, unphotographed moth species: Pseudoktizo chloros-epiblema and Pseudoktizo exclamans. You may find them turning up in my books at some point. In fact, I might decide to go back and create scientific names for every imaginary critter in every single book or story…and then put them all into a pseudo-taxonomic tome. That could be…a remarkably erudite way to procrastinate, right? Much more fun than almost anything I’m *supposed* to be doing. (Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week, don’t forget to tip the waitstaff.)
When talking about a new species, I need to make clear that it can have different meanings here: 1) a species we have not previously identified on the 80 acres (could be IDed or not, photographed or not…just something new seen), 2) a species not previously identified here which is documented, IDed, and added to […]
When talking about a new species, I need to make clear that it can have different meanings here: 1) a species we have not previously identified on the 80 acres (could be IDed or not, photographed or not…just something new seen), 2) a species not previously identified here which is documented, IDed, and added to the list, 3) a species none of the experts consulted can identify and consider a new (to science) species. So what have we had this spring in any of the categories? First, a planthopper that hasn’t been IDed yet…it’s been photographed, but not as well as I’d like. It was on the kitchen windowscreen one late afternoon, and the next day (when the light might’ve been better) it wasn’t. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1312" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Planthopper-UID-04-30-2017.jpg" alt="" width="274" height="400" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Planthopper-UID-04-30-2017.jpg 274w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Planthopper-UID-04-30-2017-206x300.jpg 206w" sizes="(max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px" /> May 22, I had an hour outside after a stormy night and found two new-to-us species, both now IDed thanks to BugGuide.net. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1313" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UID-fly-fixed-05-22-2017.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="392" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UID-fly-fixed-05-22-2017.jpg 400w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UID-fly-fixed-05-22-2017-300x294.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />Fly in genus Archytas <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1314" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UID-insect-orchard-05-22-2017.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="286" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UID-insect-orchard-05-22-2017.jpg 400w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/UID-insect-orchard-05-22-2017-300x215.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />Ichneumon Wasp Trogomorpha arrogans <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1315 aligncenter" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-whole-05-31-17.jpg" alt="" width="305" height="400" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-whole-05-31-17.jpg 305w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-whole-05-31-17-229x300.jpg 229w" sizes="(max-width: 305px) 100vw, 305px" /> New snake for the lily pond, though not for the place. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1316 aligncenter" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-head-bright-close.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="409" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-head-bright-close.jpg 400w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-head-bright-close-293x300.jpg 293w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />Likely either Natrix erythrogaster transversa or N. erythrogaster flavigaster, the Blotched Water Snake or the Yellow-Bellied Water Snake. The snake didn’t roll over to show me the critical underside. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1319 aligncenter" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-detail-05-31-17.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="327" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-detail-05-31-17.jpg 400w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snake-in-pond-detail-05-31-17-300x245.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />This view clearly shows the faint transverse bands on most of its length. We have a lot fewer frogs and tadpoles in the backyard water system than we used to, and I think this snake is responsible. It’s much bigger than the red-lined ribbon snake we’ve had most years, and since it can grow much larger than this, it’s out of scale for the pond-and-stream. Eventually it will have eaten everything it can find here and will go somewhere else to reach its full size.
Mystery Plant: New One for the 80Acres Plantlist
R- found a tall blooming plant Saturday, June 18, that he didn’t recognize: a colony growing in the creek woods, in the ‘swamp’ area, now very wet again. There’s a kind of “sandbar” (except it’s not sand, but alluvial mix from flash floods including black clay) that gets midday sun. He found a colony of […]
R- found a tall blooming plant Saturday, June 18, that he didn’t recognize: a colony growing in the creek woods, in the ‘swamp’ area, now very wet again. There’s a kind of “sandbar” (except it’s not sand, but alluvial mix from flash floods including black clay) that gets midday sun. He found a colony of these, 4 feet and more tall, and since he didn’t have a camera with him, he pulled the shortest one to bring back and show me. It was about four feet. By the time it got back to the house, it was fairly limp, the main stalk actually broken. I snipped it short enough to fit in a pitcher, hoping it would perk up. Some of the pictures were taken shortly after that; over time it did regain turgor so this morning I set it outside for a bit and took more pictures. Clearly Mint Family–square stem, opposite leaves, flower shape. The color appears pink in some lights, lavender in others; this image was taken in late afternoon. Here’s some flower detail taken in the same session. I started looking for ID with my old Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers of North-eastern and North-central North America, Ajilvsgi’s Wildflowers of Texas (and could not find my Peterson for Texas & the Southwest, which I didn’t put back on the shelf the last time I used it (DUh!) I’ve found the Peterson useful even when it’s not this region, as this is a transitional region. Looking there, I was leaning toward Stachys tenuifolia. It was getting late, but even so I pulled out the monster, Correll and Johnston’s Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas and looked at the various Stachys entries…S. tenuifolia was listed for east fourth of Texas, which we aren’t, but I’ve found eastern plants in various nooks and crannies here, esp. in the creek woods. (American elm, for one.) This morning the cut end in the pitcher had soaked up even more water, and twisted its spike round to point at the window of the back door. Many of the flowers had dropped, but it looks like more may open further up the spike. I set it outside on a stump and took some more pictures, first of the entire plant, then the flowers, then the leaves. I measured the leaves on the original stem, now very limp, as well. All three stems with buds are now more upright (the “side” ones completely so) Flower detail showing stages of bloom Leaves are lanceolate, toothed, slightly rough. Down the stem they’re 3.25 inches long plus a 0.5 inch petiole. One leaf (lower right) clearly shows the petiole. This morning, I tried to look up this and possibly related plants on the National Wildflower Research Center’s database of plants. There’s not an easy way to do a side-by-side comparison of closely related species, and the information needed for working up an ID isn’t always in the plant description (missing for many plants, including the tall ones like this, is height. There’s generally less information than in a field guide.) Anyway, going to bed I’d been happily thinking S. tenuifolia, but the images at the Wildflower Center and the references they gave suggested that that plant had more brightly colored flowers, and more obvious on the stalk, than the one we have here. So I went back to Correll & Johnston, but….uncertainty still there. Need a solid ID to put this plant on the 80-Acres list. And of course I’d like to know how close I came to the right ID.
The rain stopped a week ago; the winter grasses are brown or browning, the early wildflowers have gone to seed. But soil moisture is still good. The tallgrasses (switchgrass, Eastern gama, Indiangrass, big bluestem) are doing very well (switchgrass in the secondary drainage is taller than we are.) There’s an area in the east grass […]
The rain stopped a week ago; the winter grasses are brown or browning, the early wildflowers have gone to seed. But soil moisture is still good. The tallgrasses (switchgrass, Eastern gama, Indiangrass, big bluestem) are doing very well (switchgrass in the secondary drainage is taller than we are.) There’s an area in the east grass we call “The Bowl” because it’s a roundish area that seeps in wet weather as it slopes down to the old drainage line. It stays green longer. When we got the place, it was covered with broomweed (non-native), bare under the broomweed with a few scattered grass plants, not doing well because of the chemical defense of the broomweek. Today it looks like this: You can see the upslope edge (pale beige of dry grass) Every different shade of green, every native plant, reveals something about the soil where it is. I took that picture sitting on one of the little lawn tractors at the bottom end of the bowl, the much wetter end (just dry enough to drive on now.) In the foreground are large flowering sedges mixed with meadow dropseed. Under them are small flowers, such as meadow pink (Sabatia campestris) and coreopsis and prairie bluets (ranging from white to light lavender.) You can’t really see the scattered taller Texas bluebell (actually a gentian, Eustoma exaltatum (prev. grandiflorum) in this image (there were two, but too far away to show.) It was very bright, hot, and breezy, which made photographing individual flowers…tricky. The lower end of the Bowl is now rimmed with switchgrass (mostly) and Eastern gama that we planted for erosion control (along with the checkdams. A mowed maintenance trail across low end of The Bowl; R-pic shows the SW corner of the bowl–see brown grass beyond; secondary drainage turns left at clump of trees. We spooked a bird from the switchgrass that then perched in the tree to the L. More on that later. We have four gentian-family wildflowers in wet years like this, but I don’t usually find three of the four in the same general area. Sabatia campestis, the meadow pink, likes wet soil and is found only in wet years in the lower to mid-Bowl, peaking in late May. Texas bluebells (not bluebell, but since there aren’t any real bluebells here, that’s what pioneers called the gorgeous big gentian, Eustoma exultatum, was E. grandiflorum) likes areas that have been wet, or are moist, but I’ve seen it flowering in the worst soil in a dry August. I was told by several “grandmother” age women, when we moved here, that these used to be so common that girls cut them to make wreaths for their hair and used them for table decoration. And the tiny Centaureums (two species, one “clumpy” and one “straggly”) grow on various thin, unpromising, well-drained and even dry soils when they feel like it, any time from late April into July. But today I found all three in bloom in the Bowl in mid-June. In fact, in one “corner” of the bowl, I found the wet-loving Sabatia within two feet of the dry-ground Centaury. Top: Meadow pink growing in among large sedges; they grow scattered in grass, sedges, and young Maximilian sunflowers. Bottom: One of the Centaureums, the same pretty rose-pink as the meadow pink. Eustoma exultatum varies in color, but always some shade of purple, often with white Now about that bird. I saw three birds fly out of the switchgrass as I drove past, two one way and one the other. After I stopped the tractor and got off to take pictures, I began to hear what I thought was a Dickcissel calling. We have them only on wet years and I hadn’t heard one since (I think) 2007–hoped for one last year and never heard it. When my husband joined me, the bird flew from a different clump of switchgrass to the top of the little “bodark” (bois d’arc, Maclura pomifera) and there I was with camera in hand. I mentioned quite breezy, right. The top twigs of the tree were moving around some, and I was not in the best position (sun-wise) but I did have a zoom lens, my usual “out for a walk in the field) lens, so I did the best I could. And when put in the computer, brought up to 1:1, and then run through a histogram adjustment, this showed up: At full size in the computer, the black V collar, yellow in the front and cheek, confirm the ID Male Dickcissel, and given the date, probably breeding here this year. If you have any kind of photo-manipulation software, it’s alway worthwhile to take catch pictures of birds and other wildlife, because about half the time I can get an ID even if it’s a very imperfect picture in terms of bird photograph (as this is.) Also tucked in under the sedges and grasses were other wildflowers than the gentian relatives: small coreopsis (not sure of species), prairie bluets, “leftover” gaillardia stunted by too much water (!). Toward the edges of the bowl, on the east, more and more leftover gaillardia and lemon horsemint. Only one or two flowers were left on any gaillardia plant, but the lemon horsemint is still holding on well. From the bottom of the Bowl, I turned up its east side, and from there followed the mowed track around the dry woods. The seepage-watered “dry-woods swale” is now filled with Coreopsis instead of Goldthread. But now I need to resize and crop more of the images I took this morning, so that part of the day will be in a different post. EDIT (which was delayed much longer, so there’s one in the middle now.)
Most but not all the surface water has dried up, soils that were seeping and running with water last week are dry enough to walk on in regular shoes. Main grass: Queen Anne’s Lace, gaillardia, scattered bluebonnets stiff-stem prairie flax, coreopsis, goldthread, Venus’s looking glass, skullcap, green antelope horns, others With enough water running on […]
Most but not all the surface water has dried up, soils that were seeping and running with water last week are dry enough to walk on in regular shoes. Main grass: Queen Anne’s Lace, gaillardia, scattered bluebonnets stiff-stem prairie flax, coreopsis, goldthread, Venus’s looking glass, skullcap, green antelope horns, others With enough water running on the surface for long enough, we can have an abundance of wet-weather plants, including some in the mint family. One of the showiest is obedient-plant, which we transplanted planted a shovel-full of from a wet area about to undergo “development” somewhere else. It grows several feet tall, if it’s really happy–always at least 18 inches–with these big, glowing, lavender flowers that catch the light. Bees love it. The honeybees wrestle their way inside from the front; bumblebees more often bite a hole near the nectar. It has slowly spread over the years since we introduced it–faster in wet years, of course. Right here it’s growing with wild onion (at the end of its flowering) and is overlapping other flower types the bees enjoy. Bees were too busy toward late afternoon to let me catch them on anything but the obedient plant. Although I didn’t photograph bees on anything but this, I did see quite a few butterflies and caught this one on Queen Anne’s Lace. It’s a Common Buckeye, with the sun coming through one wing. Also with a preference for damp soil–but not growing in water–is Venus’s looking glass, a delicate little plant with purple star-shaped flowers along a single stem. We don’t see these in dry years. On slightly damp ground, a smaller mint-family plant with lavender and white flowers: Toward the bottom-center of image is another, even smaller mint-family plant just past flowering The two together in a glass of water. The Brazoria, the larger, is almost scentless; the tiny one, which has rosy-pink flowers that are darker red inside, grows thickly on damp areas of the east grass, is intensely aromatic. Some year I mean to collect leaves and try them in the kitchen–but they are tiny leaves. The whole plant grows only 4-6 inches tall. EDITED 5-8-2016. R- found an online photo reference. The small one is Slender Hedeoma, Hedeoma acinoides. It’s the 333rd plant IDed on the place. Upstream from the obedient plants and tallgrass clumps, the old ditch is full of wild onions with other plants mixed in, and the field itself has Queen Anne’s Lace, gaillardia, and gold thread, with Brazoria under the grass in the damper spots. The gaillardias have not peaked yet, and the rudbeckias and other coneflowers haven’t started. Gaillardia getting started–many more to come.
Earth Day 2016 It had rained in the day before, and dawned cool, with a northeast breeze–a perfect day to go checking the water quality on the east half of the place. Not as much rain as the previous weekend, so with some difficulty I was able to make it from place to place in […]
Earth Day 2016 It had rained in the day before, and dawned cool, with a northeast breeze–a perfect day to go checking the water quality on the east half of the place. Not as much rain as the previous weekend, so with some difficulty I was able to make it from place to place in ordinary walking shoes. In the distance, the line of woods along the seasonal creek; to the left the “dry woods” growing on a hump of rock. Out of sight to the left, the line of trees along an old ditch dug by a former farmer, intended to carry runoff from the highway to the south property line . A beautiful day, with signs of recovery from the drought…and signs of much management still needed. I have no equivalent pictures of what the place looked like 30-odd years ago when we moved to this town. We didn’t have a digital camera, and we didn’t own the 80 acres. It was then under the management of a decent-enough farmer who leased it and ran some cattle on it–but with care. I had permission to ride my horse out on it, and did so. It was slightly overgrazed, and the farmer disked and planted “improved” pasture grasses in one area, sometimes mixed with red-top. Up at the highway end, the owner sold a corner to someone who wanted to build an auto-repair place. Later, a construction firm moved in, and wanted more land; the owner sold it, making significant notch on that end. The farmer who’d been leasing it grew older, died, and both his place (adjoining this, west of our 3 acres) and this were leased to a man who ran as many cattle on it as he could. Grass diminished. Ashe juniper invaded; he didn’t clear it off; there were hundreds, both east and west of the dry woods. The two gates by which cattle left this field had deep gouges in hardpacked dirt (or deep mud, when it rained) and erosion occurred even in a two inch rain.In 2000, when we had the chance to buy it, grass had been eaten down to the dirt; some areas had less than 5% vegetative coverage; very little had thick native grass, the junipers were 3-5 feet tall, closing in. Land purchases take time; we got permission to start clearing the Ashe juniper that winter, and took possession in early 2001, insisting that the cattle be moved off. Fences were all bad. Broomweed, thistles, compaction in some areas from the number of cattle, serious erosion in multiple sites, especially the creek flood overflow channels. But we had seen that native plants were there–here and there, in little groups. The old, tough prairie grasses: switchgrass, little bluestem, Indiangrass, and more. The native forbs, too: Maximilian sunflower, frostweed, basketflower, the common wildflowers people plant (bluebonnets, rudbeckia, gaillardia, prairie verbena) and the ones they don’t: Brazoria, Texas sage, gaura and false gaura and more. So the work began. Water management–to prevent erosion, to hold rainfall and runoff on the land longer, so it can soak in and maintain soil moisture and replenish groundwater, to allow revegetation to take hold and provide protection both from intense rain and from moving water–was the first priority. And this–smaller then, and built against the old fence you can see lurking behind the new one was the first, rocks laid across the old gate between our place the the one to the south: Old #1 Gabion The original was built with rocks–smallish rocks–we picked up on the place (enough soil had washed away that picking up small rocks was easy) wrapped in old chicken wire. It took garden-carts full of little rocks. We couldn’t afford to buy rock at that time. Now it’s reinforced by larger, heavier rocks, but even in its early stages it slowed water down some and kept some of the soil on our side. Periodically a big flash flood shifts things, and it needs repair (it needed repair last year, when we had twice the annual rainfall after years of drought, so the soil-holding capacity of roots had been degraded. Except in the heaviest rains, water runs clear when it leaves our place even though dirty water enters from the highway along the east end and from the construction yard.The second gabion was built on the other gate cattle had used, where the soil loss was even greater. The third was built upstream of this one, across the “scour” where water from the old ditch and natural drainage from above converged to flood this meadow. It is now the main protector of the meadow, holding back a large pool after big rain events, and releasing it slowly across the meadow. Top: 4-18-16: after very heavy rain, water flows almost clear; Bottom: after another smaller rain that week, on 4-22-16 it’s flowing completely clear. Instead of digging a trench on old cattle trails, the flow is now wide, shallow, and much slower. Native grasses and forbs now fill this drainage. Here’s the back side of the #3 gabion with water and a lot more vegetation than it had when we started, when it was across a bare scoured place, and the water clarity in one of its associated upstream pools. These pools provide habitat for aquatic life, such as crayfish (note burrow sign in R image), amphibians, odonate larvae, and others. Crayfish did not survive the years’ long drought but returned this winter after rain restored soil moisture. These pools provide water for other wildlife much longer than the previous fast-moving and fast-disappearing runoff, and they have supported revegetation. They are shallow, however, and thus subject to relatively fast evaporative loss, compared to deeper ones. It would be ideal to dig out the main gabion pool (esp. at the low end) but we don’t have the time or strength. There are many other chores to do, from finishing the rebuilding of the north fence, rebuilding the east fence on the highway, maintaining checkdams after floods, mowing. maintaining the rain barns, pumps, and guzzlers that provide wildlife water when the natural features are dry, replanting native vegetation (still ongoing), and documentingwhat use wildlife is making of which parts of the place. Here’s a failure that must be dealt with this year: The city’s new water supply comes from a lake to the north (wells failed, in the drought) and required some construction on a corner of the 80 acres. Despite discussion with the project engineer, in the event the construction crew were not careful, created deep ruts from heavy equipment and a supposed “erosion preventive” fence that diverted water onto a more vulnerable area and this happened. It’s headward erosion from the side of a natural drainage channel. Note the little clump of soil with grass in the midst of the water. This is going to require a new, large, wide, checkdam joining the one (just out of sight to the right) that stopped headward erosion of is drainage channel initially. Right now, we can’t take the rocks out there, because the ground is so wet and we don’t want to break what vegetation cover we have (and hauling rocks, even in a child-sized wagon, puts a lot of weight on tires.) When it’s a little dryer, I’ll start picking up any rocks in the area by hand and get things started. And when it’s good and try, we’ll try to get a truckload (5 cubic yards) of appropriately sized rocks somewhere back near the gate, so we can haul a cartload out every day or so.Even with this problem, water quality coming off the east grass looks good shortly after storms, both in the old ditch and in the natural drainage. Left: natural drainage, series of shallow rock-bottomed pools, clear water. Right: old ditch, once bare, now heavily vegetated, with both linear pools and water running through solid vegetative cover. In distance of right image, dark line reveals the original natural drainage channel; these channels converge upstream of #3 gabion, where cattle had broken through the old ditch structure. We built a large check-dam there, and smaller ones between the pools above the gabion itself…and then more checkdams upstream on the natural drainagin to slow drainage from a large seepy area. These began holding soil quickly, and transplants of switchgrass where then successful–and now contribute to the filtration and soil holding. On Earth Day, these small pools were being visited by both dragonflies and damselflies, including damselflies mating and ovipositing: “Manage the water, and the land (and wildlife) will take care of itself.”
Why it’s called BIG bluestem: the pole is six feet tall Four grasses form the foundation of the tallgrass prairie biome in the US: Big Bluestem, Switchgrass, Indiangrass, and Eastern Gama. Before this land was broken to the plow, fingers of tallgrass prairie existed here in the wetter lower spots, with midgrass (Little Bluestem, Sideoats […]
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1294" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/big-bluestem-CloudPav-7-21-15.jpg" alt="big-bluestem-CloudPav-7-21-15" width="300" height="350" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/big-bluestem-CloudPav-7-21-15.jpg 300w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/big-bluestem-CloudPav-7-21-15-257x300.jpg 257w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> Why it’s called BIG bluestem: the pole is six feet tall Four grasses form the foundation of the tallgrass prairie biome in the US: Big Bluestem, Switchgrass, Indiangrass, and Eastern Gama. Before this land was broken to the plow, fingers of tallgrass prairie existed here in the wetter lower spots, with midgrass (Little Bluestem, Sideoats Grama, Vine Mesquite, etc) prairie on dryer slopes and shortgrass on the rockiest areas. This is not quite the southernmost bit of tallgrass country, but it’s getting there. When we bought the place, it had been farmed for cotton, corn, sorghum, and then “improved” pasture with non-native grass, and then overgrazed almost to the bare ground–was bare ground in places. One of our goals was to restore native grasses, including the big four. There were patches of Little Bluestem here and there. Larger patches of Indiangrass across the creek. One or two Switchgrass clumps. But no Eastern Gama and no Big Bluestem. We would see patches of it along some county roads, occasionally one in a field, usually a field left fallow for years awaiting development. Twelve years earlier, when we first bought the house and its few acres, we’d established a “grass garden” for native grasses that we began to salvage from construction sites and where narrow country roads were about to be scraped and widened, destroying the plants alongside anyway. Big Blue is one of those grasses. Each of the stands growing on our place now began as one spade’s worth of root division brought in and planted in the grass garden. One by one, after we bought the 80 acres, 9×9 inch square root divisions were individually planted here and there, seeking those places where they might thrive. Some did well initially; others are still a small clump. The tallest, above, is in on four feet of black soil over white caliche/rock mix over rock. (We know, from digging fence post holes and the foundation holes for the rain barn nearby.) This area was not farmed as intensively as the rest of the land east of the creek. The rain barn’s 5000 gallon storage capacity means that even in the 5 drought years we could give it a little water every other week or so. It was never heavily watered, but it had some help. It also had a top dressing of aged horse manure last year, in anticipation of a possible El Nino winter. Plenty of rain fell this spring and early summer. Here’s another: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1293" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/big-bluestem-Center-Walk-7-21-15.jpg" alt="big-bluestem-Center-Walk-7-21-15" width="350" height="224" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/big-bluestem-Center-Walk-7-21-15.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/big-bluestem-Center-Walk-7-21-15-300x192.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" />Two similar stands are in former plowed land & pasture; again, pole is 6 feet This big open field was badly overgrazed, with less than 20# grass coverage when we took it on. It’s suffered erosion, and the soil type and depth vary widely from one side to the other. At the high end, it’s a reddish-brown soil not more than a foot or so deep. Along both the north and south fencelines, where it wasn’t plowed, the black soil I suspect was original is still there in varying depths–deeper to the west, toward the creek, and thinner to the east. It had been terraced, more or less, some time in the past, and then planted with King Ranch Bluestem (non-native grass) as “improved pasture,” but had been overgrazed and badly invaded with nonnative forbs and Ashe juniper. We took hundreds of junipers off the big field, and it’s still a chore to whack the babies that come up from seed. This stand of Big Blue is a ragged oval about 10 feet by 8 feet now and no longer needs the market stick we had with it for its first years. It suffered badly in the drought (got no supplemental water) but came back strong this year. Last year, before the rains began, it had fewer than ten flowering stalks; now they’re abundant (and not yet open, unlike those of the first picture. Since not all the original root divisions were sourced from the same site (I think we started with four, within a 15 mile radius of here) the difference in flowering times could result from genetic differences in the original sources, or soil conditions. The other stand in the west grass is a little more robust; it was planted at one side of a stand of vine mesquite (a lower grass that likes more soil moisture) perhaps 50-60 yards from the tallest one and another 50-60 yards from this one. Of all the things we’ve accomplished, I think I’m happiest to have Big Bluestem back on this land, thriving, coming through the drought, and standing tall. When we moved here, a very old man told me about working as a cowboy in his youth, driving cattle from water to water (the San Gabriel River to the Lampasas, west of here–just west, he said, of present-day US 183), and riding through grass so wall that the seedheads were almost as tall as he was, while in the saddle. This is the grass he remembered seeing one moonlight night, bending in the wind so it looked like waves, he said.
A cool sunny day after some rain: grass is green, fall flowers are in bloom–including some non-fall flowers, like a pear tree. Monarchs are migrating through, and this afternoon were busy among the Maximilian sunflowers. Most of those are short this year (dry previous winter and spring) but loaded with flowers. In this patch alone […]
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1289" alt="October-west-grass042" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/October-west-grass042.jpg" width="350" height="234" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/October-west-grass042.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/October-west-grass042-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /> A cool sunny day after some rain: grass is green, fall flowers are in bloom–including some non-fall flowers, like a pear tree. Monarchs are migrating through, and this afternoon were busy among the Maximilian sunflowers. Most of those are short this year (dry previous winter and spring) but loaded with flowers. In this patch alone (a few yards across) I saw five or six monarchs at a time. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1282" alt="monarch-Max-sunflower015" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/monarch-Max-sunflower015.jpg" width="252" height="350" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/monarch-Max-sunflower015.jpg 252w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/monarch-Max-sunflower015-216x300.jpg 216w" sizes="(max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px" /> Some butterflies were so active I couldn’t get a picture of them, but one of my favorites showed up halfway around the long walk, in the “gully system.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1283" alt="Gulf-frit-Max-sunflower072" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Gulf-frit-Max-sunflower072.jpg" width="350" height="362" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Gulf-frit-Max-sunflower072.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Gulf-frit-Max-sunflower072-290x300.jpg 290w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /> This Gulf Fritillary was also nectaring on Maximilian Sunflower. This is a worn individual, with a hole in the right wing and a lot of scales rubbed off, but still a beautiful insect. The next butterfly I was able to photograph was a little dark Skipper of some kind. And finally, the last butterfly that held still for me was a very faded and worn Hackberry Emperor <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1285" alt="hackberry-emperor092" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hackberry-emperor092.jpg" width="365" height="305" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hackberry-emperor092.jpg 365w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hackberry-emperor092-300x250.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px" /> As I was coming across the front of the dry woods, I saw a tiny white-and-dark something flit up and then down to land on a blade of grass. I looked closer–it was either, I thought at first, a leafhopper or a tiny moth. It didn’t hang around long for its photograph (which made me think leafhopper.) Once I saw the image in the computer, though, it was clearly a moth. It’s one of the Acantia species, I’m fairly sure, but I’m not sure which. I’ve looked in BugGuide.net, and it looks more like A. behrii, but the range given for that species is much farther west. And there are lots more species, but BugGuide doesn’t have them all illustrated.
It was a dry fall, after a dry summer, and a dry winter followed the dry fall. Other places got rain–sometimes nearby–but we had none for months. March brought a little–April has brought a little–and now we have some flowers. The bluebonnets may be only 4-5 inches tall, instead of knee-high, but they’re there–in a […]
It was a dry fall, after a dry summer, and a dry winter followed the dry fall. Other places got rain–sometimes nearby–but we had none for months. March brought a little–April has brought a little–and now we have some flowers. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1272" alt="hist-adj_bluebonnets" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hist-adj_bluebonnets.jpg" width="350" height="234" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hist-adj_bluebonnets.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hist-adj_bluebonnets-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /> The bluebonnets may be only 4-5 inches tall, instead of knee-high, but they’re there–in a few places–and should be able to make seed for another year. We had more through most of the dry winter, but many finally just died–or were eaten, since they were the only green thing out there. Fence-building is a constant chore–we bought the place with a lot of very old, raggedy 4-wire barb-wire fence with a few other bits patched in, and have been repairing and then replacing, bit by bit. This year we’re hoping to finish the west end fence (the south end of it was done a couple of years ago, but paused when illness took down the fence-builder for awhile. Then he set to on taking the south fence all the way to, and across, the creekbed while it was dry, last year.) This was in an earlier phase of working on the west fence, south of the tributary creek crossing. Here’s what the tributary crossing framing looks like today, plus Chief Fencebuilder hammering in a staple with the pickaxe: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1273" alt="new-Westbrook-fence244" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/new-Westbrook-fence244.jpg" width="350" height="234" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/new-Westbrook-fence244.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/new-Westbrook-fence244-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1274" alt="R-working-fence247" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/R-working-fence247.jpg" width="228" height="350" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/R-working-fence247.jpg 228w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/R-working-fence247-195x300.jpg 195w" sizes="(max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px" /> Meanwhile, I went off to check the water at Owl Pavilion (the rain barn we built on the SW corner of the place, that collects rainwater for the wildlife waterer there. Pedaling along on my new vehicle is faster than walking, and the back basket lets me carry quite a few things–though today it was the camera, binoculars, and a denim overshirt…started out cool. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1276" alt="E-bike-west-end230" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/E-bike-west-end230.jpg" width="224" height="350" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/E-bike-west-end230.jpg 224w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/E-bike-west-end230-192x300.jpg 192w" sizes="(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px" /> We planted several native flowering plants in the area–firecracker bush, mealy blue sage, and–spectacular in this drought spring–a Texas columbine in the pool below the artificial spring that runs when the solar panel has enough light. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1275" alt="columbines-Owl-water251" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/columbines-Owl-water251.jpg" width="350" height="239" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/columbines-Owl-water251.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/columbines-Owl-water251-300x204.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /> While I was waiting for the system to refill from the big tanks, I spotted a male black-chinned hummingbird on one of the old juniper branches sticking out the top of a brushpile. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1277" alt="bc-hummingbird-m274" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bc-hummingbird-m274.jpg" width="268" height="350" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bc-hummingbird-m274.jpg 268w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bc-hummingbird-m274-229x300.jpg 229w" sizes="(max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px" /> He kept coming back to that perch repeatedly while I was there. Then it was back to the house, a little less than a mile ride away. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1278" alt="H-cropped_E-bike-west-end236" src="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/H-cropped_E-bike-west-end236.jpg" width="350" height="247" srcset="http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/H-cropped_E-bike-west-end236.jpg 350w, http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/H-cropped_E-bike-west-end236-300x211.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /> You can see how dry and not green the grass is here; there’s some low green grass under it, but nothing like April should be. Still, we had some rain last week, so I expect more flowers will try to come out and set seed before it gets hotter.