Photo Essay
Nature Trail Tour - November, 2008
Take a virtual tour of the Sibley Nature Tour!
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In mid-November, Master Naturalist (and private school teacher) Leslie Harman ventured out on the trail during a day she and another person kept the Sibley Nature Center building on a Saturday. Despite a frost doing some damage to the some frost-tender species (such as buffalo gourd,) many plants were still green.
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House finches greeted Ms. Harman as she reached the trail. Two males kept to the top of the mesquite, while the drab female stayed half-hidden lower in the bush.
Tasajillo, when its fruit is turgid and red, is one of the first plants that catch the eye. If a person stops and looks at all of the tasajillo in view, a mockingbird or two or four will become visible, as will a pair of curved-bill thrashers. In fall, the Sibley Pasture has a high population density of the mockers, for town dwelling members of the species come to harvest the bounty.
The coyotes still visit the property of the nature center. Before the south nine holes of the Hogan Park Golf Course were built, the coyotes denned in that rarely visited and "vacant" part of the Golf Course property. Did the coyote make his deposit before or after the human walked by?
Broomweed is in the foreground and cane bluestem with white tassels are under the mesquite. Do some plants "shimmer" when backlit for an ecological reason?
A month before, plentiful rains had fallen. As the ground completely dried, some locations with significant clay or organic content cracked apart and separated, giving considerable depth to the landscape (if you are an ant!).
Harrier hawks spend the winter coursing low over the Sibley property, as they hunt mice or small birds that often flock together (such as sparrows and lark buntings).
Why in the world was this mesquite bean in the fork of a mesquite?
Perezia, also known as desert holly, is another plant that many visitors to the Nature Center notice and are curious about. Its seedhead is a "puff" of white for a few hours (at best) before the wind carries the seeds away.
More cracked soil was spotted with bird droppings, flanked by termite castings on a twig, and by a clump of germander (a spring blooming perennial wildflower).
Another perezia grew tangled up in spiny yellow aster whose fluffy seeds hang on for up to a day, before finally spinning away in the wind.
Lehmann's lovegrass (in the foreground) is an aggressive non-native plant that has changed the plant composition of many West Texas pastures. Yucca crest a small rise, and mesquites on a hillock (a vegetated sanddune) are visible in the background.
Desert willow is a common ornamental plant in town. It is native within 100 miles (to the south). Some seedlings have sprouted and grown near the Sibley Center's parking lot, but it has not spread into the pasture (and probably will not).
High in the cottonwoods at the pond, Ms. Harman spotted an orioles nest surrounded by faded cottonwood leaves. The nest is " pendulous," like a round sack with a narrow neck. Besides grass, string and easter basket "grass" is visible in the nest.
White crowned sparrows patrol the landscape in small flocks, usually numbering less than thirty. The boldest species of sparrow, they pop to the top of the mesquite as someone approaches, and if the observer is still, will come out and feed in the open just a few feet away.
These three photos were taken within five seconds of each other.
When finally in the open, the sparrow looked around before pecking on the ground for seeds.
Some ranchers call lotebush "bluethorn," and in late afternoon light, the hue "radiates."
Kochia is another European plant that has become a significant force in the landscape. It was brought to the United States as an ornamental for its bright colors in the fall, but its original wild form (that it reverts back to within a few generations) does not have a pleasing form. The plant is a significant allergen, as well.
Ms. Harman was quick on the draw - photographing birds in flight is difficult. These shovelers had been startled by golfers on the golf course and zoomed away from the golf course pond and over the Sibley pond.
Russian olive has become a significant pest from Fort Sumner, New Mexico all the way into Saskatchewan, Canada. As it readily attracts birds to its blooms and fruits, the species spread rapidly, helped along by the Soil Conservation Service, who sold millions of seedlings of the species for erosion control in windbreaks.
Giant sacaton is a rare plant on the Llano Estacado, but is common in some New Mexico mountain ranges in the juniper/oak (Maderan) forest of the foothills. With plentiful water it becomes a spectacular 8 foot tall (and across) mound.
Look close at the ground when you are walking. In fact, get down on hands and knees...or even on your belly, and see the world from a different perspective. A tiny huisache daisy winter rosette, covered with hairs, had sprouted next to an espantes vaqueros that never grew. A few feet away, another of the gray leafed plants was two feet tall and three feet across.
One of the resident coots of the Sibley Pond came out to investigate Ms. Harman, before swimming back into the cattails and out of sight.
During the fall the cattails set seed. As the plants slowly turn brown with winter, the seeds keep slowly being released for weeks on end. Once every few years, however, conditions are perfect for a mass release of cattail seeds, and the seeds coat the nearby plants like snow.
Siberian elms are yet another species that has proliferated and "gone native." Most west Texans don't mind having trees that can survive on their own, and the trees provide some wildlife value.
Sibley staff have planted bur oak near the pond. Bur oaks are riparian trees on the great plains - even as far west as northeastern New Mexico, near Raton.
Elm trees form their spring leaf buds (seen above) even before the last year's leaves have fallen.
Bristle grass and windmill grass are two very common species of grass along the trail. No one needs to be told which is which!
Windmill grass have black seeds without awns (hairs), but they are small, compared to the bristlegrass seeds.
Cowpen daisy grows even in most of the driest years, although it may only get six inches tall. (It can be four feet tall in a rainy year.) The seeds are flat wafers with black centers. The seeds are produced by the ray flowers (which are visible to the left.)
A mockingbird perched on a lote, surveying the pasture, protecting nearby tasajillo.
Do not touch a tasajillo berry!
A tiny marine blue butterfly nectared on a spiny yellow aster.
Coralberry (in front of the Sibley building) is a passalong ornamental found in every town in West Texas.
Did this mocker resent Ms. Harman for being near its tasajillo stand, and therefore "stood its ground" as she kept approaching it?
In the Aubrey and Jean Reid garden at the front of the building, native Lantana horrida attracts many birds and butterflies.
With a hand lens, a person could see the tiny orange thrip in the texas sage blossom.
A late Monarch butterfly sought nourishment to gain the energy to continue on south.
This bizarre bug might be an assassin bug.
A red admiral used a sotol stalk to sun itself in the late afternoon.
Thornless prickly pear is not entirely thornless!
This is the only time this ant species has been seen - late in the afternoon on a warm November day. Only one was seen.
Bandwinged grasshoppers are able to survive the first frosts of winter.
The grasshopper came to investigate the photographer.
Details on the ground abound. The winter rosette has reddish tinges on its leaves, a mud termite tube, a hog potato leaf folded up in response to drought, and a tiny filaree rosette fill this 3 square inch view of the ground.
White-spined Comanche prickly pear remains hidden in the grass, and since grass is usually not green on the Llano Estacado, the cactus is well camouflaged by the faded grass.
An Aphanogaster ant carried a piece of a tasajillo berry back to its hole.
White mold is growing on a tiny piece of a tasajillo berry. A tiny thief ant was underneath, invisibly laboring to bring the tidbit to its nest.
Why were three or four harvester ant heads wadded together in a clump a few inches from the Aphanogaster ants' nest?
Hog potato often has bright red new leaves when it produces winter rosettes.
Can you find a tiny snail shell in the Aphanogaster ants' "midden" (dump)?
Excavated one tiny rock or soil clump at a time, the Aphanogaster ant nest can be up to ten to twelve feet deep, if the soil is available.
Tumbleweeds are one of the first plants burned by frost. The plant quickly turns brown, and the seeds become more obvious.
A bright orange lichen is common on mesquite. The Sibley Nature Center recently received a tremendous guide to lichens, and if a staff member can take a few hours to study the book, we might be able to begin to learn about the native lichens of the Llano Estacado. So far, we have not found any previous research attempting to delineate the diversity of lichens in the region.