Photo Essay
Nature Trail Tour - April, 2009
Take a virtual tour of the Sibley Nature Tour!
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Members of the 2009 class of the Llano Estacado Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists Randy Hapgood and Carol Bauer photographed the April 2009 Virtual Trail. Despite the dry spring, they did find a number of wildflowers. They also photographed the elusive Sora… a marsh bird that stays at the pond every winter. We know of only one other photographer (2007 class member Bill Lupardus) that has been as lucky! They are the very first to photograph the baccharis wrightii, a non descript wildflower that most folks walk right by!
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Baby white asters are rhizomatous and grow in clumps underneath the mesquite, just like the desert holly does. They bloom in the spring, and sometimes in wet falls.
Baccharis wrightii is a perennial that has very small leaves on its sprawling stems. The blooms are very short lived, and turn to seeds within a day.
They went off trail a little ways and found the old badger den. We have not seen the badger in several years, and a packrat has taken over the den, piling sticks over one of the entrance holes.
Blue curls is a showy spring flower, but this year, they remained small and few were found.
Broomweed was greening up. Something had knocked last year’s seed stalks off of this one.
Cattails were showing new growth down at the pond.
A coot was feeding at the pond. Notice the strange red shield on its forehead. Sibley staff have not learned of its purpose.
The coot stood up on some of the floating detritus. They have webbed toes, not webbed feet, an unusual adaptation that allows them to clamber about in the cattails with more dexterity.
Copper mallow was blooming among the leaves of the blueweed in the playa.
The cottonwood at the east end of the pond is huge – for only being 15 years old.
A curved bill thrasher lustily sang – kin to mockingbirds, the species can also mimic other birds. They are the sentinel bird of the trail, warning every animal present that a predator or a human is coming.
Desert holly form carpets under the mesquite. Last year’s leaves have turned completely white, after being gold all winter.
In a nest in one of the trees near the pond, a dove egg was hatching.
Ephedra has strange blooms.
Jackrabbits dig in the soil to get to cooler soil when it is hot, and it has been hot early in the year – it reached the 90’s several times in April.
There was a late freeze this year – but only in the low area around the playa. Mesquites above the playa were not affected.
Germander, a member of the mint family, has strange shaped blossoms. It is a long lived perennial that blooms in the spring.
The giant sacaton at the pond grew rapidly in the spring heat.
As always, a great-tailed grackle hollered his ownership of the pond. They can almost always be seen at the pond.
A half-dug hole revealed plant roots, and a small hole possibly dug by a female solitary bee.
Carol and Randy found the largest ephedra on the property. They often grow in mesquites, for birds will deposit the seeds in their droppings when perched.
Huisache daisies were blooming in front of a prickly pear. Prickly pear has just arrived at the Sibley Nature Center. For years we had two small Comanche Prickly pear, but this is a larger growing species.
Huisache daisies turn red when they are fading, and when they have dropped their ray flowers.
After being yellow all winter, the mesquite beans on the ground have turned gray.
Huisache daisies have many stages to their bloom – which are the buds, and which are the ones turning to seed?
Sometimes the huisache daisies are hidden.
Sometimes the huisache daisies make large mounds.
Jackrabbits always keep at least one mesquite between a human and itself. They remain motionless, if possible, but if they get nervous, they leap away, bounding 10 feet in a single leap at full speed.
The junior master gardeners were mucking out their pond when Randy and Carol visited.
The blooms of the yuccas were just emerging. They taste like broccoli, but with a tiny bit of saponin in them, they sometimes cause upset stomachs. Deer and cattle eat them without effect.
The lote bushes were completely leafed out by mid-April.
Lichen grew on mesquite.
Lote berries turn red before they turn blue and ripe.
After the late freeze in the playa, the mesquites began leafing out near their bases first.
Away from the playa, the mesquites were well leafed out, but part of this one has died back in previoius drought.
It is amazing how perfect of a line can be drawn where the mesquites were affected by the freeze. Cold air sinks, and it only froze the mesquite leaves in a four foot tall zone – leaves above that layer of cold air did not freeze.
A mockingbird sought shade under a lote.
Nama rosettes were very small – they may send up just one or two blooms before they die with the drought, but they will bloom!
The burr oaks at the pond were completely leafed out – and were not affected by the late freeze.
The desert holly had begun to grow new leaves.
With the warm temperatures, some of the grasses were beginning to green up a week or two early.
New Mexico croton has a tough root system. In one bare soil area, they form hillocks that remain, despite wind and water erosion.
Old seedheads were golden against the new growth of broomweed.
A one year old prickly pear (of the species new to the property) had a bloom bud on it.
With the drought, the packrats continued to gnaw on mesquite bark for food. It will keep them alive for a few weeks, but eventually will compact in their intestines and kill them, if they do not find new fresh food.
A preying mantis egg case had holes in the side, where a parasite (probably a fly) had exited after metamorphosing.
A red eared slider swam in the pond, sticking his nose out of the water, trying to decide if it was safe to clamber up on a floating cattail to take a sun bath (this behavior is known as basking.)
An all red species of red harvester ant has been increasing in population density at the Sibley Nature Trail. This is in response to the droughty times, for it prefers more open conditions with plenty of bare ground to walk around. When it rains and vegetation covers the ground, some of their nests will die out from disease.
The Russian olives at the pond were blooming – their sweet smell brought many insects, which brought many migrant birds. Despite being a pest along creeks and rivers farther north, they rarely “escape” and become a problem in West Texas.
Salt cedar was beginning to bloom close to the cattails in the pond.
Sleepy daisies open their ray flowers about 11 in the morning. Parks Seed Company sells their seeds to gardeners.
The sora walked along the edge of the open water, tiptoeing along the floating cattail leaves.
After a while, it stopped and hunkered down, waiting for the photographers to leave.
Spiny yellow aster will bloom every month of the year, if moisture is available.
Tansy aster is sold as Tahoka Daisy by the Parks Seed Company. Notice the small bee on the ray flower.
Tasajillo grew among a yucca. Its seeds were dropped when a bird perched on its old seedstalk.
The tasajillo had rampant new growth, despite the dry conditions.
This yucca has been gnawed by packrats for at least three years. They use the leaves in their nests for protection – the sharp tips slow down a predator.
A tiquilia had caught an old oak leaf blown in from the planted oaks in Hogan Park.
An old tree stump is beginning to decay.
A two year old prickly pear of the species beginning to invade the Sibley Nature Center grounds might have been the source for the seed of the one year old plant mentioned above.
Another yucca, but only two years of gnawing. How did we make the determination between the two?
The verdin used more mesquite twigs this winter for his winter nest. The previous one (in previous virtual trails was made of grass) but was destroyed, so the bird learned to protect itself better.
The willow thicket at the east end of the pond is an inviting green shady place on a hot day.
A young salt bush grew along the trail. The species is slowly increasing in population density in several locations on Sibley Nature Center property.
When spring has finally arrived, it is green! (in places…)
In other places, the ground is bare, with only a group of yucca to dot the ground. These plants spread by rhizomes, so they are all one plant.