Habitats of the Llano Estacado
Sanddunes
Photoessay: Dunes in July
Sharon Jones read the story in the Midland Reporter Telegram about how the Sibley Nature Center would love to have people photograph the sand dunes, so she went out and did so. She uses one of the small pocket digital cameras, and shot her pictures at high resolution. She then did some editing, and cropped the pictures to zoom in on the insects and tracks in her pictures. The staff at the Nature Center then selected a number of her pictures for this short photoessay. Every single person that goes to the sand dunes will see something different.
We would love to have more people participate in our sand dune project – get out there and photograph!
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For example, she found a dragonfly hanging by one leg from a twig on the ground, and holding its prey. Why did the dragonfly choose such an awkward position? How far away was its “natal pool,” the body of water where it spent time as an egg and larvae?
Beeflies are relatively common, but until a person starts searching for creatures to photograph, they often go unnoticed. They are amazing creatures – they fly up behind a bee and dive bomb a ground bee with an egg. If they are lucky, it sticks to the bee, and if that egg is lucky, it will hatch when the bee is in its hole and the larvae will crawl off and eat the bee’s egg or larvae. The staff at Sibley was not in agreement about its identification – one individual thought it might be a hover fly.
This is a somewhat large ground bee. It might be the target for the bee fly, but it will take a dedicated observer to prove that supposition. The sunflowers in the sand dunes are Helianthus petiolaris, the sand sunflower. It has longer petioles than the more common Helianthus communis, which grows over most of the United States. The sand sunflower only grows in sandy soil. The longer petioles allow the leaves to twist in the sun to present the narrow edge to the direct sun, so less transpiration occurs. This sunflower is tattered by age, but is still producing nectar.
The bee moved to a fresher sunflower.
In the shinoaks in the sanddunes at least one species of cicada can be found. As with the bee fly and bee, it would be a monumental task to figure out which species of insect it is. There are not field guides to very many groups of insects. In an understudied area such as the sand dunes, it is unlikely that more than a half-dozen specialists in either type of insect have ever visited, and to discover their findings in a scientific journal is a hit and miss proposition, too.
Where there are insects, there are lizards. Ms. Jones did not see the lizard. It probably saw her, though, and if it had been a sagebrush lizard its protective coloration would make it impossible to see unless it moved.
Ms. Jones placed the shinoak acorn next to the footprint to give an idea of its size. This helps in the identification of the print – the staff at the Sibley Center believes it to be a skunk footprint.
In a mesquite between the dunes, Ms. Jones found a cactus wren nest. Cactus Wrens build several nests, and use them in the winter. The species suffers from a compulsive disorder – they are always busy!
In rainy years, sand heliotrope can cover the dunes in mid summer to late fall. In the foreground is woolly dalea. Both species have hairy leaves to slow transpiration – and the dalea has tiny leaves to slow transpiration even more.