Habitats of the Llano Estacado
Sanddunes
Photoessay – Shinoak-Covered Sanddunes (Early December, 2009)
Nathan Taylor’s family farms cotton west of Lamesa. In 2009 Nathan was 15 years old. He is homeschooled, and before or after lessons, or while he is working on the farm (hoeing or driving the tractor) he explores his homestead. His family’s house sits in the middle of shinoak covered sanddunes. His photography records the changing seasons, and through the year he discovered a number of organisms (both plants and animals) that had not been recorded in western Dawson County before his observations. In November 2009 he was elected Vice-President of the Llano Estacado Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.
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Related Photoessays: April | June | July | August | September | October | Early November | Mid-November
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When wildflowers are few and far between, those producing nectar will become crowded.
Which is the dandelion, and which is the sow thistle? Nathan took the photo away from his property, and so far has not found dandelion in his patch of sanddunes.
Bumblebee honey pots lay empty after a successful year of raising young.
The honeypots are smaller than thimbles.
A white tailed deer found pie melons edible. Humans don’t.
What is this long legged gray spider?
Nathan found this grub in a sandsage stem, where it had formed a gall that caused the stem to swell.
This is what it looked like before he opened it.
Shinoak fall color fades as time goes on.
A waferlid trapdoor spider was out of its hole.
What is this pinkish spider? Is it kin to the trapdoor spider?
A tiny metallic green jumping spider wandered about on Nathan’s greenhouse.
The deer kept coming back to the pie melons.
Early December brought snow, making the sand sage splendiferous!
Some of the snow melted on this cowpen daisy.
The snow mashed the daisies to the ground.
A funnel web spider ran across bare ground.
Its funnel was covered with a little bit of cotton lint from the fields.
A pyrrhuloxia sat and shivered as the snow fell.
Ice formed on yellow spiny aster seeds.
Ice collected in a shinoak acorn cup.
The windmill grass seed stalk stood up to the weight of the ice.
It also collected on annual buckwheat seedheads.
Snow in a yucca pod is a classic winter image of the Llano Estacado. Somehow it is like a holy chalice to Llaneros!