Photo Essay
Soda Lake
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Soda Lake is a large playa on Monahans Draw that is privately owned. Midland Naturalists (who have special permission from the landowner) have visited the ranch thousands of times over the last 20 years. In the rainy 1980s it filled up and retained water for at least seven years. It filled up again in the summer of 2007 and still had several feet of water in February, the date of the Master Naturalist visit to the site. Many species of birds have been found there that have never been seen anywhere else in Midland County, including Black Skimmer, Bald Eagle, and in recent years Black-tailed Gnatcatcher and American Raven. On the limestone ridge to the west of the lake several species of wildflowers not commonly found in Midland County are common, including the American Indian spring delicacy Chimaya.
Soda Lake had last previously filled in the late 1930s after a 15-inch rain upstream. However, because the soil in the area is the typical “gyp gray” the lake must have filled many times over the last thousands of years. When it is dry, it is usually covered with Alkali Sacaton grass (and nowadays, salt cedar). The gyppy soil continues down the draw for several miles.
Photographers; Pat Porter, Taffy Armstrong, Chris Cherry, Sean Patty, Nina McCart, Burr Williams, Sharon Jones, R.L. Orth, Leslie Harman
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The organic material in the water causes this "froth." It was not visible but in a few places along the shore, and the group could not decide what conditions were perfect for its formation.
Much of the shore was lined with a layer of algae. On the top it was dry, but when dug into, its green color remained, and it was moist to the touch. Is this the habitat for the shorefly larvae? Despite digging into it for a while, but without the aid of a microscope, the group could not decide what eggs or larvae were present.
A feather was near a strange shaped bird dropping, and other cylindrical droppings are above. There is no field guide to bird droppings!
Some of the bird feathers on the shore were in perfect condition like this down feather (probably a down feather of a sandhill crane.)
The group found a number of bones washed up along the shore. Some were obviously cow bones, but this appeared to be too small for a cow vertebrae. Notice the green algae in the center of the bone.
None of the group could even venture a theory about this black splotch's origin.
As this was the most common bird dropping, the group decided this was the droppings of a sandhill crane.
As the droppings aged, they took on interesting colors. Green seemed to be the color for fairly recently excreted droppings, but many were found to be the orange color as well, but those always seemed to be more misshapen, which indicates they had been present longer.
This small bug, probably a box elder bug, was an unusual find along the shore. In the winter, the box elder bugs find crevices for protection from the cold.
Judging by the shape this might have been a skunk dropping with both insect and plant remains inside.
When this dropping was torn apart, it was full of insects. It was too long to be a horny toad's dropping, so its identification remained a mystery.
Feral hog footprints were found along the shore.
Some of the group believed these to be feral hog droppings, but the amount of hair might indicate the droppings were those of a bobcat (because of the constrictions of the dropping)
Evidence of the bulls in the pasture were everywhere.
Most of the group decided that a coyote had left his waste along the shore here.
These coyote droppings were a little bit older, and had begun to turn white with age - or was it the salt of the shore that somehow wicked into the hair of the dropping?
A serious scatologist (student of droppings) would find plenty of mysteries along the shore of Soda Lake!
Had a dropping "melted" and caused the growth of algae in the soil of the shore?
Another super small spider was photographed along the shore. Was the small size an indication the spiders had just hatched, or is there a community of very small spiders that specialize in detritus windrows along playas?
Many of the shoreflies were found on the detritus windrows, so there had to be some relation between the two. If the detritus remains damp just a few days, eggs of the shoreflies could hatch there.
It appears that the shorefly was getting moisture from the damp soil.
The shoreflies would run along the ground for great distances, and despite careful observation, no real pattern of behavior emerged.
For a paper wasp to be out on a February day was unusual, but this one had a goal.
He carefully walked along the stick and then leaned over for a drink. He had come from over the water, and returned the same direction. The opposite shore was over a quarter mile away. Surely he had avoided the photographer and circled over the water, not flown that great distance.
When a person was more than a foot from the water, the soil became these crystals - but were they salt crystals or quartz crystals from sand? When dropped into water, they melted, so they must have been salt!
A fish scale was found on the shore.
In the foreground is what appears to be a beefly, also coming to get moisture, even though in most pasture beeflies never drink.
On a large piece of white metal laying near the shore, a number of insects were found. Why they were landing on the metal is a mystery. This is a cucumber beetle, and normally they are not found in February.
Shoreflies mated on the white metal, too.
Was this another species of beefly, or a species of native ground bee?
To find a shield bug in February was a surprise, too.
A decayed black bullhead catfish was found on the shore. See this photoessay to learn how they got to Soda Lake.
The red spot almost in the center of the photograph appears to be a small bloodworm. It was in the saturated muck along the shoreline. It seemed to be wiggling along to try to reach water. Had the waterline been over its location earlier that day, and with the wind and the sun did the water recede faster than the worm could move?
When the lake filled, millipedes were drowned, and eventually its shell washed to shore.
In soil litter in many habitats this small dark hunting spider can be found, but this one was along way from any soil litter.
Small round balls (partially decayed) along the shore were a mystery at first.
Not far away was a harder one.
Ah-ha - rabbit droppings that turned white by the salt efflorescence wicking from damp soil - with a little bit of thinking and further observation, many mysteries can be solved.
A bright green spike caught the eye of one of the photographers
It was not far from a row of dead cattails. The cattails germinated in 2007 and grew along the shoreline at its highest, up among the salt cedars there.
Among the cattails was a small reddish jumping spider. Maybe the warm February days stimulated the hatching of many species of spider, but two weeks later two different snowstorms may have taken its toll on the little babies.
Tiny bones were found on the shore - probably the bones of pocket mice that drowned when the lake filled.
To the right of the mystery white string is another shorefly. Was the white string the mycelium of a fungi, or the remains of a feather well decayed?
The class ate lunch along the shores of the lake.
Behind the salt cedars, two coots can be seen "running on the water" as they struggled to become airborne against the strong west wind.
A row of "peeps" (small sandpipers) faced the wind, sitting quietly.
In another location a group of long-billed dowitchers did the same.
Later in the afternoon, the peeps spread out in the shallow water, busily feeding.
For a while, they fed separately in the shallow water.
Eventually some of the peeps came close enough to reveal their yellow legs, revealing them to be Least Sandpipers.
The sandpipers ignored motionless photographers, almost coming to feed under their feet.
The peeps scampered along the edge...
This photograph was taken 3 seconds after the previous photo.
How did this Least sandpiper keep from falling over - was it the wind that held it up?
Notice that the peeps closed their toes together as they walked - so the feet could go in and out of the water easier.
The peeps were finding some food - this one juggled something in its mouth for a brief second.
The peeps stopped feeding to take a bath
And then, to carefully preen.
One group of peeps, far from any of the humans, suddenly took flight as a group.
The group flew towards the photographer.
The group came closer and closer.
When the peeps reached the photographer they began to bank
All of the birds banked at almost the same time.
The group of peeps returned from where they came.
And, lit again, almost in the same place. Why? Why did they fly? Why did they come check out the photographer?
Water rusts barbed wire, but unlike the fence posts at Shafter lake (see the dry shafter lake photoessay) the wood was not badly frayed by salt.