Wow! 2024 A year of change

 Looking back over my notes of what happened with the vegetation this year brought back memories of how much of a shift we have seen from past years when the rainfall was sparser.

First, we noticed the abundance of Russian Thistle.  Not since about 2018 have we seen so much thistle.  In pastures, it was so heavy that many asked what to do to keep it from spreading.  Those were good questions because it sure looked like the whole county would be covered with thistle, the likes of Kudzu vine in some parts of the south.  All that one can do to fight this pest is to cut back its seed-generating ability which means mowing selective areas.  General treatment with herbicides gets the good guys as well as the thistle.

Then along came the yellow flowers of every description and they lasted for months, one variety after another until the hot weather arrived.

Horsemint made a comeback this year with vast patches of this long-lasting flower.

Now, in the fall months, there are some small stands of Indian Grass and better stands of Litle Bluestem.  In fact, it's the best year in a long time that we have seen so much bluestem.  Yes, the KR Bluestem is still predominant, but that's a different story.

Where did the Texas Winter Grass go this year?  I think it did not have the rain when needed and decided to sit out a year so look for it, hopefully, this winter.

Huisache?  The heavy freeze of a couple years ago knocked it back to the Rio Grande so you can forget about those beautiful flowers for several years as it creeps back north, presuming we have no heavy freezes.

All this reminds me of how interconnected all plants and animals depend on their environment and their competition with each other.   John Muir said it in one sentence:  Everything is connected in Nature.

Some may remember the mouse story and how the mouse population affected the presence of the owl here in BWR.  Darwin had this all figured out way back in the 1800s and wrote his book Origin of Species around his observations.  I especially like this one paragraph, taken from his book:  

...Hence, we may infer that it is highly probable that if the whole genus of humble bee became extinct or exceedingly rare in England, the red clover would soon disappear. The number of humble bees in any district depends in a great measure on the number of field mice, which destroy their ground nests, and Col. Newman, who has long attended to the habits of humble bees, believes that more than two-thirds are thus destroyed all over England.  Now, the number of mice is largely dependent, as everyone knows, on the number of cats; and Col. Newman says:" Near villages and small towns, I have found that the nests of humble bees are more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the mice."  Hence it is quite credible that the presence of the feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, to a large extent, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in the district.

The Humble Bee is our Bumble Bee

Who wants to take a bet on whether we will see any significant growth of Russian Thistle come 2025?

Close observance reveals many changes

 This spring has been a parade of bloomers lasting for about two months.  First came the bluebonnets, not great coverage as we are not quite in the epicenter of bluebonnet growth.  Then a shift to the more common yellow with fields filled with hymenoxys, tetranauris acaulis, the little flower, but plenty of them to cover the fields in yellow.  This flower is also known by its common name of Angelita Daisy. These are small flowers so when the distant field shows all yellow, you know there are countless numbers of these neat blooms.  Right on the heels of the hymenoxys came the gaillardia, gaillardia x grandiflora, also known as the blanket flower.  Commonly, one will hear the name of Indian Blanket as well.

Not to be outdone, the fields then filled with black-eyed susan flowers.  This plant is commonly known as Glorioso Daisy and has the Latin name of rudbeckia hirta.  With the showing of the black-eyed susans, it appears that the parade of spring flowers is about to end.

If you didn't look closely at these fields of yellow, you might think that this showing of color for two months was due to one flower, but no, there were three.

Not a large showing, but it would be amiss to not mention the prickly pear cactus.  Best year in many for the blooms of the pear.  Looking closely at the blooms finds that the bees just wallow in the nectar of the yellow bloom.  Nothing can disturb them as they are in seventh heaven with these nectar producers.  It will be a good year to make tuna jelly.

Some observations from previous years are missing.  Here are some we have not seen this year.  Most notable is the junkyard dog of the bird world, the mockingbird.  This bird disappeared with the big freeze of a few years ago and has not returned.  We miss the mocker because it was a good sentinel for any snakes that were wandering through the area.

The purple martins turned up their beaks at the new colony house I built for them this year.  The same goes for the barn swallows that checked out their usual nesting place in the breezeway only to find some better place to raise their brood.

The other mystery is the disappearance of the phoebe.  For years we had a resident phoebe that stayed throughout the year, but again, with the big freeze, it disappeared never to return.

Nature keeps doing its thing.  I wonder when the huisache will make another run to move northward.  You may recall how the big freeze of a few years ago drove it all back south, well below San Antonio

Lots of Small Observations

 At the start of the year, we were apprehensive about the rain we were (not) getting.  Lake Bridlewood had gone dry, and the cattle had to be watered from wells and the wildlife were looking for any water they could find, including our two birdbaths.   The birdbaths had to be refilled daily because the deer and the night marauders were all sipping from it during the rainless months.

Then we started to get some rain, not a lot, but enough to get the grass and the wildflowers up and running.  Now we are in the period of having the grass and the wildflowers go to seed so we can enjoy them next year.  Note that the Antelope Horn Milkweed is plentiful this year on the roadside because you did not mow it down last year and it had the chance to reseed.

We saw the first snake of the season, but that seemed late, so we know that they are out and about, so watch out for the nasty ones.  I am hesitant to kill any snake as they do their share of keeping the mouse population down to reasonable levels.  We had a small rattlesnake on the porch the other day and so I shooed it off to the backyard.  A friend asked why I didn't kill it and I told them it was too small to eat.  Actually, letting it live just makes it easier for me to remember to be more careful when I poke around in the garden and pull weeds.

These damp nights have brought out the Poor Will.  In the northern climes, the bird song is "whip poor will", but here, our variety is against corporal punishment so it sings "poor will".

The Painted Buntings and Wrens (Bewick's and House) arrived right on time, but unfortunately, the barn swallows attempted a nest but had some kind of disaster and so abandoned the nest.  For some reason, we have not seen even one Mockingbird since the big freeze of two years ago.  We can hear evidence of Yellow Cheeked Warbler but have not seen one yet this year.

By the way, if you would like a copy of the bird songs of Hill Country Birds, it should be on the internet and free to download.  Let us know if you are unable to find it.

The drought of the last few years has had an effect on the deer population.  We should be seeing some new fawns, but none seen by us yet this year.

Another by the way.  Wiley enters daily rainfall amounts in the system we access on the website so if you are curious about the rainfall amounts and dates, check it out on the website under helpful links on the right side of the homepage.

Email us if you have any interesting nature sightings to report.

Nature includes people too

 We often go to any small town and search for a coffee shop because in the daytime, that is often the place where people socialize, just the same as they do in saloons at nighttime.  Okay, so the crowd may be different in its makeup from the coffee shop to the saloon, but we can accept that. Over the years we have been to plenty of coffee shops, some good, some not so good. Some of those we once liked no longer exist for some reason or another, and for some, we lose interest for one reason or another, but it's usually because the coffee is not good.  We never go to places that serve expensive coffee as they seem to attract a different crowd.  The expensive places seem to attract hummingbirds who like sweet frappes and lattes rather than real, dark coffee and those whose thoughts do not run very deep.  But we shouldn't be critical, because they too have something to teach us.

Our main interest, along with the coffee is to take note of people and to engage as many as possible in conversation.  We learn a lot about the nature of people and the extent to which most show their interesting character.

Surprising, at least to us, is that upscale gasoline stations, presuming you know an upscale gasoline station when you see one, now serve some of the best coffee.  The best coffee comes from good beans, well-roasted and brewed rather freshly.  If we see a pot on a burner half filled with brewed coffee, especially in an old Sanka orange handled pot, we usually leave and look somewhere else.  Modern purveyors of brewed coffee in gasoline stations always brew a self-dispensing jug of coffee that does not sit on a hot burner.   Then, the more modern shop has a coffee station where you can select the variety of coffee, and the cup size, and then with a punch of a button there is a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

But, we stray from the theme which is the people we meet at these modern-day watering holes.

Take for example the lottery players.  The state lottery game holds just enough hope to keep some people coming back to take their chances.  I quizzed our local station about the chances of winning and they pointed with pride that they have had two big winners, both taking home $20,000 from a winning ticket.  That would certainly keep some coming back and we have one that always comes back for more tickets.  For the last year, he often arrives at noon, which is when we happen to be there too, and buys three tickets, goes out to his car, tests them for wins and (usually) finding no wins, buys three more and then quits and leaves.  Sometimes though, he makes many more than two trips back into the store; these extra trips for more lottery tickets fueled by some small wins to pay for the next round of tickets. Apparently, his strategy is to buy three tickets in two trips to the cash register and if not successful, then quit.

One day, we caught his eye as he was leaving and asked "any success today?".  That set him into a story of how he is always blessed with luck, telling us of his wartime efforts when he was told by a palm-reading seer that because of the five lines in his palm he would always come back from war.  And obviously, he did.  He went on to tell that he always has a guardian angel sitting on his shoulder minding over him.  He then wandered off and out to his car with the spritely walk of a young teenager despite his age of approximately 60 years.

Then, the other day we observed a man standing in line with his few items to purchase when he saw an elderly lady with a cane about to leave the store, he bolted from his position in the checkout queue to help her with the door and then went on to help her get into her car, all the while holding his goods to be bought. He then came back into the store and took up the last position in the checkout queue.  When you look for examples of kindness you can usually find it and today, we did.

Then there is our friend the UPS driver who makes a stop at the store each day to drop off packages and get a soda to take with him.  He is an avid Astros fan, but when they broke his trust by using electronics to signal the batter on the next pitch as signaled by the pitcher, he was incensed.  No honesty, no loyalty.

Never a dull moment at a coffee shop, especially when it is also a convenience store and gasoline station.

Bobcats

My experience with the bobcat is much like what I have of the mountain lion.  It is not a common animal here in Central Texas and is elusive, not commonly seen by the average person.  Counting the number of times seen in the wilds is low, perhaps only two or three times in the last thirty years.  But this is not true in some parts of the USA where the bobcat is more prevalent. To be exact, we have seen two bobcats in the wild and three mountain lions over these many years. All things considered, seeing both cats is a wonderful experience.

The Bobcat is a member of the lynx family.  There are four lynx family members around the world and two of them, the Bobcat and the Canadian Lynx are native to North America. The other two are in Europe.

Some might think that the Ocelot, which is a small to medium-sized cat is related to the bobcat, but it is not of the same family. It is a member of the leopard family.  This cat lives in Mexico and ventures as far north as the Rio Grande Valley.

My niece, who lives in Colorado, has seen bobcats regularly visiting her backyard, and on one occasion they observed one climbing over a wooden fence with a squirrel that was being invited home for dinner.  Bobcats are carnivores, and probably would eat fish, but since they are not fond of water, fish are rarely consumed. 

Below is a video of a pair of bobcats in their backyard, one of them (the male it appears to be) sitting on the railing of the fence around the patio.  Both appear to be at ease in this environment.

Bobcats in Colorado (by Lisa Maloney)

Notice the tail markings on these two bobcats because it is the most rapid way to distinguish a bobcat from a lynx.  The bobcat has some markings on the short tail and the tip is not fully black, whereas the lynx has no black markings on the tail and the tip is solidly black.  There are other differences between these two fine animals, but this is the quick way to distinguish one from the other and when you see one next time you may not have a lot of time to study it.

Cats are notorious for having a peaked tuft of hair on the tips of their ears and the lynx has more of a pronounced tuft than the bobcat.  Both have a more pronounced tuft than a housecat.

All of the excitement of seeing this video made me ask why we in central Texas see very few bobcats and when we do, they are very elusive, not like this pair in Colorado.

One observation is that we do not have the food they prefer in any abundance.  There are not many squirrels, not many mice (lately), and the last time we observed a cotton-tail rabbit was about 5 years ago.  With regard to food, the Colorado location is favored.

And then there is the question of predators.  I have no data to apply to this question, but I can imagine that man and coyotes are the two main predators and here, central Texas and Colorado are probably equal.  However, bobcats seem to be invading suburban areas just as the whitetail deer have done and, in that case, predators are not a problem for the bobcat.

Last is the question of habitat.  Bobcats are not common in areas of open terrain as they need the cover of woods and brush; cornfields do not offer much of that, so one would not see many bobcats in the plains states. 

Once again, this difference in observed bobcat behavior illustrates the point that most wild animals can be made tame by providing the habitat they like without the fear of being annihilated.

Following EarlyTexas Explorers

 The area that is now Texas was the target for exploration for centuries.  First, it was the Spanish who sought to extend their frontier from central America northward, and, at the same time pursue the hope of finding gold. I mean, why not find the Seven Cities of Cibolo as told by the Indians and cart all that gold back to Mother Spain?  Well, after trekking hundreds of miles all the way from the Rio Grande to what is now Kansas and finding no gold, they did away with their guide and went home. Next on the agenda of the Spaniards was to civilize the Indians by getting them into the Catholic Religion.  Their principal attraction was freebies and a place to live in peace, away from the marauding Comanches, with a domicile near the expanding network of churches.   Another condition of this was that they had to give up their nomadic tendencies and grow corn.  Well, that didn't work all that well either.

Time eroded all of this quest for territorial gains and now, after a century or so, the French showed up in the land regions of the northern Gulf of Mexico and this specter gave the Spanish the willies, so to speak.

Then, when the French sold the huge tract of land called now the Louisiana Purchase, those nasty Americanos were their next-door neighbors.  Well, we know all about next-door neighbors, how they keep encroaching on our property, and encroach they did.  Americans began to move into what is now Texas.  Some who moved in were honest people looking for freedom to grow with good land almost free for the asking but with one stipulation: they had to profess their faith to the Catholic religion and denounce all others.  That was no challenge, but who was to police that agreement? Others jumped over the Sabine to escape the law close on their trail for crimes committed in the USA.

Finally, too much government from Mexico became too much to bear so the Americans living in the southwest said that's enough and revolted.  Several big events then occurred all of which resulted in Texas separating from Mexico as an independent state.  The big events are indelibly inscribed in Texas history; the Alamo, the Mier massacre, Goliad, and the final battle of San Jacinto, where the Mexican army was routed, and Santa Ana was captured while he was engaged with his mistress in his tent.

With Texas now becoming a separate country with the longer-term prospect of being annexed to the USA, the region became attractive to Europeans to migrate into, especially the Germans who had a special desire to settle in Central Texas where the conditions were most similar to their home country.

These conditions attracted many scientists too, such as botanists and geologists, and even explorers whose main interest was to provide immigrants with some written material on what to expect if they immigrated to Texas.

It's interesting to follow the narrative of these more recent explorers of Texas, especially that of Roemer as translated from his German text into English and published as Roemer's Texas.

In Roemer's book, he describes his arrival in Galveston, then his lengthier stay in Houston where there were only a few wooden shacks to demark the town.  He describes the plantation of a newfound acquaintance located on a point of land extending into Galveston Bay.  That location is now named Morgan's Point.  The last time I was there exploring was 30 years ago and it was quite intact and isolated.  His friend Mr. Morgan introduced him to Dr. Ashbel Smith, a physician who owned a plantation across the bay waters on an isolated point of land which is now Baytown.  His plantation was called Evergreen and was located in what is now the Goose Creek Oil Field and near Cedar Bayou.

Many of the immigrants suffered from dysentery and fever from malaria.  Some communities lost 50% of their population from these maladies, and so life was quite precarious.

As an illustration of the effect of growth in population and in the growth of wealth is to contrast his observation of the Guadalupe River canyon just north of what is now Gruene.  He traveled from New Braunfels to the river and then up the riverbed as "far as I could go before the canyon narrowed to the extent that it was no longer passable".  Although this was the description of where he was traveling, it must have been the stretch of the river from just north of Gruene to what Statler is now.  Today, there is a road that is cut into the canyon and the canyon is packed full of vacation homes and visitor delights relating to the river.  What a change 150 years makes. In Roemer's time the challenge was to find a way to feed yourself and stay warm in the winter, and today after creating all this wealth as displayed in this same canyon the challenge is to find a way to pay the taxes on all these glitterati.

Makes you think.

Here is another to make you think.  Roemer and his accompanying travelers in their horse travel from the Austin area to San Antonio passed through the San Marcos area in 1843.  Their travel path was the easy route below the Balcones Fault along what would become Interstate 35.  As they passed through the area where the Blanco River joins the San Marco River, Roemer noticed that there was river debris in the tree branches 17 feet above ground level.  His comment in the text says, "this area is obviously not available for development due to flooding".  Perhaps the San Marcos government should have read the account of Roemer's travels; it would have saved a lot of distress due to the flooding of developed areas.

Disappearing Towns

Small towns, all across the United States slowly lose their status as a town when the agrarian work in the area diminishes and the local people conduct their business in larger nearby towns.  One fades away, and the other prospers. What is often lost is the history of the fading town and even the loss of structures that tell the historical story of the area.  Structures are lost for three reasons:  If they remain viable, taxation kills them, mother nature is always at work to reduce them to rubble, and people often requisition the materials of construction to build other structures.

Ammansville, Texas is a prime example of a small town in the process of disappearing for decades.

Ammansville is located on Farm Road 1383 in southeastern Fayette County in an area known for its painted churches.  Painted churches are a hallmark of the Czech Catholics who built beautiful wooden churches and decorated them elaborately.

The town was settled in the 1870s by German and Czech immigrants who found that this area of Texas was much like their homeland in soil, weather, and terrain.  The first of these settlers was Andrew Amman who arrived in 1870.

In 1876 the first business opened and by 1879 the town had a post office and a public school.  The Catholic church and church school were opened in 1890.

By 1900, the town had three stores and saloons, two blacksmith shops, one drugstore, one physician, and two cotton gins.  

By the early 1900s decline began to set in.  The US Post Office closed, with mail being delivered from nearby Weimar.  Then the public school closed and one by one, the businesses disappeared or moved to the larger commercial centers like Weimar of Schulenberg. 

In 1914, the population of the extended area was 800 with about 100 living in the town. this was probably the peak population, for by the 1980s fewer than 50 people lived in the town.  By the time of 2000, fewer than 50 people called Ammansville home, there are essentially no businesses, and the center of social life is the Catholic church.

Today, there are well-maintained farms in the wide area, but little remains of the structures of the past.

For more details on the history of Ammansville, written by Carolyn Heinsohn, go to Ammannsville, Texas (fayettecountyhistory.org)

p.s. The annual church picnic is the place to find good food.

All Depends on Water

 These last six months have been a demonstration of the importance of water to wildlife.  Wild animals need a source of natural water, such as creeks and puddles, to be independent, plus, that water also makes it possible for plants to grow, thus supplying food for them.

With little rainfall, it becomes advantageous to supply some water from our rainwater storage facility to augment what they don't have naturally.  However, we need to be very cautious about creating a dependency thus affecting their natural instincts.  Who wants tame deer?  Not us.  But, since it has not rained measurably between the start of February and the end of July, there is no natural water within a mile of here and the grass has never sprouted.  The dried-up grass fields look like the dead of winter.  Yet the temperature is usually 95 degrees at midday.

So, we feed a little and we water a lot.

The fawn population is a grand total of one in the immediate area.  The deer must have expected a tough year during the mating season of last fall.

The gray fox shows up on the occasions that we put out food that was intended for the house cat, food that she refused to eat.   We exhort her to eat the rejected stuff by telling her about all the starving animals in the wilds right outside her door.  She is unimpressed.  The gray fox loves it, knowing that if it does not eat it the raccoons will.  In desperate times, there is always a buyer.

One old Texas rancher once said about collecting rainwater runoff for his cattle, "when it rains you can't stock it and when it doesn't rain, you sure can't stock it".

Well, that's where we are on this matter where we depend entirely on rainwater for our home use.

I can Fly

 We know about barn swallows, cave swallows, chimney swifts, and all their relatives, but not until this year did we get to know the barn swallow up close.  In part, we avoided barn swallows because we preferred to shoo them away from building their nest attached to the stucco.  So, from the past year's efforts, we had a partially completed nest that we left in place over the last winter.  This spring a pair was back again to complete the nest and we agreed to their petition. 

Their diligence at nest building caught our attention and we followed along by noting the progress. Nest building seemed slow, but that was because it was so dry, and they needed mud to make an adobe-style nest.

But finally, it appeared that the hen was sitting on eggs; how many we did not know as the nest was high, up near the ceiling of the breezeway.

Finally, it became obvious that the eggs had hatched because both parents were busy all day long hunting for bugs in flight.  It was a constant job.  The pile of bird droppings on the concrete pad was getting bigger by the day.  However, it was suggested that a flowerpot with soil placed under the nest is a good solution to this and so we will try that next year should they return.  Later, when we plant seeds in the pot, we should have some good blooms.

For several weeks, the newly hatched birds were so small that they did not show up above the rim of the nest.  But soon after, whenever a parent approached the nest from a flight of gathering food, four little gaping mouths appeared just above the rim of the nest.  They all yelled, "me, me, me, I am hungry".

This went on for a couple weeks and all the time the parents were hunting for insects and since it has been so dry, insects were scarce.  But they continued to grow and get even more demanding.  
Finally, the most adventuresome of the four decided it was getting to be high time for a jump out of the nest.  Besides, the nest partners were getting annoyed by all the wing flapping to test the flight capability.

Not long after this photo was taken, the one on the left jumped, then the one on the right jumped also.  Both rested on the railing of the porch to get their bearings.  The others stayed in the nest for another day, but then they too made the big move.  The last one was runty, and when it jumped from the nest, it landed on the concrete floor directly below the nest almost no flight at all.  But then with some wild flapping of wings, it was able to make the railing for a sigh of relief.

Then, all four decided on the best way to celebrate their new skills at flying by whirling around in the breezeway in a parade-like style.

Here is the parade of the four barn swallows.   The video can be seen by doing a search using "barn swallow graduation day" on the web, as it will take you directly to my YouTube channel.

Little by little, the four would make forays in the sky of the back yard practicing flight maneuvers and probably finding some insects.  They apparently were feeding themselves as we saw no evidence that the parents were teaching them about catching insects in flight.  They flew only for 15 minutes at a time, then returned to the nest for rest.

As we were watching them cavort in the sky of the backyard, they seemed to like our presence as they would commonly swoop under the roof where we were sitting and fly on by us to brag to us about their flight skills. We enjoyed their close visits.

Every night they returned to their nests for sleep.  I say nests because by now the four are using their original nest and last year's phoebe nest on the other end of the porch.  Four birds are now too big to fit into one nest.

We will keep track of them throughout the summer and will update this post when we note that they have left for winter times in the south.

Update.

Well, they left after swinging by in one last swoop to say goodbye.  That was about July 6th.  Its early for them to leave Texas but with no rain, they probably could not find food.  Makes sense to us.

What a change!

 No rain, no bugs, no birds---and very few bluebonnets.

Well, that's an extreme view, we have had some rain, although very little, there are some bugs but not many.  

And birds, where are they?

The phoebes that once hung around all year are gone, the bluebirds, none seen.  Purple martins, forget them as it's now too late for them to appear at the nest box.

The barn swallows are making a stab at refurbishing their nest in the breezeway; the test will be if they stay for the summer.  So far, Ma and Pa barn swallow are sticking it out with this dry weather and have hatched their four eggs in the nest in the breezeway.  What a hoot they are in their effort to constantly provide bugs for these four hungry mouths.

This photo taken on May 26th shows the four nestlings nearly ready for their first dive out of the nest.  The parents alternately provide a bug or two and then just swoop by the nest as if to say, "this is how to do it".   We have had some rain, but before the rain this week, it appeared the parents were flying some distance away, perhaps to the stock tank to find the bugs to bring back to the nest.

Our great State bird, the barnyard dog of the bird world, the mockingbird, has not been seen but once some days ago, and not recently.

Dee, the one with the ability to hear high frequencies, claims she has heard a Golden Cheeked Warbler, but since these birds are so reclusive, we have yet to see one this year.

Many don't think about this, but most birds feed their hatchlings bugs, even though these same birds will be seed eaters when they mature.  After the young seed-eating birds fledge, the seed-eating birds change from a bug diet to a seed diet.  That point underscores the importance of conditions and habitats for wildlife.

Every year we keep a close eye out for the Painted Bunting, which usually appears around now.  A few of our friends tell us that April 15th is always the target date for the bunting to appear and we are on the lookout.  One of our neighbors claims that an Indigo Bunting has arrived at their place.  That's good news.  In the past, we have found that water in the birdbath is important to all birds, especially the Painted Bunting.

This week may bring some rain.  Let's hope it does.

Please take note of this reminder to avoid mowing the roadside right now as the antelope horn milkweeds are up and about to bloom.  It's one of our best butterfly flowers, so we need to take care and let them bloom and go to seed.  This year is one of our best crops of milkweed in several years.

Meanwhile, readers are asked to check in on this blog post and let us know your success with attracting birds this year.  

Squirrels

 The squirrel doesn't get much attention as most see them as food and often call them tree rats.  We see them mostly in the daytime stealing food right before our eyes. I found that some squirrel chewed through the plastic bin that is used for storage of sunflower seeds

I collected 10 very plump and alive burr oak acorns from the bank of the San Marcos River down by Seguin, came home and soaked them in water for a few days to hydrate them and to be sure they were still alive.  Then I planted each in its own pot of a gallon size and let them sit and decide when to begin sprouting.  That was way back in early March when it was still cold and so the acorns just bided their time and remained dormant.

The ten pots each with an acorn, sat in the breezeway waiting for warmer weather. Along about April 10th I noticed the acorns from all ten pots had been stolen.  All plucked neatly out of the pot and taken to wherever.  

Which brings me to the observation that squirrels bury their newly found acorns in moist soil.  It is my belief that squirrels prefer budded acorns over those that are still dormant.  It provides the analogy that we humans like sprouted wheat over just plain wheat grains.  They taste better that way.  Squirrels are commonly observed storing acorns by digging a small hole in the ground, shoving the acorn in the hole and covering it over.  It is my belief they do this not to merely save the acorn for later dining, but to have it sprout and then eat it.  Sprouted acorns taste better than dormant ones--they tell me.  Not only that, but just as hogs are used to find truffles underground using their sense of smell, so can squirrels find the acorns they planted months earlier.

Most of our squirrels in this area and extending eastward are the fox and gray squirrels.  However, last week an unusual looking squirrel hied himself across the street in front of the car and into the roadside woods.  I noted a dark head and shoulders as a unique feature of this rodent.  I had never seen a squirrel like this in our neighborhood.  It turns out that we saw a rock squirrel.  Here is the coat coloring of this squirrel, photo courtesy of TPWD:

Texas Tech Research Lab has this to say about the rock squirrel:

Rock squirrels are nearly always found in rocky areas—cliffs, canyon walls, talus slopes, boulder piles, rocky fills along highways, and so forth—where they seek refuge and dig their dens. 

Although typical ground squirrels in most respects, rock squirrels can climb trees nearly as well as tree squirrels.

Occasionally they den in tree hollows 5 or 6 m from the ground. The usual den, however, is a burrow dug under rock or tree roots; others are in crevices in rock masonry along railroads and highways, cavities in piles of boulders, or small caves and crevices in rocky outcrops. They are diurnal and most active in early morning and late afternoon, but they are rather shy and difficult to observe at close range. Their call is usually a repeated, sharp, clear whistle.

They feed on a variety of plant materials, depending on availability. Known items include acorns, pine nuts, walnuts, seeds of mesquite, cactus, saltbush, agave, wild gourd, cherries, sumac, spurge, serviceberry, berries of currant and juniper, and all sorts of cultivated fruits and vegetables. Insects also contribute to their diet, especially grasshoppers, crickets, and caterpillars. They have been reported to catch and eat small wild turkeys and other birds.

Rock squirrels are facultative hibernators. In central Texas, they hibernate 2–4 months, from November to February or March. Fat is deposited, and they store food for winter use. At lower elevations in the Big Bend region of Texas they are active all year.

In Defense of Ashe Junipers

Okay, let me say from the beginning that an excessive amount of anything may not be the best situation. It certainly applies to Ashe Junipers but be careful as it also applies to you and me.

Ashe Junipers have been around central Texas for a long, long time.  Yes, over the years it seems as if its territory has expanded and taken over some rocky slopes, but not so much native grasslands.  This is probably true as fires, cedar cutters, and grazers are all working to keep their numbers in check.  Open, grassy fields are the last to see an invasion of Ashe junipers because the grazers keep them in check---besides that, birds are the main vehicle for transporting the seeds and birds pass the seeds when sitting on tree limbs, not while flying over the grasslands.

Fire as a means of control is out of the question because of the danger of property damage and the cedar cutters went out of business when steel fenceposts were developed.  Now the only means of control is the highly powered machine that grinds them up as they stand there, and yes, create quite a bit of litter for nature to take care of over a period of a decade or so.  Cedar wood does not rot very easily.

Why have these Junipers taken on such a bad reputation? It is not all that clear, but the push against the juniper started about twenty years ago by some self-proclaimed naturalists saying that they were invasive and deleterious to the growth of other more favorable trees.

Perhaps the most commonly heard complaint is that Ashe Junipers robbed the other plants, grasses as well as trees, of much needed rainfall.  Let's take this argument in segments.  Yes, Junipers can shield light rain from entering the soil by virtue of their canopy effect.  Studies show that rain of about 1/8 of an inch stays on the foliage, never reaching the ground.  Probably so, but 1/8 inch of rain is not valuable to any of our grasses or trees as it will evaporate from the ground rather quickly.

Now let's take on the criticism that Juniper's root structure pulls soil moisture away from grasses or trees.  Have you seen the root structure of a Juniper?  It's not much to look at---being shallow rooted and not very large.  After all, the transpiration rate of water from the foliage is low and therefore the Juniper does not need much of a root structure to stay alive.  All this supports the idea that the Juniper is not a water hog.

Dense stands of Juniper can and do become so dense that grass is totally blocked from growth.  Not good, but thinning cures that problem. Which reminds me, Ashe Junipers can be managed to grow just like a typical tree.  We find that cemeteries have used the Juniper trimmed up so that it provides a shady canopy, just like an oak.  Here is a photo of an Ashe Juniper in the Wimberley Cemetery.  There are many trimmed like this one.  The cemetery on Purgatory Road also has these same trimmed-up junipers scattered among the gravestones.

On the other side of the ledger, there are some surprising data that indicates that some plants form a symbiotic relationship with the Juniper.  One such plant is the Madrone.  From our own experimentation in this area in Bandera County, we could get Madrone seeds to germinate and grow best under the spread of an Ashe Juniper and only the Ashe Juniper. 

And then, there is the need for the Ashe Juniper to provide the favorite nesting material the Golden Cheeked Warbler (where are the environmentalists when we need them---now that the pipeline is installed?)   A recent article in the newsletter of the Texas Land Conservancy featuring El Coto de los Rincones Preserve has this comment: At Los Rincoes, the importance of the juniper-oak forest was recognized before the Golden Cheeked Warbler was listed as an endangered species in 1990.  Golden Cheeked Warblers return to the canyons of Los Rincoes every March.  Warblers most often nest in the oak, but gather their nesting material from the Ashe juniper, so you can see the importance of the combination of oak and juniper. 

That mere fact is enough to justify the existence of the juniper among the oaks.

We still don't know who started the ball rolling to rid the land of the Juniper but following the money may reveal the origin.  John Galley, (1905-1997) a geologist, said "There are two kinds of geologists, ones that like science as a study of the earth, animals or other aspects of the natural environment, and ones that get rich from it."  This differentiation applies to naturalists, biologists and conservationists as well.  

Perhaps if we dig deep enough, we might just find that the fanaticism for ridding Texas of the Ashe Juniper originated with those who had purchased these huge machines that grind up the Juniper in a matter of hours, thus turning the green of the juniper into the green of money. 

Exploding Maple Trees

It is not obvious why this topic of exploding maple trees has recently come into the news, but for what it's worth, under certain conditions deciduous trees will literally crack open along the grain of the tree trunk.  Sometimes it kills the tree, sometimes not.  It's not to be confused with limbs breaking with a cracking sound due to the load of ice or snow---this phenomenon results in a crack along the grain of the trunk due to expansion of the ice crystals. 

But the phenomenon is related to deciduous trees and not evergreens.  Yes, our Live Oaks live in the never-never land between deciduous and evergreen.

Deciduous trees have sap with a water content much higher than many others. Just ask the maple syrup harvesters how much water they must boil off the sap to make maple syrup. In the fall, the sap starts its process of moving to the roots for the winter, leaving the cells of the trunk free of much of the watery sap.  That is a start-and-stop process depending on the time of the year (amount of sunshine) and the temperature.  Continuous, and steady dropping average temperatures make the process of sap migration routine and uninterrupted.  There are no trunk explosions with this situation.

But, and especially those trees with high water content sap like the Maple, if the trend of changing temperature, either up or down is not steady, this watery sap may be caught in the trunk of the tree when the tree experiences below freezing temperatures for extended periods of times, like several days.  Then the sap freezes and the trunk expands with a cracking sound.  This phenomenon of cracking can occur more often in the spring than the fall as we don't have those bone chilling cold spells in the fall, but we do in the spring just as we did last February and to some extent this past week.

The oral and written record of this phenomenon is at least 500 years old, as the Native Americans have described the cracking of deciduous tree trunks during extremely cold periods of time.

Some like to jump on the observation of cracking trunks as a result of global warming, but don't be fooled.

The Mountain Lion

 We have spent many hours in the outdoors in Michigan, New England States, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas and throughout all those years and places we have spotted a mountain lion on two occasions, In Northwest Arkansas in the 1980s and by Lake Amistad in Texas in the 1990s.  Both were good spottings up rather close, maybe 100 feet away.  The Arkansas spotting was a mother lion moving her litter with a newborn cub in her mouth.  She spotted us, stood and looked at us for about 20 seconds, and then moved on casually to her destination.  The other spotting occurred as we were walking on an old ranch road near Lake Amistad.  The road was walkable with high brush on both sides so all we could see was the road ahead.  As we rounded a bend, ahead of us was a lion casually walking in the same direction.  Since its senses are extremely keen, it probably knew we were present but did not show that it knew we were there.  Finally, the lion ducked into the tall brush alongside the road, and we never saw it again. As many might think, no, we did not tremble with fear when we encountered these two lions. 

Yes, the mountain lion is a predator, but so is man.  It's understandable that if a lion has adopted the habit of repeatably killing livestock, it should be hunted and killed but the media and the TPWD have created such a negative attitude toward the lion, an attitude of fear, that even those who have no experience of any predation are eager to kill it.   We should work to change that attitude.

Now the range of the lion in Texas is concentrated mostly in the remote areas of the Big Bend.  It is occasionally spotted in the rest of the state but not very often. The map below shows the counties where the mountain lion has been spotted, but the spottings more than likely fall short.  It's almost certain that the mountain lion exists in all Texas counties west of the 100th meridian---maybe in all counties of low population in all of the state.

The map below shows the spotting data:

Figure 24.1 Range of the Mountain Lion

The Mountain Lion has a long history of residence in North America, and for those who have never seen a mountain lion here is a photo of one that matches those we have seen.  Some photos show the lion as a gray color, but I believe all are of the tan color unless the color of the fur changes with the winter season.

Figure 24.2 Mountain Lion

For those who have seen a bobcat, the mountain lion is larger than the bobcat and more elusive.  The bobcat of course is easily identified as its tail is very short.

According to the website maintained by THE MOUNTAIN LION FOUNDATION, the lion has a range running all the way from Canada through the western USA and into Chile.  The lion has maintained that longitudinal range since records have been collected, but the latitudinal range has been shortened dramatically to that west of the Mississippi by extermination and habitat destruction.  There is a species of lion that lives in the Everglades.

Western states exhibit varying degrees of attitudes about the lion.  For example, South Dakota is considering all-out destruction of the lion whereas Colorado is considering a ban on hunting the lion.

Texas for all of its notoriety of being a safe home for many forms of wildlife has an open season on lions with the thrust of this led by Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Try visiting Mountainlion.org for more information.   Help save this great animal by not killing it for the sake of the kill.

Mountain lions are many names, including cougar, puma, catamount, painter, panther, and many more. They are the most wide-ranging cat species in the world and are found as far north as Canada and as far south as Chile.

Solitary cats, 

A Struggle for Existence

We find it enlightening to reread material written by naturalists in the middle 1800s as they began to study evolution and the origin of species.  Most commonly read are the two books written by Charles Darwin:  Origin of Species and Voyage of the Beagle.  There were many others studying the science of plant and animal development during this time and Darwin made good use of their studies in crafting his theories.

In these two books, especially in the Origin of Species, he makes the point that every generation produces variations in the makeup of the species--all due to natural causes.  The variations are too small to be observed in just one generation, but these changes, accumulated over time result in either more adaptability to the environment or less.  In other words, if the variation makes survival more likely, they make it, otherwise...  Some make it some do not.  The process can lead to overpopulation or to extinction.

These old writings make the reader realize that we live in an ever-changing world of living things and the change is happening right before our eyes.  But we don't notice the change as our span of observation is our lifetime and these genetic changes occur over a much greater time period.

This constant change sets up the contest for survival of the fittest and the struggle for existence.

Hundreds of years ago, the native Live Oaks of the gulf coastal region grew only in the heavy soil and warmer conditions along the coast.  Oaks are known for their ability to readily produce variation and some variations adapted to the soil and conditions of the Hill Country.  Because of these adaptabilities of the Oak species, we have the Plateau Live Oak that lives here but not on the coast. 

It may seem to us that the Plateau Live Oak is well established, but we ask, is it really?

Let's take the reseeding of the Plateau Live Oak, as just one of the factors that determine its existence.  Our variety of Live Oak (Quercus Fusiforma) received a kick it the rear end last year in February when we had that severe cold downdraft from the polar region.  Many of the oaks had trouble leafing out on time and from my observation, they did not produce many acorns that year.  Without acorns we get no new oaks.  During normal winters and springs, the oaks produce a good crop of acorns.  When I first began experimenting with live oak propagation, I collected handfuls of acorns at random and spread them out over the grassy fields expecting to see a forest of new trees develop.  How many did I see?  None.

Then I started testing the acorns to determine if they were alive and found that in a typical handful, I might find one that was alive, all others having had their cores eaten out by worms while still on the tree.   The little hole in the acorn that shows up later after the acorn has fallen to the ground is the telltale sign that the acorn is dead.  The worm consumes the heart of the acorn, develops and escapes it leaving a hole in the acorn.

So then, I only planted known live acorns in the grassy fields where I monitored them with a marker.  How many did I get?  None.   In disbelief, I started to inspect the planting site and found that the acorn did sprout but deer or some other animal found the new leaves so tasty that the sprout was consumed and without starter leaves, the new plant died for lack of nourishment.

Extrapolating the grazing process, it becomes apparent that this is the cause of most of our live oaks having Y-shaped trunks, where the grazer has nipped off the leader but left enough to allow the plant to live and to ultimately form two trunks in the absence of the leading stem.

So now to have more live oaks, I plant live acorns in pots and when they come up and live in a pot for a year, then they are transplanted with screen guards to prevent grazing.  It's the only way.  So, if you were to depart (we all do sooner or later) and come back in a hundred years, the botany of the area would look just like it does today, open grasslands and mottes of oaks, but perhaps with filled in areas of Ashe Juniper.  What gives Ashe Juniper the edge to expand its territory?  New sprouts are not attractive to browsing animals, perhaps due to their prickly exterior.  And even if the new sprouts are browsed, if the browser does not get every bit of green, the new seedling continues to grow.  Ashe Junipers are like that. That browsing also leads to the Ashe Juniper growing up without a main trunk and looking much like a shrub.

Live Oak acorns have other factors in their struggle to create the next generation of trees.  Live acorns are a prime source of food for squirrels, turkeys and hogs.

And there is Oak Wilt, a disease that can decimate whole stands of live oaks.

In summary, about the only way for a Live Oak to reproduce naturally in our immediate environment is to germinate in the brush among the mature trees.  The predators find it not worth their effort to probe the brush where the new sprout is hiding.  Acorns from live oaks standing in the open have no chance to produce seedlings.  This situation is one of the causes of our oaks forming mottes as commonly occur here.

I would like to see the data on the odds of a single tree producing a single successful descendant--it must be very low.  As Darwin has pointed out, there is a struggle for existence.