The Nature Writers of Texas

2009-12-03T15:37:00.000-06:00

A Nature Note Farewell
by Ro Wauer

For all my life I have been writing about nature. As a very young boy I wrote about my surroundings: tropical fish, grasshoppers, lizards, robins, the changing leaves. I continued writing essays about the natural world throughout my college years. And during my 32-year career with the National Park Service, nature guides and articles were a significant part of my work. Then with retirement in 1989, and moving to Victoria, I began a series of weekly Nature Notes in the Advocate. My belief had long been to “Do more than exist – live; Do more than touch – feel; Do more than look – observe; Do more than listen – understand; Do more than talk – say something!” (John Harsen Rhoades)

And so my Nature Notes included every imaginable topic within my understanding, with the help of my very complete nature library. During those twenty-plus years our Mission Oaks yard provided the principal source of topics. I began by introducing plants to attract hummingbirds; I had been an avid birder for almost half a century. But I soon discovered that the flowering plants were attracting more butterflies than birds. Although I already knew all the birds, my new joy was learning butterflies. And like all field naturalists, I kept records of all the species seen in my yard. Since my first yard bird – a cardinal in June 1989 – to the present (Nov. 2009) I recorded a grand total of 182 species. My butterfly list includes 130 species. Also, my yard herp (reptiles and amphibians) list includes 33 species, and my mammal list a paltry nine species.

In reviewing the birds, butterflies, herps, and mammals that I so enjoyed, they include a number of specialties. Most memorable birds included a number of colorful warblers –blackpoll, Blackburnian, prairie and cerulean – buff-bellied hummingbirds became a full-time resident, an eastern screech-owl raised a family, green jays were sporadic visitors, and a visiting zone-tailed hawk, swallow-tailed kite, pileolated woodpecker, and clay-colored robin were also memorable. Bathing red-shouldered hawks and barred owls were also special.

A few of the most memorable butterflies included yellow and white angled-sulphurs, white-M and striped hairstreaks, red-bordered metalmark, an amazing number of julias, an out of range gray cracker that came to sip on homemade brew, zilpa and brown longtails, Erickson’s white-skipper, and hammock’s skipper. Other invertebrates of note included a variety of dragonflies and damselflies, praying mantises, doodlebugs, leafcutter ants, and garden spiders that weaved amazing webs.

Of the few mammals found in our yard, most memorable were the lone ringtail and the white-tailed deer mother and fawn. We believe that the fawn was actually born in our yard; it was too weak to stand when we first discovered it. But it was soon able to walk away, only to lie down again soon afterwards. Betty and I were able to photograph the newly born fawn and the doe several times when they visited our yard, including the last time when the fawn had lost almost all its spots and had developed tiny knobs where its antlers would soon grow. Our very own Bambi!

Over the years we have received calls from numerous readers to ask about or to inform us about various birds and butterflies seen in their yard. The calls have added immeasurably to the fun of writing Nature Notes on our South Texas wildlife. Purple martins, cardinals, woodcocks, caracaras, green jays, painted buntings, Eurasian collared-doves, and trumpeter swans were some of the subjects of those calls. Butterfly calls of special interest included zebras, a banded orange heliconian, white peacocks, and tawny emperors.

Betty, my wife who has shared our yard and answered so many of your calls, joins me in wishing you all a fond farewell! We are leaving Victoria to move to Bryan. We will be closer to our kids and will be down-sizing from a large house and very large yard. We do plan to install a butterfly garden by spring, and we look forward to exploring new country and finding lesser known places for birds and butterflies.

2009-11-05T15:41:00.000-06:00

Welcome Whoopers Back
by Ro Wauer

Yes, it is again the time of year that those very special winter Texans – whooping cranes - are returning to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and environs. A recent article in the Audubon Outdoor Club Newsletter (Kathy Griffith, editor) of Corpus Christi reminded me of this marvelous event. Kathy’s article also provided good up-to-date information on the bird’s status. Much of the material below is taken from her “Whooping Crane Report.”

Last winter has hard on our whoopers! Drought, decreased inflows into the Gulf from the Guadalupe River, and withdrawals of water for human uses reduced bay productivity that negatively impacted blue crabs, the whooper’s principal food supply. Those impacts, along with housing developments next to marshes, whooper’s foraging sites, add to the local impacts. And “in the migration corridor, the cranes are facing a proliferation of wind farms and associated power lines. Collisions with power lines is the number one cause of mortality for fledged whooping cranes, and the miles of lines continue to grow substantially.” There is good reason why whoopers are endangered.

Only 247 of our South Texas whoopers made it through the 2008-2009 winter to migrate northward to their breeding grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Those birds found adequate nesting conditions, but only 22 chicks fledged from 62 nests, below the average production rate. “Perhaps the weakened condition of the birds from the previous winter had taken its toll. With the drought continuing in south Texas into the fall of 2009, wildlife officials are leery of what conditions for the flock will be like at Aransas in the 2009-2010 winter. Water holes were re-conditioned on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to ensure the cranes will have fresh water to drink if the marshes remain above the threshold salinity of 23 parts per thousands when whooping cranes must find fresh water to drink.”

At the present time there are a total number of 536 known whooping cranes, 384 in the wild and 152 in captivity. “Young whooping cranes bred in captivity are being reintroduced in the wild in two flocks in the eastern U.S.” In the fall of 2001, eight whoopers were flown behind an ultralight aircraft between Wisconsin and Florida; “five of those survived the winter and started the migration back north on their own in April 2002. Additional birds were reintroduced in the next eight years, with 108 whooping cranes now migrating in the eastern U.S. However, the birds are struggling to hatch young with the adults abandoning their nests just prior to hatching the eggs due to swarms of black flies bothering the adults.” A second wild flock consists of 29 remaining non-migratory whoopers in central Florida. “That reintroduction effort has been abandoned as the cranes struggled with poor rates of reproduction and low survival mostly tied to re-occurring drought.”

The South Texas winter flock of whooping cranes is very special! Too often they are ignored and considered unimportant. But they are more than an ideal curiosity. They are a national treasure that we must appreciate and maintain. As Kathy wrote: “It will take increasing vigilance by man if this species is to survive and provide a thrill for your great-great-grand children to see, just as they provide enjoyment for Texans and thousands of visitors from around the world annually that visit Aransas NWR to see this magnificent species.”

2009-10-29T15:42:00.000-05:00

The eastern phoebe is an early winter resident
by Ro Wauer

Already some of our wintering birds are beginning to arrive in South Texas, and one of my favorites is the eastern phoebe. Almost every yard and field is claimed by one of these perky flycatchers. It spends it winter days capturing insects that it finds from low perches. One will suddenly dart out and snap up a passing fly or pounce on an insect on the ground or on a tree trunk or branch. Then it will return to a favorite perch, swallow its catch, jerk its tail, and wait for the next passing tidbit.

Eastern phoebes are one of our hardiest flycatchers; all the other members of this rather extensive family fly south for the winter, but this bird migrates only short distances, remaining just south of the really cold winter weather. It is able to survive the extreme cold conditions that we experience once or a few times each winter. At such times, it is actually able to feed on a non-insect diet, consuming seeds, fruit, and even an occasional small vertebrate. Its ability to change from insects to fruit to eat vertebrates attests to its amazing adaptability and physical characteristics, especially a bill wide enough to capture insects in flight yet strong enough to, capture, hold and swallow small vertebrates.

The eastern phoebe is resident throughout the eastern half of North America, nesting just north of our area, usually on structures such as porches, bridges, and cliffs. Nests are constructed primarily of mud and moss. One New England bridge site was utilized for thirty consecutive years. John James Audubon placed thin wires of the legs of one family, said to have been the first time birds were ever banded.

Its name comes from its rather distinctive “fee-bee” calls, that it may utter singly or many in an extremely very short time. It also has a clear and sweet chip note. These vocalizations can usually be heard all winter.

The phoebe, one of three in North America (including black and Say’s phoebes), is readily identified by its size (about 7 inches), brownish back, darker head, no wing bars or eye rings, whitish throat, and whitish to faint yellowish underparts. It also has the typical flycatcher habitat or jerking its tail when perched, but unlike most other flycatchers, this phoebe will sweep its tail widely, down and up and often toward the side, giving it a swaggering appearance.

The eastern phoebe is a marvelous wintertime neighbor!

2009-10-23T10:54:00.001-05:00

This is cross-posted from my personal blog milkriverblog about one of our own . . .

i am updating this to keep it current with new materials . . . Gary and Kathy Clark are arranging a memorial tribute in houston on october 29th . . . info is below . . .

Gary Clark, Dave Dauphin, Greg Lasley, Fred Collins, Mim Eisenberg, LeeAnn Sharp, The Montgomery County Courier, The Baytown Sun, The Houston Chronicle, Texas A&M Press and Houston Audubon Society posted these beautiful tributes to John on the TexBirds listserv, in comments, or on their own spaces . . . i hope i'll be forgiven my collecting & reposting of them here (or please message me . . .)

i am continuing to collect remembrances and so this will continue to update at least through the memorial . . .

The original report from Gary Clark (and thanks to Kelly Bryan, dear friend of mine and the Tvetens, for alerting me to his ill health that morning)

I am sad to report that John Tveten passed away this afternoon of cancer. He died peacefully while surrounded by friends and family. Our love goes out to his wife, Gloria, and his son, Michael.

John was among the greatest of naturalists ever to trod the earth. His knowledge was encyclopedic, and his generosity in sharing that knowledge was without equal. Through his newspaper columns, his many books, and his informative and engaging presentations, we all learned an immeasurable amount about birds, butterflies, moths, wildflowers, and countless other wonders of the natural world. Moreover, we were always inspired by his endless curiosity and enthusiasm.

My wife, Kathy, and I are working with the family to arrange a celebration of John’s life and work and will give you details within a week or so about when and where that celebration will be.

Gary Clark
The Woodlands, Texas

Tributes

The passing of John Tveten leaves all of us who knew him with a heavy heart.

John's books, field guides, newspaper articles, field trips and programs filled us with knowledge, the desire to see more, and the need savor nature slowly. John always used 35mm slides in his programs, and I don't think anyone else could go through as many slides during a given time period, as John could. Jan once told John that watching any of his programs was like sitting beside him on a comfortable couch while he read you a story and explained all the pictures in a book. Gloria was always by his side at every program, and John never forgot to mention that they were partners in every venture they took.

I met John in the late 60's when we both went to work for a major petrochemical research company. I stayed forever; John left shortly to fulfill his dream with a camera. John was an animal rehabilitator and a bird bander. Although we lived just a few miles from each other, we never netted each other's birds. John was an artist, also, and his drawings could rival anyone's.

He was one of the very few naturalists I have ever met. I will never forget when myself and three other young birders invited John on a Big Day run--worst mistake we could make. When we were always wanting to go for the next birding location, we always had to go find John and take him away from watching a praying mantis or watching a snake eating a frog.

John got Jan and I to appreciate all aspects of nature. I jokingly blamed him for exposing Jan to butterflies to such an extent that we moved all the way to the Valley so she could chase bugs.

John was a good friend, a kind man, a gentle man, a loving husband and father; I don't ever remember a frown on his face. Jan and I loved him, and will miss him. We send good thoughts and lots of prayers to Gloria, Michael, and Michael's family.

David Dauphin
Mission, Texas

I just must say a few words about John Tveten's passing. Dave Dauphin, Martin Hagne, Fred Collins, Gary Clark, and others have spoken eloquently of this man and my words cannot covey my own personal sense of loss. I met John at Bolivar Flats in the late 1970's. He and Gloria and I became friends and I'm proud to have called John a good friend for more than 30 years. We both shared a passion for birds, for nature in general , and for photography and I remember many discussions about our natural world with John. He enlightened others with his depth of knowledge of the natural world and was always ready to help with anything he was asked to do. John was a true gentleman in every sense of the word and I do not use that term casually. He was one of the finest persons it has been my privilege to know and I will miss him greatly. The writings about birds, butterflies, moths and other natural history subjects that John and Gloria produced over the years have enriched us all and leave a legacy for us to cherish. My thoughts and prayers are with Gloria and the family.

Greg Lasley
Austin, Texas

I am a native born and bred Texan, I have wandered the fields, bayous, bays and woods of southeast Texas for all of my sixty years. Early on I ask my father about the green lizards around the house and could not understand why he didn't know every aspect of their lives. I ask my grandfather what that white foam was on the dewberry vines in spring and he told me it was snake spit. I was just a kid, I knew I didn't know anything, but couldn't figure out why my talented and wise fathers did not know the answers to my questions about things all around them.

I didn't know it then, but I was already a naturalist. I have spent the rest of my life learning answers to these and other questions I conjure up each time I take a moment to notice nature whether at my back door or in the remote wilds of the Big Thicket, Galveston Bay, or far flung Big Bend. During my life I have learned much about nature, but there still seems to be more that I don't know, than I know. I met John Tveten in 1969 and as I came to know him as a friend during the next forty years I found John to be the person I could ask questions about any subject in nature and get a straight and full answer. If by occasion he would not know the answer, he would invariably put me on the right track to find the answer. When we resumed a conversation weeks or months later, he would often remind me of my question and was as interested as I in the answer. He never lost his passion for discovering any secret of nature.

I cannot see a moth (which I see daily) without anxiously wanting to know "When will the moth book be out, John?" John was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge. He was conversant in any topic of natural history or ecology. He was interested in everything. He loved all of nature. No plant or animal was too small, dull, or non-descript for John. He knew they all had a role to play, and without knowing the players, how can we know the play?

John and all of us were cheated out of the best years of a great naturalist's life. He gave us so much. So many books that are my constant companions. He wrote a nature column for 24 years. But his reflections of a life watching nature was still in his future. One of his last works was the final compilation of his columns; it is titled "Nature at Your Doorstep." That was John's life message, nature is at your doorstep if you will only open your senses and minds to observe and appreciate it.

That is a passion I share with John. I will miss him. Every naturalist in Texas will miss him.

Texas has lost one of its greatest treasures.

Fred Collins
Katy, Texas

I met John in 1980, when he led a Smithsonian Institution tour of Bryce, Zion and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had the good fortune to go on several other trips he led, and we became good friends. He was the one who inspired me to study natural history and become a photographer. My thoughts are with Gloria and Mike as they, like we, adjust to a world without him. He was a consummate teacher and changed the lives of thousands of people in whom his legacy will live on.

This is my tribute to John:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimbrava/4007596979/

Mim Eisenberg

I heard the report Tuesday about the passing of a birder, naturalist, author, photographer, and great friend. John Tveten wrote a weekly column called "Nature Trails" for the Houston Chronicle for over 25 years. We worked together at Nature Quest for 10 years. I've known John & Gloria since the first Nature Quest in 1999. He came to my mother's place searching for butterflies that first year. And I had the pleasure of introducing him for many of his NQ Programs. We were blessed to have gone butterflying & birding with him many times.
We only saw John once a year during Nature Quest, but always felt very close to him & Gloria. I am honored that they took the time to come visit our Nature Center this year. I am so proud to have several of his signed books. When they came for Nature Quest, they stayed at the Yaklins cabins. I know the Yaklins, as well as many others in our area, will miss him. We will truly miss John, his warmth & gift of sharing with others. And our hearts go out to his wife, Gloria.

LeAnn Sharp
Utopia, Texas

In memory of John L. Tveten: enjoy your nature trails

Updated: 10.20.09

This article will be the hardest one to write in my 10-year tenure of writing articles for the Conroe/Montgomery County Courier.

A dear friend and wonderful naturalist, John Tveten, passed away on October 12, 2009, from a rapidly developing cancer. For all of us interested in nature, a void now exists that will never be filled.

I first met John in 1990. Met him at a now closed nature store called The Chickadee in Houston. Within minutes of meeting John I knew he was special. I just didn’t realize how special John was until years later.

A friendship and mentor-student relationship evolved over the years. It was very special. John was a very interesting, intelligent and well-rounded person. He was a walking encyclopedia regarding nature. He and his lovely wife, Gloria, authored numerous wonderful books about nature in Texas. Books about birds, butterflies, wildflowers, mammals, journeys to places near and far.

John was a great photographer and talented artist. John and Gloria wrote “Nature Trails,” a column about nature that ran weekly in the Houston Chronicle. For over 20 years their fascinating article ran. As a kid I used to quickly rifle through the local paper for three things. The sports page including the fishing report and the comics section. As an older kid (over 40) I couldn’t wait to read what John and Gloria wrote about in Nature Trails each week!

In addition to John’s wealth of knowledge and generous attitude of sharing nature with others of all ages, he loved football. We would talk football every fall and winter season. John played high school football. I bet he was just as tenacious on the playing field as he was stalking a once in a lifetime photo opportunity from a photography blind in the Valley of South Texas.

John and Gloria always were there when you needed them. For a book signing, presentation, to lead a nature walk and more. To be your friends. They were always there when asked. Something unfortunately rare these days. You could always count on John and Gloria Tveten.

To me, John was the older brother I never had. Not old enough to be my father, I often was caught in the middle thinking of John as somewhere between an older brother and “Dad.” John and I often laughed about this. I can still hear his precious laugh.

John is gone now. There will be no more presentations, field trips, books, book signings, nature festivals, photographs or drawings. We that share John’s love of the natural world have suffered an irreplaceable loss. Also, the wild creatures that John so often studied have lost a wonderful friend and advocate.

And selfishly speaking, I have lost the only brother I ever really had. My love goes out to John, Gloria and Michael, their son.

The Tveten family requests that in memory of John, donations be made to any organization that works towards protecting nature and all its natural wonders.

This was published in the Montgomery County Courier, written either by Gary or Kathy Clark, i am uncertain which as it was unsigned . . .

Tveten, famed nature photographer, dies
From staff reports, Baytown Sun, Published October 15, 2009

A longtime Baytown resident and former Exxon research chemist who turned a love for photography and nature into an illustrious second career died Monday.

Dr. John L. Tveten, 75, was originally from Minnesota but came to Baytown in the 1960s to take a job as with Exxon. After 13 years with the petrochemical giant, he left the company to attempt a career as a freelance outdoor and nature photographer.

That move led to a successful new career and lifestyle. Tveten became a noted author, along with wife Gloria penning a nature column for a Houston newspaper for 24 years and writing and photographing for innumerable magazine articles, eight books and field guides that shared his and Gloria’s knowledge and love of nature with others in the field and with the public. He became a noted authority in his field.

Tveten’s photographs were seen in the pages of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, National Wildlife magazine, Audubon, the children’s magazine of the National Wildlife Federation; Birder’s World, Bird Watcher’s Digest, the Encyclopedia Americana, Encyclopedia Britannica and many other publications.

Tveten presented uncountable slide shows and programs at numerous colleges and universities and to gatherings held by a variety of organizations, such as birding, gardening and social clubs and at hundreds of nature festivals. He led photo tours to many of America’s national parks in association with the Smithsonian, as well as other organizations.

Tveten will be cremated.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Armand Bayou Nature Center on Thursday, Oct. 29.

Tveten is survived by his wife Gloria, a son and daughter-in-law Michael and Lisa; granddaughter Amanda; and step-grandson Brett. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Armand Bayou Nature Center or the conservation organization of choice.

Services are under the direction of Navarre Funeral Home.

John L. Tveten, longtime Chronicle columnist
By Kathy Huber, Houston Chronicle, Oct. 17, 2009, 9:06PM

John L. Tveten, a naturalist, author, photographer and longtime Houston Chronicle columnist, died of cancer Monday. He was 74.

For more than 30 years, Tveten wrote about and photographed creatures of nature and wildflowers. He wrote numerous books and co-authored five with his wife of 51 years, Gloria. The Baytown couple traveled widely in pursuit of nature and shared their adventures in Wildflowers of Houston and Southeast Texas and Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas, both published by University of Texas Press. He also wrote The Birds of Texas (Shearer Publishing, $24.95).

Nature Trails column
The couple's weekly Nature Trails column ran in the Chronicle for nearly 25 years. The last of a three-volume anthology of those columns, Nature at Your Doorstep (Texas A&M University Press, $24.95), was published last year. A frequent speaker and field guide, Tveten presented four programs with his wife at the Rockport hummingbird festival in September.

“John was among the greatest of naturalists,” said friend Gary Clark. “His knowledge was encyclopedic, and his generosity in sharing that knowledge was without equal. Through his newspaper columns, his many books and his informative and engaging presentations, we all learned an immeasurable amount about wonders of the natural world. Moreover, we were always inspired by his endless curiosity and enthusiasm.”

When the Tvetens decided to end their weekly column in 1999 for more book projects, Clark took over.

His Nature column appears in the Chronicle's Saturday Star section with photographs by his wife, Kathy Adams Clark.

“I would not be the nature photographer I am without John's advice,” Kathy Clark said. “His photographs taught me how to shoot, and he taught me how to be a naturalist.”

In their final column for the Chronicle, the Tvetens wrote that “the hobby that began as ‘birdwatching' is now called ‘birding' by most of its participants. Those birders are more skilled and more informed than ever before, and most will travel great distances to add new species to their lists.

“We share that enthusiasm, but we still consider ourselves birdwatchers. We enjoy seeing rare birds, but we also enjoy seeing common birds doing uncommon things. And then, we just enjoy seeing birds being birds uncommonly well.”
Originally a chemist

A Minnesota native, Tveten moved to Texas in 1960 after graduate school at the University of Illinois. He was a research organic chemist with Exxon before retiring in 1973 to become a full-time nature photographer and writer. In addition to his books and columns, his work appeared in national publications, calendars, film strips and educational material.

He also was a naturalist and tour leader for the Smithsonian Institution, National Audubon Society, Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Spring Branch Nature Center.

Tveten is survived by his wife; a son, Michael Tveten, of Tucson, Ariz.; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at Armand Bayou Nature Center, 8500 Bay Area Blvd., Pasadena.

Texas A&M University Press mourns the recent loss of John Tveten
avid naturalist, renowned photographer, freelance writer, and author of many books with his wife, Gloria

For nearly a quarter of a century, John and Gloria wrote a weekly column, called "Nature Trails," for the Houston Chronicle. Their writings, which ranged both in subject matter and geography, reflected a rewarding life of travel, study, and observation in nature, including many memorable encounters with birds.

Also, John's photographs have graced the pages of National Wildlife, Audubon, Ranger Rick, Birder's World, Bird Watcher's Digest, Texas Parks & Wildlife, and Texas Highways since 1973.

He's written and photographed eight books ─ many with Gloria ─ including his nature trails books, Adventures Afar (2006), Our Life with Birds (2004), and Nature at Your Doorstep (2008) with Texas A&M Press.

Shannon Davies, Louise Lindsey Merrick Editor for the Natural Environment for Texas A&M Press, worked closely with John for many years.

"The first time I walked through a vacant lot with John, he taught me that there is no such thing. Perhaps the last of Texas's great naturalists, he taught all of us about plants, birds, mammals, snakes, lizards, frogs, butterflies, moths, and insects of all kinds with unmatched facility and generosity. He was a generalist in the truest, best possible meaning of the word--he loved nature wherever he found it, and he found it everywhere. A writer, an artist, and a photographer, John knew so much, and gave so much, never losing his sense of wonder and of fun."

". . . Each person who met him will remember John's perfect presentations and exquisite photos. All of us who called him friend will remember his
strong love of this planet and optimistic spirit. I cherish every moment I spent with him and will always remember him,"─Kathy Adams Clark, photographer, Enjoying Big Bend National Park: A Friendly Guide to Adventures for Everyone (2009)

". . . my words cannot convey my own personal sense of loss. . . We both shared a passion for birds, for nature in general , and for photography and I remember many discussions about our natural world with John. He enlightened others with his depth of knowledge of the natural world and was always ready to help with anything he was asked to do. John was a true gentleman in every sense of the word and I do not use that term casually. He was one of the finest persons it has been my privilege to know and I will miss him greatly. The writings about birds, butterflies, moths and other natural history subjects that John and Gloria produced over the years have enriched us all and leave a legacy for us to cherish. My thoughts and prayers are with Gloria and the family."─Greg Lasley, author of Greg Lasley's Texas Wildlife Portraits (2008)

Houston Audubon Society
Texas birders and conservationists say goodbye to long-time friend and naturalist, John Tveten, who passed away peacefully while surrounded by family and friends.

John was among the greatest of naturalists ever to trod the earth. His knowledge was encyclopedic, and his generosity in sharing that knowledge was without equal. Through his newspaper columns, his many books, and his informative and engaging presentations, we all learned an immeasurable amount about birds, butterflies, moths, wildflowers, and countless other wonders of the natural world. Moreover, we were always inspired by his endless curiosity and enthusiasm.

Kathy and Gary Clark have worked with the Tveten family to arrange a celebration of John’s life and work. The celebration will be held on October 29, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at Armand Bayou Nature Center.

Our love and support goes out to John’s wife, Gloria, and son, Michael.

The Service

We hope you can attend a celebration of John’s extraordinary life on October 29 beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Armand Bayou Nature Center, 8500 Bay Area Blvd, Pasadena, TX. If you would like to bring cookies, snacks, or beverages, please do. We obviously do not want John’s family to provide refreshments. This will be an informal but important occasion for all of us to share our memories of John. Please inform anyone you know who may not be on Texbirds of the celebration.

Gary Clark
The Woodlands, TX

Tags: blogs, culture, science, environment, birds, bugs, milkriverblog

2009-10-22T15:43:00.000-05:00

An Unusual Number of White Peacocks
by Ro Wauer

What an increase in butterfly numbers in recent weeks! After months of low butterfly numbers – for both species and individuals – populations have suddenly rebounded. At least in our garden at Mission Oaks, butterflies are commonplace. As many as two dozen species can now be found nectaring on the crucitas, mistflowers, and lantana blooms. And of all the butterflies utilizing our yard, the most surprising is the number of white peacocks. Fifteen to twenty of these semi-tropical species are present at any one time.

White peacocks are lovely creatures. They are slightly smaller in size than queens, usually land with out-stretched wings, and are easily identified because they are so different than any of the other butterflies. They are mostly white above and below, but fresh individuals possess orange to orange-brown margins, a large black spot on each forewing, and two smaller black spots on each slightly scalloped hindwing. Very fresh individuals may even have a bluish tinge.

Although a few white peacocks appear in the Golden Crescent every fall, I have never before found the numbers of individuals that are currently present. White peacocks are commonplace in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and individuals have been recorded throughout Texas. But this may be a banner year. Their larval foodplants include frog fruit, water hyssop, and green shrimp plant, all species that do occur in much of South Texas. Although my yard includes lots of frog fruits, it seems that the white peacocks in my garden are those that mostly are passer-bys, stopping for a short time or a few days to feed on the available nectar plants.

In previous years in the Golden Crescent numbers of white peacocks have been recorded only in a few select locations. The eastern portion of Saxet Lake Recreation Area, an area with an abundance of frog fruit, has been one choice site. I have assumed that that one location has supported what might be considered a “temporary colony,” an out-of-range breeding population likely to persist for a few to several years only. Such a colony can occur when a gravid female happens by and, finding adequate foodplants, lays eggs that then lead to a viable population. That population may persist until it is lost due to freezing, drought, or other natural causes. This scenario is not too unusual for butterflies, and it may help to explain the gradual shift of some southern species northward.

I suppose that one reason for my surprise at the number of white peacocks in my yard this year is because of the recent drought throughout most of its range in Texas. All during the period of drought the butterfly numbers have been extremely low. Their essential foodplants had been severely limited to inadequate moisture. But now, after several weeks of normal rainfall the vegetation has responded and the butterfly numbers have also increased. All the butterflies, especially white peacocks, one of our favorites, are more than welcome.

2009-10-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

Fall is Mistflower Time
by Ro Wauer

Our crucitas are starting to flower, Wright’s bonesets are budding, and Gregg’s mistflowers have been blooming for the last several weeks. All of these Eupatorium species (or Conoclinium, according to some botanists) are some of the best butterfly magnets in all of Texas. All can be lumped into one to three common names: mistflowers, bonesets or thoroughworts. They all are much-branched and non-twining with a woody base and with opposite, toothed leaves that are deltoid or triangular or ovate in shape. The compact clusters of flowers vary from blue-violet to purplish-blue to lilac to whitish in color.

Almost two dozen species of Eupatorium are known in Texas, but I have found that the truly butterfly-friendly species are limited. The best of these is the crucita, scientifically known as Eupatorium odoratum. Although it is native in Texas only from Deep South Texas, where it grows on the coastal plain and Rio Grande floodplain, transplanted plants do very well throughout the Golden Crescent and even north to Austin and Houston. Crucitas are extremely hardy and can take over an area if not trimmed back. But when this plant is in bloom, from early October until December, no other flowers can compete in attracting butterflies. And the flowers possess a pleasant fragrance.

Another favorite is Gregg’s mistflower or Eupatorium greggii, sometimes called palm-leaf eupatorium. This shorter, bluish flowering plant occurs from the Trans-Pecos to the Hill Country to South Texas. Those that I have planted in my yard are currently in bloom and until crucitas come into full bloom are the most popular of all my butterfly plants. Queen butterflies in particular seem to prefer the nectar of Gregg’s mistflowers.

Over the years I have also introduced two additional Eupatoriums to our yard:
blue and Wright’s bonesets. Blue boneset, scientifically known as Eupatorium azureum, produces a blue-lavender flower. And unlike our other yard Eupatoriums, this species flowers in spring, from February to May. As one of the springtime bloomers, along with agaritos and a few citrus trees, it is utilized by Henry’s elfins, gray hairstreaks, red admirals and white-striped longtails.

Wright’s bonesets, Eupatorium wrightii, produces whitish flowers. This shrub is another of the fall butterfly magnets in our yard. It flowers only from October to early December. Although its importance for butterflies can hardly be compared with that of the crucitas, it also does a good job in attracting butterflies. This species is another Eupatorium that occurs natively in the United States only in South Texas from the Trans-Pecos through the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Where can these shrubs be purchased? I believe that some of the larger area nurseries are carrying crucitas and Gregg’s bonesets, but I have not found blue or Wright’s bonesets in our nurseries. We purchased our plants in the Valley, in Weslaco at the Valley Nature Center. They sell an amazing variety of South Texas natives. And it also can be a good location to see a variety of Valley butterflies. Good luck!

2009-10-08T15:45:00.000-05:00

Birds are Creeping Northward
by Ro Wauer

During the last ten to twenty years we have seen increasing numbers of tropical bird species in the Golden Crescent. Species such as green jays, buff-bellied hummingbirds, green and ringed kingfishers, golden-fronted woodpeckers, white-tipped doves, great kiskadees, Couch’s kingbirds, cave swallows, and bronzed cowbirds have all been found on a regular basis. Most of these were considered only Mexican or at least Lower Rio Grande Valley birds until recent years. I remember visiting the Valley in the late 1960s to see many of these because they were not known any elsewhere in the United States. My first ever buff-bellied hummingbird was found at the home of a Valley fruit-grower. It could be expected nowhere else in the U.S.; now it is a full-time resident in the oaks growing around my home in Mission Oaks.

This northward movement of the breeding grounds of many birds is well documented, although this shift also is likely for many other groups of wildlife. Butterflies also are experiencing the same kind of movement, but their northward shift is far less understood than it is for birds. Although individual species of southern butterflies have been recorded in our area in recent years, proving population shifts is more difficult because they are subject to accidental dispersions from various weather patterns.

In a recent article in the newsletter of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, author John Rappole states that “at least 80 species of birds native to tropical, subtropical, or warm desert habitats have shown evidence of northward or eastward extension of the breeding distribution into, within, or beyond the borders of South Texas. These changes range from a few to several hundred kilometers and occurred over a relatively brief time period (decades)!” Rappole continues: “These changes are in line with regional climatic warming and possible drying…If predictions are correct, over the next century climate change will have an ecological effect roughly similar to moving the region 100 miles to the southwest.”

From an optimists’ point of view, assuming that the northward movement continues, the Golden Crescent could possible add a substantial number of bird species to our list of full-time residents. What are some of the species that we might expect in the near future? How about some parrots? A couple kinds of parrots have already resided in the Golden Crescent – probably escapees - but were unable to maintain a viable population for more than a few years. And Harris’ hawks; groove-billed anis; ferruginous pygmy-owls; lesser nighthawks; beardless flycatchers; verdins; black-crested titmice; black-tailed gnatcatchers; tropical parulas; long-billed thrashers; black-throated, Botteri’s and olive sparrows; hooded and Aububon’s orioles; and lesser goldfinches already occur in nearby counties to the south and/or southwest. It would not surprise me at all to find these birds nesting in the Golden Crescent; some already may.

The obvious follow-up question might be: with the climatic changes in our area that are likely to increase our list of breeding birds, what species that are currently nesting here might we loose? Probably not many or none at all. The waterbirds, including waterfowl, waders and shorebirds, should remain the same. We do need to worry about the changes in the blue crab populations along the coast; it is possible that we could loose the already endangered whooping cranes. And maybe our small population of Mississippi kites that currently are at the southern edge of their range might decline. This also may be the case for red-bellied woodpeckers, Swainson’s warblers, orchard orioles and a few other species.

Mother Nature is one fickle lady!

2009-09-17T15:46:00.000-05:00

It is Cricket Time Once Again
by Ro Wauer

Field crickets are once again invading our towns, homesites and businesses. Everywhere you look are black field crickets, scurrying here and there trying to find hiding places. Normally these crickets are found only in our fields and woodlots and are primarily nocturnal in character. The recent rains, however, have driven them out of their preferred habitats into conflict with people. Millions are zapped with insecticides, but they will keep coming until the weather changes. Then those that remain will go about their business as usual.

Field crickets often are welcome neighbors, so long as they stay outdoors. Many people consider crickets symbols of good luck. Jiminy Cricket, of Pinocchio fame, also helped establish their positive image. And crickets are prized for their singing and sometimes even kept in cages in people’s homes. In China, crickets were also kept for their fighting ability; cricket fights were as popular as horse races. The Chinese actually fed their crickets special diets, including mosquitoes fed on trainer’s arms, and weighed them in order to classify them for fighting.

Many of us enjoy their cheerful songs, and as the nights grow longer and cooler, their nocturnal serenades increase in intensity. Before winter they must mate to perpetuate their species. But only the males sing. They have three basic sound signals: a calling note, an aggressive chirp, and a courtship song to attract a female. Singing is done with the edge of one wing rubbing against the opposite wing, creating a chirping noise. Filelike ridges, called “scrapers,” near the base of the wing produce the sound. We can produce a similar sound by running a file along the edge of a tin can.

Wing covers provide an excellent sounding board, quivering when notes are made and setting the surrounding air to vibrating, thus giving rise to sound waves that can be heard for a considerable distance. The cricket’s auditory organ or “ear,” a small white, disklike spot, is located on the tibia of each front leg. The chirps become much higher in pitch in the presence of a female. Some of these ultrasonic sounds can reach 17,000 vibrations per second, higher than most people can distinguish. Females are easily identified by a long, spearlike ovipositor (egg-laying device) protruding from their abdomen. Eggs are laid in the ground and hatch in the spring.

Our local field crickets, almost an inch in length, are members of the Gryllidae family of insects, closely related to grasshoppers and mantises. They feed on a wide variety of materials, including vegetable matter, and when they get into our buildings they can consume everything from clothing to books. However, they will not remain there and breed but will return to their preferred outdoor environment when given a chance. Outdoors they are an integral part of our South Texas wildlife.

2009-09-10T15:47:00.000-05:00

Hummingbirds, Anyone?
by Ro Wauer

Once again it is that time of year when we can expect millions of hummingbirds to pass through South Texas on their way to their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America. The most abundant of these is the ruby-throated hummingbird, a species that nests all across the eastern half of North America, including the Golden Crescent. In fall the southbound hummers will often stop to feed at our feeders. These high octane birds need a constant food supply, especially this dry year when the natural sources from flowering plants are at an all time low.

For the last 20 years the Rockport-Fulton area of South Texas has become the best known place in all of North America to enjoy the special treat of the fall hummingbird migration. This year marks the 21st Annual “Hummer/Bird Celebration,” scheduled from September 17 to 20. Although the ruby-throated hummingbird is the star of the show, other probable species seen during this four-day period include the black-chin, rufous, and buff-bellied hummers. Participants can take two-hour bus tours to area homes with lots of feeders. Or participants can take a self-guided hummer trip to various homes on their own.

The Hummer/Bird Celebration will offer a wide assortment of activities this year. Beside the scheduled home visits, participants can attend hummingbird banding demonstrations. Birders also can take morning trips to Hazel Bazemore County Park on Friday, the Fennessey Ranch on Saturday, and Tule Lake and Indian Point on Saturday. Also this year, butterfly programs and field trips will be provided by Ro and Betty Wauer on Friday and Sunday mornings and by David and Jan Dauphin on Saturday morning. Other scheduled talks will include several on hummingbirds, and others on hawk migration, Texas warblers, moths, water in the landscape, and gardening.

Another reason to attend this year’s Hummer/Bird Celebration is to wander through the Rockport High School auditorium where more than 80 vendors offer everything from books to art to binoculars to clothing. Over the years Betty and I, even when we have not been personally involved with the celebration, visit Rockport to spent a few hours among the vendors. It provides a super opportunity to purchase various goodies, including Christmas presents. And just outside the auditorium one can also purchase garden plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

How to get involved? Although anyone can wander among the vendors at no charge, attendance to the talks and field trips can be arranged on site or on the internet at www.rockporthummingbird.com. It also is possible to obtain information about the Celebration by calling the Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce at 361-729-6445. We have found that the Hummer/Bird Celebration is one of the best organized and best attending festivals we know.

If you go, be sure to stop and say hello.

2009-09-03T15:47:00.000-05:00

A Morning Walk Through the Neighborhood
by Ro Wauer

We sometimes walk early before the sun really heats up the neighborhood. Early morning is a marvelous time of day, when the yard birds are in full song and a few larger birds are passing overhead. Although early fall is not the best time of the year to experience birds at their territorial peak, far from it, but early morning is the best time of day to hear what probably are the last of the territorial songs. The oak woodland habitat where we live contains a number of resident birds that are through nesting. But some are still in song, at least during the early hours: cardinals, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, white-eyed vireos, and mourning and Inca doves.

Some of these resident species may nest again, depending on weather conditions. And some of those may not have nested yet this year due to the extreme drought. Many birds simply postpone nesting until conditions are appropriate so that they can find adequate food for their young.

A few early fall migrants are already passing through the neighborhood. Upland sandpipers and golden plovers from the far north and dickcissels have been heard overhead. And a few orchard orioles, several blue-gray gnatcatchers, a summer tanager, a female indigo bunting, and a couple warbler species have been seen in the yard. Black-and-white warblers are most numerous so far, walking up and down the tree trunks, searching for whatever insects and other invertebrate foods they can find. And a lone Louisiana waterthrush spent a few minutes at one of our birdbaths, chipping loudly and bobbing on its two long legs.

The hummingbird population has already increased considerable during the last couple weeks. It has gone from a half-dozen individuals to several dozen. I put out two more feeders to accommodate these little gems, and now I am refilling the feeders every other day. I know that within a week or two I will be refilling feeders at least daily. Although I am limiting my feeders to seven this year, four or five years ago, when I had hung 17 feeders, and was refilling each twice daily, I had an unbelievably large number of hummers. On one occasion I estimated that my yard contained 300 or more individuals. The hummers buzzed around each feeder, fighting for a chance to feed, and the trees were filled with a constant roar of hummer wings. The Hummer/Bird Celebration in Rockport is coming up September 17 to 20, but more about this marvelous festival in next week’s nature note.

I am unsure what to expect about the fall bird migration this year. Southbound birds are significantly affected by weather. And our extremely dry conditions this year may suggest that the bulk of our migrants will pass around us. More than the normal numbers may take a route across the Gulf. Others may pass us to the west where there has been a more normal rainfall pattern. Most migrants depend upon a daily supply of insects to provide them with adequate nutrients. The drought conditions we are experiencing in the Golden Crescent have severely limited that necessary food supply.

But nevertheless the few migrants that do enter the Golden Crescent will be most appreciated. Some of my favorite fall migrants include the gray catbird, brown thrasher, yellow-throated vireo, and golden-winged, chestnut-sided, and black-throated green warblers. Enjoy whichever migrants that visit your yards.

2009-08-27T15:48:00.000-05:00

Spiders, Up-close and Personal
by Ro Wauer

Spiders have always been fascinating creatures to me! A bit alien, a little scary, but always fascinating. So a recent experience of watching a jumping spider stalk a skipper butterfly truly got my attention. I was first attracted to the skipper that turned out to be a Carus skipper, a new county record, as it feed on gold lantana. Half way through photographing the skipper, I realized that it was being stalked by a jumping spider, a potent predator of butterflies. My attention then shifted to the spider and I watched it edge ever closer to its prey. But apparently I didn’t give the skipper enough credit, because it suddenly flew away to another part of the lantana, and the spider retreated from view.

Jumping spiders are commonplace in Texas. I find them in all sorts of places from flowers and shrubs to various human-made structures, including the deck of my house. They can be tiny, less than a quarter of an inch, to those that reach almost an inch in length. All are rather squat with a head containing mouthparts and eight eyes, a thorax, a thin waist, and an abdomen with eight long hairy legs. All spiders are predators that feed on a huge variety of insects, especially flies and other invertebrates, including other spiders.

Although most spiders are nocturnal in behavior, jumping spiders are daytime hunters. They capture their prey by a stalking and jumping attack; some species can jump twenty times their own length. When sufficiently close, the spider lowers its body, fastens a dragline to the surface, and then leaps onto its prey. A jumping spider detects prey with any of its eight eyes, but it will then zero in with its larger central pair of eyes that are based on long tubes that work like miniature telephoto systems.

Most of the 4500 species of jumping spiders live in the tropics, but North America also has its share. Of the more than 35,000 species of spiders of 105 families, the jumping spider family is the largest. But the cobweb weavers may be more obvious. And the crab spiders may be more noticeable to those of us interested in butterflies. Crab spiders hide among the flowers and grab many an unsuspected butterfly. Although most crab spiders are only about an inch in length, they capture surprisingly large insects, including monarch butterflies.

All North American spiders are venomous, although very few possess venom that can seriously harm humans. The black widow accounts for 50 percent of all recorded spider bites. Black widow and recluse spider venom is neurotoxic, affecting the nervous system, but other spider venom is cytotoxic causing damage primarily to the tissues. Spider venom has been studied for their values of dispersal of blood clots that cause heart attacks and also for use in developing safer kinds of insecticides.

When spider specialist John Comstock of Cornell University was asked “What good are spiders:” he replied “They are damned interesting!” And Paul Hillyard, in “The Book of Spiders,” wrote: “One can find spiders that catch their prey with a sticky globule on the end of a silk line. There are spider architects that construct impressive webs overnight and then take them down again in the morning. One can find caring, responsible spiders that build nursery webs for their families while others carry the whole brood of their back. There are spider engineers, which tunnel into the ground and make secret passages for escape in case of intruders. There is even a unique spider “frogman” which takes down an air supply to breathe underwater. Many species preserve and store food for a rainy day when no flies are about, but some crafty little types have turned to a life of crime and do nothing more than steal food from the webs of their bigger brethren. Still, there is actually one that knocks at the door of another spider’s home and waits for an answer before entering.” But my favorite is the jumping spiders.

2009-08-13T15:49:00.000-05:00

Fall Bird Migration is Well Underway
by Ro Wauer

Fall in South Texas is an exciting time of year! For birders and other nature lovers who spend time in the outdoors, it is next to impossible not to notice our south bound migrants. They include birds of every color and shape, many of which we might have seen on their way north in spring. It only makes sense to be filled with wonder. And many folks ask about bird migration. Here are answers to a few of the more common questions.

Where are the migrants going? Most of our passing birds are Neotropical migrants, species that spend their winters in the Tropics, from central Mexico to South America, and nest in North America, from Texas to Alaska. Some Arctic shorebirds that winter in southern South America and nest in northern Alaska travel a round-trip distance of well over 13,000 miles.
Most of the springtime songbirds passing through South Texas are Trans-Gulf migrants that leave Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in early evening and arrive along the Texas Gulf Coast the following day (depending upon weather conditions), a distance of about 550 miles. A smaller number of those same songbirds also take a Trans-Gulf route in fall. Songbirds are able to fly nonstop for eighty to ninety hours.

Do all birds migrate at night? Most do, but many others, such as hummingbirds that feed on nectar and swallows and flycatchers that are insect-eaters feed in flight, usually migrate during the daylight hours. We see many of these birds flying south over the fields and woodlands during the months of August, September and October.

How fast do birds fly? Most long-distance migrants travel between 25 and 40 mph. Flight speeds vary with their activity. For instance, purple martins fly at 27 mph, shorebirds fly between 45 and 55 mph, hummingbirds may fly up to 55 mph, but peregrine falcons, our fastest known bird, can stoop at over 125 mph.

How high do birds fly? It varies with the topography, but 90 percent of all migrating birds fly between 5,000 feet above ground level. Many fly much lower so we are able to hear clips on a calm day or night. They tend to fly higher at night when flying over land.

Do birds migrate in mixed flocks? Mixed flocks of songbirds, ducks, and shorebirds are normal, but some other species, such as nighthawks and chimney swifts, usually stick with their own species. In fall, several raptor species can often be found within one area, but most hawks also stay with their own kind.

How do birds prepare themselves for migration? Most accumulate great quantities of fat as fuel for their long-distance flights. Many double their weight. The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird, weighing 4.5 grams, uses 2 grams of fat to fly nonstop for twenty-six hours. A typical bird will lose almost one percent of its body weight per hour while migrating.

What is a bird’s signal to migrate? Although the answer is complicated, a simple answer is the increasing or decreasing hours of daylight in spring and/or fall. Arctic birds can raise a family in only a few short weeks, due to the long daylight hours, and often are some of the earliest fall migrants found in South Texas. Most of the earliest fall arrivals are males, while the females remain on their nesting grounds a bit longer to care for the nestlings.

2009-07-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

Spotted Sandpipers, An Example of Avian Polyandry
by Ro Wauer

A recent visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California reminded me how different breeding spotted sandpipers appear from when they are over wintering in South Texas. They are a Jeckel and Hyde bird that sports a spotted breast on their breeding grounds but possess an immaculate white breast in winter. But what is most amazing about these little sandpipers is that they are one of nature’s most fascinating experiments. They are one of the few bird species in which the female is dominant. She will entice two or more males into her harem to incubate the eggs and care for the youngsters. She arrives on the breeding grounds first and selects and defends her territory and her mates. This example of avian polyandry is an apparent success story because spotted sandpipers are among our most widespread and abundant shorebirds.

Betty and I discovered a very defensive female near Manzanita Lake at Lassen. She flew about the little stream where we were searching for butterflies, perched on an adjacent tree, and constantly scolded us with shrill “peet-weep” calls. Then she would fly off again, flying stiff-winged in a sporadic flight-and-glide manner to the next landing spot. We did not search for a nest, but moved away so as not to disturb her or her mates who we assumed were sitting tight on a nest. She continued her frantic calls for a long time as we moved further away.

Spotted sandpipers are often finished with their nesting chores by late July, and some of the earliest birds can arrive on their winter homes soon afterwards. They normally utilize lake shores and streams where they wander about searching for insects and various other invertebrates such as worms, crustaceans and mollusks. But they may even catch small fish and on occasion feed on carrion. But whether they are on their nesting or winter grounds they are easily identified by their small size (smaller than a killdeer), long yellowish legs, yellowish bill, and unusual behavior of constant teetering.

The spotted sandpiper is the most widespread sandpiper in North America with a breeding range that extends throughout North America from coast to coast and from the extreme north Texas to Alaska. Because of its odd nesting behavior it can be characterized as a “pioneering species.” It “quickly and frequently colonizes new sites, emigrates in response to reproductive failure, breeds at an early age, and lives a relatively short time (breeding females live an average of only 3.7 years), lays many eggs per female per year, and has relatively low nest success,” according to “The Birder’s Handbook.”

“The maximum clutch size is four eggs, each of which weighs about 20 percent of the adult female’s body weight. Apparently, it is physiologically impossible for a female to increase the clutch size beyond four, but during the six-to-seven-week breeding season she can lay up to five complete clutches of four eggs each. Each clutch requires about three weeks of incubation, so a female would be hard-pressed to hatch and raise even two broods. Multiple males enable a female to increase her reproduction output by freeing her from the responsibility for incubation and care of the young.” Her free time at Lassen allowed her to properly chastise us for invading her territory.

2009-07-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

The Importance of Handouts
by Ro Wauer

Drought conditions significantly increase the importance of handouts and water for the wildlife that utilize our yards. Our yard in Mission Oaks has become a feeding and watering area for more wildlife than usual during the last few weeks. The birdseed in our feeders had been disappearing much quicker than usual, although the number of birds that were utilizing the feeders had not changed all that much. But then it all became clear when we discovered a white-tailed deer also taking advantage of the birdseed handouts, stretching for seed in the rather small feeders. This individual doe is probably the same mamma deer that had left her fawn in our yard a few weeks ago. But now she leaves her fawn hidden in a brushy area along the edge of the yard, not encouraging it to also take birdseed. We did get a distant sighting of the fawn a couple days ago, so we know it is still about. We wonder if it will join its mother at the feeders before long.

Another wild animal taking advantage of our bird feeders of late, besides the regular birds and squirrels, is a cottontail. This individual will sit underneath the feeders and feed on the various seeds that have been brushed off the feeders by the birds. It seems very content to take leftovers. Yet it also will eat grasses in other locations in the yard. Our cottontail seems to be a loner. We have not recently seen its mate that had been present a few weeks ago.

The birds currently utilizing the feeders include the ever present cardinals, chickadees, titmice, blue jays, as well as Inca, mourning, and white-winged doves. A male painted bunting has become a regular as well. During most summers the green female painted buntings will also take advantage of the birdseed handouts, but we haven’t seen the ladies yet this year. Maybe they are still nesting. But as dry as it is this year there is a good chance that they will not be able to produce young.

Drought conditions have also increased the use of our birdbaths. Water is always important for wildlife, but never as much as this summer. All of the mammals – the deer, squirrels, and cottontail - constantly drink from the birdbaths. And all the birds, not just those that utilize seed, spend an inordinate amount of time at the birdbaths. Mockingbirds, yellow-billed cuckoos, white-eyed vireos, eastern bluebirds, Carolina and house wrens, and blue-gray gnatcatchers also visit the birdbaths on occasion.

The two larger birds that seem to enjoy the birdbaths are the resident red-shouldered hawks and a barred owl. The hawks seem to think they own the yard, and they will settle down in one of the birdbaths for an extended stay; undoubtedly an extremely pleasurable experience on a hot day. But on a couple occasions in recent days, and for the first time in the years we have lived in our home, a barred owl has taken over the birdbath. It, too, like the hawk, will settle in to enjoy the cool bath. None of the smaller birds bother either the hawk or the owl during their afternoon baths. And their presence provides Betty and me a super opportunity to photographs these most welcome visitors.

2009-06-25T15:52:00.000-05:00

White Ibis is a long-legged water bird
by Ro Wauer

An adult white ibis is a very clean-cut, distinct bird, although young of the year are rather ratty looking. Adults possess all white plumage except for black wingtips and a bright red face and long curved bill, with a blackish tip, and long red legs. The adult plumage gives them a rather royal appearance. The plumage of young birds is mottled with brown, although they too possess a reddish bill and legs. It is not too unusual this time of year to see adults and youngsters together, feeding in shallow water along the coast or at inland wetlands, such as mudflats and flooded pastures, or flying about in family groups. They are one of our more social birds, feeding and roosting together, sometimes in rather large colonies.

Ibis are waders that glean their food with their long curved bill, either in water or on more solid ground. Their diet consists primarily of crabs, crayfish and snails, but they also will take fish and snakes and almost any small creatures, including insects, that they find. Feeding behavior is rather interesting. Kent Rylander, in his “Behavior of Texas Birds,” wrote that “they walk leisurely through the shallows, sweeping their long, decurved bills from side from side as they probe the bottom mud for crustaceans (especially crayfish), worms, and other animals.” He also states that “this ibis is a nonvisual, tactile forager: it places its partially opened bill in the water or bottom sediment, then snaps it shut when it partially detects prey. Prey taken from the water’s surface, mud, or short grass habitats are generally located by sight. White Ibises also steal food items from one another.”

Nesting birds often gather in huge, dense colonies with as many as a thousand or more nests. One colony on Galveston Islands contained 20,000 breeding pairs in 2001. Most nests are built with numerous sticks, lined with green leaves, in low shrubbery, but other nests may be placed higher on low trees around water areas. Nests may be usurped by their neighbors, and a colony can raise a great racket when squabbling among themselves. Young leave the nests in about three weeks and follow the adults to choice feeding sites.

White ibis are primarily found in Texas along the Gulf Coast, but they are casual visitors considerable distances inland. They even are considered accidental in the Trans-Pecos. In recent years, breeding birds have expanded their range further inland. Generally, white ibis in Texas can be expected only during the summer months, but they seem to be staying all winter long more and more often.

Three species of ibis occur in Texas: white, white-faced, and glossy. And the roseate spoonbill is closely related, all within the family Threskiornithidae. White and white-faced ibis are reasonably common in wetlands in the Golden Crescent, but glossy ibis, a bird that once was found only along the eastern Gulf Coast, is gradually increasing in numbers. And the roseate spoonbill is far more numerous along the coast, rather than venturing very far inland.

2009-06-18T22:46:00.000-05:00

Courtship Feeding
by Ro Wauer

Cardinals and a few of my other yard birds are currently feeding one another. Much of that, of course, is an adult bird feeding one of its babies. Fledglings will follow their parents about for a considerable time, depending on how long the adults feel it is necessary. Some birds, like roadrunners, as soon as their youngsters can feed themselves, will lead their offspring away from their nesting territory and essentially loose them. Some humans need to do the same.

But there also is a lot of courtship feeding still underway. That is the behavior of one of the adults, usually the male, feeding his mate or his potential mate. In cases where the female takes the lead in courtship, such as with some sandpipers, the female will feed the male. This behavior is considered part of avian courtship, and it may start very early in the breeding season and may last for a few weeks after the last nestlings have fledged.

Early courtship feeding is a way for the dominant individual to attract a mate and develop a bond. This pair bonding, or the honeymoon period, may last for a considerable time, or at least until copulation occurs. Although courtship feeding is likely to continue, the individuals will also feed themselves. Ornithologists believe that courtship feeding not only forms a bond but also tends to maintain the health of the female and leads to greater nesting success. The number of eggs and clutch weight are partly determined by the female’s nutritional status. As Paul Ehrlich and colleagues wrote in “The Birder’s Handbook, feeding of the female “seems apparent that he is increasing his own reproductive success by keeping her fat and healthy.”

Males usually continue feeding the female through much of the nesting process or at least until the nestlings require both adults gathering food on a full time basis. Then the feeding behavior changes dramatically. As the nestlings grow and demand more and more food, feeding by the adults become all consuming. This is the time of year when more nutritional foods are necessary. For the majority of songbirds, such as cardinals, wrens and mockingbirds, insects and other small creatures become essential. Some studies suggest that songbirds must consume up to 80 percent of their weight on a daily basis. Adults with nestlings must therefore capture an amazing amount of food for themselves and young each and every day.

Once the young are fledged, in spite of the fact that they will continue to beg food from the parents, their diet begins to change from insects and other highly nutritional food to other things like seeds and fruit. Young cardinals for instance will very soon join their parents at seed feeders. And by late summer fruit usually becomes part of their daily diet. It is interesting that even some Neotropical flycatchers, species that nest in the United States and Canada where they specialize in insects, will switch to a diet dominated by fruit on their wintering grounds in the tropics.

The majority of songbirds that we find in our yards must feed constantly, especially when feeding young. During a normal day, however, most songbirds feed most heavily during the early morning hours, again during mid-morning, and then again in the late afternoon prior to going to roost for the night. Seed eaters that frequent seed feeders follow the same pattern, but they also are constantly on the lookout for insects and other more nutritious creatures. All birds are opportunists!

2009-06-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

Our Mysterious White-tailed Visitor
by Ro Wauer

Betty saw it first, and she called me to the kitchen window from where we could see the tiny fawn that was lying in the shade of one of the backyard planters. It was almost impossible to believe that the mother white-tailed deer had left her fawn so very close to the house, about 40 feet from our kitchen window. We immediately grabbed our cameras and began to photograph our tiny visitor. At first it had its head turned away, tucked alongside its body, and the only sign of life was an occasional ear flick. Through binoculars we could see that it was dry; it apparently had been cared for by its mother.

About 30 minutes after our first discovery it raised its head and turned in our direction. More photos! It seemed to be gaining strength, moving about a little and even nibbling at its side. And in another 20 minutes or so it began to stand. It took another few minutes to stand fully upright; it looked like a little spotted body on amazingly long legs. It seemed to teeter a bit, and then take a few steps. It may have seen our movement inside the house because it slowly walked away around the side of the planter and out of sight.

We finally walked outside, trying to follow it and to position ourselves so that we could take some additional photos. We high hope that its mother would suddenly appear and guide it away from our yard and into the brushy area beyond. But instead, it walked only another 100 feet and again laid down in the shade of another planter box. It stayed there for another half-hour or so, even when I walked to within a few feet while watering. Eventually we again approached it to get some close-up photos. But that was more than it could put up with, for it suddenly jumped up and ran at full speed away and out of our yard toward the brushy area beyond.

The entire episode left us with numerous questions. Where was the mother during all of this? Why had she left her baby in our yard so near the house? And why had she not made some effort to return or coax it away?

We first found the fawn right after returning from our morning walk, at about 10am. Had we frightened the mother away when we left or returned to the house? We did not approach the fawn at all during the first period. We did watch to make sure some predator stayed away. The most likely predator would be a large dog that might wander into our backyard for a drink at one of the birdbaths. Yet we also understood that fawns do not have a scent to attract predators. And we understood that mother deer regularly leave their young in a safe place for considerable time. We wondered if she had a second fawn elsewhere, and was not concerned about the safety of our mysterious baby. Did she consider our yard safe?

I know that we will never fully understand what we experienced, but that is all part of Mother Nature’s mystic. We only wish the best for our little fawn. We hope that it found its mother and that she was able to feed and care for it, and that she will nurse it to a healthy youngster. Maybe we will see it again when it returns to enjoy one of our birdbaths.

2009-06-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Robber Flies Are Deadly Predators
by Ro Wauer

It’s been said that robber fly predation on other insects can be compared with peregrine falcon predation on birds. Both are dramatic predators that take a significant number of prey. Although dragonflies also take numerous insect prey, including other dragonflies, from what I have observed in recent weeks, robber flies are far more successful in catching prey. And a close-up look at one of our many robber flies is rather scary. I am surprised that one of the horror movies, so common today, has not been developed around a monster robber fly.

Although robber flies can vary considerably in size (some tropical species can be more than a foot in length) and bodies, they all possess extremely long spiny legs, bearded face, piercing mouthparts, large eyes, hollowed out area between the eyes, and a bristly humped thorax. Some are stout like bees while others are long and narrow with a very long abdomen. And the various species, of which there are about 1000 in North America, utilize a wide range of habitats, from our yards to the beach to desert scrub and even grasslands. They can be found perched on the ground, on branches and leaves, or on various structures.

Robber flies will eat almost any flying creatures they can catch. Some of their prey can be considerable larger than they are, and one’s daily diet may include everything from bees and wasps to grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, and other flies. Most hunt from perches where they wait for passing prey, and some species actually establish a flight territory that they defend from other robber flies. They possess a mobile head that can move about in various directions. When seeing a passing prey, they will immediately give chase and catch it in mid-air. They may even fly ahead and intercept the prey from an angle. They will then fly to a shady perch, holding the prey in their long spiny legs, and consume their catch by sucking their prey dry with hypodermic-like mouthparts.

The robber fly life cycle is rather ordinary. The females lay eggs on or just beneath the soil surface. Upon hatching the larvae (tiny, slightly flattened worms) crawl about in the soil and feed on tiny arthropods. Some species may remain in the larval stage for a full year, but most at least stay as larvae through the winter months. By spring, the larvae feed on decaying vegetable matter and the larvae of other insects. And by late spring or summer they pupate and wriggle to the surface where the adults emerge.

Robber flies are members of the Order Diptera or flies, a huge group of insects that includes everything from mosquitoes, wasps and bees, to house flies. What separates robber flies from most of the other flies is their aggressing predatory behavior. During some periods of the year they seem to be especially common, and I have often wondered if their numbers actually control populations of some other flying species. During a recent visit to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, I found several robber flies that had captured butterflies. Although they often are difficult to photograph when perched, they seem to allow a much closer approach when feeding on prey. I realize that robber flies have every right to coexist with all the other native insects, but I must admit that I am bothered when I find one with a butterfly firmly gasped in its long spiny legs.

2009-05-28T22:49:00.000-05:00

How Do Our Drought Conditions Affect Our Wildlife?
by Ro Wauer

Many of our wild animals have a very difficult time during drought conditions. Most are depended on available waterholes and/or birdbaths. Exceptions include a few lizards and small rodents. For those of us that provide plenty available water in our own yards, we cannot help notice the increased use of those artificial waterholes. But for wildlife species without access to such water, they may take one of several actions. Those species that are extremely mobile, such as some birds, they move out of the area altogether. Some other species may be able to move short distances to where they can find water. Our many rivers in Central Texas may act as sponges for those that are able to get that far.

Drought conditions can and often does lead to the death of some wildlife species. When water is not available, wildlife often goes into a sort of depression. Birds may react by being less aggressive on their territories, they may sing only part of the normal time, and they become less active in general. Those that do manage to nest often produce less than a normal clutch, and the fledglings, too, may be less healthy. Birds often are able to do pretty well during the nesting season if they are able to find adequate food to feeding the nestlings. The majority of their diet that time of year is insects that in turn are more often than not dependent upon vegetation. Severe drought conditions, of course, can greatly limit the available insects.

What about the mammals? They too must adapt to abnormal conditions. They may be less aggressive and spent the majority of their time finding food, oftentimes in locations where they might not utilize at other times. For instance, deer will spend more time grazing along roadsides where additional moisture from the roadways tends to support roadside grasses. And some of the mammals that normally are active only at night may need to spend more daylight hours in search for food. Drought conditions also produce other behavioral changes. Some species, such as some rodents, can go into a semi-hibernation mode.

Reptiles and amphibians also become less active in drought conditions. Many of these individuals seek shelter below ground and can aestivate for long periods of time. Like rodents, their metabolism can decline to a point that they are barely alive.

Butterflies are also greatly affected by arid condition. But unlike most mammals and birds, they are able to hibernate (known as diapause) and wait for a change in weather conditions. Although many butterfly species possess a life cycle of a year or less, they are able to diapause for several years. Some species diapause as larvae and can remain in that stage for five to seven years. And those individuals normally will require some significant change, such as heavy and constant rainy conditions, for them to move into the next stage in their life cycle.

Butterfly populations in South Texas are currently very low, when both species and numbers are far below normal. My garden, that will produce 25 to 35 species on a “normal” day in May, has recently only produced 10 to 20 species per day, and only a fraction of the normal numbers. And that number is as high as it is because of the constant watering of the many flowering plants that attract butterflies. Outside the watered garden, the fields and roadsides, even though recent sprinkles have finally produced an assortment of wildflowers, butterfly numbers have not adequately recovered. It will take considerable more moisture before butterfly populations return to normal.

2009-05-21T22:50:00.000-05:00

Cottontails, Jackrabbits, and Hares
by Ro Wauer

A pair of cottontail was frolicking in my yard a few days ago. This was the first time we had seen cottontails in the yard for several months. Being at the lower end of the food chain for most of the predators that also frequent my yard, their presence was surprising but especially pleasing. When we first moved to our house in 1989, cottontails were commonplace. But within the last dozen years or so their numbers have seriously declined so that now it is a special treat when they do occur.

The cottontail that resides within the Golden Crescent area is the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus). Its range extends throughout all of Texas and the eastern half of North America and southward through most of eastern Mexico. Three additional Sylvilagus cottontails/rabbits occur in Texas. The swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus) is found in swampy areas along the Gulf Coast and northward into the pineywoods. The desert cottontail (Sylvilagus auduboni) is found in the western half of Texas and much of the West, from Canada into central Mexico. And the Davis Mountains cottontail (Sylvilagus robustus) is found only in the mountainous areas of West Texas, from Big Bend’s Chisos Mountains north to the Davis and Guadalupe Mountains. Five other Sylvilagus cottontails occur in the United States. The mountain cottontail is found in the Intermountain West, the brush rabbit occurs only along the West Coast, the marsh rabbit is found in Florida and along the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia south, the Appalachian cottontail occurs only within the Appalachians, and the New England cottontail in found only in New England.

The other group of rabbit-like mammals is the jackrabbits and hares, all of the genus Lepus. But only one of these – the black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) – occurs in Texas. This long-eared, long-legged rabbit can occur throughout the state, but prefers hot, dry scrublands rather that oak dominated woodland areas. Three other jackrabbits can be found in North America: the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) occurs through the northern portion of North America, the white-sided jackrabbit (Lepus callotis) is found only in extreme southwestern New Mexico, and the antelope jackrabbit (Lepus alleni) is found only in south-central Arizona and southward into Mexico.

North America also has three hares, also in the genus Lepus. The best know of these is the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) of northern Canada and all of Alaska, the Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus) is found only in the far northern portions of North America, and the Alaskan hare (Lepus othus) is restricted to coastal Alaska. These three snow-adapted species are generally brown in summer and white in winter, and their ears are smaller than the jackrabbits.

There are about 80 species of lagomorphs (order of cottontails, jackrabbits and hares) throughout the world. Although these mammals may resemble rodents, they differ by their arrangement of their front (incisor) teeth, with a large tooth in front on each side and a small peglike tooth directly behind it. Lagomorphs are mainly diurnal and the food is almost entirely vegetable matter, such as grasses, forbs and bark, and none of the lagomorphs hibernate. They are a unique group of mammals. And the common lagomorph representative in the Golden Crescent is the eastern cottontail.

2009-05-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

Dragonfly Days are Here Again
by Ro Wauer

Where in Texas is it possible to find 100 kinds of dragonflies? The answer is the Lower Rio Grande Valley, where dragonflies rate their very own festival. Like the many Texas festivals for birds and butterflies, dragonflies will be the subject of “Dragonfly Days,” scheduled May 21 to 24 this year. In fact, the 2009 festival marks the 10th year of this event, sponsored by the Valley Nature Center and Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco. Last year’s two-day festival produced more than two dozen species of dragonflies and damselflies, including most of the expected species such as common green darner, four-spotted and holloween pennants, great pondhawk, thornbush dancer, and roseate skimmer. The festival also produced a few truly unusual or rare species, including the first U.S. records of Mexican scarlet-tail and bow-tailed glider and blue-spotted comet. Participants were more than satisfied with the results.

Dragonfly Days is designed for the novice, those of us first learning how to identify these flying gems, as well as the expert enthusiast. Field trips and illustrated seminars are scheduled to help the beginner learn the differences between dragonflies and damselflies, know the difference between a skimmer and glider, and also to understand how these colorful insects play a vital role in maintaining a healthy environment.

Daily field trips are scheduled to several of the best dragonfly-finding locations in the Valley, including Bentsen-Rio Grande and Estero Llano Grande State Parks, Anzalduas County Park, and Edinburg Wetlands. The Lower Rio Grande Valley is recognized as one of the most biologically diverse regions in the nation. Field trip leaders will include dragonfly experts John Abbot, Bob Behrstock, Greg Lasley, Josh Rose, and Martin Reid. Seminars include “Dragonflies 101” by Behrstock, “Chasing dragonflies in South Africa” by Lasley, “Dragonfly prey: a look at what odonates eat and what eats them” by Martin Reid, “Natural superlatives along the Rio Grande” by Ro Wauer, “An odonates guide to the Lower Rio Grande Valley” by Josh Rose, and “Texas dragonflies, past, present and future” by John Abbot at the Saturday evening banquet.

Pre-registration is required for all seminars, field trips, and the banquet. Pre-registration forms are available on line at info@valleynaturecenter.org, and additional information can also be obtained from the Valley Nature Center (956-969-2475). Packets for pre-registered participants can be picked up at the host hotel: Holiday Inn Express (956-973-2222) in Weslaco. Special accommodation prices for participants are available when using the code: DFD. All seminars will be held at the hotel and field trips will also leave from that location.

Field trip participants will have the special opportunities to enjoy not only dragonflies and damselflies, but whatever other wildlife and plant life encountered. Birds, reptiles, butterflies, and plants can also be identified and discussed along the way. Participants are asked to bring binoculars (close-focusing for butterflies), study shoes, and protection from the sun. Daytime temperatures in May usually range into the low 90s F.

The festival will allow participants to visit a number of the special wetland sites in the Valley, to see a full range of dragonflies and damselflies, and also will help us appreciate the truly unique features of these marvelous creatures.

2009-05-11T07:17:00.001-05:00

THE MAYBORN LITERARY CONFERENCE

Gay Talese said of our conference, "I came to know an extraordinary gathering of writers, journalists, educators, students and readers devoted to the art and craft of literary nonfiction, a subject that has been my passion and my mission for a half century. I'm convinced that anyone who attends the Mayborn Conference will leave with a new level of insights, storytelling skills, and understanding of the aesthetic qualities and requirements of literary nonfiction. The Mayborn Conference is the gathering place in the country for serious nonfiction writers who want to deeply explore the craft and learn how its practiced at the highest levels. And that is why I'm encouraging every journalist and nonfiction writer I know to attend this summer's Mayborn Conference, and to submit their articles, essays and book-length manuscripts to the Conference Workshops."

UNT’s Mayborn Conference accepting entries for literary competition

Prizes include a book deal and $15,000 in cash.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Since 2005, the University of North Texas’ Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference has awarded four book contracts to emerging authors. This summer could be your chance to get published.

The conference, which will feature NPR host Ira Glass and be held July 24–26 at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center in Grapevine, is accepting manuscripts, essays and articles for its literary competition. Additionally, the conference has teaming up with the Writer’s Garret, a prominent non-profit writing organization in Dallas, to help writers prepare their entries for the competition.

The conference and competition are sponsored by the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism, which will become part of the university’s newly announced Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism when it opens on Sept. 1. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board granted formal creation of the Mayborn School earlier this month upon recommendation from the UNT System Board of Regents.

Selected entries will get the opportunity to work one-on-one with industry professionals in conference workshops, which will be held July 24 (Friday) before the official start of the conference. These entries also will compete for $15,000 in cash prizes and the chance to be published.

“This conference presents an enormous opportunity for unknown writers to get recognized and published,” said George Getschow, the conference’s writer-in-residence. “There are established writers who have tried unsuccessfully for years to be published. This is a rare opportunity.”

Two copies of each entry should be mailed to the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism at 1155 Union Circle, #311460, Denton, TX 76203, attention George Getschow. Entries also must be submitted electronically to maybornconferenceinfo@unt.edu. The deadline for submissions is June 1 (Monday).

Essays and articles should be no longer than 20 pages. A non-refundable entry fee applies. Twenty manuscripts and 50 essays will be selected for workshop participation. Contest winners will be selected from this group of 70 finalists. The winner of the manuscript competition will receive $3,000 and the option to enter a book publishing contract with the UNT Press. The top three entries in the categories of personal essays and mini-memoirs and reporting and research-based narratives that focus on people will receive $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. The best articles and narratives and personal essays will be included in the 2010 edition of Ten Spurs, the conference’s literary journal. For more entry information visit http://www.themayborn.unt.edu/WritingComp.htm.

To register for the conference, visit www.TheMayborn.unt.edu. Conference fees are $295 for the general public. Student fees are $225. Educator fees are $270. Conference seating is limited. For more information, call 940-565-4564. The conference is open to the public with no requirement to submit competitive essays or a book manuscript proposal.

For more information about the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference Competition, contact Jo Ann Ballantine, conference manager, at 940-565-4778.

2009-05-07T08:23:00.000-05:00

Warmer Days Bring on Dragonflies and Damselflies
by Ro Wauer

Warmer springtime temperatures mean greater numbers of invertebrates, those cold-blooded creatures that require warm temperatures to become active. One group of invertebrates is the odonates, a fancy word for dragonflies and damselflies. These odonates are some of our most amazing insects. They remind me of hummingbirds, with their ability to hover and fly forward and backward. Unlike any other insects, they can move their wings independently. They can fly up to 60 mph and can lift up to fifteen times their own weight. What perhaps is most important for us humans is that their diet consists of mosquitoes, flies and other types of flying insects. They possess a voracious appetite. One dragonfly in captivity was fed 40 horseflies in two hours. They are capable of eating their own weight in food every half hour.

About 450 kinds of dragonflies and damselflies occur in North America, about 215 species are known in Texas, and more than 75 have been found within the Golden Crescent. And these dragonflies include such catchy names as petaltails, clubtails, darners, spiketails, cruisers, emeralds, and skimmers. Damselfly names include rubyspots, spreadwings, threadtails, forktails, and dancers.

Although some species of odonates can occur almost anywhere, wetland areas offer the best chance to see the largest variety. A large portion of their lives, from eggs to the larval stage (known as naiads) that undergo 17 molts, taking one to two months, occurs in an aquatic setting. The mature naiad eventually crawls out of the water, where it inflates its wings and the body hardens, and the adult takes wing. Away from the water the exoskeleton and wings continue to harden and the colors intensify. It is the adults, because of their fascinating behavior and appearance that received all of our attention.

Identifying dragonflies and damselflies is a mixed bag; some species are readily identified while others are difficult. Step one is be to recognize the difference between the two major groups. Dragonflies rest with their wings held out, horizontally or nearly so, while damselflies rest with their wings help together near the body. Also, the hind wings of dragonflies are wider at the base than the front wings, while those damselflies are similar in shape, both narrowed at the base. Male dragonflies possess three appendages at the end of the abdomen, while damselfly males possess four appendages.

Until recent years, odonate identification was difficult. But two recent well-illustrated books have made a huge difference: John Abbott’s “Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States,” published by Princeton Univ. Press, and Sidney Dunkle’s “Dragonflies through Binoculars,” published by Oxford Univ. Press. So far, since Betty and I, along with son Brent and friends from Austin, installed my own small dragonfly pond two years ago, I have recorded a total of 21 species. Most common have been roseate skimmers, eastern pondhawks, and blue dashers. Common whitetails, band-winged dragonlets, red saddlebags, flame skimmers, variegated meadowhawks, and neon, Needham’s and widow skimmers have also been seen on numerous occasions.

It is very possible that dragonflies and damselflies will become the next great interest in natural history for the average nature lover. Birds have long been at the forefront, and the increasing interest in butterflies has emerged in more recent years. But all of a sudden many of my friends are getting turned on to dragonflies and damselflies. After all, with such neat names and their constant presence, is it any wonder?

2009-04-30T08:31:00.000-05:00

Tufted Titmice are a most lively little bird
by Ro Wauer

Along with Carolina wrens and cardinals, the little tufted titmice are one of most vocal songsters. Their loud “peter peter peter” songs can be expected in every oak grove throughout our area. They also sing a harsh “day day day” song, and may even give scolding “tsee-eep” or “seja-wer” calls on occasions. Although their loud mouth behavior can equal that of the wrens and cardinals, their appearance is in direct contrast with that of the male cardinal. They lack any bright colors, but are a rather drab gray, although a closer view will reveal buff-colored flanks. And their erect crest, short bill, and large black eyes give them a bit more character. But what they may lack in appearance, their personality is rather special.

Tufted titmice are inquisitive birds, moving about the tree foliage as well as the trunks and branches, constantly foraging for food. At times they will cling to tree trunks like chickadees, probing bark crevices. At other times they may descend to the ground where they hop about hunting insects. Their flight, as described by Harry Oberholser in “The Birds Life of Texas,” is “bounding, quick, irregular, and accompanied often by spreading of the tail.” And they may be bold enough to come to water or a seed feeder even while you are standing nearby. They seem to love water, either drinking directly from a dripper or a birdbath. Bathing seems to occur irregularly.

Titmice and chickadees are members of the Family Paridae that includes only five species in Texas: tufted, black-crested and juniper titmice and Carolina and mountain chickadees. All are little active birds that utilize cavities for their nest sites, such as natural cavities, woodpecker holes and even nest boxes. Tufted titmice normally mate for life, they line their nest cavity with leaves, moss, snake skins and hair, and she will lay five to seven eggs. Last year’s young will sometimes help with nest-construction. But the female does most of the incubation, although he will feed her a good part of the time she is on the nest. Both parents feed the young that will fledge in about two weeks. The nestlings are fed all types of invertebrates from insects to spiders. The adults will also take seeds and in fall will utilize acorns that they break open with sharp thrushes of their bill.

In spite of mating for life, the adults will sometimes split up during the winter months, joining various bird parties. Birders will often zero in on the those bird parties in winter, that may include a dozen on more birds of various species, because of the loud calls of the titmice. Apparently, the multi-species parties, containing birds that utilize different behaviors while foraging, provide greater opportunities for discovering food, benefiting all members of the party. This behavior is true not just in North America, but southern titmice species play the same role in the tropics.

The range of tufted titmice includes all of eastern North America, south to about the San Antonio River. And black-crested titmice occur to the south and west to the Big Bend Country. These two species were earlier lumped together, but more recent studies have proven they are two different species. This is true even though they do hybridize where their territories overlap. So, our area in South Texas may produce both forms, the plain tufted titmice and the titmice with a black crest. Both possess similar vocalizations and behavior. Both are lively, personable birds.

2009-04-16T08:44:00.000-05:00

Neotropical Migrants are Like Returning Friends
by Ro Wauer

Each spring my yard becomes a center for many of the northbound migrants, flying about the vegetation in search for insects and bathing in one of my birdbaths. There are times that a dozen or more of these tiny colorful warblers are present at once. But their activity pattern usually is greatest in mid-morning, like they spend the first hours of daylight feeding, and then they need to bath. And some of those individuals seem to thoroughly enjoy splashing about. Sometimes four or five individuals will crowd in together.

The most abundant warbler species this year and each of the last several years has been the Nashville warbler, with its bright yellow underside, brown back, and gray head with bright white eyeings. Next in abundance, perhaps, is the rather poorly marked orange-crowned warbler; all yellowish-brown except for an orange cap that is rarely obvious. Its orange cap shows best while bathing. One of the most contrasting warblers is the black-throated green warbler, with its black throat, yellow face and greenish ear patch, olive green back, and white wing bars. The black and white warblers that also enjoy a good bath are the black-and-white warbler. This white species, with a black throat and black streaks, has a distinct habit of walking up and down tree trunks. And the little warbler with a yellow throat and chest, with a reddish-black chest band, white belly, gray head with broken white eye rings, and an olive back is the northern parula.

Some of the other warblers seen in my yard this year have included the common yellowthroat, with its yellow underside and black mask; the much larger yellow-breasted chat, with its bright yellow underparts and dark brown back and head, except for its white spectacles; several yellow-rumped warbler; and two additional species that I do not see every year, but are rather special. Most exciting was the worm-eating warbler, a little bird with buffy underparts, brownish-olive back, and buff-colored head with bold dark stripes. It appeared at my birdbath for only a few minutes before it continued on its way toward its ancestral nesting grounds to the northeast.

I found two hooded warblers in a tall brushy area along the edge of my yard. They, along with several resident species, including cardinals, chickadees, titmice and mockingbirds, were agitated about something in or about that site. They all were scolding and raising the roof. Hearing the uproar, I slowly approached, trying to see what was going on. They all were facing the same way, as if there scolding a predator perched in the tangle of vegetation. They seemed to ignore my presence, suggesting they were far more concerned about what was present in the brush than in me. I never did see what they were fussing about, probably a snake, but during the activity I did get some super looks at a male hooded warbler.

It is difficult not to admire a male hooded warbler in breeding plumage. Its coal black hood is divided by its bright yellow face and forehead; its dark eye seems to punctuate that pattern. Its belly is also bright yellow, and its back and tail are olive-brown, and when excited like it was it spreads its tail so that the white edges are obvious.

Many of the northbound warblers are singing, at least partial songs. Their full songs may not occur until they have reached their breeding grounds and begin to defend a territory. Their presence in my yard and other sites along their migration route, give joy to all of us who appreciate each of these little episodes of our natural world.

2009-04-14T08:42:00.000-05:00

The Owl's Escapade
By Ron Smith
McAllen Monitor

The 47-foot sloop, Escapade, was under way in heavy fog sixty miles off the Oregon coast bound for San Francisco. Below deck, co-owner Dr. Mark Upham heard a cry from one of his crew of friends,"There's a bird on board!"

When he saw the creature sitting on the deck, he noted two things: it was an owl, and it was heavily spotted. As a Michiganian, he was aware of species like Barred and Great-horned, but this was a very different bird. A brief thought, considering the location, was that it might be the rare Spotted Owl, but this one was only about nine and a half to ten inches with very long legs. A check of the bird book nailed the ID --- a Burrowing Owl!

The immediate question was, "How did it stray out to sea from its prairie home?" The farthest western range of the species is usually the dry side of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington and then on down into California. They do migrate, but not in the general direction of Hawaii or Fiji! Was fog the cause of such poor navigation?

The bird fascinated the crew. When approached or disturbed by some maneuver of the boat, it would fly up, flutter about, and circle the mast but always return to the deck, After a while, it allowed them to approach within inches but refused any food.

Mark is a retired ER doctor, but oddly enough, had treated no owls brought in by ambulance. The only choice they had to help the bird was to go on to San Francisco and hope that the sight of land would urge a flight toward safety. Coincidentally, on that day, Mark's wife, Karen, was at our home in northern Michigan for a dinner party, and so we were able to participate with great interest in the phone conversation.

The plan actually worked. Much later, after passing pods of Humpbacks and looking for Gray Whales, they sailed under the Golden Gate, and the owl lifted off, aiming for the hills, and one would hope, a drier, safer landing.

It is noteworthy that here in the Great Lakes region, sailboats, fishing craft, and freighters also have migrating species land aboard. Sometimes they are known to sit on the wheels or the captains' caps,, exhausted from their long journeys.

Burrowing Owls are interesting species, especially with their long legs, beautiful plumage and unique nesting habits, The notion that they share the same burrows as rattlers, Prairie Dogs and other creatures is a common myth; actually, they do use abandoned Prairie Dog holes, but they are quite capable of digging their own.

They live in a rather cooperative colony with the rodents and both benefit by each others' warning calls. The owls make one that sounds like a rattlesnake. This and the rodents' whistles warn of Golden Eagles, various hawks, Coyotes and other hunters. It is a mutually beneficial relationship.

Cowboys of the Old West used to call them "Howdy Birds" because of their habit of comically nodding their heads.

Here in the Valley we are very pleased when we find them. South Texas is actually a major wintering area for the owl, according to fairly recent work done by the Canadian Wildlife Service and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi..... The studies continue to improve their chances for survival in the Valley's threatened environment.

The owls smoothly adapt during their stay here by using our altered and disturbed habitats.. In all the conversion to agriculture and residential sprawl, there are still sites next to farm fields and other open spaces where the owls can use culverts as burrows. We have seen them in several places along dirt roads and highways nestled into the ditches. This can be hazardous for the birds wherever there is traffic.

One of the most peculiar nesting sites was a regular stop for birders wishing to check off the owls on their life lists, a golf course in the Florida Keys. They could always be found on Marathon at a certain hole of the Tres Sombreros course undisturbed by the strangely clad people carrying large bags and whacking around little white eggs.

You will delight in finding them here in the Valley, but it would be rare to see one land on your boat while cruising the Gulf. Have a doctor on board if you do.

2009-04-14T08:41:00.000-05:00

Lords of the Dance
By Ron Smith
McAllen Monitor

The spring flock of sandpipers was spread across the South Padre Island beach in the rich evening light. There were perhaps a hundred or so, and if you were close, you would hear their soft sounds.

There were Westerns, Leasts and Semipalmateds, hungry and tired from their Yucatan hop, some scurrying along the edge of the waves looking for the little lives that they feed on and some snoozing peacefully with heads tucked into feathers.

But things are never very calm for long during migration. Abruptly, the entire flock exploded into the air, wheeled away, changing course again and again in perfect, swirling unison. The cause of their flight was a Peregrine Falcon, a lethal dark arrow hard on their tails.

The flock sped on an inline course to the north, and when no bird broke formation, the raptor veered right and flew back to his water tower perch. There would be more migrants and other chances.

A watcher might wonder how these sandpipers and other flocking birds make such en masse maneuvers without colliding. What bird takes the lead in making decisions about direction? How do they react so quickly?

It is well known that animals in a group are protected against attack because they can present a strong and united front. If one is ill or slowed by age, it will fall away from the rest and meet its fate. That's what predators like the Peregrine, the wolf or the lion wait for. Raptors are less likely to plunge into a swarming mass of bodies because of possible injury. A falcon, for example, is like a finely constructed craft..damage to a wing or leg could mean eventual starvation.

Other reasons for flocking include the availability of many eyes to watch for danger and also the usefulness of the familiar V-formation of geese in conserving energy.

To explain the coordinated flights, some imaginative people have posited electromagnetism or thought transference! (X-files music here) However, there have indeed been scientific studies of this phenomenon. One by Wayne Potts appeared in "Nature" magazine in 1984. (The Straight Dope.com) Several theories arose from the work. He used high speed film and observed frame by frame some interesting facts.

For example, there is no one "Commander Bird." Any individual can make the decision to turn in any direction, and the movement radiates through the entire group in a wave. It is not always the same bird. The best and safest move is toward the main body because birds which turn away are at risk of being separated from safety of the flock and caught by the pursuer.

The reaction of individuals to these changes can be as fast as 15 milliseconds! Potts turned to show business terms for his theory, naming it the Chorus Line Effect. For example, the Rockettes are aware of a leg kick beginning well down the line and react instinctively at the right moment.

It is very easy for an individual bird to create this wave just by flying into the group.
This then is how they avoid bashing into one another as they veer back and forth at such high speed. Individuals become aware of any random movement with such an amazing reaction time.

You can also see a similar phenomenon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Through glass displays, you watch large schools of silvery fish bank and swirl as if they had one mind in charge.

I prefer to go beyond the science and just delight in the pure beauty of this dance of flight. You can enjoy it even watching a flock of blackbirds coming in to roost at the malls or hospitals in McAllen! A northern experience could be observing hundreds of Snow Buntings as they rise over a winter cornfield like wind-driven flakes, fan out and then settle again to feed. On a Christmas Count in Ann Arbor, Michigan, my wife and I were once thrilled when more than a thousand of them fanned out over the Huron River.

Better yet, go to the island in the spring and watch the masters, the small shorebirds called "peeps." They are the true lords of the avian dance.

2009-04-14T08:38:00.001-05:00

The Prankster Song Dog
By Ron Smith
McAllen Monitor

Many mythologies feature a trickster, a hero, god, goddess or spirit who creates mischief and breaks society's rules. At times, the prank is malicious, but it can also result in turning a bad situation into a positive one.

Prometheus was one such figure when he stole fire from the Greek gods. There is also Loki of the Norse myths, Puck in England, and on a less celestial plane, Jack Sparrow of "Pirates of the Carribean."

The Navajo have one: Ma'ii or Coyotl. Like all the others, this trickster can be foolish, wise or both, breaking the rules and disobeying the gods.

According to the legend, the Milky Way was created by Coyote's mischief. He was annoyed because the Holy People were placing the stars in the heavens contrary to his notions, so he put a red star in the southern sky, One Who Roams, his symbol. Then he threw high his whole bag of stars , strewing them across the heavens, and that, my children, became the Milky Way!

If you know the real animal, the cunning Canis latrans, or "barking dog," you know that it is everywhere from Alaska to Panama. Called the Prairie Wolf or poetically, the Song Dog of the Dawn, its wavering wail and yipping bark are unmistakable. We once heard it in the twilight while visiting the eerie and rugged Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the North Dakota Badlands, an appropriate setting for such a thrilling and primitive call. I appreciate it best in our Michigan woods. We used to hear them in Pharr until the housing developments boomed.

Beause of its widespread population and forays, the Coyote has been the target of man for centuries. Since 1891 alone, a half million have been trapped (their fur can be beautiful), poisoned or shot at a cost of $30 million. Sheepmen and cattlemen have taken many to protect their lambs and calves. And the result? The population has increased to the point where they are now living in cities and towns, traveling the parks and streets at night hunting for rodents and other goodies.

They are beneficial in this regard, but they sometimes lose the fear of humans enough to prey on small pets, and some children have been bitten while playing in yards. Coyote jumping ability makes building most fences useless, although areas like Santa Fe, New Mexico still build them.

Many of these crimes are perpetrated by Coydogs, a hybrid of the Coyote and the domestic canine. Coyotes may even interbreed with wolves.. This adds to their size...they can usually only reach 40 pounds, about half a wolf or less.

Our very nature-savvy friends in Austin, Gene and Gary Roberts, wonder about the stories of Coyote predation on pets. They once had a tom cat that would drive coyotes away from the barn to protect his very own supply of rodents! That's rather like David and Goliath.

They also knew of a pair living in a patch of woods near the house. In the dark of night, they would put out food scraps for them so that the neighbors did not know and wonder about people who actually feed Coyotes....hmmmmm.

Proof that this mammal interbreeds with domestic dogs came when the male was killed on the highway and the female mated with a Labrador Retriever! She gave birth to black puppies. It makes you wonder if they had the same knack for swimming and retrieving ducks.

Coyotes can react with humans on other levels as well. Shelley Collier of McAllen relates this story: A friend who owned a ranch would jog every day. One morning he noticed a Coyote running with him on a parallel path some yards away. Interesting, he thought. The next day the animal appeared again and from then on, the aerobic continued for quite a while. What would explain this? Was the animal keeping track of the human's behavior and perhaps protecting young or its territory.

The prankster song dog is indeed a hardy, fascinating and wily creature. It is no wonder it belongs in the pantheon of Native American beliefs and is also such a part of our nation's folklore.

2009-04-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

The Tale of the Anole
By Ron Smith
McAllen Monitor

It was a pleasant Valley day at the pool, and the little girl on Spring Break was happy to be away from Michigan's chill. Here there were palm trees, very different birds and flowers to enjoy...and also other creatures..

When a little green one climbed the wrought iron fence in front of her, Lindsey was delighted because she loves all the little live things. "Can I catch it?" she asked her mother. With parental approval, she climbed out of the pool under the gaze of the 55-and-over crowd and ran toward the creature with her three-year-old sister at her heels. She picked it up by the tail, but it detached and the rest of the creature scurried away. Now even more delighted with this phenomenon, she ran back to her mother with the remnant. As she showed it to her, it wriggled! Mother was not amused, and Lindsey obeyed her command to throw it in the bushes.

The little lizard was an Anole, which rhymes with cannoli, although some pronounce it AN-ol It is sometimes inaccurately called the American Chameleon. Though not really a member of that genus, (You know, the one with the gun turret eyes and the long sticky club of a tongue) it too can change color against its background or when ill or stressed. A happy, well-adjusted Green Anole is...green. The outer skin layer is transparent, and the color change is regulated by layers of pigment which determine how much red and yellow or blue go into the palette.

If temperatures are over 70 degrees, the Anole tends to remain bright green. When males are in combat, something unique occurs. The winner stays green, but the loser goes brown. No green with envy here.

These lizards are usually only about seven inches in length, although they can grow to 10 inches in certain areas. There are about 36 species in Florida, and our species may have been introduced to the South Texas area many years ago They can survive north of us all the way to Tennessee.

Anoles live in bushes below fifteen feet, along rock walls and near houses. You may have often seen them on walls or window trim inflating their pinkish throat fans and bobbing their heads to either attract mates or challenge other males for territory. The sun shining through that dewlap is rather striking. No wonder females and rivals are impressed.

Yes, people do keep them as pets, but care should be taken during handling because they are somewhat delicate. Even when biting you they can damage their teeth! They require proper temperatures, so heating pads in the cold weather are necessary. They like an environment of sterile peat moss, ivy or orchids. It is prudent not to put males together. We once discovered why when watching a pair aggressively attack each other...not a pretty sight. Also, proper food is needed such as spiders, moths, cockroaches and grubs.

The "miracle" Lindsey observed is called autotomy. It is an effective escape mechanism when a disgruntled predator grasps it by the tail. Anoles can grow new ones, but they are seldom as long or the same color as the old ones.

It is interesting that there is even a Marvel Comics creature called Anole. He has green skin, possesses sticky feet for traveling over challenging surfaces and can become almost invisible by changing color!

2009-04-09T08:45:00.000-05:00

Butterfly Development is Nothing Short of a Miracle
by Ro Wauer

Monarchs have been passing through the Victoria area for several weeks now. Some mornings a dozen or so lift off as soon as the sun hits them, they may cruise about the yard for a time, nectar on a few flowers, and then continue their northward journeys. By afternoon, some of those individuals spend a little more time, sampling the flower nectar, and some of the females find a milkweed plant (foodplant) on which she lays eggs. It reminds me once again of the miracle of butterfly metamorphosis.

Butterfly development from egg to larva, caterpillar to pupa, or chrysalis to adult butterfly is truly remarkable. Butterfly life history is one of nature’s most amazing happenings. And as the spring and summer months descend upon us, that miracle is all around, for all of us to see and appreciate.

All butterflies have a life cycle that is called complete metamorphosis because it includes four stages. Butterfly eggs are tiny things that can be round, spherical, or bun-shaped and may come singly, in small clutches, or in huge masses of up to 50 eggs that are attached by a gluey substance. The eggs are laid on a plant that the hatched caterpillar can utilize as a food source. The eggs can be laid on top or beneath a leaf, on a twig, or even at the base of grass, depending on the butterfly species.

Hatching can take anywhere from a few days to a full year, again depending upon the species. For instance, falcate orangetip butterflies fly only from March into May, during which time they lay eggs and live as larvae; the remainder of the year they occur only as chrysalides. However, most butterflies we see during the year pass through the four stages in only a few weeks, and so we see fresh specimens constantly during the warmer days of the year.

Butterfly larvae, or caterpillars, are true eating machines that spend the majority of their existence consuming plant materials; the exception is the harvester butterfly larvae that feeds on aphids. The body of a caterpillar is divided into the three parts: head with a pair of simple eyes, mouth, and large jaw (mandible); thorax, with three segments containing three pairs of legs for moving about; and abdomen, with ten segments containing five pairs of prolegs, built like suckers to aid in clinging to various materials. The jaws not only can tear plants apart but also assist in transporting food to the mouth. This eating machine’s entire purpose is to convert plant or animal tissue into butterfly tissue.

Like all arthropods, the butterfly caterpillar grows by shedding its skin periodically, whenever the new exoskeleton develops and hardens underneath. Once the new exoskeleton is formed, the caterpillar breathes in extra air and splits the old outer skin down the middle, and simply crawls out of its old skin. This process is called molting.

Finally, when the caterpillar reaches its maximum size, it finds a safe location and spins a form of silken mat, often with a silken thread or girdle as a safety belt. It then hangs upside down and spins a silken sheet, not a cocoon (only moths spin a cocoon), on a leaf or other object. This time, when shedding its old skin, it changes into a chrysalis, an immobile stage in which it undergoes a massive reorganization. This transformation takes a week to several months, depending on the species and the time of year, and includes both internal and external organs.

Its emergence as an adult butterfly is one of Mother Nature’s most incredible feats, going from caterpillar to butterfly, complete with small wings and an oversized body. On emergence, it quickly pumps fluid into the wings from the body that then shrinks to its normal size. The adult has also developed a proboscis (a long coiled suction tube for feeding) and six true legs. Emergence usually occurs in the early morning when humidity is high, temperatures are relatively low, and predators are less active. The first flight usually occurs in the afternoon.

Adult butterflies must have food and water to continue their life process, so they feed on nectar and pollen from various flowers and often also obtain water and nutrients from various sources such as rotting fruit, carrion, dung, and wet soil.

Butterfly courtship involves a rather complex behavior, involving recognition of the opposite sex by wing pattern and pheromones. Pairs often go sailing high in the air in courtship flights. Mating can continue for several hours, but then the female must find suitable plant species on which to lay her eggs. Once she lays her eggs, the process of transformation from egg to adult butterfly begins over again.

2009-04-02T08:46:00.000-05:00

Its Mexican Buckeye Time
by Ro Wauer

Everything has its season, and now is the time that our local Mexican buckeyes are blooming. Although the buckeye tree is not all that impressive, the flowers that appear before the leaves emerge, are a gorgeous pink to purple. They look almost orchid-like. And although they are only an inch across, they produce a very pleasant fragrance.

Apparently bees, butterflies and various other insects also appreciate flowering buckeyes, as the buzzing of bees can usually be heard even from some distance away. On a couple of occasions I have watched a number of birds hovering nearby, undoubtedly preying on insects that are there for the nectar. In a sense, buckeyes flower at the same time as the spring migration, so it only makes sense that our northbound birds take advantage of a tree full of available prey.

Watching a series of flowering buckeye trees, I have been able to record a total of 15 butterfly species also taking advantage of the sweet flower nectar. Some of the most consistent species have been the pipevine swallowtail, gulf fritillary, and common buckeye. All three of these butterflies can occur in our area year-round. Pipevines are often abundant and it is not unusual to find a dozen or so nectaring on buckeye flowers. Gulf fritillaries seem less interested, but one can always find a few. And the common buckeyes seem to be more common at buckeye flowering time than usual. Maybe their name originated from their use of flowering buckeye trees.

Some of the other expected nectaring butterflies at the buckeye blooms include giant swallowtails, southern dogface, cloudless and large orange sulphurs, great purple and gray hairstreaks, red admirals, question marks, monarchs, queens, funereal duskywings, and the much smaller fiery skippers.

Our local Mexican buckeyes bloom in March and early April, and then the flowers fade and are replaced by bright green, 3 to 7 inch long leaves. By late summer fruit are obvious. These are 3–lobed capsules, 1 to 2 inches wide, and usually are cinnamon brown and woody. Inside the capsules are very hard, shiny black to brown seeds. These seeds are poisonous to most folks, although there are accounts of seeds being eaten with little effects. Native Americans utilized Mexican buckeye seeds in a number of ways. Southwestern Indians used the very hard seeds in necklaces as well as a hallucinogen.

It is a little sad to think that the buckeye flowering season is so short, and that most of the same species of wildlife will move elsewhere at the end of the blooms. But by then the trees will contain an abundance of leaves and some of our native birds will take advantage of the site for nesting. Cardinals, mourning doves, white-eyed vireos, and a few other species will then take their turns.

2009-03-19T08:48:00.000-05:00

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers Are Arriving in South Texas
by Ro Wauer

Of all the Neotropical migrants that pass through South Texas, the lovely scissor-tailed flycatcher is probably the most welcome of all. Few birds have the appeal of this charismatic songbird. Not only is it one of our most beautiful birds, but it seems to prefer a relationship with humans, nesting on utility poles and in trees often surprisingly close to our various structures. Its amazing courtship flights and continuous singing tend to give it an additional appeal. It therefore is often called the “Texas bird of paradise.” And its arrival in South Texas is a sure sign that the new season has begun.

The long-tailed, brighter males arrive first with the shorter-tailed females appearing a few days later. By then the males have already established territories and are chasing competitors away from preferred sites, often the same sites utilized the previous season When the females arrive, the males take on a very different persona, performing some wonderful courtship flights, ascending to more than 100 feet before sailing back, often with outstanding acrobatics. These dramatic flights include up and down flying, much zigzagging, and even reverse somersaults, usually at great speeds and with tails flowing and fluttering and wings out to display their salmon-colored armpits and underwing linings. All the while he is performing, he will be giving cackling-snapping calls. The female will usually join in the fun. Scissor-tails also give a unique dawn song on their breeding grounds that include a series of loud stuttering “pup” sounds that conclude with an emphatic “perlep” or “peroo.”

Like all flycatchers, the scissor-tail’s diet is principally insects, at least during the nesting season. Although most insects are captured in flight, scissor-tails will also take insects on the ground, perhaps more often than most flycatchers. Grasshoppers are a favorite food source. On their wintering grounds in southern Mexico and Central America they will also consume berries.

Although paired scissor-tails are generally loners, as soon as the youngsters are fledged, they will usually join other family groups. In some cases these flocks can include up to 200 individuals. And unlike most other members of the flycatcher family, which usually are quiet after nesting, scissor-tails continue calling until they leave for their wintering grounds in September or October, as well as throughout their migration and in winter. These often congregate at choice sites. And 100 or more scissor-tails can create quite a racket.

Most Texans think of this bird as their state bird instead of the mockingbird, which is the official state bird. That undoubtedly is because of the charisma of this long-tailed songbird, and also perhaps because the mockingbird is so commonplace. While mockingbirds are full-time residents throughout most of the state, leaving only the far northern portions of the state in winter, scissor-tails normally are present only from March through October. But during that period they can be found in all but far West Texas, where they occur only occasionally.

By November the vast majority of the summer resident and migrants passing through the state from Oklahoma, Kansas, and southeastern New Mexico have gone south. Recent records, however, suggest that a few birds remain in South Texas all winter. The rest migrate south of the border where they occur in huge flocks, flycatching over open grasslands, pastures, and fields. But by March they are with us again. Few songbirds are as welcome and admired as out lovely scissor-tailed flycatcher.

2009-03-12T08:49:00.000-05:00

Mourning Doves are Common and Widespread
by Ro Wauer

Almost everyone knows the mourning dove. It is one of our most abundant birds, residing in the countryside as well as in our towns and cities. It can be found in every county in Texas. Although mourning doves are readily spooked when approached, they seem to have a strange affinity for humans. Part of that behavior is related to their attraction to seed feeders that we humans place out for songbirds, but they also are known to move from their preferred habitats in the countryside into towns during hunting seasons.

Mourning doves are easily recognized by their plumage color and shape. They are gray-brown color with a scattering of dark spots on the wings and with a pale breast and belly. They possess a small head and reasonably thin neck, and have a long, tapered tail with white edges. And they also have a distinct flight that is strong and swift and produces a noticeable whistling sound. And taking flight or landing they usually will lift their tail up and back down.

During the nesting season, according to Kent Rylander’s “The Behavior of Texas Birds,” “males will often glide over their mates in a spiral pattern, and he also will strut before her with spread feathers while nodding his head. The pair frequently preens each other.” Nests usually are place in the fork of a horizontal tree limb, but they also nest directly on the ground or on various structures such as houses or barns. The courting male will lead his mate “to several sites before choosing the one she prefers, where she builds a flimsy platform of sticks.” There she will lay three or four eggs that are incubated by both sexes. Upon egg-hatching “both parents feed crop milk to the nestlings.” Fledging occurs in about two weeks, and then the family will join other families to form rather large flocks. Those flocks will usually stay together until the next breeding season.

Although mourning doves are far and away our most abundant dove, six additional doves or pigeons (members of the same family) occur in our region. Two are much smaller: Inca doves possess a scaly plumage and long tail, and usually are present around our homes. Common ground-doves lack the scaly plumage and have a short, rounded tail. They prefer open wild areas and only occasionally spend much time in our yards and at feeders. Four species are larger than the mourning dove. White-winged doves, with obvious white wing-patches, often spend considerable time at out feeders. Eurasian collared-doves have only recently invaded Texas; they possess overall gray-brown plumage with a black collar. White-tipped doves, found only in the southern portion of our area, possess grayish-brown plumage with a pale forehead, and white tips on their tail. Finally, rock doves or domestic pigeons can occur almost anywhere and possess a huge variety of plumage colors and patterns.

This time of year is when all of our doves are in their breeding mode, when they begin to defend a nesting territory and spend considerable time, especially in the mornings, singing. And their song/calls are very distinct. Mourning doves, true to their name, give a sad, mournful call, like “who-ah, whoo-whoo-who” with a sharply rising, inflected second syllable. White-wings sing a song that can be interpreted as “who-cooks-for-you.” Eurasian collared-doves sing a similar song but one that sound like an owl, or “who-whoo-whoo.” White-tips sing a higher-pitched, drawn out “oo-wooooo.” Inca doves give a repetitive, hollow “whirl-pool” call. And ground-doves sing a low, repetitious “woo-oo, woo-oo, woo-oo, woo-oo,” with a rising inflection at the end of each syllable. And our rock doves/pigeons sing little more than a muffled “coo-crooo.” My favorite is the mournful songs of our common mourning doves.

2009-03-05T08:50:00.000-06:00

Ground Skinks Are Out and About
by Ro Wauer

As our spring weather warms up, a number of wildflowers appear, and our resident birds begin to sing more enthusiastically. But there is yet another sure sign of spring: the appearance of our little ground skinks. They have been in semi-hibernation since late fall, appearing only occasionally on warm days. But now they are active and one of our most abundant reptiles, in spite of being hardly noticed. One reason for this is their secretive behavior, moving about amid leaf litter, only occasionally spending much time in the open. And their generally brown coloration provides them with excellent camouflage. Unless one is actively searching for one of these little skinks, they usually go undetected except if one happens to sees movement among the litter.

Adult ground skinks (scientifically known as Scinella lateralis) are 3 to 5.5 inches in length, are rather plump with a long thin tail, very short legs, gold-brown to blackish-brown back, pale belly, and a close look will reveal a dark stripe along each side. Ground skinks are widespread across the southeastern quarter of the United States. In Texas they occur west through the Hill Country and southward almost to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Eight other skinks, all of the genus Eumeces, also are found in Texas: southern prairie, five-lined, broadhead, northern many-lined, Great Plains, southern coal, short-lined, and four-lined.

All skinks are smooth and shiny in appearance, and they normally are active and swift and difficult to capture. Although they are considered to be lizards, they belong to a separate family, Scinidae. The majority of skinks are terrestrial, although a few live in trees. Our ground skink very rarely is found anywhere other than on the ground among leaf litter. They can climb, however, but rarely do. Most observations are of lone individuals moving through the liter, snake-like, foraging for small invertebrates that are rapidly consumed. They serve as prey for many larger predators; their numbers offer a ready but difficult food base for a wide variety of species.

Several clutches are often produced each season. Females lay one to seven tiny eggs in the humus, in rotting wood, or under rocks. Unlike other skinks, ground skinks do not protect their nest. Newly hatched babies are less than two inches in length. But almost immediately they are out and about, foraging for even smaller food.

For anyone who does not spend time in the outdoors, you may not be aware of these little creatures. But once one begins to pay attention, you will find them commonplace, whether in open fields, woodlands, and even in yards. Get acquainted with our only skink.

2009-02-26T14:23:00.000-06:00

Purple vs. House Finches
by Ro Wauer

A February 10 article in the Victoria Advocate, titled “Birds Shifting North,” with a subtitle “Global warming cited for changes in migration routes,” contained a couple issues that need to be clarified. Firstly, the National Audubon Society study that was mentioned did not suggest that birds are changing their migration routes, but only that several species are beginning to spend their winter months further north than they had in earlier years. Secondly, and totally different, I could not help but wonder how many folks, after seeing the photo of a purple finch, might misidentify our local house finches. Although purple finches do rarely winter in South Texas, the closely related house finch is far more numerous.

The article pointed out that global warming was the cause of many birds shifting their wintering grounds further north. The authors pointed out that the average January temperature in the U.S. has increased from 27 degrees in 1966 to 34 degrees in 2005. The northward shift is indeed a fact, and I suspect that many of our wintering birds that we did not see a few years ago but are now found regularly are the result on climate change. According to the article, the poster bird for this shift is the purple finch that now “winters more than 400 miles farther north than it used to.”

The central reason for this nature note is to discuss the differences between the two finches, so that purple finches will not be reported for what are actually house finches. The two species are not that different, so they could be confused. The females, in particular, are very similar, as both possess streaked underparts. However, the head pattern of female purple finches possesses a broad line through the eye edged with broad whitish bands. Female house finches lack the bicolor head pattern and they are not as bulky as their cousins. Males also have similarities, in that they both possess reddish heads and streaked backs. The head, throat, and back colors of adult male purple finches is more a burgundy-red, while the head and throat of house finches is more a true red color. Plus, male house finches possess a streaked belly and flanks; that of the purple finch is spotty.

There also is a third finch, the Cassin’s finch, that has a number of similarities, but it is found only in the West. In Texas, Cassin’s finches are found only in winter and only in the mountainous areas of the Trans-Pecos. While wintering purple finches are now rare in South Texas, house finches, a species that has a western affinity, has increased in our area in recent years. And they also are increasing in the eastern United States. While it was a rarity when we lived in Washington, D.C. during the 1980s, it is now commonplace there.

All three of these finches are closely related, classified in the same genus, Carpodacus. And they belong in the family Fringillidae that includes goldfinches, siskins, crossbills, and redpolls. The majority of these are of northern affinity. The only two of that breed in South Texas are the house finch (its scientific name is Carpodacus mexicana) and the lesser goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria) that is only an occasional visitor to Victoria County but more common to the south and southwest.

2009-02-19T14:22:00.000-06:00

Clay-colored Robin is a Rare Visitor
by Ro Wauer

What a surprise to find a clay-colored robin in our yard! It was among a hundred or so American robins that we found drinking from our birdbaths. The American robins had arrived in a huge flock, like that had during the last several weeks. This flock was accompanied by a couple blue jays and four green jays, also like what we had observed in recent weeks. But also included in this flock for the first time was a clay-colored robin. In fact, the clay-colored robin was a brand new bird, representing our yard bird number 182.

Clay-colored robins are quite different from their American robin cousins. They lack the robin-red breast and the white eye-rings of American robins. They are olive-brown color above and tawny-buff (clay-color) below, with a yellow bill and finely streaked white throat. They are the same general size as the American robin.

This clay-colored robin is not the first ever for Victoria County, but it is considered an extremely rare visitor. It is even rare in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, although it is now considered a full-time resident there, and it has been found nesting in Hidalgo and Webb Counties. It actually is a Mexican bird that barely reaches the United States. So the few sightings north of the Valley truly are exceptional. According to Mark Lockwood and Brush Freeman’s “Handbook of Texas Birds” (2004), single records exist “from Huntsville, Walker County, Lake Jackson, Brazoria County, and Victoria.”

South of the border, clay-colored robins can be fairly common at choice locations as far south as Central America. They can occur in a variety of habitats, ranging from semiarid areas, riversides, broadleaf forests to about 8,000 feet elevations, plantations, and even in urban areas. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, they seem to prefer well-wooded locations along the river. Clay-coloreds are rarely found in open areas, seldom found foraging on lawns like their cousins. They prefer “secluded thickets, where it quietly gathers earthworms, slugs, caterpillars, an occasional lizard, and other animal food; also wild figs, bananas, and other fruit,” according to Harry Oberholser’s “The Bird Life of Texas.”

Is the clay-colored robin one of the birds that seems to be affected by climate change? The answer is a probably yes. According to Timothy Brush, author of “Nesting Birds of a Tropical Frontier – The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas,” the species was first recorded in Texas in 1940. The earliest nests were recorded in 1986 and 1988 at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park. It is now a year-round but rare resident in the Valley, from Laredo to Brownsville. And more northern sightings are on the increase. They are welcome in my yard any time!

2009-02-12T14:21:00.000-06:00

Signs of Spring Are Everywhere
by Ro Wauer

In spite of our very dry winter, signs of spring are all around us. Although the spring wildflower bloom has hardly begun, a few early flowering trees and shrubs have begun. Already my agarito shrubs have starting to produce bright yellow flowers, and yellow-flowering huisache trees have been detected in a number of areas. The early spring wildflowers I have so far detected include ten-petal anemone, false garlic, milk vetch, and yellow wood sorrel. Can paintbrushes, puccoons and bluebonnets be far behind?

There are also are early signs of spring from the birds. Perhaps the earliest bird songs to brighten the days are those of the cardinals, but the Carolina wrens express their pleasure as well, singing louder and more spirited than they had during the winter months. Then, Carolina chickadees and tufted titmice add their songs to the springtime chorus. In open wooded areas, Bewick’s wren songs have become more energetic. The soft, melodic songs of eastern bluebirds can be heard about open fields. And the resident red-shouldered hawks begin their courtship, flying overhead and emitting loud calls, all to impress their mates.

A few purple martins have already been detected, although it probably will be another few weeks before our breeding birds return. Their lovely, melodic chirping will soon be heard from an hour before sunup to throughout the daylight hours. To many folks the martins serve as their most important spring herald. And the many additional neotropical songbirds, such as cliff swallows, yellow-billed cuckoos, and painted buntings will return as the days progress.

At about the same time, a number of our regular wintering birds begin moving out, heading for their ancestral breeding grounds to the north. Skeins of geese, especially snows and white-fronts, form long lines as they pass overhead. The sandhill cranes will also be on the move, leaving the feeding fields during March and April, while the larger whooping cranes will begin their departure in April.

Shorebirds also are beginning to move northward. The earliest migrants are likely to include American golden-plovers and upland sandpipers. Some of their cousins, such as black-bellied plovers, dowitchers, and various sandpipers, that have resided on local mudflats and shorelines, move out even earlier. Many of these marvelous birds breed far to the north on the Arctic tundra.

Perhaps the paramount indicator of spring for many of us is the return of the ruby-throated hummingbirds. Although a few of these tiny birds have remained with us all winter long, keeping company with our resident buff-bellied hummingbird, many more ruby-throats will return by March. They will remain through the summer months, and leave for their wintering grounds in late fall, just before our colder weather sets in.

Springtime is an exciting time of year for everyone who enjoys the natural world around us.

2009-02-05T14:20:00.000-06:00

Woodcock is One Strange Bird
by Ro Wauer

There are many oddities about our American woodcock! Firstly, it is classified in the bird world as a shorebird, but it never spends time along the shore like other shorebirds such as sandpipers, curlews and godwits. Woodcocks prefer brushy or grassy areas, at least during the winter months that they spend in South Texas. Secondly, woodcocks are weird looking with their very plump body and long, heavy bill. And thirdly, woodcock behavior is so very different than most other birds.

Last week I received a call from Marlin Frederick who informed me that he had a woodcock hanging out behind his house. He told me that this woodcock stayed much of its time in the open, only flying into a brushy area when disturbed. He invited me over to see for myself. So sure enough, when I reached his home he was able to show me this plump, long-billed, well-marked bird sitting on the lawn some distance from woody habitat that I would have expected it to have chosen for its daytime resting site. I was able to see very well and obtain a number of photos, something that would normally be unusual to say the least. My several earlier sightings have been of birds sitting in brushy cover so that unobstructed photos would be next to impossible.

I was able to see all the features of Marlin’s woodcock: a large, plump body, long heavy bill, fascinating head pattern, large brown eyes, and distinct plumage that include a rusty, non-barred belly, barred crown, and streaked brown and black back with a series of gray blotches. It stayed perfectly still, allowing me to get within 15 feet or so, before it finally flew with a distinct twittering sound into the brush.

Another reason I was surprised that Marlin’s woodcock was “out in the open” is that this shorebird normally is nocturnal in its behavior, feeding at night and hiding in the daytime. The reason for it’s larger than normal eyes. They feed primarily on earthworms by probing and they may even foot-stamp at times to help locate prey. They daily eat more than their weight in earthworms, although if necessary they will also feed on various other soil invertebrates. Their bill contains sensitive nerves, in which the sense of touch is highly developed; it can detect the movement of worms in the soil and capture them by probing. Their keen ears may also help them locate prey.

It is too bad that woodcocks do not nest in South Texas, although they do so throughout much of the eastern half of the state. One of the earliest of birds to leave their wintering grounds and begin courtship on their breeding grounds, woodcock courtship flights are a thing to behold. They will fly upward in increasing spirals to 200 to 300 feet, uttering musical twittering notes, and then circling, zigzagging downward, still singing, to alight on its starting point. There it may walk about stiff-legged with tail erect and spread and with its bill pointed downward, resting on its chest. Then it may produce loud, rasping and emphatic zeeip notes. Then it is time for a repeat flight.

Nesting occurs in swampy or moist areas along the edge of brushy sites. Pairs may both sit on the nest, usually facing in the opposite direction, to protect their eggs or nestlings, especially during cold weather. Two broods are the norm. Incubation lasts about three weeks, and the young are precocial, able to leave the nest within a few days. While feeding nestlings, it is not unusual that several adults utilize the same feeding grounds. Unusual for such a solitary bird.

Where might one see one of these fascinating birds? Although Marlin’s woodcock’s is spending its daylight hours in the open, they are more often found by walking through wooded areas. Thicker patches of woods are better than the more open areas; finding a roosting woodcock is not easy. But finding and observing a woodcock at any time is well worth the effort.

2009-01-08T14:19:00.000-06:00

An Urgent New Years Request
by Ro Wauer

As the new year closes in, I have considered a number of requests that I might make to my readers. These have included everything from personal savings to saving the planet. And in spite of our economic situation that extends far beyond our own household, city, state and country, my most urgent concern is the preservation of our natural environment. Most naturalist type folks agree that we are losing much of our natural environment because of habitat loss that includes the majority of the plants and animals that live there. Those losses mostly are the result of poorly planned developments, excessive use of biocides, and the careless introduction of exotic species.

An amazing number of folks respond to that concern by asking “What’s all the fuss? So we lose a few wild animals or even a few species?” Well, first and foremost, human beings are part of nature, no matter how well we insulate ourselves. We live in a world in which everything, at least in some subtle way, is interconnected to everything else. Like the strands of a giant web, a weakened or broken strand will continue to decline in strength and usability. Mankind is part of the matrix, not apart from it. Our long-tern existence depends upon a healthy, viable environment. “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”

Our most threatened natural resources include our freshwater streams, ponds and lakes; bays and estuaries; prairies; and our forests. Tropical forests are at greatest risk because they contain the highest diversity of plants and animals known to mankind, many of which have not even been identified, and some of those may eventually be the solution to the prevention of the common cold and cancer. But it is projected that we will lose between five and fifteen percent of the world’s species by 2020, approximately 50 to 120 species per day. It has been estimated that three-fourths of the world’s bird species are declining in population or threatened with extinction. About 1,000 bird species (more than 11 percent) are at risk of extinction, while about 70 percent or 6,300 species are in decline. For instance, duck populations in the prairie pothole regions of the central United States and southern Canada have dropped more than 30 percent since 1955.

Frogs and salamanders are even more susceptible to pollution, and they too are declining worldwide. These amphibians, as well as many of our declining Neotropical migrant birds, are like the proverbial canary in the mine. Their declines are a warning that something is dreadfully wrong. But like the accelerating rate of cancer in the human population, we allow lobbyists and advertisers to blind us about the real causes. And America’s Endangered Species Act is so under attack that its value for protecting the myriad of declining species, including those that are part of our most important warning system, is likely to come under the influence of those who care more about the value of the dollar than they do about their own children’s health and survival. If present trends continue, we can expect an annual rate of loss as high as 50,000 species by the year 2020.

The fundamental need as we enter a new year with a new Administration in Washington is to speak out in support of our natural resources. We must not let the recent decay of our environmental laws and regulations continue. It is time we as a carrying people speak out in support of our native plants and animals.

It was Theodore Roosevelt who wrote: “The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.” And William Hornaday wrote: “The wild things of this earth are not ours to do with as we please. They have been given to us in trust, and we must account for them to the generations which will come after us and audit our accounts.” And finally: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees…” Revelations 7:3.

2008-12-25T14:18:00.000-06:00

Green Jays Are Back
by Ro Wauer

Green jays are back in our area of South Texas once again. But this year they are present at numerous locations, some of which they have never before been recorded. For instance at least nine individuals in three flocks were found on the Guadalupe Delta Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Thursday, an area where they had never before been recorded. This was even though dozens of observers have combed the area as part of the annual CBC on each of the last six years. Betty and I found at least nine individuals in three separate flocks on Thursday. And closer to home, we have had at least five individuals in our yard near Mission Valley since November 7. Plus, neighbors have reported additional birds in the Mission Valley area during that same period.

The question that arises is why should these birds suddenly appear in our area? And why did they in 2006 depart after a few weeks and not reappear for two years? Three years ago on the Victoria CBC, counters first recorded a small flock off Lower Mission Valley Road. And a few days later seven individuals, maybe the same flock, appear at our Mission Oaks yard, and another small flock appeared near Mission Valley. All of these remained for about three weeks, and but then departed. Who knows what will happen to the Mission Valley birds this year.

It is not unusual for birds to wander after nesting, some for great distances. Even buff-bellied hummingbirds, one of our resident hummers that are not known to nest north of our area, can usually be found further north even into Louisiana in fall. These birds normally retreat southward by winter. This is likely to occur for our green jays, but their December-January appearance in the Golden Crescent is not part of a normal post-nesting dispersal.

One reason for some bird’s northward movement may relate to changes in essential habitat that could be related to either climate change or destruction of their habitat. It is pretty well accepted that some of the more mobile species, including many birds, can gradually move into acceptable habitats and leave habitats that are no longer acceptable behind. And that behavior of some species moving into new areas may, in a sense, be the testing of new areas. Locating new acceptable habitats eventually may prove useful if it becomes necessary to expand their range.

All of these ideas are possible for green jays. They certainly play a part in the movement of many species, especially birds and mammals. However, even less mobile species possess the ability to shift into better habitats when necessary. If their initial habitat does not meet all their needs they will either move or perish. Our current flocks of green jays are likely to return to wherever they came from by February, but they eventually may become full-time residents in our area. If so, they are more than welcome.

2008-12-18T22:15:00.000-06:00

Red Admiral, Our Winter Butterfly
by Ro Wauer

Fall has passed us by, and now is that time of year when those of us into butterflies must wait for several weeks before a few springtime species appear at some of our earliest blooming plants. However, there is one notable exception. Unless our days stay near freezing or below, we can expect to see a few red admirals. These lovely creatures are readily identified by their mid-size, somewhat smaller than a monarch, dark brown to black wings with a red band across each forewing and a broad reddish band on the trailing margin on each hindwing. The underside is subtly beautiful with mottled black and browns with a bit of blue evident on the forewing.

Red admirals are most closely related to the ladies, the painted, American and West Coast (rarely) ladies. They all are of the genus Vanessa, and all are immigrants to South Texas, usually appearing in late summer or fall. Most pass through our area, but a few red admirals almost always stay behind. It therefore is often thought of as our “wintertime” butterfly. However, it actually is one of the most widespread of all butterflies, ranging throughout the United States and the southern half of Canada. It even occurs throughout Mexico and most of Central America as well as the Greater Antilles.

Adult red admirals feed on fruit, sap, dung, and flower nectar. And in recent days one of my red admirals has been taking sugar water from one of my hummingbird feeders. It is large enough and with a long enough proboscis that allows it to reach the sweet liquid, apparently a substitute for nectar. They seem to be one of the most active butterflies during early mornings, even when temperatures are below 60 degree, the general temperature when we can expect most butterflies to become active.

Behavior of red admirals is similar to many of the anglewings, a general group of butterflies that, besides the ladies, includes question marks, mourning cloaks, and buckeyes. They all are fast fliers and hard to follow, but yet they suddenly will alight on a flower, leaf or substrate, walk about a second or two, than perch with folded wings. They will sit with open wings during the cooler morning hours, allowing the sun to warm their bodies. At times during cooler periods they may sit with one wing half open to reflect the warm sunshine onto their bodies.

All of the admirals are sometimes referred to as the “thistle” butterflies because, although they nectar at a wide range of flowers, they seem to have a fondness for thistles. The larval foodplants, species on which females lay eggs, include nettles, false nettles, and pellitory, all species of the nettle family. In most areas in North America they produce two broods annually, and adults and caterpillars are able to hibernate in winter. In our area, those same individuals often fly about when the temperatures permit activity.

Any day in winter when one or a few red admirals are active is a good wintertime butterfly day.

2008-12-11T22:13:00.000-06:00

Flocking of Birds is Commonplace in Winter
by Ro Wauer

The adage “birds of a feather flock together” is a truism that has withstood the test of time. In South Texas, huge flocks of blackbirds are commonplace during late fall and all during the winter and early spring months. The flocks are most apparent during the evening and early morning hours when they move between their roosting sites and feeding grounds.

At least six bird species make up these huge blackbird flocks, and each flock often contains two or more species. Typically, flocks of red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, and common and great-tailed grackles are most common. And a flock of any of these may also contain a few of the others, as well as European starlings and occasional bronzed cowbirds. At times the larger flocks appear like wisps of smoke or clouds in the distance. These birds often fly together, only inches apart in a synchronously tight flock like they are in formation, wheeling, diving, and ascending as one. They eventually will descend as one to alight in a field or pasture to feed on available seeds and insects.

Although blackbirds are best know for flocking in huge numbers, many other birds also flock, especially during the non-nesting season. Geese, sandhill cranes, cattle egrets, quail, swallows, robins, and even wild turkeys and cardinals occur in single species flocks. And wintertime mixed flocks of songbirds can also be expected. This is especially true in the Tropics. In Manu National Park in Amazonian Peru, as many as 70 species have been found in a single flock. Closer to home, mixed flocks of five to a dozen species often can be found in the company of a few full-time resident species, such as titmice and chickadees.

One can’t help but wonder what advantage flocking might be for these birds. That question has interested ornithologists for a long time, and they have discovered a multitude of answers. Some are obvious. There undoubtedly is safety in numbers; at least one member of the flock is likely to detect a predator. It gives those feeding birds in the center of the flock more time to search for food and to eat in relative safety. New food sources can be found, for the good of the whole flock, when the individual isn’t spending the majority of its time watching for predators.

Other answers are less obvious. Flocks flying in close quarters seem to fend off diving hawks, as a raptor will not dive into a solid flock for fear of injury. Flying flocks will bunch up whenever a predator appears. In the case of a mixed flock, composed of species with slightly different feeding patterns, they also are more likely to discover a greater variety of foods. Those feeding in the canopy may frighten insects into flight that are then captured by a bird feeding at a different level. And also in mixed flocks, some species tend to act as sentinels, others as guides, and others as beaters and searchers.

It seems that our wintering birds, without the requirements of territorial defense, nesting, and feeding young, actually utilize a division of labor.

2008-12-04T22:13:00.000-06:00

American Crows Are Commonplace, But Often are Ignored
by Ro Wauer

Almost everyone can recognize the American crow! Yet it is too often misidentified throughout much of its Texas range. The crow-like birds in South Texas and in far West Texas and the Panhandle are not our familiar American crow, but actually are Chihuahuan ravens. And the larger crow-like birds of the Hill Country and West Texas is the common raven. The American crow is actually a bird of the eastern, northern and western United States; its range skips much of the western two-thirds of Texas. Like the range of several other eastern North American songbirds, such as the tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, and blue jay, it barely extends south of the San Antonio River.

Crows are members of the Family Corvidae that also includes all the jays, magpies and Clark’s nutcracker. Corvids are some of the most intelligent of all birds, and young birds can often be tamed as pets. They also are able to solve problems and to recognize dangers that many other birds ignore. For instance, crows are reported to warn other crows of a human intruder that is carrying a shotgun. And as for problem solving, Kent Rylander wrote in “The Behavior of Texas Birds,” that crows can add or subtract: “They readily learn how to deal with novel situations (for example, taking advantage of an unconventional food source); and they respond to subtle environmental stimuli to which less intelligent birds are oblivious (for example, distinguishing an aggressive from a nonaggressive gait in a predator.”

American crows are naturally gregarious and usually will be found in flocks. Some wintertime flocks can number in the hundreds of thousands. These cooperative groups often maintain shared territories year-round. They may even fly considerable distances, like 50 miles or more, to feed. And when a predator is located, crows are well known for their mobbing behavior, including constant calling and diving at the intruder. Their best known call is an emphatic “caw caw caw,” but ornithologists have recorded at least 23 different calls. It depends on their situation, for instance, courting males sing a “rattle” song.

Crows are omnivorous and extremely opportunistic. They can take advantage of almost any opportunity to feed, utilizing seeds, grains, insects and other invertebrates, frogs, small snakes, birds and their eggs, small mammals, carrion, and even garbage. There are several instances of crows cracking hard-shelled mollusks by dropping them onto rocks from high overhead.

Like all the Corvids, crows are extremely wary and suspicious. Resting or feeding groups post sentinel birds to warn the group of any dangers. Sneaking up on a flock of crows takes special skills that few humans possess. However, by approaching ground-feeding crows indirectly and by looking away can produce some success. But just when you stop to aim a camera they will take off in the opposite direction with much consternation and vocalizations.

Although our American crow is so often taken for granted, probably because of their abundance and continual presence in the Golden Crescent, it is one of our most interesting songbirds. It is one of the first birds to call each morning, and one of the last to go to roost in the evening. It is one of our largest songbirds, yet its song is little more than a series of caw notes.

2008-11-20T22:12:00.000-06:00

Mexico is a Beautiful Country That Gets Few Visits from Americans
by Ro Wauer

Betty and I, along with friends from Del Rio, recently spent two weeks in Mexico, mostly in the state of Veracruz, an amazingly diverse area geographically and biologically. Veracruz lies along the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre Oriental, between the Gulf of Mexico and the highlands of Oaxaca. It exemplifies a 16th century description of Mexico. When the Spanish king asked a returning conquistador for a description of the new land, the visitor seized a piece of paper, crushed it into a crinkled ball, and laid it in front of the king. “There, your majesty,” he said, “is a map of your New Spain.”

For those Americans who do visit interior Mexico, few leave without the realization that Mexico not only is a beautiful country, but also as safe as anywhere in the interior portion of the United States. Just like no one in their right mind would wander about the streets of many of our large cities after dark, one doesn’t wander after dark about many of Mexico’s large cities and border towns. But we have found that the interior Mexican towns are safe. And the people we meet are just as honest and kind as those in the U.S.

I have been traveling to Mexico one to several times most years since 1966. And although the roads, accommodations, and restaurants were less acceptable then, all have been improved immeasurably in recent years. Mexico’s main highways today are equal to those in the U.S. Mexico caters significantly to visiting Americans. And the exchange rate makes prices only one-half to two-thirds of what they are in the U.S.

Our recent Mexico trip was designed primarily to find and photograph butterflies. A secondary purpose was to visit a number of archeological sites and some locations that I had not seen during my earlier birding years. We generally covered an area from Tampico south to Catemaco and westward into the Sierras to the Esperanza cloud forest. I was disappointed in the amount of forest that had been cleared during the last couple decades, but I was impressed with the efforts underway to protect some of the last remaining forests. For example, sizable tracts of native jungle-like vegetation still exist in the Sierra de Tuxtlas near Catemaco and cloud-forest habitat along the Veracruz-Oaxaca border. And some good forest also remains surrounding the various archeological sites.

We recorded more than 300 kinds of butterflies during our trip, none more impressive than the huge morpho. This tropical, deep blue species occurs in intact forest habitats as far north as the El Cielo area in central Tamaulipas. But to see one flying in the rainforest of southern Veracruz is extra special. And the numerous heliconians that we found at various sites were extra special as well. Isabella’s heliconians were widespread, as were the zebra and julias, but we also got great photos of Mexican, tiger, and erato heliconians. Other large butterflies of special interest included rusty-tipped pages, common and crinkled banners; Blomfild’s, Karwinski’s, and small beauties; and five species of crackers. These tree-huggers are named for their behavior of snapping their wings in flight.

Some of the smaller butterflies were just as impressive. Perhaps, the wavy-lined sunstreak, an extremely long-tailed, bright green hairstreak, was most welcome. But finding pearly and sky-blue greatstreaks, a square-spotted yellowmark, Anna’s eighty-eights, blue-eyed sailors, and a fuzzy saliana was also impressive. And finding seven kinds of clearwings was another highlight. Of the more than 300 total species, 48 were lifers for me.

My message with this nature note is not about butterflies and magnificent scenery as much as it is about the country in general. We Americans too often believe the worst about what we don’t understand, and we rarely give that new idea a chance. Anyone who does venture south of the border, beyond the border towns and into the countryside, cannot help but appreciate Mexico for all it has to offer.

2008-11-13T22:10:00.000-06:00

Our Tiny Birds of Winter
by Ro Wauer

I am never sure that our winter season has really begun until some of our smallest winter-only songbirds have returned. But they now are back, and they are consuming their share of birdseed and enjoying the birdbaths. The principle species that I refer to include ruby-crowned kinglets, house wrens, orange-crowned and yellow-rumped warblers, and chipping sparrows. The slightly larger winter-only species, such as eastern phoebes and robins, don’t qualify.

Of all the tiny winter birds, the most common is the chipping sparrow, a rather nondescript species with a reddish-brown back and gray underparts. Adults also possess a reddish cap and white eyelines. Anyone who offers birdseed to our wintertime species is sure to know this little sparrow. They usually occur in small flocks, and they spend a lot of time feeding on the ground, but they also will take seed from feeders. In fact, of all the wintering songbirds and in spite of their size, chipping sparrows probably consume more seeds than any of the others.

Ruby-crowned kinglets are more widespread in winter, but usually are found alone in the foliage or in brushy areas. These tiny, always nervous birds, are greenish brown with white eyerings. They also possess a red crown that is seldom obvious. When agitated, they can elevate their red crown patch. Ruby-crowns never feed on birdseed, but spend their time foraging among the foliage in search of tiny insects. And unlike chipping sparrows that are usually silent in winter, ruby-crowned kinglets often give je-dee call notes.

Maybe one of our most common wintering songbirds, but one that is the shyest and seldom seen, is the house wren. Yet, almost every patch of brush can possess a house wren in winter. It is even less colorful than the chipping sparrow and ruby-crowned kinglet. About half the size of our full-time resident Carolina wren, the house wren is a buffy-colored little bird with a very short and banded tail. Although it seldom spends much time in the open, birders tally a surprisingly high number of house wrens because of their constant call notes. And on especially sunny and pleasant mornings they may even serenade the area with a fast, bubbling song. And like kinglets, house wrens feed almost exclusively on insects that they find in brushy areas.

The two warblers mentioned above – orange-crowned and yellow-rumped – spend most of their time foraging among tree foliage. And in the case of the yellow-rumps, they also will fly-catch, sailing out from high perches in pursuit of a flying insect. Yellow-rumped warblers are easily recognized by their yellow-rump, brownish-green back, and whitish throat.

Orange-crowned warblers also forage for insects among the foliage, but will also search for insects on tree bark and under eaves. They seem to be more opportunistic than most warblers, as I have found them feeding on the peanut-butter and cornmeal mixture that I offer in winter on hanging logs. Again, this wintering warbler is never brightly marked, but has a general olive-green appearance. Their orange crown, like that of the ruby-crowned kinglet, is rarely in evidence. And like chipping sparrows, it is silent throughout its wintertime stay in South Texas.

If there is one similarity among these little wintering birds, it is that all enjoy a good bath. Although their bathtub may only be a depression in a leaf or ground, some individuals seem to bathe more often than others. Maybe the orange-crowned warbler enjoys its bathing time more than the others. A birdbath placed in an outdoor location where it is readily evident from indoors can bring many pleasurable observations all winter long.

2008-10-23T22:09:00.000-05:00

Sandhill Cranes Are Returning to Their Wintering Grounds
by Ro Wauer

October marks tat time of year when sandhill cranes are staring to move into their wintering grounds throughout South Texas. It is wonderful to have these large, graceful birds back in our fields and pastures. They will remain all winter, leaving for their northern nesting grounds in late April and early May. From now until May, one can find hundreds of these birds by driving the roads throughout the region.

Unlike the more famous whooping cranes that also winter in South Texas at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and on adjacent coastal flats, sandhill cranes prefer old fields and pastures. Their needs are very different. While the whoopers overwinter only in wet coastal marshes, feeding on fish and other marine life, as well as marsh plants, acorns, and grains, sandhills prefer newly planted or harvested corn, sorghum, and grains. They may even range into semiarid areas west to the Big Bend country.

Our returning sandhill cranes often possess an odd color pattern, especially when they first arrive; their feathers are rust colored from the iron-rich feeding grounds where they spend their summer months. Normal sandhill crane plumage is overall gray with a whitish throat and cheeks, a bare reddish cap in adults, and dark legs, Whooping crane adults are all white except for a black facial pattern and reddish cap. In flight, whoopers display obvious black-and-white wings, while flying sandhills are all gray, except for their whitish throat. Both fly with their heads stretched for out and legs extended; great blue herons and egrets, also large birds that are sometimes confused with cranes, normally fly with their necks bent so that their head does not extend.

Sandhill cranes may be one of our most expressive birds. They often can be heard at a considerable distance, talking to one another in their unique call, a long, rolling, hollow rattle, like “garpoooooo.” Whether in flight or feeding in a field, they seem to spend a great deal of their time communicating.

Although huge flocks of 50 to 100 or more birds can be found regularly in South Texas, these groups can usually be broken into rather distinct family groups. Especially when they first arrive in our area, groupings of adults and juvenile are commonplace. The young generally remain with the adults all winter and gradually, by the time they are ready to head north again, mature to the point that they are difficult to distinguish from the adults.

Normally sandhill cranes mate for life, and as their mating season draws close, they often can be seen dancing before their mates. Although their mating displays in Texas are less elaborate than the dancing that occurs on their breeding grounds, it is till worthy of our observations. Courtship involved loud calling and marvelous dances with head bobbing, bowing and leaping, grass tossing, and running with wings extended.

It is good to see sandhill cranes returning to South Texas.

2008-10-16T22:07:00.000-05:00

Blue Jays Are More Active Than Usual
by Ro Wauer

Numerous blue jays, probably two or three family groups that have flocked together since nesting, are spending an inordinate amount of time in my yard, especially at the birdbaths. That behavior for the normally shy and elusive blue jays is unusual. Several of these jays still possess juvenile plumage, not the bright blue and white features so evident in the adults. Even their crest and black chest-band have not yet fully developed. The adults, however, show all the typical blue jay features: blue back and crest, blue wings with white wing bars, blue tail with black bands, whitish cheeks, and grayish underparts with a black chest-band.

The blue jay is one of our best known birds, common throughout the eastern half of North America. In Texas, blue jay distribution extends west through the Edwards Plateau and northeast to the eastern portion of the Panhandle. They also occur southward to and beyond Corpus Christi, but they are only vagrants in the Rio Grande Valley and in far West Texas.

Blue jays, perhaps more than most other bird species, engender mixed feelings in people. Although they are often admired for their color, togetherness, and tenacity, they often are disliked as thieves and loudmouths. Jays in general are well known as predators on other bird life, often preying upon smaller birds, their eggs, and nestlings. They also fed on a wide variety of other materials, whatever animal and plant foods they can come upon. They accept almost any handout offered from seeds to table scraps. In the wild, acorns are important in their diet, and they cache acorns in out-of-the-way places for later use. They hide these nuts in crevices above ground as well as in holes they dig in the ground. This caching behavior is common to all jays, crows, ravens, magpies, and nutcrackers, all members of the Corvidae family. The advantage of such behavior is that it allows these birds to survive even during hard times, even during periods of drought. Northern jays are able to nest in winter, long before the abundant seasonal foods are available.

All of the jays, of which that are nine resident species in North America (blue, gray, Steller’s, brown, Mexican, and pinyon jays, and western, Florida, and Island scrub-jays), are well known loudmouths. In fact, the harsh “jay jay jay” calls of the blue jay are where their name was originally derived. But our blue jay has numerous other calls. In “The Bird Life of Texas,” author Harry Oberholser states that the blue jay’s “song is a series of notes considerably keyed down to low, sweet whistles, lispings, and chipperings. Usually the bird performs this jumble while concealed in tangled vegetation or on interior branches of a tree. This song is heard infrequently from March into June.” He also claims that jays possess a slurred sound like “jeer” or “peer.” And “usually in spring the bird whispers a pleasing teekle, teekle that is often joined with a whee-oodle, the later commonly called its creaking wheelbarrow note. Members of foraging groups, particularly in autumn, converse with a chuckling kuk.”

Oberholser also points out that blue jays often sound like other birds. The “bird’s teerr cry sounds like that of the red-tailed hawk; the similarity of the screams is apparently more coincidental than imitative. Another call is a low throat rattle.” However, whether or not the jay’s abundant calls are intended to imitate other birds, they do succeed in attracting attention, and some of that attention is from some of the small birds, such as chickadees and titmice, species that are susceptible to larger predators. One can’t help but speculate!

2008-10-09T17:32:00.000-05:00

Shrikes Are Back! Winter Isn’t Far Behind
by Ro Wauer

Several loggerhead shrikes are back on their wintering grounds. These little predators are once again back on fence and utility lines throughout South Texas. Although a few actually remain year-round, the winter population is much greater. The majority of our wintering birds migrate north in spring to nest elsewhere. But now, their harsh trill or rattle calls can be heard at almost any open field.

Shrikes are easily identified by their stocky, short-necked appearance, short wings, and black-and-white colors: black wings, tail, and mask; gray back; and white underparts and wing patch evident in flight. Its black mask makes it look like a little avian bandit. And it flies in a straight line with fast on-and-off wing beats.

The loggerhead shrike is most unusual in a number of ways. Unlike most other songbirds, it preys on birds, mammals, lizards, and small snakes, as well as a wide variety of insects. But because it does not possess sharp talons to tear its prey apart, as do the larger raptors (hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls), it must utilize a different technique. Therefore, it has learned to impale its prey on sharp yucca leaves, cactus, and other thorns, barbed wire, and such. It can then feed on the carcass for several days. It is not uncommon to find several prey species impaled on a fence or on a certain spiny shrub. The prey is almost always suspended with its head up and body hanging down. This impaling behavior has given the loggerhead shrike the name “butcher bird.”

Recent studies have shed new light on the shrike’s unusual behavior. On its nesting grounds where impaled prey are most evident, the numerous impaled prey specimens represent the male shrike’s hunting prowess in attracting a female shrike. Males with the larger number of impaled prey are first to attract a mate. Although both sexes impale prey year-round, decorated spiny structures are most common on their nesting grounds.

As many as 72 species of shrikes are known worldwide, but only 2 occur in North America, the northern shrike of the northern boreal forests and the loggerhead shrike of the central and southern states. All of the world’s shrikes are small to medium-sized birds, 7 to 10 inches long, with large, broad heads and stout bills that are strongly hooked and notched near the tip. The notched bill is very similar to that of falcons. It includes a toothlike structure on the cutting edge of the upper mandible that corresponds to a notch on the lower mandible. These “teeth” are important in the shrike’s killing ability. It is able to kill prey with a series of sharp bites with its strong bill which can sever neck vertebrate of its prey.

Small birds can be swallowed whole, and their feathers and bones later regurgitated, but larger prey are carried to favorite sites and impaled where they can be eaten at their leisure. Shrikes are fascinating birds, and the number of loggerhead shrikes that over winter in our area offer us a great opportunity to watch a most unusual songbird.

2008-10-02T17:28:00.000-05:00

The Fall Season is All Around Us
by Ro Wauer

Although South Texas has only a few broadleaf trees that turn color in fall, numerous other signs of fall are present for those of us that recognize those changes. And those changes can vary considerably from falling leaves to migrating birds and monarchs to fall blossoms that are extra attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.

Already we are experiencing the southward movement of a wide variety of birds, from waterfowl and shorebirds to a huge diversity of songbirds. And for those of us who watch carefully for our returning wintertime species, we already are finding American kestrels, loggerhead shrikes, and a few warblers on their wintering grounds. My favorite of all those is the American kestrel, a small falcon that haunts our fields and pastures, usually found sitting on a high post or on utility lines. There they watch carefully for movement of a small rodent or snake, grasshopper, or other insects that they can dive upon, capture with their sharp talons, and haul back to a perch to consume their catch. The majority of our early kestrels are females that usually arrive ahead of the smaller but more brightly marked males to claim a territory. The arriving males usually find a less preferred site.

Right now, during the last few days of September and early October, migrating hummingbirds are at their peak. Any hummingbird feeder could possibly host one or two dozen ruby-throated hummers, a few black-throated hummers, the resident buff-bellied hummer, and any unusual species that happens by. Anna’s, Allen’s, broad-tailed. and rufous hummingbirds are possible.

Fall is the best time in our area for butterflies. There already has been a huge build-up of sulphurs. My garden currently is playing host to dozens of large orange and cloudless sulphurs and fewer numbers of lysides and southern dogfaces and little yellows. Pipevine and giant swallowtails also are commonplace right now, as are queens and a few skippers. But the huge numbers of butterflies can be expected by mid-October and into December when crucitas (Eupatorium odoratum) bloom. These marvelous shrubs are true butterfly-magnets, and their flowers are preferred over any other flowers that bloom in fall.

More species of butterflies can usually be found in our area during October and November than in any other period during the year. If my yard is an example, I recorded 68 species in 2007, 69 in 2006, and 71 in 2005. October and November is that time of year when a number of species appear that emerge locally only in fall or move northward en mass from more southerly areas. Some of those fall-only butterflies include Lacey’s scrub-hairstreaks, Julia and zebra heliconians, common mestras, white peacocks, soldier, and Dorantes longtails. In 2007, probably because of the amount of rainfall, the number of Julia heliconians in our yard was unbelievable. From November 9 to 13, we counted as many as 300 individuals daily. So far this fall there has been only one or two Julias per day. Perhaps that number will increase during the next few weeks.

But what is so extra species this time of year is the number of strays that can occur. Although some of the stay species may appear for only a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days only, before moving elsewhere, they can add considerable excitement while present. Some of my most exciting fall finds these last few years have included Florida whites, white and yellow angled-sulphurs, statira sulphurs, Mexican yellows, tailed oranges, dingy purplewings, zilpa longtails, white-patched skippers, Erichson’s white-skippers, and violet-banded skippers.

Fall of 2008 will undoubtedly produce more excitement. As the butterfly numbers increase and the wintering birds return, there is little doubt that nature-lovers have a lot to look forward to.

2008-09-25T17:28:00.000-05:00

How Does Hurricane Conditions Affect Our Wildlife?
by Ro Wauer

Hurricane Ike caused severe problems for people all along the upper Gulf Coast. We have all heard agonizing stories about Ike’s impact on human beings. But what about the wildlife, the birds, mammals, butterflies, and other creatures, that did not evacuate or go into a shelter of some sort? The answer is varied, depending upon a large set of circumstances. For instance, many of the more mobile species, such as birds and butterflies, were able to escape, either by flying away or floating away on the storm front. But many of all these creatures undoubtedly succumbed to Hurricane Ike.

Migrating northern birds probably did not enter the area of Ike’s influence, either by staying put out of danger or circling around the storm. Resident species had little choice, however. They simply hunkered down in some semi-protected location, not coming out until the storm passed them by. Mortality was undoubtedly significant. Some of hardest hit birds were some of the larger colonial roosting species such as the herons, egrets and gulls. But once the storm passed them by, the survivors probably did very well because most of those birds possess an omnivorous diet. They are ably to feed on almost any kind of carrion or a variety of dead and dying creatures. This probably is also true for any vultures and raptors that were present after the storm. In fact, there are records of increased numbers of raptors to an area following a storm.

Hummingbirds probably were hardest hit by the storm, for two reasons. First, they are tiny creatures that can be thrown about by heavy winds, and are very likely to be injured. Second, once the storm passes by, nectaring plants, on which hummingbirds depend, would be seriously diminished. And because flowering plants are probably affected by salt water from the storm, the surviving plants cannot flower for several days or weeks or even the following season. Often hummingbirds that do survival the storm perish soon afterwards unless they can find an adequate food supply. That is why hummingbird feeders, loaded with sugar water, are so important immediately after a storm.

And what about the mammals such as the deer, hogs, coyotes, and rodents? The same scenario for the birds might also apply to the mammals. Burrowing rodents could possibly survive in underground cavities that do not get flooded. But the larger mammals that were forced to face the water and wind might be less successful. Yet, most of these creatures are tough and are opportunists; that is how they are able to survive in this human-dominated society. And once the storm is past, the carnivores are likely to do very well. Deer that feed on plants may be more hard pressed, but they too are hardy creatures and are likely to make it even with a reduced food supply.

Butterflies are an interesting group of wildlife. There are records of butterflies suddenly appearing in a place they have never previously been reported, even a hundred miles or more from they known breeding grounds. Butterflies being so light weight and easily blown about, can ride thermals or storm fronts for amazing distances. Although many undoubtedly succumb to a storm, especially those adults that stay put, many escape simply by drifting away. And since most butterflies live only a couple weeks, and are replaced by newly emerging individuals, so long as the butterfly chrysalis survives, more butterflies can be present soon after a storm. But if their nectaring plants may be in short supply, emergence can be postponed.
The aftermath of major storms is a fascinating time for wildlife enthusiasts. Birds and butterflies can appear in out-of-range locations for days afterwards. That is why birders and butterfly enthusiasts keep a watchful eye out for surprise species.

2008-09-18T17:26:00.000-05:00

Snout Butterflies are Flying Once Again
by Ro Wauer

On a recent trip from Big Bend National Park, we encountered thousands of snouts flying across the highway, especially between Del Rio and San Antonio. The vehicle was plastered with snouts, almost so many on our window that it made it dangerous to see ahead. It was necessary to take our vehicle into town to get it washed before those bugs damaged the paint. And now the snouts are beginning to increase in our area, flying every which way.

Snout butterflies occur throughout Texas as well as west to southern California, east to central New England, and south into Mexico. They normally frequent woodland edges and stream courses and utilize hackberry plants to lay their pale green eggs. The tiny larvae, or caterpillars, which are dark green with yellow stripes, feed on hackberry leaves. They pupate before overwintering as adults in protected areas.

Some years they become super abundant. Raymond Neck, author of the 1996 book, “The Field Guide to Butterflies of Texas,” explains: “Certain climatic conditions, such as severe drought followed by heavy rains over a large area is southern Texas, produce massive amounts of leaves of foodplants. The leaf production allows a major buildup in population numbers of larvae and, subsequently, adults. The new generation of adults emerges at a time when the foodplants have been stripped of most of their leaves. The lack of leaves and the dense concentrations of adults trigger a migration involving masses of butterflies that easily number in the hundreds of thousands and even in the millions of individuals.” September 2008 is one of those periods.

Snout butterflies, more appropriately known as American snouts (Libytheana carinenta), are little butterflies, about one inch in length and with a wingspan of almost two inches. In flight they appear to be multicolored with brown, black and cream-colored wings. When perched with open wings their colors are obvious, as well as their distinct shape, including a long snout and square-tipped wings. Most often they perch with folded wings, perpendicular on a branch or on another surface, showing their gray to black to brown undersides. Their long snout is obvious. This unique feature makes them look very much like a leaf or twig and is said to have evolved in this butterfly family to provide them with wonderful camouflage.

Snouts truly are remarkable creatures, part of our native wildlife. However, there are times when they become so numerous along our roadways that they are less marvelous and become more of a pest.

2008-09-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

Starlings, The Norway Rats of the Bird World
by Ro Wauer

The non-native starling is one of the most aggressive and offensive bird in North America. It will readily replace many of our native cavity-nesting songbirds if given the opportunity, and as soon as the native songbird moves out it will stake a claim to the empty nest. An example of this comes from purple martins that may be driven out of its nesting box by the aggressive starlings, or as soon as the martin house is vacated starlings may move in to nest. It is extremely important that those of us with martin houses take the house down or fill the entry holes as soon as the martins are finished nesting. If not, the non-native starlings or non-native house sparrows will take over.

Starlings, or properly known as European starlings, were imported into the United States about 100 years ago by a New Yorker who decided it was a good idea to introduce all the birds mentioned in the plays of Shakespeare. The starling was one of those birds. About 80 individuals were imported from Great Britain. And progeny of that original introduction has spread all across the Continent, from the East Coast to the West Coast, north to Alaska, and throughout most of Mexico.

The key to their success is that it can take over niches previously filled by many other birds. They possess the behavior and structural advantages that make the takeovers possible. Not only are they strong and aggressive, but they readily fight with other birds, and they seldom loose. They are tough, bulky birds with a sharp beak that can easily dominate most other songbirds. Starlings have been found to usurp nests of even larger birds, such as flickers. If there are eggs in the coveted nest, the new tenant will discard them as well.

Although nesting starlings prefer natural cavities, they will take advantage of a wide assortment of sites. They have been found to nest in attic vents, drainpipes, culverts, and even mailboxes. Starlings collect grasses to place on the bottom of their nesting cavity, and they maintain an extremely clean nest until the young develop feathers. Afterwards they give up on housekeeping, and the nest often quickly fills with parasites. It has been said that starlings can tolerate an amazingly high number of parasites; another reason that starlings should not be allowed to take over martin houses.

Other adaptations that have helped starlings adapt include their slender, tapered bill and their vision. Starlings can probe for food underground in their hunt for grub, and they also take considerably food, such as spiders and a wide assortment of insects, on the surface by stabbing them with an open bill. Their vision is also rather unique in that each eye is independent so they can look forward, backward, up and down. This helps in searching for food as well as watching for predators.

In spite of their negative values, breeding starlings are rather gorgeous birds. Their speckled plumage contains numerous buff-white dots at the tip of the bird’s feathers. Europeans regarded these dots as stars, thus the bird’s common name. In spring, the plumage takes on an iridescent sheen, and the bill turns from a dull brown to bright yellow color. They are bulky birds with a short tail and rounded head. All and all, breeding birds are gorgeous creatures. It is too bad that they so impact on our native songbirds!

2008-09-04T17:35:00.001-05:00

A Sora in a Very Strange Location
by Ro Wauer

Finding a sora, a small water bird, in my backyard on a recent morning was a complete surprise. Actually it was a dead sora, probably killed by a raptor, and I may have frightened the predator away when I went out the back door. A red-shouldered hawk, that had been perched in an adjacent tree, flew away, screaming at me for sudden appearance. The dead sora was lying in the grass right next to our dragonfly pond. It probably had arrived during the nighttime and had just been killed by the hawk. On close inspection, I discovered that the sora was a juvenile bird, undoubtedly an early migrant that had become disoriented.

Soras are about robin-size, but with very different features. Adults are dark brown above with white streaks, with a ruddy cap and black face and throat, yellow bill, and grayish underparts with white belly bands. Juveniles lack the yellow bill and black face, and the throat is ruddy. Soras possess long greenish legs with long toes that allow them to walk on muddy surfaces. Their preferred habitats include both freshwater and saltwater marshes, and during migration they are often found in rice fields and other flooded agricultural sites. Their diet consists of a wide variety of aquatic insects, snails, and seeds.

As a member of the rail family, soras typically are shy creatures, staying within on nearby thick vegetation such as cattails. They occasionally venture out into open water where; they can swim and dive very well. Even youngsters right out of the nest can swim and dive. But birders seldom are able to get a really good look at soras because of their shy character. Yet, they are quite vocal, and a loud clap or “eek” sound often will solicit a response. They possess sharp, high-pitched “keek” or whistled “ker-wheer” calls. They also may give a descending whinny call, especially on their breeding grounds.

In Texas, soras occur primarily in migration and during the winter months. Nesting has been recorded within the coastal prairies, but that is a very rare occurrence. But from mid-August to mid-May they can be reasonably common at wetlands throughout the state. In fact, according to “Handbook of Texas Birds,” by Mark Lockwood and Brush Freeman, “there was an extraordinary count of up to 622 individuals from rice fields on the central coast on 14 October 1998.”

Birding the rice fields and similar open wetlands can produce a wide diversity of birds, from shorebirds to waders, ducks and rails. The rails usually are the least obvious of the birds because of their secretive behavior. But a careful observer could possible find three other rail species: clapper, king, and Virginia. Clapper rails prefer saltwater wetlands while king and Virginia rails prefer freshwater sites. Two additional rails occur in Texas. Black rails are resident along the upper and central coast, frequenting marine wetland areas such as that present along Magic Ridge near Indianola. Yellow rails occur only as a migrant and winter resident; most birders find their lifer within the upper coastal prairies such as at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

Rails belong to the Raillidae Family that also includes coots, moorhens, and gallinules, all birds usually associated with wetlands. They all possess short tails and short rounded wings, although all can fly very well and many migrate great distances. The tiny yellow rail, for example, over winters along the Gulf Coast but nests far to the north in the upper Great Lakes region and in Canada. Soras spend their winter months along the Gulf Coast, southern California and Arizona, and in Mexico, but nests all across the central United States and northwest almost to Alaska.

Who knows where the young sora found in my yard was fledged, but it was most welcome. It was my yard bird number 180.

2008-08-28T17:37:00.000-05:00

Praying Mantises Are Ferocious Insects
by Ro Wauer

Although most sightings of mantises are of individuals either walking along a branch or standing very still, hardly noticeable at all. But I recently photographed one that had just captured a butterfly and was in the process of consuming all the body parts. The butterfly wings soon fell away, and the mantis finished up its butterfly meal. It was a larger than normal mantis with green wings and banded arms. According to my insect field guide, Kaufman’s “Field Guide to Insects of North America,” it was a female Carolina mantis, one of 20 mantis species that occurs in North America.

Mantises, along with bees, mosquitoes, ants, butterflies, and moths, are one of our best known insects. This probably is mostly due to its typical praying stance and its very distinct, almost grotesque, features: extremely long, snakelike body, triangular head with huge, bulging eyes, and powerful, angular forelegs, armed with strong spines and fitted for grasping prey. Few other insects, when magnified a hundred times, could look so scary.

Although mantises rarely fly, they are able to do so very well. And they seem to be attracted to lights at night, probably to search for prey that has also been attracted to the lights. They have been found many stores high on lighted buildings in our cities.

Mantises give the appearance of praying as they wait for passing prey species, which can range from insects of all kinds and sizes, including other mantises, to surprisingly large animals. There even are records of mantises capturing and eating hummingbirds. Mantises normally are very slow in their movements, but they are extremely swift in reaching out and grabbing prey species that they usually kill with a bite to the neck, severing nerves and leaving them helpless.

Another reason that praying mantises are so intriguing is their ability to look over their shoulders, behavior not normally associated with insects. Mantises overwinter in the egg stage. In fall, the female deposits foamy masses of up to 200 eggs on a twig; the mass quickly hardens into a waterproof, walnut-sized egg case. The eggs hatch the following April or May, and the little mantises drop down and scamper off. Those that remain nearby are often eaten by their larger siblings.

Full-grown mantises may be one-half to six inches in length, depending upon the species. Our native Carolina mantis averages about two inches, the pale green European mantis is also about two inches, but the exotic Chinese mantis is about four inches in length. The most common mantis in the United States, however, is the nonnative Oriental mantis, which can reach six inches.

Some mantises are kept as pets, although each must be kept in a separate cage because of its habit of eating other mantises. They can be fed insects, such as mealworms, pieces of raw beef, apple, potato, and other raw vegetables. They will soon learn to take food from your fingers, and they will eagerly sip water from a spoon. Mantises make very strange but fascinating pets!

2008-08-27T07:08:00.000-05:00

Book Review
by Ro Wauer

Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail is a very different kind of bird-finding book. My wife, Betty, who is not a serious birder, was impressed with the colorful, eye-catching page design. She found the scattered historical facts an interesting addition to a nature book. We think this is a book that would make a great Christmas present. The key purpose of the book, of course, for finding birds, is also very worthwhile. It not only includes all of the best ingredients of such a bird guide but also includes numerous highlights about wildlife other than just birds. This 272-page book, with 179 color photos and 15 color maps, was published by Texas A&M University Press, and sells for $23.00

The authors, Ted Eubanks, Bob Behrstock, and Seth Davidson, have divided the Upper Texas Coast into 15 birding loop routes, such as Big Thicket, Bolivar, Galveston, and Katy Prairie, and provides directions on all the best birding sites. They include a grand total of 125 sites, each with excellent directions and suggestions on the best times of year and even a relative ranking of each site’s birding potential. For instance, some of the best birding sites, receiving a “3” ranking, includes Sabine Woods, Candy Abshier Wildlife Management Area, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, High Island Woods, Bolivar Flats, and Texas City Dike. But in reviewing the 1 and 2 ranked sites, I discovered numerous additional places that, although they were not ranked as high as others, offered locations well worth visiting.

Another extremely useful facet of the book is the numerous “Birding Tactics” sections that are scattered throughout in pertinent locations. These include such helpful discussions as “Finding” worm-eating warblers, brown-headed nuthatches, Bachman’s sparrows, wood storks, red-cockaded woodpeckers, rails, grassland sparrows, American woodcocks, northern gannets, and flycatchers. An excellent illustration is also included in most cases. And there also are numerous photographs of other animals that might be seen along the various loop routes. These can include anything from butterflies to dragonflies, lizards and mammals, as well as a few plants and some scenic features. This combination of illustrations may seem a little strange for a book primarily designed to help one find birds, but it works extremely well. It is obvious that the authors are well rounded naturalists, with a wide interest in all the creatures possible along the trail.

Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail begins with some introductory materials, including an introduction, habitat strategy, seasonal strategy, and various hints on how to find and watch birds. The authors include a short description of all the principal habitats: woodlands, prairies, wetlands, water surfaces, and sky. And the section on “To Call or Not to Call” is also helpful. Overall, this book is well-designed and needs to be included in every nature lover’s library. It is one super book!

2008-08-21T07:05:00.000-05:00

Barn Swallows, Our Most Widespread Texas Swallow
by Ro Wauer

Even this late in the avian breeding season, barn swallows are still about, some actually still actively nesting. While all the other swallows that we might find in our area – tree, northern rough-winged, bank, cliff, cave, and purple martins – have completed their nesting cycle and are en route to their southern wintering grounds, the barn swallow is the exception. Some may stay with us until early winter before moving south, and some can even be found at select areas even later. And some early northbound birds can be expected by mid-February.

Barn swallows are one of the easiest swallow to identify. Their most distinguishing feature is their long forked tail, a feature that none of the other swallows possess. The long tail gives them a long, streamlined appearance. Adults possess a reddish-brown throat and cinnamon or buffy underparts. The underparts of juveniles are much paler. Although both cliff and cave swallows also possess reddish-brown to blackish throats, they are square-tailed swallows that lack the long forked tail.

During this time of year, it is not uncommon to see a family of barn swallows perched together on high wires or tree snags. Occasionally several barn swallow families will gather together, and other swallows that may just be passing by may join them. But the majority of the migrating swallows, often in large flocks of one to a few species, will more often continue their flight instead of resting. These migrating swallows feed on the wing, so unlike some other songbirds, such as flycatchers that often perch en route to flycatch, they continue on and only roost at night. But they usually commence their migration soon after sunup.

The majority of the barn swallows that nest in North America spend their winter months in Mexico and southward into Central and South America. But with Global Warming, barn swallows are staying further north and are returning to their ancestral nesting sites early than normal. Like most birds, they return to the same locations where they were fledged, oftentimes to the exact same nests. Once they are settled in from their northward journeys, they touch up or rebuild their nests. This requires the use of tiny mud pellets from nearby muddy sites that are shaped just right in their mouth. The cup-shaped nests are plastered on a wall or cliff that contains an overhang that protects the nest and youngsters from the weather. The four or five eggs hatch in about seven days and the young are fledged in another two weeks. They sometimes nest in small colonies, and sometimes last year’s young serve as helpers in nest-construction and feeding the new crop of youngsters.

Barn swallow diets consist primarily of insects that they capture on the wing, although the adults will occasionally feed on various berries that they find nearby. Winter birds in more tropical settings probably take more fruit than they do on the breeding grounds in the north. But in Texas, most feeding barn swallows take flying insects low to the ground in a swift, direct, and graceful flight. They frequently are found over our lawns, fields, and roadsides. They may follow the farmer’s plow or feed among grazing cattle, taking advantage of insects that are stirred up.

Barn swallows are not only beautiful creatures but also are valuable in maintaining the pests that can impact on our enjoyment of the outdoors.

2008-08-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

Texas Raptor Migration Can be Spectacular
by Ro Wauer

It is again time to watch the skies for the abundant raptors that pass through South Texas en route to their wintering grounds south of the border. Many of the raptors – hawks, kites, harriers, falcons, and even eagles - funnel through our area from all across the northern portion of North America. Like an hourglass, coastal Texas offers a natural highway for millions of raptors each fall. A lucky observer could possible see more than two dozen species over a six week period. Their numbers usually peak during late September, but migrating raptors usually can be seen as early as mid-August.

Raptor migration occurs in many parts of the world, and formal “hawk watches” are organized at a few key sites. Many of these provide some amazing statistics. The best known historic sites include Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain and New Jersey’s Cape May Point. But in recent years Texas sites have produced even greater numbers. The single most productive one in North America is Hazel Bazemore County Park near Corpus Christi, where over one million raptors are known to pass over each year. Hawk watchers at Hazel Bazemore, a geographic chokepoint, have tallied up to 100,000 individual raptors in a single day. That is something very special to see!

It is estimated that 94 percent of North America’s broad-winged hawk population migrates southward along the Texas central Gulf Coast. The total count of broad-wings during the 2007 season at Hazel Bazemore totaled 596,838 individuals. Fewer numbers (in order of abundance) of Mississippi kites; sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks; American kestrels; ospreys; Swainson’s hawks; peregrine falcons; northern harriers; red-tailed hawks; swallow-tailed kites; merlins; white-tailed, zone-tailed, and red-shouldered hawks; crested caracaras; prairie falcons; Harris’s hawks; bald eagles; aplomado falcons; northern goshawks; white-tailed kites; and golden eagles moved through the area as well.

But the most outstanding spectacle of the raptor migration is a circling flock of broad-winged hawks – especially when several hundred of these hawks begin to leave a preferred overnight roost site at one time, usually about 8:30 A.M., and slowly ascend by circling to a point where they are out of sight. There are times when similar events are possible at various other sites, such as Victoria’s Riverside Park. The broad-winged hawk is a fairly small hawk, built very much like our common red-tailed hawk but with a banded rather than an all reddish tail. It is a common nester throughout the eastern deciduous forests of North America. And like many of our raptors, it is a Neotropical migrant that goes south for the winter. Broad-wings spend their winter months from southern Mexico south to Peru and Brazil.

For anyone interested in watching or participating in a hawk watch, you would be welcome to visit Hazel Bazemore County Park. It is located west of Corpus Christi. Take US 77 south of Calallen and turn west onto SH 624. The park entrance sign is one mile beyond on the right. The right day can produce one amazing spectacle!

2008-07-31T11:03:00.000-05:00

Frogs and Toads Love the Recent Wet Weather
by Ro Wauer

There is no proof more obvious for the greater activity of frogs and toads than the number of road-killed frogs and toads found right after a heavy rainstorm. But the great majority of those squashed amphibians are Gulf Coast toads, identified by their squat, warty body with a narrow pale back stripe and a wider dark side stripe. Occasional, one can also find a Texas toad, a leopard frog, or one of the treefrogs.

Even more evidence of their love for wet weather is the abundance of treefrog songs that emanate from the various trees and shrubs and even from other cracks and crannies around the yard. Although songs of green treefrogs can be expected even before wet weather sets in, the chorus is considerably louder and more abundant after a rain. There are times when a dozen or more green treefrog calls are obvious at the same time. Their calls have been described as “queenk-queenk-queenk” with a nasal inflection, and according to Roger Conant and Joseph Collin’s book, “Reptiles and Amphibians Eastern/Central North America,” their calls can be repeated as much as 75 times a minute. This treefrog is usually bright green, although some individuals can be nearly yellow, with a long yellow to whitish patch that runs from just below the eye to the flank. This is the treefrog that can often be seen of our house windows at night, where they come to prey on insects attracted by the indoor lights.

The other common treefrog is the gray treefrog, primarily gray with brown and black colors. It can look silver-gray at times, especially in the middle of the day when it is resting in a protected corner. The colors change somewhat, depending upon the activity or environment of the treefrog. Other distinguishing features include a whitish spot beneath their eye and a bright orange or golden yellow color on their concealed hind legs. And the call of gray treefrogs is best described as a resonant, musical trill. Also in our area is the smaller squirrel treefrog that has a nasal “ducklike” call and a harsh rasping trill, according to Conant and Collins.

Our resident leopard frogs probably get more attention than any other species, although bull frogs that are more likely in larger wetlands can also be numerous. Leopard frogs are what almost everyone visualizes when thinking of frogs. Most individuals are 1 to 3 inches in length when squatting but may be twice as long with their legs extended. Some of the largest can be 12 inches or more, and those individuals are big enough to offer a delicious meal of frog legs. Leopard frogs are marvelous jumpers; some can jump three feet or more. The typical leopard frog can easily be identified by the leopard pattern of black blotches on a green background and a pair of whitish stripes that run down its back. Leopard frogs love gardens, and gardeners often find this frog hiding among the foliage during the daytime. I have often been surprised to have one of these long-legged amphibians suddenly jump away just as I am about to pull some grass or weeds. Especially during dry weather, like we have experienced in recent weeks, leopard frogs seek out watered sites.

The presence of such an abundance of frogs and toads in our area is but one more indication of the amazing biological diversity of South Texas. And it also is a reminder that our yards can be an important refuge for a myriad of creatures if we care. Keeping our plants well watered and our environment free of pesticides can help such critters like frogs and toads that daily consume many pests that might otherwise degrade our yards.

2008-07-24T11:16:00.000-05:00

Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Our Neighborhood Woodpecker
by Ro Wauer

Like so many of our resident birds this time of year, ladder-backs are more obvious than normal. This primarily is due to the youngsters that are out and about, searching for food and calling to the adults, perhaps thinking that they still may get a free handout. Although we have five kinds of woodpeckers in our area year-round, the easiest to identify is the ladder-back, because of its small size and black-and-white barred back. The underside is buffy with small black spots. The cheeks are white with black lines, and the males possess a red cap; female caps are black.

The other small woodpecker that is possible is the downy woodpecker that is seldom seen away from riparian habitats along the rivers and streams, and downys possess a white back, not barred. The largest of our woodpeckers, also usually found only in riparian habitats, is the pileolated woodpecker, the one with a tall, red crest that reminds most people of the “woody woodpecker” character. And the two mid-sized woodpeckers that look very much alike are the red-bellied and golden-fronted woodpeckers. Red-bellys also frequent riparian areas, but can often be found in broadleaf habitats throughout our area, even in well wooded urban settings. The look-alike golden-fronted woodpeckers prefer drier habitats and barely reach Victoria County. It is much more numerous in southern DeWitt and Bee Counties and southward. Both of these woodpeckers possess a barred back and gray underparts and cheeks. Red-bellys have a reddish belly and nape, while golden-fronted woodpeckers have a golden nape and gold spot at the base of the bill. In addition, three additional woodpeckers are possible: red-headed woodpeckers can wander into our area from the eastern forests, and the northern flicker and yellow-bellied sapsucker are fairly common in winter.

Woodpeckers are cavity nesters, and the ladder-back is no exception. It is small enough to utilize wood fence posts, utility poles, and reasonably small trees. And in West Texas, ladder-backs often construct nest cavities in century plant stalks. The nests are used only during the first season, and the next season is utilized by the equally small elf owls in the Big Bend Country and by ferruginous pygmy-owls in extreme South Texas.

The diet of ladder-backs includes both fruit and invertebrates that they find by foraging on bark and among dead leaves. Wood-boring insects, their larvae and eggs, ants, weevils, and caterpillars are utilized. Fruit can vary, but in cactus-country they seem to enjoy tunas; in fact one of the earlier names of this little woodpecker in Southwest Texas was “cactus” ladder-backed woodpecker.

Behavior is fairly typical of all woodpeckers. Their flight is generally straight but undulating, but rarely any great distance. And ladder-backs have a habit of calling a sharp “peek” note in flight. They also possess a longer rattle-call, a “keek” note, and a few other notes that are seldom heard. In addition, although most of their insect food is found by foraging on the bark, they may descend to the ground in their search for insects, and they can drill into the bark to extract insect larvae, as well to excavate nests.

There is little question about which woodpecker is our most common and most interesting. There are few places in South Texas where one cannot find and enjoy one of these little woodpeckers.

2008-07-17T07:25:00.000-05:00

Field Crickets Are Back
by Ro Wauer

Once again, field crickets have invaded our towns, homesites, and businesses. Everywhere you look are black field crickets, scurrying here and there trying to find hiding places. Dead ones can leave an odor that can sometimes be detected from a considerable distance. There are times that these unwelcome critters pile up and actually drive customers away. They need to be cleaned up constantly.

Normally field crickets are found only in our fields and woodlots and are primarily nocturnal in character; the recent rains have driven them out of their preferred habitats into conflict with people. Millions are zapped with insecticides. But they will keep on coming until the weather changes.

Field crickets usually are welcome neighbors, so long as they stay outdoors. Many people consider crickets as symbols of good luck. Jiminy Cricket, of Pinocchio fame, also helped establish a positive image. And crickets are prized for their singing and sometimes even kept in cages in people’s homes. In China, crickets were also kept for their fighting ability; cricket fights were as popular as horse races. The Chinese actually fed their crickets special diets, including mosquitoes fed on trainer’s arms, and weighed them in order to classify them for fighting.

Many of us enjoy their cheerful evening songs, and as the nights grow longer and cooler, their nocturnal serenades increase in intensity. Before winter they must mate with a female to perpetuate their species. But only the males sing. They have three basic sound signals: a calling note, as aggressive chirp, and a courtship song to attract a female. Singing is done with the edge of one wing rubbing against the opposite wing, creating a chirping noise. File-like ridges, called “scrapers,” near the base of the wing produce the sound. We can produce a similar sound by running a file along the edge of a tin can.

Wing covers provide an excellent sounding board, quivering when notes are made and setting the surrounding air to vibrating, thus giving rise to sound waves that can be heard for a considerable distance. The cricket’s auditory organ or “ear,” a small white, disk-like spot, is located on the tibia of each front leg. The chirps become much higher in pitch in the presence of a female. Some of these ultrasonic sounds can reach 17,000 vibrations per second, higher than most people can distinguish. Females are easily identified by a long, spear-like ovipositor (egg-laying device) protruding from their abdomen. Eggs are laid in the ground and hatch in the spring.

Our local field crickets, almost an inch in length, are members of the Gryllidae Family of insects, closely related to grasshoppers and mantises. They feed on a wide variety of materials, including vegetable matter, and when they get into our buildings, they can consume everything from clothing to books. However, they will not remain there and breed but will return to their preferred outdoor environment when given the chance. Outdoors they are an integral part of our South Texas wildlife.

2008-07-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

Laughing Gulls Are Our Common Full-time Residents
by Ro Wauer

On a recent visit to the beach, the only gull I found was the laughing gull. But because their plumage can vary so much, even during the nesting season, they can look very different. The typical summer-time appearance of an adult laughing gull includes a black hood, reddish bill, white neck and underparts, and slate-gray wings and tail. A very attractive gull! Winter birds loose their black hood and reddish bill, and they are overall grayish color. And then there are the younger (1st and 2nd year) birds that possess a very different plumage. Laughing gulls do not get their breeding plumage until their third year. That pattern of plumage development is fairly typical for all the gulls.

Laughing gulls received their name from their calls that are loud and penetrating, a high-pitched laugh, like “ha ha ha ha,” with the last note descending into a strange wail, suggesting mirth. In flight, they often give a slightly different call, like “kee ah, kee ah.”

Laughing gulls are commonplace along the entire Gulf coast, but they only rarely occur inland to any extent. During stormy weather in the Gulf, however, they often come inland at least a few miles. Then is when they can be expected on open flats, from parking lots to open fields. They can be especially abundant at those times in parking lots where they can find discarded food. Gulls possess an amazingly diverse diet that can range from live fish on the coast to washed up carrion to discarded crackers, candy, and almost everything else that can be found. Oftentimes when feeding they show a noisy and aggressive behavior, chasing one another about in an attempt to steal food or intimidate the individual gull that has found some choice morsel. They even have been found to steal food from much larger birds, such as pelicans.

The majority of our laughing gull observations are at the beach, but boaters can hardly get away from these curious and omnivorous gulls. They can be expected considerable distance off-shore in search of food or simply soaring about, utilizing thermals just like hawks and vultures. But more often they are found loafing along the beach or sitting on posts or other structures near the shore. And in the water, they are buoyant and swim very well.

Ring-billed gulls can also be found in summer along the Gulf beaches, although they are far less numerous than the laughing gulls. And during the winter months, at least two additional gulls can be expected along the shore or over the Gulf: Bonaparte’s and herring gulls. The largest of the four is the herring gull; winter adults possess a gray mantle and back, black tail, and yellow bill with a red spot on the lower mandible. Adult ring-billed gulls can always be identified by yellowish bill with a black ring. And the smaller adult Bonaparte’s gull has a black bill, black cheek spot, white underparts, and reddish legs and feet.

Gulls, often called seagulls, are some of the most difficult birds to identify during the non-breeding season. That is especially true in South Texas where a dozen or so additional species have also been recorded, primarily in winter. Many of these frequent landfills where they are able to find food. Trying to find one of the difficult to identify species amid thousands of wheeling, calling gulls can be rather trying, to say the least. However, there are a number of avid gull-lovers that spend considerable time each winter searching for one or more of the rare, out of range species. And every year one or more strays, like Herrmann’s, Black-tailed, California, Thayer’s, Iceland, lesser black-backed, slaty-backed, western, glaucous, great black-backed, and kelp gulls, put in their appearance along the Texas Gulf Coast. Our area of North America produces some unbelievable bird records.

2008-07-03T14:07:00.000-05:00

Gaggle of Names Used for Animals and Their Young
by Ro Wauer

Recent conversation about the correct names for young cows reminded me of a Nature Note that I had done for the Advocate in June 1996. On re-reading that note, I decided to repeat it because it helped address a number of questions about animal names, many that often are incorrectly used. For instance, the young of a bull and cow are called caves, but they also are called “veals,” “vealers,” “stirks,” and even “hogs” without references to their sex. And male calves are called “bullocks,” “stots,” “bulls,” and “bull-calves,” and the females are called “heifers.”

The young of rabbits, hares, skunks, beavers, otters, ocelots, mountain lions, and bobcats, as well as house cats, are called “kittens.” And everyone should be familiar with the words “pups” and “fawns” for young dogs and deer, respectively. But how many of you know what a squealer is? It is a young quail, not a pig.

When you hear someone mention “hens,” you usually think of the female chicken, but the term “hen” also includes the females of fish and lobsters, as well as the female canary. And although the words “bull” and “cow” may refer to cattle, they also refer to the male and female moose, terrapin, and several other animals.

Here are some additional names of young animals: antling of an ant, spiderling of a spider, cygnet or a swan, chicken of a turtle, cub of a fox, calf of a giraffe, gosling of a goose, chigger of a mite, maggot of a fly, and squab of a dove.

And then there are the names of groups of animals that are misused almost as often. Some of these, such as a school of fish, swarm of bees, pride of lions, and skein of geese, are reasonably well known; others are not. Did you know that a “gaggle of geese” is the proper terminology when the geese are on the water? And groups of swallows are known as flights. But what are gulps, murders, dules, budlings, and charms? It would be proper to refer to a gulp of cormorants, a murder of crows, a dule of doves, a budling of ducks, and charm of finches. Groups of hawks, herons, magpies, and owls are properly known as a cast (hawks), siege (herons), tiding (magpies), and parliament (owls).

Here are additional group names: a covey of partridge, nye of pheasants, host of sparrows, wisp of snipe, masting of storks, spring of teal, rafter of turkeys, pitying of turtle-doves, fall of woodcocks, and decent of woodpeckers. And groups of wolves are properly known as routes, groups of squirrels as deays, turtles as bales, and toads as knots.

Numerous other rarely used names are used for animals, many of which are used only by those individuals with special interests. But the English language is sprinkled with fascinating names for animal young and groups, although they may be seldom used.

2008-06-26T07:01:00.000-05:00

Victoria’s 2008 NABA Butterfly Count
by Ro Wauer

Every year since 1998 a handful of nature lovers have spent a day in the field counting butterflies. Our results are reported to the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) that is then published in an annual NABA Report. Last year there were 447 counts within the United States, including 37 in Texas. All of the counts must be conducted during June and/or July, all within a 15-mile diameter area, and they must include at least six hours in the field. Some of the counts are conducted by only one or two individuals while others, like the one for Boulder, Colorado, includes three dozen or more individuals.

Five individuals participated in the 2008 Victoria Count: Bill Farnsworth, Paul Julian, Linda Valdez, Betty Wauer, and I. From about 8am to 5pm, with scattered breaks due to the temperature and need to eat, we covered a number of potential butterfly sites. These included Riverside Park and Saxet Lake Recreation Area, the Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden and area at the Victoria Regional Airport, all the Victoria nurseries, various roadsides around the city, and a number of private gardens, all within the count circle. Our results include 485 individuals of 45 species.

Although the majority of the species were more or less expected, because they are commonplace most of the years, a few others were unexpected. This is generally typical for butterflies, as butterflies, unlike birds, move about to much greater extent. Birds, except during migration, generally settle in to specific locations and remain in place. Butterflies wander far more, as females must locate specific larval foodplants on which they can lay eggs. That is a major reason for butterfly gardeners to include proper foodplants, besides planting only nectaring plants. The most surprising species found on the Victoria Count included rounded metalmarks, mazans scallopwings, and Texas powdered-skippers. Although these do appear on occasion, they can never be expected.

Another species on note was the coyote cloudywing. Not that this species was unexpected, but we recorded 101 individuals, probably a new national high. This is a butterfly that until recent years was known only for the Lower Rio Grande Valley where, according to various authors, they utilized only Texas ebony for their larval foodplants. But in recent years I have found it egg-laying on blackbrush acacia, a common shrub throughout our area. And the numbers of coyote cloudywings that frequent my garden and adjacent areas have been exceptional. Although it has a white hindwing fringe, like funereal duskywings, it rarely perches with spread wings and is brownish color rather than dark gray or black like funereal duskywings. Victoria County has recently become recognized in the butterfly community as the centerpiece of the coyote duskywing range.

A few other butterfly species found in numbers (20 or more) on the Victoria Count included (in descending order) pipevine swallowtails, fiery skippers, little yellows, common checkered-skippers, giant swallowtails, and Celia’s roadside-skippers. Species that tallied 19 to 10 included whirlabout, white-striped longtail, gray hairstreak, large orange sulphur, and cloudless sulphur. All the other species were found in smaller numbers or as loners. But even the loners were welcome.

The majority of our recorded butterflies were located in various gardens. This year, because of the extreme aridity in our part of the country, butterfly numbers are lower than what they might be during normal years. So gardens become extremely important for maintaining butterfly populations. But a garden is always are a marvelous part of our world.

2008-06-19T07:03:00.000-05:00

Roadrunners Are Fascinating Birds
by Ro Wauer

Last week, “out of the blue,” a roadrunner suddenly appeared in our front yard. It crossed the yard, circled the garage, and continued across the back yard into the pasture beyond. It had been a dozen years or so since we last saw a roadrunner in our yard. Yet for the first several years while living in the same house, roadrunners were not infrequent visitors. And since we occasionally heard their cuckoo-like calls in spring, I assumed that we had a small breeding population nearby. Plus, an occasional individual would approach the house while hunting for food. It seemed that our population of anoles and spiny lizards declined dramatically during that period. And maybe because it caught the majority of our lizards, it eventually moved elsewhere to find a greater supply of its favorite food.

To most people, roadrunners (proper name is greater roadrunner, for there is a lesser roadrunner in southern Mexico) are considered desert birds, hunting down rattlesnakes or running across the cactus studded terrain. For others they are cartoon characters that always are outsmarting Wiley coyote. But in truth, roadrunners are possible anywhere in the American Southwest, including Texas, except for the pineywoods. However, seeing one in the Central Gulf Coastal area is not an everyday occurrence. My favorite roadrunner site is Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park; they seem to have less fear of humans there than any place I know.

Roadrunners are a member of the cuckoo family, closely related to our summering yellow-billed cuckoo. They mate for life, and produce a family of four offspring annually, building a bulky stick nest in a low spiny shrub. Both parents feed the young, and are known to feign injury to a predator that might approach the nest, running off like they are injured to lead the predator away from the nest. Once the young are out on their own, the parents are said to lead their youngsters away from the nesting territory a considerable distance and lose them.

Roadrunners possess a number of other rather odd characteristics, at least from a human prospective. They often are seen during early morning sitting atop a fencepost or shrub with their wings stretched out to allow the sun to shine on their back. This is because, even in desert areas, they often lower their body temperatures overnight to conserve energy, and they utilize the morning sunshine to warm their bodies. And during courtship, a male will often offer a captured lizard to an intended mate to entice copulation.

Also during courtship, especially in the mornings, males sing a mournful song. It is dovelike, “kowoo kowoo kowoo kowoo,” that can sound like a sad puppy from a distance. “He also parades with his head held high and his wings and tail drooped while producing a “pop” sound with his wings,” according to Kent Rylander’s book: “The Behavior of Texas Birds.” And at times rapid bill-clacking occurs; Rylander states that bill-snapping in females is a higher pitch than for males.

Roadrunners are fun birds to have around. They not only are comical in their behavior, strutting around, elevating their long tail now and again, then running down prey that can range from lizards to small snakes to a wide assortment of invertebrates, such as scorpions and centipedes. They will occasionally also take small vertebrates like mice and various birds. Although the roadrunner that we observed in our yard may only be passing through, he is more than welcome to come back and use our yard for whatever he wants. Roadrunners make good neighbors!

2008-06-12T07:04:00.000-05:00

Watch for Daddy Longlegs in Summer
by Ro Wauer

As summer comes on we can expect to see our familiar, long-legged daddy longlegs once again. Also known as harvestmen, a name derived from their appearance at about harvest time. In Europe, large numbers of harvestmen are considered signs of a good harvest, and it is unlucky to kill one. Although these long-legged creatures have been out and about since early spring, in summer the young daddy longlegs venture out into the open, appearing in our fields and gardens and in our barns and other structures, and we become aware of their presence. At my home near Mission Valley, I have already found a few individuals moving about; that number in likely to increase dramatically in a few weeks.

Most often, daddy longlegs are lumped with spiders, but they actually belong to a unique family of arthropods known as Phalangiidae. They differ from spiders in that they have no constriction, or waist, between their front part and abdomen. Also, their legs are much longer than that of spiders. That gives them a rather awkward appearance, but they are able to move surprisingly fast when necessary. And they also have a strange habit of moving up and down, like doing deep knee bends, when disturbed. Finding congregations of several dozen daddy longlegs gyrating in unison can be unnerving.

Their eight legs seem extremely fragile, and they sometimes get entangled in cracks, weeds, or whatever, but when that occurs, they simply discard the entangled leg and move on; they are able to grow a new one in no time. Their legs, however, are stronger than they appear.

Another major difference between daddy longlegs and spiders is the former’s lack of silk glands. They, therefore, are unable to spin webs. And they lack poison glands of any kind; they defend themselves by emitting a foul odor that humans very rarely notice. Daddy longlegs feed on spiders, mites, and small insects, which they run down and capture. They also suck juices from soft fruit, vegetables, and decaying materials.

About 200 kinds of daddy longlegs occur in North America, some with a 3-inch leg span, but they all look basically alike. The females lay eggs in the ground, under rocks or in crevices in wood prior to the first frost. Unlike the eggs of insect, they do not hatch until spring. The majority of the adults do not survive the winter. Here in South Texas, some individuals make it through the winter by hibernating under rubbish and in damp, warm locations. The survivors appear in spring, but they do not become commonplace until the new crop is out in summer.

2008-06-05T00:14:00.000-05:00

Chickadees Don’t Seem to Get Much Attention
by Ro Wauer

Almost every yard in Victoria and adjacent counties has a family of these little black-and-white birds. They are one of our most common songbirds, and yet they constantly get overlooked for the more colorful and larger cardinals and blue jays, along with the loudmouth mockingbirds. Although our Carolina chickadee is often one of our most common yard birds, it seldom gets much attention. That is even when it is one of our most easily identified species: a tiny, nervous bird with a black cap and bib and white cheeks.

The Carolina chickadee is a bird of the eastern forests, and our area of Texas lies along the southeastern edge of its range. Its range extends northward almost to the Great Lakes, eastward to the Atlantic shore, and through the northern half of Florida. Like many of the eastern forest birds – such as the pileolated woodpecker, American crow, tufted titmouse and blue jay – the southern edge of their range is roughly marked by the San Antonio River. These birds are seldom found south of the San Antonio River.

North America can claim a grand total of eight species of chickadees. Although the Carolina chickadee occurs throughout most of the Southeast, the range of the black-capped chickadee overlaps that of the Carolina chickadee along its northern edge, and extends northwest into Alaska. The boreal chickadee occurs even further north from Alaska to the extreme northeast and Newfoundland. And there are three western chickadees: (1) The range of the mountain chickadee extends from the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas northward through the Rocky Mountains to coastal Alaska. (2) The chestnut-backed chickadee is found only along the West Coast from central California to Alaska. (3) The Mexican chickadee barely reaches the United States in the mountains of extreme southern Arizona and New Mexico.

All the North American chickadees possess a similar pattern, although birders can readily separate them by habitat, general color, and song. The Carolina chickadee sings a fast “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” song. Others possess a slower or wheezier song or a husky whistle. And all the chickadees are cavity nesters, utilizing cracks and holes in trees, bushes, and various structures. Chickadee feed on seeds most of the year, but young are feed a diet of insects. Food is primarily found by gleaning, that is by searching the bark and cracks for whatever can be discovered. They also drink and bathe frequently.

The Carolina chickadees in my yard already have produced numerous youngsters that are now spending considerable time about my feeders and birdbaths. If the last few years are examples, I can expect a second brood in five or six weeks. Although majority of the 2008 youngsters will move elsewhere, perhaps to establish their own territories, by wintertime, the adults remain together year-round. They will, however, spend the wintertime in flocks of several chickadees, including some of their own young, as well as a few other songbirds. These individuals roam the neighborhoods in search of foods. Most years the adults will return to the same general area where they raised their own broods and where they, too, were fledged.

2008-05-29T06:59:00.000-05:00

Our Ever-changing Butterfly Populations
by Ro Wauer

One of the fascinating facts about butterflies is their ever-changing populations. In any field or garden, butterfly species present may change significantly from one day or one week to the next. In a sense, the ever-changing population is one of the more exciting facets about butterfly-watching. In my garden at Mission Oaks near Mission Valley, probably a pretty good representation of the entire region, black swallowtails can be present for a few days and then totally disappear and pipevine swallowtails can be commonplace a few days later. And at about the same time, a few giant swallowtails put in their appearance. The butterfly scene can change dramatically.

Another population change that I have experienced in the last few weeks is the shift from cloudless sulphurs to large orange sulphurs. These two species are similar at first sighting, but the cloudless sulphur is usually lemon yellow with scattered white spots edged with red, while the large orange sulphur is orange-yellow with a dark line running from the tip to the center of the wing. Both perch with folded wings.

The reasons for changes in butterfly populations vary, but it primarily relates to emergence, the act of an adult butterfly leaving its chrysalis and flying free. Emergence depends upon weather conditions and time of year. Some species, such as falcate orangetips and Henry’s elfins, fly only in early spring. Others, such as soapberry and oak hairstreaks, appear a little later in spring. Still other species wait to emerge in late summer or fall. The emergence times depend so much upon when pertinent larval foodplants become available. In many cases, emergence can include dozens or even hundreds of individuals, thus significantly changing population numbers.

Almost any time of year, except during really cold periods in winter, I can pretty well depend on daily finding a few butterfly species in my yard. Some the more dependable species include little yellow, dusky-blue groundstreak, gray hairstreak, gulf fritillary, common buckeye, Carolina satyr, white and tropical checkered-skippers, and fiery skipper. Eastern tiger swallowtail, checkered white, orange and lyside sulphurs, southern dogface, great purple hairstreak, mallow scrub-hairstreak, Reakirt’s blue, queen, bordered patch, phaon and pearl crescents, question mark, common mestra, funereal duskywing, clouded and dun skippers, and Celia’s roadside-skipper, are also found year-round, but their appearance can never be expected.

Some of the late summer and fall species may be primarily composed of strays from further south, although because of the changing weather pattern, many of those that once were considered more tropical species are now able to find an adequate niche further north. During the last few years I have discovered several species that had not previously been recorded in the central Gulf Coastal area. Examples include yellow and white angled-sulphurs, Mexican yellow, tailed orange, Lacey’s and lantana scrub-hairstreaks, red-bordered metalmark, soldier, brown longtail, Mazans scallopwing, white-patched and violet-banded skippers, and Erichson’s white-skipper. How many of these latter species were able to find proper larval foodplants is anyone’s guess; only time will tell.

But perhaps the white-striped longtail, a long-tailed skipper with a white slash across the hindwing, best represents our changing butterfly populations. When I first established a garden to attract butterflies in the mid-1990’s, white-striped longtails were found only in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. But by 2000 and 2001 they were suddenly found almost daily during much of the year. Their larval foodplants – wild peas and other legumes - are plentiful in the area, and so they moved northward and are now recorded through much of coastal Texas. They are considered a true invader and now a highly successful resident. Ever garden should have one!

2008-05-22T18:21:00.000-05:00

Carolina Wren Youngsters Are Out and About
by Ro Wauer

The first brood of Carolina wrens already is out and about. They are spending the majority of their time searching for bugs and spiders in every conceivable hole, crack and cranny on and around our backyard deck. There are at least four of the poorly marked fledglings, with a stubby tail and white eyebrows. They all seem extremely busy but yet slightly unsure of the best techniques for finding food. All the while the adults perch nearby, apparently letting their youngsters learn on their own. When one of the youngsters gets close enough, however, the adult will pick up a bit of food and feed its young. But the youngster’s uncertainty can be rather humorous to anyone watching their antics, whether it involves walking up and down a tree trunk, probing into a flower pot, or investigating the underside of a birdbath.

Our Carolina wrens have been in breeding mode a good part of the spring. It was first evident by the adult’s increased and more vigorous singing. They sang from numerous sites, ranging from flowering plants on the deck to the chimney top. Singing began to subside when nest-building activities began. Then we watched the adults gathering nesting materials that they carried to at least two sites. One was located in a pan in the open garage adjacent to the deck. The other was situated under the deck in an out of sight location. This was the nest that eventually produced the four youngsters.

An examination of the ingredients of the garage nest included an amazing array of materials. Although most was grasses and tiny twigs, pieces of string and thread, bits of paper and plastic, and a couple of tree branches larger than an adult bird were also present. How a bird the size of a Carolina wren, only two-thirds the size of a robin, was able to haul such a load and place it strategically on a nest located six feet above the floor is a wonder.

The Carolina wren is one of our most common resident birds. Like cardinals, they are year-round residents. They can be commonplace around our homes and yards inside and outside the cities. They are our largest wren, about six inches in length. Adults possess a rust to buff plumage, with fine black streaks across their wings and short tail, and bold white eyebrows, one of their most distinguishing features. Although Carolina wrens are common throughout the eastern half of Texas, from Brownsville to Texarkana and west to San Angelo and Abilene, they are not found in the far west or to the north. They are truly wrens of the eastern and southern portions of North America and south into Mexico.

A Carolina wren’s nesting process, from egg-laying to fledglings, requires only about two weeks. Nest-building can vary considerably, depending on weather conditions and the availability of materials. And when the youngsters are finally out and about, it will take only another two to three weeks before they can hardly be separated from the adults. But these few days offer some really special observations to anyone with the time and inclination to watch.

2008-05-08T15:50:00.002-05:00

Summer Tanager Numbers are on the Increase
by Ro Wauer

For the third year, summer tanagers are singing about my neighborhood at Mission Oaks, and on a recent breeding bird census between Schroeder and Mission Valley, I recorded three singing summer tanagers for the first time. The increased numbers of this charismatic species is most welcome, although why it has begun to frequent oak woodland areas of Victoria, DeWitt and Goliad counties are unknown. Although it’s regular Texas breeding range includes most of the southern half of Texas, it usually prefers broadleaf woodlands like those found along the river floodplains instead of oak woodlands.

Male summer tanagers possess bright red plumage, except for the red-brown wings, while females are yellowish with a yellow-green back. Both sexes possess a rather large pale bill. And although they are not often easily seen, because of their habit of staying in the upper foliage of broadleaf trees, their songs and calls usually give them away. Summer tanager songs resemble that of the American robin, with a series of sweet, clear phases, but faster and more deliberate. And their call is a dry spit-a-chuck, pit-a-tuck, or pit-tuck. Sometimes they will give an extended series of calls.

The summer tanager male that is currently utilizing my yard may be the same individual that was present there during the previous two summers. My current yardbird is an adult male in full breeding plumage. The earlier individual had not yet developed full adult plumage, but was mottled with red and yellowish plumage. And I had the impression that it was a juvenile bird that had not yet found a mate, but working hard to attract a lady tanager. It sang loudly during most of May and June, but seemed to loose interest by mid-summer. And it spent considerable time at my birdbath, sitting in the water splashing itself with water. It stayed until September, and then disappeared, only to return the following April; easily recognized due to its unchanged plumage pattern.

Three other tanager species do occur regularly in Texas. The one that probably is best known is the scarlet tanager, a bird of the eastern forests, and is only an occasional migrant through South Texas. The western tanager is a bird of the western forests that is only rarely found in our area. The hepatic tanager is a bird of the Southwestern woodlands, fairly common in the Davis and Guadalupe mountains of West Texas. All are easy identified. The scarlet tanager male is also bright red, but it has coal black wings and a yellow bill; females are greenish-yellow with darker wings. The male western tanager is yellow and black with a red face and cap. The hepatic tanager male is a liver-red color with dark streaks on the wings and a black bill; females are yellowish with a black bill.

Tanagers primarily are tropical species that occur in the tropics, usually south of the United States. There are 28 tanager species in Mexico, and 216 species in South America. I suppose that we are fortunate to find a tiny percentage of that number in Texas. Our birds are neotropical species that come north to court and raise a family, but the majority returns to their tropical habitats soon afterwards where they spent most of their life.

2008-05-01T15:51:00.002-05:00

The Yellow-flowering Retama Is a Symbol of Early Summer
by Ro Wauer

The fragrant and bright yellow flowers of our native retama have begun to bloom, another symbol of late spring or early summer in South Texas. This lovely little tree, with its thorny, green bark, can grow to 35 feet. Its drooping foliage, rounded crown, and compound leaves (tiny leaflets on a long flat stem) also help with identification. And by late summer, light brown to reddish, narrow pods, 2 to 4 inches long, appear.

Our ratama, known to scientists as Parkinsonia aculeate, occurs in Texas from the Gulf Coast west to El Paso, mostly in moist areas. A closely related tree known as Texas paloverde, or Cercidium texanum, occurs from Del Rio west along the Rio Grande to El Paso and westward through Arizona. Texas paloverde has smaller pods and a shorter flower stem than retama. The two flowering trees look very much alike. In Mexico they collectively are known as “palo verde” (Spanish for “green stick”), due to their green bark. Also in Mexico, the two trees are often called “lluvia de oro,” meaning “shower of gold.”

Both trees are members of the pea or legume family that comprise over 500 genera and more than 10,000 species in all parts of the world. Retamas prefer moist sites and often are common in riverbeds and at springs. In the Texas Big Bend country, the presence of a retama can be an indicator of water.

Because of their attractive appearance, retamas often are used for landscaping. Ornamentals rarely grow more than 20 feet in height. Also due to its all around attractiveness, retama has been named the city tree of Corpus Christi. Flowering plants also make good bee-trees, due to their sweet, nectar-laden flowers. Hummingbirds are attracted as well, and in Mexico it is a larval foodplant for a little green hairstreak butterfly, Clench’s greenstreak.

Paul Cox and Patti Leslie, in their book, “Texas Trees: A Friendly Guide,” point out that “livestock browse the foliage and branches during hard time. Bees are attracted to the flowers, and the pods are sought after as food by deer and other animals. In earlier times the pods were pounded and made into course flour by Indians. In Mexico a tea brewed from the branches and leaves is used in the treatment of diabetes and as a fever remedy.”

Whether the retama is a wild tree growing along the riverbeds or is maintained in our gardens, it is among our loveliest and most cherished plants.

2008-04-24T15:54:00.001-05:00

Cacti Produce Some of Our Most beautiful Flowers
by Ro Wauer

There is a marvelous cactus flower in our yard near Mission Valley. I planted it several years ago, and it annually produces several magnificent blooms. The flowers, about two inches across, have golden yellow petals. And each pad has widely spaced aeroles containing grayish spines about 2 inches long. This cactus is best known in Texas as Texas pricklypear, although it often goes by its original name of Engelmann pricklypear.

The Texas pricklypear is the most common and widespread pricklypear in Texas, although botanists have identified a total of 20 pricklypear species in the state. And there are 13 kinds of chollas, closely related species with the same genus name of Opuntia. Pricklypears possess flattened pads while cholla pads are cylindrical, rounded in cross-section. Although the majority of pricklypears look somewhat alike, chollas can vary from tall species such as cane cholla and tasajillo to those that sprawl on the ground, such as dog cholla.

Cacti or cactuses, both terms are correct, are some of our favorite plants, and they can occur from the lowest and hottest areas in Texas to near the summit of our highest mountains, such as the Chisos, Davis, and Guadalupe mountains. And cacti have been divided into at least 19 groups. Easiest of these to identify is the pricklypear/cholla group, while others can be difficult, maybe because the various cactus books seldom agree. Other groups that can usually be identified include the fishhooks, living rock, star cactus, barrel cacti, hedgehogs, and nipple cacti. And too often some of the other spiny plants are misidentified as cacti. Examples include yuccas, agaves, acacias, and ocotillo.

As near as I can determine, 88 cactus species occur in Texas. And approximately 140 forms or subspecies have been identified. But these numbers are somewhat ambiguous. Cacti hybridize readily, influenced by various environmental factors, but also because few botanists can agree. For instance, our Texas pricklypear (Opuntia engelmannii) has five subspecies. And the common and widespread claret-cup (hedgehog) cactus (Echinocereus coccineus) also has five subspecies.

What is amazing to me is, that of 88 cactus species in Texas, 23 of those are endemic, found nowhere else but in Texas. Seven of the 23 are hedgehogs, six are cob cacti (genus Coryphantha), three are pricklypears, two are chollas, two are of the genus Echinomastus, and there are three unrelated species of the genera Epithelantha, Ferocactus, and Neolloydia. The non-Opuntia cactus species vary greatly, but their aeroles are positioned along ribs or on tubercles. Although most of the unique Texas cacti occur only in the Trans-Pecos portion of the state, particularly in the Big Bend and Davis Mountains area, a few are known only from the Hill Country, the Pineywoods, or the Lower Rio Grande Valley. None of the endemic species can be found along the Gulf Coast.

Cacti are native only in the Western Hemisphere, except in Alaska, Hawaii and Maine. They are as American as corn, tomatoes, tobacco, and potatoes. But today cacti can be found almost worldwide, having been introduced elsewhere as early as the Columbus voyages to the New World. By the 1800s, cacti because so popular in many parts of the world that a number of cactus trading companies evolved, and propagation of cacti became big business. The cactus hobby continues today, and botanists are still trying to understand what plant is what. However, since the use of DNA, those relationships are becoming much more precise. Soon it will be time for the plant taxonomists to reach agreement. But in the meantime we can all enjoy the short-lived cactus flowers for their beauty.

2008-04-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

Chimney Swifts, Our Aerial Acrobats
by Ro Wauer

Last week I lifted off the metal chimney top that I install each fall. This invited chimney swifts back into our chimney for another season. And just like every other year, within a few days we could detect these little birds again taking up summer residency. It is one more pleasure of enjoying birds in South Texas!

Chimney swifts, one of our neotropical migrants, are widespread summer residents in Texas as far west as the Pecos River; they are less common in far West Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. But as numerous as they are in Texas, and as closely associated as they are with people, for some reason they remain one of our most misunderstood birds. Perhaps that is largely due to their use of the dark interior of chimneys and other chimney-like structures for roosting and nesting. Perhaps people who fear bats have the same fear of other species that retire to the “dark side.” But this is silliness. Chimney swifts are not only one of our most fascinating birds but also one of our most beneficial species.

Like swallows and bats, chimney swifts obtain their food and water in flight; their diet consists primarily of flying insects and spiders on silken threads, and they skim water surfaces to drink. Ninety-five percent of a chimney swift’s diet consists of small insects, notably a wide variety of flies, and also ants, wasps, and bees. Swifts are the most aerial of all our birds and rarely fly alone; they usually feed in flocks of a few to many individuals. This habit probably helps them discovered insect swarms more readily than when searching alone. During migration, chimney swift flocks may number in the hundreds. Chimney swifts have been described as “flying cigars” due to their streamline body shape. They spend the vast majority of waking time in the air – feeding at various elevations, depending upon where they find the most flying insects, including the edge of thunderstorms, and courting with “V-ing” displays (wings held overhead in a V pattern) and amazing aeronautical skill.

At fist glance, a swift may be misidentified as a swallow, due to its similar behavior of feeding on the wing. But swifts are not swallows at all. They are members of the same order of birds as hummingbirds, the Apodiformes, the name derived from the Greek for “without feet.” That is a misnomer, however, because they do have feet, and although a swift’s feet seem tiny and weak, they are strong enough for birds in flight to break small twigs off trees for nesting material. Like hummingbirds, swifts are able to enter a state of torpor, their body temperature dropping as much as fifty degrees Fahrenheit for several hours at night or even for days during extremely inclement weather.

Another chimney swift habit that is out of the ordinary for birds is their use of chimneys for nesting; they once nested only in dark tree trunks and similar natural cavities. They now build their half-saucer-like nests on the inside walls of chimneys, cementing tiny twigs together and to the walls with gelatinous saliva. A nest described by John Tveten in Houston contained 130 twigs about the thickness of a toothpick or matchstick, and “all laid parallel along the longer axis of the nest, forming a half-saucer about four inches across and two inches deep.”

Only one nesting pair uses any given chimney, although the same chimney may hold several additional birds. These other birds may be either helpers – immature individuals that help the adults with various activities – or an unrelated roosting flock that occupies another portion of the chimney. The two to four nestlings are unable to feed themselves until 28 to 30 days old, so they are fed by their parents, which come and go as required. At this stage in the chimney swift’s life, their comings and goings to feed the young produce odd and strange sounds that, unless one is aware of what is taking place in the chimney can be rather frightening. But our chimney swifts are very welcome to share our home. And they are missed once they depart in summer for their wintering grounds in South America.

2008-04-14T17:26:00.002-05:00

David Taylor has been a friend of the Nature Writers of Texas website for a couple of years now, recently producing an Anthology of Texas Nature Writers, and hosting the just finished Texas Nature Writers Conference. He's sent out a notice about his newest venture the book of poetry Praying Up The Sun. Here some info on it and notes about a couple of readings. Be sure to check it out . . .

My new book of poetry Praying Up the Sun is now available from
Pecan Grove Press.
Here's the link to the web page:
http://library.stmarytx.edu/pgpress/authors/david_taylor/index.html

Here's the link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931247501


Also, I'm giving the first reading of it this Saturday. Drop by if
you have the time and are in the area.

On April 19 at 7:00 PM, Salon Mijangos, 1906 S. Flores, San
Antonio, will host a reading by poet David Taylor and fiction
writer Andrew  Porter. This event is free and open to the public.

David will read poems from Praying up the Sun (Pecan Grove
Press 2008)

David Taylor, a  specialist in environmental literature, teaches
in the English Department. He has published poetry and creative
non-fiction essays in such journals as Borderlands, ISLE,
Southern Poetry Review, Environmental History, and Mountain
Gazette. His latest publications are a collection of poems entitled 
Praying Up the Sun (Pecan Grove Press, 2008) and Pride
of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing
(UNT Press, 2006) a collection of essays about our connection
to place and how it defines  and  informs us.  He edited South
Carolina Naturalists: An Anthology, 1700-1860 (USC Press
1998) and co-authored Lawson's Fork: Headwaters to the
Confluence (Hub City Press, 2000). He was featured at the
2006 Texas Book Festival.

2008-04-10T15:56:00.000-05:00

Bird Songs, Another Measure of Spring
by Ro Wauer

Each spring, when our resident birds begin courtship and the neotropical migrants pass through our area, bird songs again become magic. But it also is a time that taxes my memory, trying to recall what bird song belongs to what species. Although songs of the full time residents, such as cardinals, chickadees and blue jays, are set in stone, those of the birds that pass through only in spring often are difficult to remember. I think that I remember better years ago before I got interested in butterflies and that new information managed to eliminate the other. Maybe it’s something else.

Long ago when I first paid much attention to bird songs, I began to memorize their songs using mnemonics. For instance, the mnemonic used to describe a common song or call of a bobwhite is “bob-white.” Blue jays sing “jay, jay, jay.” American robins sing “cheerily-cheery-cheerily-cheery,” but they also are known in song, when the “red, red robin come bob bob bobbin along.” Carolina chickadees sing a whistled “fee-be, fee-bu.” Tufted titmice whistle “peter, peter, peter.” The Carolina wren has a song we all recognize as “teakettle, teakettle, teakettle.” Our white-eyed vireo sings “quick-with-the-beer-check.” And what about the cardinal’s song? It sings “what, cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer, chee, cheer, whot, whot, whot,” or “birdy, birdy, birdy.”

The use of mnemonics is most useful when walking through the woods that echo with the songs of a dozen or more neotropical songbirds. Many of these songbirds stay up high and rarely come low enough to see well. So it can be important to know that a red-eyed vireo sings “look up…see me?... over here… higher.” Eastern wood-pewees sing a plaintive whistled “pee-ah-wee, pee-err.” And blue-gray gnatcatchers sing a lispy “spee, spee, spee.”

The vast majority of Texas birds possess a song, although fewer than half of the almost 9,500 known bird species world-wide actually sing. And many species possess a repertoire of songs, often singing different songs in order, one after the other. This behavior can be confusing. Our mockingbird, for instance, has as many as 150 songs, while a brown thrasher, only found here as a migrant or uncommon winter visitor, can sing more than 3,000 song types. A European starling’s repertoire may include only 67 song types. And many wrens, especially the tropical wrens, often sing duets, so that one individual begins the song and its mate ends the song. It is commonplace for many birds, such as our Carolina wren, to sing a song that is repeated by another Carolina wren some distance away. Each is proclaiming its territory. Songs also serve to attract a mate or to convey a message, such as the presence of a predator.

How many songs do birds sing in a single day? That varies with the species. Ornithologists Margaret Nice recorded 2,305 songs in a single May day from a song sparrow. She reported a black-throated green warbler that sang 1,680 songs in seven hours, and she estimated that on a typical day of sixteen hours, he would have sung more than 3,000 songs. But the North American winner is the red-eyed vireo. Ornithologist Harold Mayfield recorded a Michigan red-eyed vireo which sang 22,197 songs in a day.

But whatever the message or how many songs can be sung in a day, to most of us who enjoy birds, it is the song’s acoustical quality that we most enjoy. For many of us, it would be an empty world without the songs of birds.

2008-04-03T10:39:00.001-05:00

Are You Ready for the Spring Monarchs?
By Ro Wauer

Already many of the monarch butterflies that have spent their winter in Mexico are passing through Texas in their spring migration. Texans should be seeing these marvelous creatures during all of April and May. Their second or third generation will continue their northward movement until they eventually reach the northern edge of their range, often as far north as southern Canada. Three or more generations will emerge each summer, each with a life span of four to five weeks. Those that emerge in late summer are not reproductively mature, so they represent the late season monarchs that migrate south through Texas to wintering sites in the mountains of Michoacan in central Mexico. There they gather in huge numbers to await springtime when they will begin their northward journey.

Monarchs are one of the “milkweed butterflies,” species that depend upon milkweeds for their larval foodplants. The similar but smaller queen butterfly is another of our milkweed butterflies, and one that we usually find throughout the summer and fall months. The milkweed butterfly name is derived from the fact that the females lay eggs only on milkweeds, although adults obtain food from a wide variety of flowers. Monarch eggs hatch in three to five days with warm temperatures, although eggs in cooler temperatures may not hatch for as many as 20 days. Upon hatching, the tiny caterpillars feed on the milkweed leaves, and as they grow from tiny caterpillars only few millimeters in length to about two inches they shed their skins five times, each known as an instar. The last instar fastens onto a safe place and pupates into a shiny green chrysalis, and in about ten days an adult monarch emerges.

One cannot help but marvel at monarchs, a seemingly fragile creature that can make a 3,000-mile fall journey from southern Canada to Central Mexico. The fall migrants generally follow one of two routes, either along the Gulf Coast or through central Texas. The largest numbers occur in wide belt from San Angelo to Bracketville to Eagle Pass during the second and third weeks of October. Those that pass through coastal Texas never reach the same high numbers, but some years are much better than others. But springtime monarchs are far more numerous along the Gulf Coast, passing through the Golden Crescent. They may fly at various elevations, usually in a gliding flight pattern. They often stop at flowering patches to feed, or when females discover milkweed plants they may take the opportunity to lay a single egg or a few eggs on the milkweed leaves. Once that has been accomplished, they continue northward, although they rarely survive much longer. It is that next generation that will continue their northward movement.

Although more than 100 kinds of milkweeds occur in North America, only a few can be found in South Texas. All of the milkweeds, almost all of the genus Asclepias, possess white sap that contains a toxic alkaloid. It is this material that milkweed butterflies absorb when feeding, either as a caterpillar eating the leaves or as an adult sipping nectar, that gives them toxicity that predators shun. A predatory lizard or bird, upon catching a monarch, will spit it out as soon as possible. And a few other butterflies, such as the viceroy, mimic monarchs. Viceroys are very similar in appearance to monarchs, but are not toxic. Viceroy caterpillars feed on willows, not milkweeds.

For those of us with gardens, now is the time to plant some milkweeds. The two species most commonly planted in our area include the native butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberose) and the nonnative tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). Like feeding birds, providing a few milkweed plants can provide true satisfaction, knowing that we have helped the monarchs along their journey. Besides, we can entice them to stay a bit longer so that we can enjoy their beauty and appreciate their unique odyssey.

2008-03-27T10:41:00.000-05:00

Bird Navigation is an Amazing Ability
by Ro Wauer

At this time of year, millions of birds of all sizes and kinds are passing through South Texas. The majority of these are neotropical migrants, those that spend their winters in the tropics but come north to nest in North America, in the United States and/or Canada.

Many of these northbound birds fly across the Gulf of Mexico, leaving Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula during the early evening hours. They normally arrive along the Gulf Coast the following day between mid-morning and early afternoon. Others follow the Gulf Coast northward, passing directly through South Texas. Most are nighttime migrants, although a few, such as swallows and others that feed along the way, are daytime migrants.

In the big picture of migration, it is understandable that these spring migrants head north toward their ancestral nesting grounds. But what is less clear is how they are able to navigate from one tiny speck of habitat in the Tropics to another speck of habitat that may be as much as 4,000 miles to the north. How do they manage to find the exact place at Victoria’s Riverside Park, on the shore of Lake Michigan, or on the Alaska tundra where they were fledged?

The answer to that question is not fully understood, but some pieces of the avian navigation puzzle have been found. For instance, it is well known that birds are fully capable of following principle landforms, such as rivers, seashores, and mountain ranges. This suggests, of course, that once a bird has traveled the route once, even in the opposite direction, it can do so again. Domestic pigeons released miles from their roosts fly in circles until they are able to recognize their home surroundings. But what about nighttime migrants or those birds flying over fog or clouds?

Birds also are able to use celestial navigation; they can navigate by the stars. Biologists have placed spring migrants in a circular cage in a planetarium, and when stars come out the birds begin hitting the north walls. When the northern stars were reversed the birds begin hitting the south walls.

To take this experiment even further, spring migrants (equipped with tiny radio transmitters) were placed in a cardboard box that was suspended from a helium-filled balloon. When the box was opened from aloft on a clear night the birds flew erratically for only a minute or two and then set out on a straight northward course. If the birds were released on an overcast evening, when an afterglow was still visible in the west, they were able to orient themselves by that method. But when neither clue, stars or an afterglow, was available, they flew downwind, even if the wind was blowing in the direction opposite their destination. When that direction proved to be incorrect, they eventually had to turn back.

Migrants often remain in choice feeding areas, awaiting the right cue to head out. They make a go or no-go decision based on what the weather will be like over the next several hours. They apparently are able to detect the most reliable conditions, when they will be aided by a tailwind and not encounter severe storms along their route. They are correct the majority of times.

2008-03-20T10:43:00.000-05:00

Purple Martins vs. Red-shouldered Hawks
by Ro Wauer

Neighbors have wondered why I have not reinstalled my martin house. It has been a spring staple in my community for the last dozen or so years. I have religiously set up my martin house in my yard in early March, and within a few days purple martins begin checking it out. And every year one or a few pairs of martins claim an empty site and begins their nesting process. But during each of the last four years that process have been interrupted by predation. My martin house has not produced a single youngster.

The purple martin predator each year has not been one of the more “normal” predators, such as a snake or raccoon. No, my purple martins have been decimated by a pair of red-shouldered hawks. These much larger predators land on the martin house, reach inside and extract the nestlings, and haul them off to their own waiting youngsters. But this year I have decided not to give them that opportunity by not reinstalling the martin house at all. Maybe by next year they will have forgotten about their source of martin morsels and ignore the martin house altogether.

The question obviously arises about which one of the two bird species would I prefer, purple martins or red-shouldered hawks. And that question is impossible to answer. After all, purple martins truly depend on us humans supplying them nesting sites, while red-shouldered hawks are totally independent, nesting high in trees where the nests are seldom readily visible from the ground. While red-shouldered hawks are full time residents in our neighborhoods, purple martins are neotropical migrants that are with us only during a few weeks in spring and early summer. They usually leave for their wintering grounds in Brazil by late July. In a sense, martins are more a South American species than a North American species, spending seven or eight months in South America and only four of five months in North America.

With mixed feeling, I have decided to forsake my martin colony this year. I can only hope that when next year rolls around and I reinstall my martin house that my red-shouldered hawks have found another diversion. But I won’t bet good money on it. Predators are opportunists, and I suspect that even this year’s youngsters will discover a fresh source of prey next year.

However, for my many readers that are still housing purple martins and are not experiencing the same kind of problems, if you have not already put up you martin house, it is time! And as a reminder, here are some easy rules to follow: (1) Houses must contain apartments with at least a 6x6-inch floor space and an entrance hole 1 ¾ inch in diameter and 1 inch above the floor. (2) Houses must be placed on poles 12 to 20 feet above the ground and should be 40 feet away from taller trees, poles, and other structures. (3) Poles must be free of vines and shrubs that might allow access to the house by predators. (4) Houses must be free of nesting materials and other debris that accumulated in the off-season.

Purple martins often are rather finicky at the start but seem to put up with shorter poles and poorly maintained structures once the colony is established. Most birds are repeats, but the majority of the first-year birds (usually last year’s youngsters) seek out new sites, usually in the general area of their natal home sites. This means that a new martin house, especially if it is in proximity of an active martin house, is likely to be used early on. Distant houses are not as likely to be selected.

Housing purple martins is not only fun, but a fascinating connection to the outdoors and to our interrelationship with the tropics. Good luck!

2008-03-16T08:03:00.001-05:00

Writing a Wide Land: A Conference on Texas Nature Writing
April 11, 2008, EESAT Building, University of North Texas

On April 11, 2008 Writing a Wide Landscape: A Texas Nature Writing Conference will bring together for the second time major writers, editors, and interested groups from the region. This literary symposium is designed to reach out across multiple fields of study: creative writers, journalists, scientists, and those studying community outreach and/or environmental policy. It will also include workshops which highlight positive environmental change and work that has been done recently in writing and outreach across disciplines in order to engage the largest audience in communities. This conference will focus on the potential and possibilities of this intersection of ideas and how it may benefit Texas, its environment, and its citizens as well.

See the conference website at: http://www.efec.unt.edu/writing_conference.htm

Registration for this event is free; however, all those attending must register with Jenna Ledford. Please send her your name, address, phone number, email, and status (student or non-student) at:
jdl0126@unt.edu
When you arrive you will need to pick up a ticket and conference materials from the registration booth.

For general information about the conference, please contact Dr. David Taylor at: jdtaylor@unt.edu

*Information on Parking, Lodging, and Local Restaurants is below.

Schedule:

Friday April 11, 2008

8-12 Registration, Environmental Education, Science, and Technology Building, UNT

8:30 Opening Remarks: President Gretchen Bataille, UNT
David Taylor, English Department, UNT
Community School, Poetry Reading

9-9:45 Gary Clark

10-10:45 Susan Hanson

11:00-11:45 Keith Bowden

12-1:30 Lunch (on your own; maps will be provided)

1:30-2:15 Joe Nick Patoski: 2008 Writing WaterWays Lecture (Irene Klaver, Director of Philosophy of Water Project, Introduction)

2:30-3:15 Break-out Workshops:
Susan Hanson, nature writing
Joe Nick Patoski, environmental journalism
Keith Bowden, environmental journalism
Gary Clark, natural history
Bob Pyle, nature writing

3:30-4:15 Editorial Panel Discussion:
Shannon Davies, Texas A&M Press
Karen DeVinney, UNT Press
Barbara Brannon, TTU Press
Bill Bishel, UT Press

Dinner Break

6:00-7:00 Keynote Address

7:30-8:30 Booksigning for Robert Michael Pyle
EESAT Lobby

Support for this year’s conference comes from:
Office of the Provost, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Department of English, Department of Biology, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Philosophy of Water Project, Institute of Applied Sciences, Team Engineering, Inc., Elm Fork Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists, Texas A&M University Press Consortium, Texas Tech University Press, University of Texas Press, Elm Fork Environmental Education Center, and the Environmental Speaker Series.

Featured speakers this year will include:

Keynote Speaker:
ROBERT MICHAEL PYLE (see Bob’s current project at: (http://www.xerces.org/Butterfly_Conservation/butterflyathon.html#entry3) was born on July 19, 1947 in Denver and raised in nearby Aurora, Colorado. His B.S. in Nature Perception and Protection (1969) and M.S. in Nature Interpretation (1973) from the University of Washington were followed in 1976 by a Ph.D. from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. In 1971, during a Fulbright Fellowship at the Monks Wood Experimental Station in England, Pyle founded the Xerces Society for invertebrate conservation, and later chaired its Monarch Project.

Bob has worked as an assistant curator at Yale's Peabody Museum, as a butterfly conservation consultant for Papua New Guinea, Northwest Land Steward for The Nature Conservancy, and guest professor or writer at Portland State, University of Alaska, Evergreen State, and Lewis & Clark College. He has lectured for scientific, literary, and general audiences in many cities and countries, taught numerous field courses and creative writing seminars, been on the faculties of Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and the Port Townsend, Pacific Northwest, Sitka, and Desert writing conferences, and appeared on NPR's E-Town. He received a 1997 Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology.

In 1979, Pyle moved from Portland, Oregon to the rural community of Gray's River, on a tributary of the Lower Columbia in far southwest Washington. It was a deliberate migration, in the Thoreauvian sense, toward the requisite setting for confronting life's bare essentials and to see what effect that may have on the creative act of writing. As Michael Pearson has commented: "For a man trained in natural history, science, and conservation much more than in literature, the transformation from scientist into full-time writer was a daring step into terra incognita, a metamorphosis reminiscent of the butterflies he studies."

As a professional writer, Pyle has published hundreds of papers, essays, stories, and poems, in many journals. His dozen books include the The Thunder Tree, Wintergreen (winner of the 1987 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing), Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide (1995), the subject of a Guggenheim Fellowship; and Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage, as well as the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, Handbook for Butterfly Watchers,The Butterflies of Cascadia, and Walking the High Ridge: Life as Field Trip (in the Milkweed Credo Series). A novel, Magdalena Mountain,and a book about the home he shares with with botanist and silkscreen artist Thea Linnaea Pyle are in progress.

Other Speakers:

Bill Bishel has been since 1999 a sponsoring editor at the University of Texas Press. He acquires books in natural history, ornithology, environmental studies, Texas history, gardening, and cooking. He has a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University, where he specialized in U.S.-Latin American relations. Over the course of twenty-five years he has held a number of editorial positions, including stints with the Organization of American Historians, the Texas State Historical Association, and the Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio. For five years he was the book review editor of the American Historical Review, one of the most prestigious academic history journals in the world.

Barbara Brannon is marketing manager for Texas Tech University Press, which primarily publishes nonfiction books related to the history and culture of Texas and the West and other scholarly subjects. She has taught and lectured widely on the history and practice of book
publishing and is the author of The Ferries of North Carolina: Traveling the State's Nautical Highways (2007).

Gary Clark writes the weekly column “Nature” in the Houston Chronicle and writes feature articles in a variety of state and national magazines. His writing has been published in such magazines as Texas Highways, Texas Parks & Wildlife, and Texas Wildlife, and Women in the Outdoors. Gary wrote the text for the book, Texas Wildlife Portfolio (Farcountry Press, 2004) and Gulf Coast Impressions (Farcountry Press, 2007). He has won seven writing awards, and he is the recipient of the 2004 Excellence in Media Award from the Houston Audubon Society. Gary also co-leads nature and nature-photography tours with his wife, professional photographer Kathy Adams Clark.

Shannon Davies is the Louise Lindsey Merrick Editor for the Natural Environment for Texas A&M University Press.

Karen DeVinney has been managing editor at the University of North Texas Press since January 2000. Because UNT Press is a small operation, she is able as managing editor to do a little bit of everything, being involved directly in every aspect of the business except marketing and financial planning. She edits or supervises the editing of every book UNT publishes and acquires several books each season, including David Taylor's anthology, Pride of Place. Before working at UNT Press, she taught English composition and literature classes in area colleges and universities.

Susan Hanson is the author of Icons of Loss and Grace: Moments from the Natural World, and a co-editor of What Wildness Is This: Women Write about the Southwest. Her work has been anthologized in Getting Over the Color Green; To Everything on Earth: New Writing on Fate, Community, and Nature (forthcoming from Texas Tech UP); and Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark (forthcoming from the University of Nevada Press). It has also appeared in such publications as Northern Lights, EarthSpirit, ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment), Southwestern Literature, and Texas Parks & Wildlife. A long-time member of the English faculty at Texas State University, Susan also worked for nearly 20 as a journalist and 12 as an Episcopal lay campus chaplain. She and her husband live in San Marcos, Texas, and have a grown daughter.

Keith Bowden, author of The Tecate Journals: Seventy Days on the Rio Grande, has taught English at Laredo Community College since 1990. When he's not teaching, he rafts and canoes rivers all over North America, including more than forty trips on the Rio Grande. Keith has lived in such diverse places as Canada and Chile. The Tecate Journals has been praised by Texas Monthly, Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Austin American-Statesman and other major publications. He recently appeared on C-Span's Book TV.

Joe Nick Patoski is the author and co-author Texas Mountains and Texas Coast, both published by University of Texas Press. A former staff writer for Texas Monthly magazine for 18 years, his byline appeared in the Texas Observer, No Depression, People magazine, Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, Field & Stream, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, among many publications.

David Taylor teaches in the English Department at the University of North Texas in Denton. He has published poetry and creative non-fiction essays in such journals as ISLE, Southern Poetry Review, Environmental History, and Mountain Gazette. His latest publications are Praying Up the Sun (Pecan Grove Press, 2008) and Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing (UNT Press, 2006). He was selected as a featured speaker for the 2006 Texas Book Festival.

Map of Denton:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=&city=Denton&state=TX&zipcode=76201&country=US&geodiff=1

Parking:
Free parking is available at Fouts Field. Please see the following link for a map:
http://www.unt.edu/parking/maps.html
A bus dedicated to this conference will make two schedule stops at Fouts Field at 7:45 AM and 8:15 AM and take attendees to the EESAT Building.
Evening return trips will be announced later.

Lodging :
Conference rates are available at:

Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Denton
1434 Centre Place Dr.
Denton, TX 76205
Phone Number: (940) 383-4100

Lunch and Dinner:
Multiple lunch and dinner venues are within walking distance of the conference. Maps will be provided in the conference packet to all those attending.

2008-03-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

Golden Crescent Frogs and Toads
by Ro Wauer

The recent article in the Victoria Advocate about the plight of frogs and toads, especially the Houston toad that occurs just out of our area in the Bastrop area, prompted me to think again about which of these amphibians are common in our area. I already have seen a few tadpoles in my dragonfly pond, so I know that, at least on warmer days, frogs already are active. These cold-blooded creatures stay hidden out of the weather during the colder winter months, but become active just as soon as daily temperatures reach into the 60s and 70s.

Leopard frogs are our most common frog. They are what almost everyone visualizes when thinking of frogs. Most individuals are one to three inches in length when squatting but may be twice as long with their legs extended. Some of the largest can be 12 inches or more and those individuals are big enough to offer a delicious meal of frog legs. Leopard frogs are wonderful jumpers; some can jump three feet or more. The typical leopard frog can easily be identified by the leopard pattern of black blotches on a green background and a pair of whitish stripes that run down its back. Its legs are usually brown with black blotches with lighter borders.

Leopard frogs prefer wetlands, including permanent and semipermanent pools, as well as flooded roadside ditches, where females lay masses of eggs. These egg masses, which may include 1,000 eggs, are laid in shallow water. The female is usually enticed to the site and persuaded to mate by a singing male. His love song is a series of guttural croaks and clucks, like the sound produced by rubbing a finger across an inflated balloon. And breeding can occur at any time of year, so long as hot and humid temperatures prevail.

Leopard frogs are members of the family Ranidae, or true frogs. This group includes 13 species, all of the genus Rana. Bullfrogs are probably the best known of these. Bullfrogs, usually measure six to eight inches in length as adults. They are smooth with a greenish back, tan belly, and powerful hind legs. These larger frogs are preferred for a dinner of frog legs. Their mating call is a booming “jug-o-rum” that can be jarring to the human ear. Females lay clusters of as many as 20,000 eggs and attach them to underwater vegetation.

Frogs begin life as a tadpole, a tiny, tailed, fishlike creature that lives underwater. It breathes with gills and rasping on plants with a beaklike mouth. It gradually transforms into an adult by a process known as metamorphosis. The change is first noticed when the tadpole develops a pair of hind legs, then forelegs, and the tail disappears. Lungs gradually replace gills, and the tadpole resembles an adult and begins to invade the land.

Toads belong to a separate family (Bufonidae) and can easily be identified by their dry, warty skin, compared to the moist, relatively smooth skin of frogs. Most toads also possess a cranial crest (ridge on the head) and parotid glands, the round or oblong knobs located just behind or below the eyes. Frogs never have these features. And what’s more, one cannot get warts from touching toads. However, secretions from the skin glands of both toads and frogs can be irritating to mucous membranes. Some folks are more allergic than others. So whenever touching these amphibians, be sure to wash your hands afterward. Until you do, keep your fingers away from your eyes and mouth.

All of these creatures are part of our natural environment. And we have learned in recent years that they are extremely susceptible to human induced pollutants. Populations of frogs and toads serve as our indicators of a clean environment. Appreciate them in their native habitats. We all are residents of the same planet.

2008-02-24T17:32:00.000-06:00

Cliff Swallows Are Returning to South Texas
by Ro Wauer

One sure sign of spring is the arrival of cliff swallows. These little birds build their mud-pellet nests under highway bridges and similar structures throughout South Texas. Colonies of from 35 to 200 individuals can usually be found at all the area’s concrete bridges and overpasses. They arrive in South Texas by early March and leave their nesting sites by the end of August. A few migrants can usually be found through October. Our cliff swallows spend their winter months in South America.

Nest-building is an amazing activity. Although some cliff swallows may only refurbish an old nest, most began anew by constructing a retort- or gourd-shaped structure (tubular entrance to a spherical cavity) from thousands of tiny mid pellets that they paste together literally one a time. They congregate at mud puddles or along the banks of streams to gather mud that they shape into round pellets in their beaks. They then methodically construct their nests. Construction time lasts for four to fourteen days, depending upon the availability of mud, distance to the source, and an adequate food supply. They then line their nests with grass and feathers, and the females lay four or five spotted eggs. Fledging occurs in 21 to 24 days.

Biologists have discovered that cliff swallows practice “intraspecific brood parasitism,” by laying eggs in nests other than their own. And, surprisingly, some individuals can transport their eggs to another nest. They may even toss out an egg, presumably to replace it with their own. As many as twenty-five percent if all cliff swallow nests in a colony may be parasitized.

Cliff swallows are one of the square-tailed swallows, in comparison with the long-tailed barn swallow and fork-tailed tree, bank, and rough-winged swallows. Cliff swallows possess a buff-colored rump and cheeks, pale forehead, and blackish throat and back. They are most closely related to cave swallows, which we also have in South Texas. While cliff swallows nest in open places, cave swallows building their nests in twilight sites, such as in the entrance to caves, in culverts, and other closed structures. Cave swallow nests are cup-shaped instead of gourd-shaped

All swallows are insect-eaters, taking millions of flying insects daily. One report stated that 35 cliff swallows collected in the vicinity of cotton fields in Texas had consumed 687 boll weevils, averaging 19 in each bird’s stomach. Beetles of all types are readily consumed. Other food types include ants, bees and wasps, flies, and a number of true bugs. Various small fruits are also eaten after the nesting season.

Cliff swallows are wonderful neighbors for a number of reasons. Not only do they eliminate many of our insect pests, but they provide one more reason to admire and wonder about our natural environment.

2008-02-11T17:34:00.001-06:00

Where did all the monarchs go?
by Carol Cullar, February 11, '08

October is Monarch Month all across South Texas. Starting around the 9th the skies are generally filled with the flutter of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these colorful creatures in dedicated flight toward the south southwest, steering an uncharted course toward an unseen, but certainly not unsensed destination. Then again, not.

Take this past year for example. Monarchs zipped through Maverick County on the 18th-19th of October and by the 21st. they were gone. Perhaps as few as 50,000. Only the ragtag stragglers came through after that, begging the question, “Where did Maverick County’s usual plethora of monarchs go?” What happened to the 180,000 migrants we were expecting?

This past week, Francisco Luna Contreras, spokesperson for PROFEPA [Mexico’s environmental protection agency] announced that the overall area of December’s monarch population in the Transvolcanicos of Central Mexico was 1.5 hectares smaller than the area calculated at this time last year.

This interesting factoid presents quite a few questions for us: How does one measure 200 million butterflies, all densely packed and clinging to trees in rugged canyons above 9,000 feet elevation on the side of a cinder cone volcano—albeit, an extinct one? It wasn’t until the deadly snow of ’02-03 that scientists began to get a handle on that one. They counted the dead on the forest floor in a square meter and 6 inches deep and extrapolated the numbers based on the thickness of the dead zone and its area.

What we learned from that macabre task was that previous population estimates were low by several tens of thousands per tree, if not millions per forest. At that point researchers realized it was more accurate to give up on a head count (or proboscis count) and rely on the area into which the monarchs had condensed. In late December of each year the monarchs manage to shuffle about within their colonies and condense even further, so another measurement of their area will be taken late January/early February.

For the present, the total area of all the colonies within the Reserva de la Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarca, some 56,000 hectares (a hectare is 2.6 acres) of forest and high meadows in the states of México and Michoacán, is 4.6. They expect the January area to be 4.1, which is the typical consolidation percentage.

Last year’s figures were 5.6 with the early figures at 6.6. In the last fifteen years, only the years of 2000/2001 and 2004/2005 were smaller than this year. These were due to die offs in the Reserva caused by severe weather.

Fortunately, so far this season there have been no freezing rains or snows to reduce the population. The current survivors have only to weather the next four weeks before they began their trek back north to this part of Texas. [Between February 28th and March 15th all the monarchs will begin to mate and struggle northward looking for milkweed in South and Southwest Texas.]

Another question or two: Why was the migration through here in October so small and short and quick? What factors determine the migration route through the Central Flyway and the numbers arriving in the Reserva each fall?

Three nations are interested in actively seeking answers to these questions. It will be noted that Sr. Luna Contreras was quick to mention that Mexico had no responsibility for the numbers arriving at her doorstep, but was willing to concede that reduced numbers in the colony around Contepec might in fact be attributed to local logging in the region, although Mexico is working harder each year to protect the forests and huge Oyamel fir trees vital to the sheltering of the monarchs.

Luna Contreras eagerly pointed to factors in the monarchs principle breeding grounds in the North Central U. S. and southern Canada as possible determinants for the reduced numbers.

It’s a fascinating and complex topic. A circle without end. Here are the primary factors:

1)Monarchs arriving in the spring from Central Mexico need to be met with abundant milkweed and few predators in South Texas. These conditions are contingent on rainfall and man. High rainfall encourages the growth of milkweed, but also gives a boost to the fireant population. Fireants destroy 98% of the monarch breeding population in SW Texas. Pesticide applications to remove fireants also impact monarch larvae in negative ways. Humans are in charge of the roadside mowing schedules throughout the region. Herbicides in pastures to knock out shrubs and weeds also take their toll on the availability of milkweed. Recent research has determined that size of the successful Generation One monarchs in this region determines the entire U. S. population east of the Rockies for the coming year.

So how could humans improve those conditions? No-mow regions along roadsides from January through early May would promote increased monarch numbers, as would fireant eradication through non-pesticide means. Garden plantings of native milkweed, other than the Tropical or Mexican milkweed would be of tremendous benefit.

2)North of San Antonio and reaching to the Plains in Canada, the increased use of GMO crops like Bt corn and soybeans has seriously threatened the number of milkweeds available in the primary breeding grounds. Another factor in this region is occasional cool, wet summers, which slow the lifecycle and therefore reduce the number of monarchs hatched in a single season.

Thousands of individuals have joined the Monarch Waystation Program to install butterfly havens and native plant gardens in this region to counterbalance deleterious agribusiness practices in the Corn Belt.

3)And then there is the fall weather pattern during the migration. For example, this past summer of 2006 saw favorable weather conditions for a healthy summer population in the North Central states. Migration progressed nicely out of Canada, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa in late September. BUT then the jet stream got involved, and a huge dome of high pressure stalled out over the Central U.S. Monarchs by the millions began to pile up in Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. They typically wait for a norther to blow them south, conserving energy expenditures. Hundred of thousands built up in commercial sunflower fields, nectaring and fattening up for the long haul. They waited and waited. Finally, a front came through, blowing fiercely to the southeast.

Monarchs that would have arrived in Maverick County around October 9th to the 12th, instead were blown into East Texas and Louisiana. When they struck the Gulf, they were compelled to turn along the Coast and fly back toward the southwest. Monarchs from the Central Flyway were forced to join the more heavily diseased monarchs from the Eastern migration. Two things happened. One: They added many hundreds of miles to the distance they were forced to fly. Two: The number of days they perforce had to travel were greatly increased. At roughly 24 miles per day one can see that an additional 500 miles would create considerable delay.

Evidently, fat storage plus distance plus timeline is somehow locked into the genetic clock each migratory monarch is committed to. Research has shown that monarchs that fail to depart their latitude in a timely manner or are delayed by other factors can experience a shutdown of their timing apparatus and the migratory imperative switches off. Even extreme warm weather in South Texas in late October can trigger them out of their reproductive diapause and into reproductive mode. Once that happens, the impetus to migrate is lost.

Dr. Orly Taylor of the U. of Kansas Entomology Dept. has long claimed, “If it’s the Coast; then they’re toast.” Dr. Taylor’s fifteen year migratory study, based on tagging monarchs with a small wing sticker, has shown that Coastal monarchs do not arrive in Michoacán and the Reserva. It is possible, these monarchs are over-wintering in as yet undiscovered colonies or the smaller colonies on the flanks of Popocatepetl east of Mexico City. But they don’t make it to Michoacán.

So where did the few monarchs who blustered out of here on a rough wind October 20th come from? It’s possible they were the leading edge of the migration that had actually made it south of the developing high pressure before it stalled out to the north. But they still arrived a full ten days later than normal.

One thing is clear. In four weeks the whole, vast, complex engine will power up, fluttering out across the continent one monarch at a time, beginning the cycle of life for this fragile creature yet again.

2008-02-10T17:36:00.000-06:00

Spring is in the Air
by Ro Wauer

I have long been smitten with spring. I have even wondered if my late-March birthday, right after the spring equinox, is somehow related to my love of spring. Maybe I was introduced to spring as a tiny baby, imprinted with that glorious time of year. One of my earliest memories is a song I learned as a youngster, “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies.” For growing up in the Rocky Mountains – the Grand Tetons were visible from the edge of town – I anticipated spring all winter, so that I could hike the Teton trails and see, smell, and feel springtime in the Rockies.

Anticipation of spring is evident for peoples throughout the world. Spring profoundly influenced the ancients and played a significant role in mythology, folklore, and art. In America, spring in marked by an abundance of festivals, weddings, special days such as Arbor Day and May Day – and spring cleaning.

Numerous authors and philosophers have expressed their anticipation of and joy over spring. There is a Chinese proverb stating that “spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.” Author Thomas Wolfe wrote that “spring has no language but a cry.” Anne morrow Lindbergh wrote: “Today I went out. It smelled, it felt, it sensed spring. I had for the first time faith – not intellectual belief, but a sudden feeling of turning tide. Yes, there will be spring.” And humorist Dorothy Parker observed, “Every year, back spring comes, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off, and the ground all mucked up with arbutus.”

The revelations of spring vary from subtle nuances that only a seasoned naturalist can detect to much more obvious clues, such as a purple martin returning to its ancestral nest box, the discovering of the first violet or bluebonnet of the season, or hearing the roar of a territorial alligator. Clues are all around us if we so much as open our eyes and see the signs of the new season.

For South Texas, there are a host of spring heralds, ranging from birdsongs to new wildflowers to those more subtle indicators such as the scent of fresh earth to the taint of onions to the sweetness of huisache blooms. My spring usually comes as a trickle when the January days are mild. Most obvious, perhaps, are the scattered songs of cardinals and mockingbirds. It seems that the full songs of these two full-time residents are first to express their enthusiasm for the coming season. Those vocal signals urge me to look more closely at some of the shrubs and trees. And on close inspection, I often can find a few groundcover herbs in flower – bluets, prostrate lawnflowers, tenpetal anemones, and yellow woodsorrels – several shrubs have buds that are close to fulfillment – agarito, coral honeysuckle, and redbud. But one shrub, the viburnum, may produce its drooping, white-flowering blossoms as early as the last of January. And by taking up a watch nearby, I am likely to find a few early butterflies: cloudless sulphur, little yellow, gray hairstreak, gulf fritillary, common buckeye, and American lady.

Yet these signals of the new season are, for me, only indicators of better things to come. But it is now only a short wait for the northbound migrants to appear, for our purple martins, chimney swifts, and painted buntings to return, and the summer butterflies that utilize our abundant flowering plants to appear. It was Richard Hovey who, in 1898, wrote: “Spring in the world! And all things are made new.”

2008-02-03T17:38:00.000-06:00

Spring Means Romance for Skunks
by Ro Wauer

While driving from Mission Valley to town this week, I discovered four skunk road-kills along that 15-mile stretch. The same drive during most of the year produces very, very few road-killed skunks, although an occasional raccoon or cottontail can be expected. But it is the time of year when our striped skunks are out looking for mates. And apparently, the hot-blooded males pay little head to traffic when crossing the roadways. Also, perhaps, because of their behavior of standing their ground and relying on their nauseous fluid for protection rather than running away.

Striped skunks are normally shy creatures that venture out of their dens only during the nighttime to search for food. But their diet can include a vast array of prey, ranging from insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, various snakes and amphibians, to small rodents, such as mice and rats, to crabs, and an occasional bird and their eggs. They also feed on various fruits. Although skunks usually are good neighbors, they occasionally invade chicken coops when hungry or trying to feed a litter.

The striped skunk is easily identified by its black body with a narrow white striped that runs from the top of its head backward along its back, like an elongated V. About the size of a house cat, striped skunks can appear almost anywhere, from our fields and woodlands to even our residential areas. Nocturnal in behavior and rarely encountered, they are more often detected by scent than they are seen.

Three skunk species occur in South Texas: the fairly common striped skunk and the very rare spotted and hognose skunks. The spotted skunk is the smallest of the three and can be identified by numerous white markings, while the hognose skunk, about the same size as the striped skunk, has an all black back and tail and a longer snout.

All skunks possess scent glands with an obnoxious odor that they can spray at an antagonist when disturbed. Although it may seem that the typical skunk odor is commonplace, they spray only as a last resort. The scent glands, located near the base of the tail, are normally activated only after the animal warns the intruder first. It first will audibly strike the ground with its forefeet and even make short rushes at its enemy before actually using its potent spray. It finally will bring its rear around toward its enemy, with its tail erect, and then discharge fine yellow, oily droplets through small ducts that open just inside the anus. These glands are encased in muscles that can be voluntarily controlled by the animal when the situation demands it. The jet may travel 12 feet, and the powerful scent may be detected miles away during favorable weather. Also, the scent from droplets that touch immediate objects, animals, plant or trap, can remain for weeks.

Skunks normally live a solitary existence, only pairing up during their spring breeding season. Their gestation period lasts for 42 to 63 days. The litter of four to ten young is born blind and finely haired. The youngsters open their eyes in about 21 days, and they are weaned in six to seven weeks and taken on hunting trips by the mother during the end of that period.

Skunks are carnivores that belong to the Mustelidae Family, along with various weasels and the badger, wolverine, ferret, and otters. All possess scent glands, but only the skunks are able to spray their obnoxious fluid any distance.

2008-01-31T11:18:00.000-06:00

Winter Wind – Nature’s exhilarating exhalation
by Susan M. Sander
Jan. 31, 2008, Center Point, Texas

Sometimes I remember to stop in my tracks and really look around, and take in the abundance of Life teeming in all the nooks and crannies. And there’s nothing like a good stiff wind to bring Nature back into lively focus, to shake off the dust of my complacency.

It’s the winds of January, and if I lived in Ghana we’d have a name for it, the harmattan, a northwest trade wind that lifts the Sahara Desert up, dust particle by dust particle, during the winter season (from November to March), often making shipping hazardous.

And sometimes Nature can exhale her breath with such force as to can literally blow the Sahara to our doorstep. On January 22, 2008 the NASA’s Aqua satellite captured such a dust plume blowing off Africa’s west coast (see it at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17903.
Could that be what I saw (and felt in my eyes and lungs) on January 29 in central Texas? The sky was a dusty brown all day as the winds whipped loose anything not tied down. Valley views were obscured, edges soften (some were literally being worn away as I watched).

Since reading “The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things” by Hannah Holmes, my world view has been blown away – from viewing my dust bunnies from a different angle to seeing the wind made visible. It has grown from microscopic to global as Hannah explained the rivers of dust that migrate around the globe, lifting and depositing, Nature as the ultimate re-arranger, and wind as one of her many acts.

The dust we curse as we sneeze is a mixed blessing of soil particles and minerals, organic bits of plants and animals, as well as spores and seeds that help replenish soils and habitats, but can also contain pesticide residues as well as pollutants from vehicles and factories. Wind makes the Six O-clock news with allergen disclaimers, such as, “Be careful what you breathe.”

Folks in the Hill Country of Texas can literally view the winter winds through weepy eyes as the male Ashe Junipers (AKA cedar) let loose their small grain pollen for wild sex on the fly. If a light breeze or a bird landing on a branch can set off a smoky plume, a full force wind really stirs things up as it aids pollination.

I like how wind challenges my senses (and sometimes my ability to walk upright). There are the “vocalizations” borrowed as it weaves through branches and leaves, whirls around corners, howls up and down canyons, hums and drones punctuated by the rattle of swirling windmills, loose tin roofs, and tumbling garbage cans. It can overwhelm the songs of birds and every other creature. It can roar like a freight train as my step-sister found out when a tornado ravaged her house and neighborhood in Wisconsin recently.

Without wind the grasses in the far pasture would just be a tan background, but wind forces them to shimmer as they do the wave. A gust just sent a herd of dried leaves scurrying across a mowed field. A dried sycamore leaf skips and does cartwheels.

I grew up on the edge of a cattail marsh in northern Illinois that literally turn into a sea of green when winds pushed through it. And there’s nothing like a good old nor’wester on Lake Michigan to send waves rumbling onto limestone cobble beaches or crashing out of bounds against a bluff. It’s raw power, Nature having a wild day.

The power of air can literally take your breath away, stop you in your tracks, knock out power, knock down buildings and trees. Over the years I've watched how trees “dance” differently in the wind: some flounce up and down, others sway, and some just shudder. The flexible will survive with their structural parts intact; those that resist will suffer cracks and crashes.

Wind constantly tests the riders in the sky. A flock of red-wing blackbirds had to bank around upwind before landing on a bird feeder. American goldfinches flap in place as they try to land against the wind. Pine siskins cling tightly to the thistle sock as it gyrates. A gust of wind disrupts the smooth sailing of the vultures.

It’s the last day of January, time to blow out the old to blow in something new.

2008-01-27T09:24:00.000-06:00

Cedar Waxwings are Regular Spring Migrants in South Texas
by Ro Wauer

Every year in early spring, when spring flowers are starting to appear and the first of the northbound migrants are being reported in South Texas, flocks of cedar waxwings appear. Some of these lovely songbirds are surely neotropical migrants, wintering in the Tropics, but others may have remained north of the border. Now they are gathering in larger flocks and feeding on last year’s berries and new buds that are developing on our trees and shrubs. Mulberry, cedar, mountain ash, and pyracantha berries are favorites. Choice feeding sites often become staging areas for gathering flocks of migrants.

Cedar waxwings are one of our best known birds. They are easily recognized by their size (7-8 inches long), distinct, pointed topknot, black mask against a soft brown head, pale yellow belly, and a bright yellow tip on their otherwise gray and black tail. And their soft, high-pitched, slightly trilled whistle also is distinct. A wheeling flock of cedar waxwings, flying in unison, can hardly be mistaken.

Waxwings are truly a social species. These gregarious creatures rarely are alone, but flocks of a few to 100 or more are typical. Even on their nesting grounds, only in the Texas Panhandle and northward, many individuals will share common feeding areas. Although fruit and buds are utilized most often in South Texas, they also will feed on a wide variety of insects, oftentimes taken in mid-air, like a swallow or flycatcher. They may even alight on the ground to feed, and they also come to the ground to drink. I have often found a ring of eight to ten individuals on my birdbath. Like American robins, waxwings seem to drink a great deal of water.

They also possess some rather unusual habits. Harry Oberholser in his classic book, “The Bird Life of Texas,” tells about a “charming ritual” in which a pair or group of cedar waxwings, sitting together side-by-side on a branch, will “pass a cherry back and forth before one swallows it,” or, in courtship, a pair may pass flower petals or insects back and forth.

But it is their gregarious feeding habits that are best known. Hundreds of waxwings, that descend upon a tree or shrub filled with berries or buds, can strip the food in a few minutes. And in spite of their normally quiet and dignified manner, they can become avian clowns after feeding on fermented berries. There are numerous reports of drunken waxwings falling off branches and hanging upside down while attempting to right themselves. They may fall to the ground and put on a grand show of attempting to stand upright, teetering about or running in circles. But eventually they recover and continue their journey toward their breeding grounds.

In South Texas, we normally can enjoy these lovely creatures only during spring.

2008-01-20T09:24:00.000-06:00

Early Spring Days Means Early Wildflowers, Birds and Butterflies
by Ro Wauer

Although we all know that there is a good chance that the Golden Crescent will still experience some really cold and blustery days before spring truly arrives, it is very pleasant to sit back and enjoy these pre-spring conditions. My viburnum shrubs already are in flower, and the groupings of tiny white blooms are attracting a variety of nectaring insects. Besides the numerous bees, gray hairstreak, dusky-blue groundstreaks, checkered-skippers, and a few other butterflies are taking advantage of these early nectar sources.

Our resident birds also are responding to the early spring conditions. Although bird activity is largely the result of increasing day lengths, they readily react to sunny days. Birdsong increases significantly during these warming periods. And there is no more eager songster than the northern cardinal. The bright red males and paler females have taken center stage, singing their loud and throaty “wheer wheer wheer” songs. The Carolina wrens seem to compete very well with their “tea-kettle” or “wheedle” songs. And the bell-like calls of the tufted titmice and the “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” songs of our Carolina chickadees are all part of the backyard chorus.

Red-shouldered hawks have also become more active, flying about and calling their distinct shrill calls, a screaming and drawn out “kee yar.” Since this neighborhood raptor usually maintains a set territory year-round, I suspect that on warm days they already are inspecting previous nesting sites. And the adult male that often sits on a tree within easy viewing distance from my house, appears to already be in breeding condition.

Migrants have not yet begun their northward movement, although there seems to be considerable restlessness in those species that are with us only during the winter months. For instance, eastern phoebes and yellow-rumped warblers are far more active than usual. If our warm weather continues, it would not surprise me if some of these individuals begin to drift northward. Maybe, like some songbirds, they could move out but return with the next cold front. Oftentimes for some species there is almost a tidal response.

There also are a few species that overwinter in the greater Golden Crescent area, wandering about in search for adequate food supplies, and are now rechecking sites they visited previously. One of the best examples of these birds is the American robin. Although robins were present in my yard during November and early December, they moved elsewhere for a number of weeks, but have now returned in small flocks. Probably one of the major attractants in my yard is the ground-level birdbaths. Robins love to bathe. And cedar waxwings, also avid bathers, usually appear at about the same time.

It is always interesting to guess when the first purple martins will appear in our area. Although the earliest visitors usually are reported first along the Gulf coast, more inland visitors can arrive as early as mid-February. Will our changing weather patterns mean that martins will appear at our inland martin houses much earlier?

And what about the vast array of other spring migrants? Will many of those species reach South Texas earlier than usual? It would not surprise me if the majority of the northbound migrants appear earlier this year. I already am looking forward to seeing some of our more colorful Neotropical songbirds. Their marvelous spring songs are one of our most welcome signs of spring.

2008-01-13T09:26:00.000-06:00

Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Our Wintertime Hummer
by Ro Wauer

Buff-bellied hummingbirds are our only year-round resident hummers. A few other hummingbird species occur at various other times, ruby-throated and black-chinned hummers in summer and a few other species pass through South Texas during migration, and occasionally some of these, such as the rufous hummingbirds, overwinter at choice areas where they can find an adequate supply of food. But the buff-bellied is our only full-time resident hummingbird.

At four and a half inches long, the buff-bellied hummingbird is the largest hummer occurring regularly in the eastern half of Texas, compared with three and a half inches for both the ruby-throats and black-chins. The buff-belly is our only species with a red bill, emerald green throat, buff underparts, and a rufous tail. Buff-bellies also possess a unique voice, producing high-pitched metallic or shrill, squeaky notes. Some of these can be loud and piercing, especially during courtship or when a bird is defending a territory. Although the sexes are marked alike, adult males are somewhat brighter with a redder bill.

Buff-bellies have a bold and assertive personality. Males often perch in a live oak within easy viewing of a feeder or patch of flowering plants. They may sit for long periods, watching whatever is moving in their surroundings, and then suddenly, without warning, they will streak off to another perch or after another hummingbird, a territorial invader. Or they may dive down to sip liquid from a feeder or flower, and then return to a favorite perch.

Buff-bellied hummingbirds are tropical hummers that range as far south as Guatemala but only as far north as South Texas and the southern edge of the Central Texas plains during their breeding season. But this has not always been the case. Only since the 1970s have they been recorded regularly north of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. By the early 1990s they had moved northward into Victoria County for the summer months, and since the late 1990s have become a fulltime resident.

Preferred habitat always includes oaks, although nesting can occur on a variety of other trees and shrubs. In fall 1995, I discovered a deserted buff-belly nest on a hanging yaupon branch. Like all hummingbird nests, this one was constructed of plant fibers and decorated with lichens and bound with spider webbing. New hummingbird nests are little more than thimble-size structures, but by the time the young are fledged the nests usually have been stretched to twice the original size.

Buff-bellies were earlier known as fawn-breasted or Yucatan hummingbirds, the latter name in recognition of their type locality. And their scientific name is Amazilia yucatanensis. But none of these names does justice to these birds, which are among our most colorful and personable hummers.

Naturalist Louis J. Halle also had a deep appreciation of hummingbirds. He wrote: “I have always felt that the hummingbird was a special gift to the New World…The human imagination, which has created unicorn, dragon, and phoenix, has created nothing more wondrous. It is like a precious gem, emerald or ruby, that has life and movement, that hovers, dips, and darts in the air. Looking only at its form and color, its jeweled surface, one would say it belongs in a prince’s turban. Its wings have more delicacy than the finest watchwork, humming when they are set off, whirring so fast they are blurred to sight, shooting it here and there, back and forth, or holding it stationary in the air.”

2008-01-06T09:26:00.000-06:00

Carolina Wrens, A Favorite Full-time Resident
by Ro Wauer

Even in winter, when our temperatures seem to temper the enthusiasm of most other birds, our Carolina wrens are still active and cheerful. They still are busy searching for bugs and other tiny creatures about our yards, and every now and then they will stop and sing their perky songs. Then they will continue their search in every possible corner and hole where they could possible discover some choice morsel. No flowerpot, chair, bench, utensil, or hole and crevice in trees and shrubs are missed. And unless we approach close enough spook them into a retreat, they seem to ignore our presence. They go about their search with impunity.

Carolina wren songs are some of our most commonly heard birdsongs, and they can usually be heard during all the daylight hours. Even in winter, when most other songbirds are quiet, Carolina wrens are rarely silent for more than a few minutes at a time. And what is also fascinating is their ability to sing a number of tunes. Most songs are a loud and clear ringing sound, and usually 3-syllabeled, but they can also be 2-syllabeled. And most songs are repeated three to five times or more. Although Carolina wren songs usually follow a “tea-kettle” format, they can just as well be more of a “weedle” format, a huge variation, or a wild combination. In fact, Paul Ehrlich and colleagues , in “The Birder’s Handbook,” point out that male Carolina wrens “sing 27 to 41 different song types, singing one song repeatedly before switching to different song types; neighboring males frequently match song types.” In addition, males and females duet, a behavior more typical of the tropical wrens. And as far as their call notes are concerned, they can be just as varied with a descending “tiirreee” or buzzing, chattering, or scolding sounds.

Carolina wrens, for those readers who do not know this bird, are easy to identify. It is the largest of our wrens. It is a stubby bird with a heavy dark bill and a rufous back, buffy underparts, and a thick, conspicuous white eyebrow stripe. It has a fairly long, rusty tail, barred with narrow black lines, and is often cocked or switched back and forth. And it has a habit of bobbing up and down. Carolina wrens are very different from the smaller Bewick’s and house wrens that we could possible see in our yards and woods.

For the most part, Carolina wrens are birds of the eastern half of the United States, where they can be present in habitats of all kinds. They are equally at home in deep forests to streamsides and backyards. Their range extends northeast into Maine, but not into the Canadian Provinces. The western extension of their range barely reaches West Texas, although in recent years it has been recorded on the eastern side of Big Bend National Park on several occasions. Like so many other birds, range expansion has become accepted.

Carolina wrens seem to get along just find in human habitations, even constructing their grass and stick nests in flowerpots and folded sheets that are left on the line too long. More typical nesting sites include cavities in trees and stumps, but they frequently utilize deserted woodpecker holes and nest boxes. The nests themselves are bulky structures of leaves, weeds and other materials and built by both parents. Incubation is done principally by the female, but the male brings food to feed the sitting female. Both parents feed the nestlings, but if the female moves to another nest to lay additional eggs, he will continue feeding the youngsters. And unlike most songbirds, Carolina wrens mate for life, maintaining their bond year-round. It is possible to see young birds almost any time of year.

Behavior of Carolina wrens is truly fascinating, not just because they are so obvious, but also because of their strange activities. For instance, they are one of the few songbirds that, like roadrunners, often perch in a sunbathing position, exposing their rump to the sun’s rays. They often remain in that position for several minutes. This is most common during cooler winter days.

Enjoy one of our most abundant and unusual songbirds.

2007-12-30T17:41:00.000-06:00

A New Year Brings New Hope
by Ro Wauer

What will the new year bring? Perhaps all our hopes and dreams will be fulfilled. Perhaps we will win the lottery or inherit a few million dollars from some long-lost ancestor. We can then do all of the wonderful things that we have wanted to do for so many years.

Don’t bet on it! The chance of becoming a multimillionaire overnight is so small that dwelling on such an occurrence would undoubtedly be counterproductive. It is best to stay with our day jobs, live a reasonable clean life, and save enough to guarantee a reasonably comfortable retirement.

But what about if? I suppose that I would do a little more traveling to some foreign countries or places in the United States where I can see and enjoy new sights and wildlife. Maybe I would update my stereo and computer equipment to the state of the art. Or maybe I could give great hunks of money to various conservation organizations earmarked for specific projects.

There is so much that needs to be done in our own backyard that I suspect that my donations would wear pretty thin before I considered anything outside of Texas. For instance, acquisition of land in West Texas, particularly in the Davis Mountains and alongside Big Bend National Park, would take a huge chunk, and dozens of projects along the Gulf Coast and in the Lower Rio Grande Valley needs our help.

I suppose that my first step would be to prioritize my project list. The acquisition and/or protection of uncontaminated wetlands, especially freshwater wetlands, must be of highest priority. These types of areas, especially those few remaining ones along the Gulf Coast, urgently need our help.

In the Rio Grande Valley, an area that is fast becoming one long row of concrete, a few sites still deserve our protection. The Lower Rio Grande Valley “Wildlife Corridor,” stretching from Falcon Dam to the Gulf, richly deserves our contributions.

Closer to home, maybe I would fund added road patrols to control roadside dumping and greater efforts to control feral house cats and dogs, and also establish an extensive environmental education program in our schools. After all, if our youngsters grow up with the same attitude as their parents, our natural resources will continue to decline. Come to think of it, maybe that should be step one.

I guess I need to rethink my entire list of priorities.

2007-12-23T17:42:00.000-06:00

Chilipiquin, Another Red Christmas Berry
by Ro Wauer

There are several shrubs and vines that produce bright red berries and get considerable attention at Christmastime. Some of the best examples include yaupon, wolfberry, pyracantha, beauty-berry, and Texas nightshade. But one of the most abundant of the red berry producing plants - the chilipiquin - gets very little attention as a symbol of the season. For some reason this widely known red berry festooned plant seems to be ignored.

The chilipiquin, however, has received considerable attention outside the Christmas season for many years and for a number of good reasons. Our little chilipiquin is a low-growing shrub, although when growing next to a taller shrub can become quite large. It can produce white flowers throughout the year, but produces the many-seeded, orange to bright red fruits primarily in fall or winter. It has a number of common names, including chile pequin, chiltipiquin, bush pepper, and bird pepper, and its scientific name is Capsicum annuum. It is a member of the Solanaceae or Tobacco Family, of which there are almost 3000 worldwide. And there are 10 species in the Americas.

Species of Capsicum were in cultivation in Mexico when the first Europeans arrived there in the 1500s. Seeds of Capsicum have been discovered in archeological sites dated 9000 years old, and Capsicum plants may have been in cultivation since 5000 B.C. The seeds undoubtedly were used as a spice, although they also are an excellent source of vitamins C, B and A.

Cilipiquins, the wild progenitor of the jalapeno pepper, packs a wallop that surpasses all of the cultivated hot peppers. The little yellow to bright green berries, about an inch long and conical or egg-shaped, ripen in fall. They can be used fresh or dried and stored for later use; one or two berries or a half-teaspoon of the powder will certainly spice up your chili, enchiladas or tamales. Or one can make a pepper sauce for use in cooking various dishes. Delena Tull includes a pepper sauce receipt in her fascinating book, “Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest” (Univ. Texas Press, 1987) as follows: “Sterilize chile pequin fruit by placing the peppers in water, then boil the water, and simmer for 15 minutes. Pour off the water (use it to spice up a pot of beans). Then place a few chiles in a jar with a shaker-type lid, and fill the jar with vinegar. The flavor of the peppers will spice up the vinegar in a few hours” You can then shake some of the spicy vinegar on your various foods as needed.

Chilipiquin peppers have also been used medicinally. Tull mentions that the dry peppers are a stimulant when rubbed on the skin. “The Spanish recorded instances of South American Indians using the smoke of burning peppers as a gas to fight off the Spanish. In the United States the oleoresin [oil & resins] of the peppers was used as a teargas carried by postal workers.” The cosmetic industry uses the peppers as a red coloring. And “the common name ‘bird pepper’ is derived from the practice of feeding cayenne to canaries to produce bright red feathers.” The famous New Mexican chile peppers, also capsicum, are advertized as a health food to cure rheumatism and a remedy for heart trouble, asthma, constipation, and as an aid for virility.

Besides all of the above, chilipiquin shrubs are an attractive plant especially at Christmastime when their bright red berries contrast with their deep green leaves. They are just one more of our wild South Texas plants that are worthy of ornamental use as a symbol of the season.

2007-12-16T17:44:00.000-06:00

Mistletoe, A Symbol of Christmas
by Ro Wauer

Christmas is the time of year that seems to pop up just when one is finally getting the Thanksgiving dinner fully digested. It is a Christian holiday that is so commercialized today that the original intent is all but lost to many Americans. And yet, two native symbols of the Christmas season have lasted over the years – the Christmas tree and mistletoe.

Mistletoe is full of life in winter when it seems that life for many plants is at its lowest ebb. Once gathered as a symbol of life and purity by the Druids of ancient Gaul, the mistletoe figures in legends of Germany and Scandinavia, and today is hung at Christmas as a promise of life and fertility. In many countries, a person caught standing beneath mistletoe must forfeit a kiss.

The plant belongs to the mistletoe family, Loranthacea, which contains about 500 species that occur on a wide variety of woody plants throughout the tropical and neotropical regions of the world. Partly parasitic, it derives part of its nourishment from its host plant. The rest of its food it manufactured from the chlorophyll of its greenish yellow, leathery leaves. Tropical species may flower and fruit year-round, but more northern mistletoe plants flower in spring and produce semitransparent berries in the fall and winter; many are at their peak at about Christmastime. The fruits are eaten by birds that often spread the plant by wiping glutinous seeds of branches of trees.

In addition, mistletoe is utilized as the larval foodplant of at least one butterfly, the great purple hairstreak that flies during most of the warmer months. And in the Southwest, the phainopepla, a shiny black desert bird with a tall crest and red eyes, often nests within bunches of mistletoe.

For years, people regarded the waxen berries as a charm against epilepsy, nightmares, and witchcraft. It has been considered a good luck piece in many parts of the world, worn in the lapel or around the neck to keep diseases away, placed under the pillows to induce dreams or omens, laid upon the threshold to prevent nightmares, carried by women to cure infertility, and placed in fields to stimulate crop fertility.

Mistletoe was once forbidden in Christian churches because it was thought tainted with heathenism, but now it is a symbol of life, along with evergreens, and is brought into households at Christmastime as a decoration and also to perpetuate the pleasant custom of kissing.