Month: October 2016

During my breaks at work, I enjoy walking around the nearby pond and forest area. This small area of preserved land is home to quite a bit of biodiversity. Just off of the main trail I spotted this American holly (Ilex opaca). It was easy to spot with it’s bright red fruit and spiny-teeth leaves.

The American holly is typically an upright, evergreen tree that can grow up to 50 feet tall. It has many slender branches that form a dense pyramidal or oval crown of striking dark green color. Open-grown specimens, such as this holly, have branches that often extend to the ground. It is found on rich, moist soils of bottomland forests in East Texas, westward to Wilson County. The bark is light gray, tight, leathery, and roughened by wart-like growths and blotches on older specimens.

Holly boughs, especially those with fruits, are commonly used for Christmas holiday decorations such as wreaths.

See my iNaturalist post here.

Source: http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=48&t=H

As the days are getting shorter, I now come home when the last bits of sun are leaving the sky. The short walk from my car to my apartment is through a green patch that is home to a nine-banded armadillo. I first met the armadillo last year when I heard some rustling in a bush. Being from the pacific northwest I had never seen the strange animal that came out of the bushes. It looked like a strange scaly nutria, however I knew from pictures of southwest wildlife that it was in fact an armadillo.

Nine-banded armadillo is the only species found in the United States. The animal can have anywhere from 7-11 scaly bands that give it an armor looking coat. From my research they seem to eat almost anything from insects to plants allowing them to live in a wide range of areas, including the green space at my apartment complex. Amazingly they can hold their breath for approximately six minutes and will either swim or walk across the bottom of rivers. An armadillo usually gives birth to identical quadruplets, but since the armor is not formed until later in life they are prone to predation. Their population is increasing since humans have killed off most of their predators including pumas, black bears, and alligators.  Armadillos were a source of food for humans, especially during the great depression, due to their abundance. I have been unable to get a picture of the armadillo living near my apartment but here is my iNaturalist post.

References:

https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Mammals/Nine-Banded-Armadillo.aspx

Per usual, I spotted this weeks observation while walking my dog. At first, this little gecko seemed so cute in my eyes. (I definitely have friends who would disagree with the word “cute” for a gecko, as they are terrified of them. Yes, even when they are this small). Upon identifying this little thang, I found out that it is invasive to the US. In fact, the website that helped me identify it is called texasinvasives.org. Its most established populations in the US are in Florida.According to the website, they are resistant to pesticides and have an ability to reproduce rapidly, capable of laying multiple clutches of two eggs during the summer. Because of these traits, they have steady populations across the Southern US. However, these populations are disjunct, and therefore there is hope for native species according to that same website. The Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) is also mostly found in developed areas, as its common name implies. They will often be seen at night below sources of light, eating insects.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

The red bird of paradise, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, is a fairly common ornamental plant found throughout the U.S. It is popular because of its characteristics and beautiful flowers. It requires very little maintenance and blooms year-round. It is an attractive plant for pollinators such as bees and butterflies.  The seeds are poisonous if consumed. It is drought resistant and sun tolerant. Red bird can be found many places in Austin, this particular one is on campus next to Moody Hall.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

I was walking home a few days ago when I saw a flash of green from a flock of birds flying overhead. The birds came to rest under a tree in my complex, so I went to investigate. There among the grackles were a flock of Monk Parakeets. Monk Parakeets are native to South America, but established wild populations in the U.S. in the 1960s, likely due to their popularity in the pet trade. They can be found as far north as Chicago and New York. It is believed that they can survive northern winters because of their large, multifamily stick nests. Each nest contains an average of 20 nest chambers, but some can house more than 200 nests.

More information on Monk Parakeets can be found on All About Birds.

iNaturalist Observation: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4404621

Yesterday, I went swimming in Barton Springs and saw what I believe to be a squash bee. This was exciting to me after all the recent buzz about the extinction of the all the pollinators. Bees are extremely important to the ecosystem and can even be said to be responsible for one out of every three bites of food we take. This is because most of the crops grown for their fruits require pollination by insects and bees are by far the biggest and main pollinators. They make such great pollinators because they have hairs all over their body’s that attract the pollen grain and allows them to collect and transfer it easily. In addition, they typically focus on one type of flower at a time.

Source: http://nativeplants.msu.edu/pollination

iNaturalist Observation: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4391631

The chinquapin oak or Quercus muehlenbergii is very prominent in the forest area surrounding my apartment. It is named because of the resemblance of the leaves to the Allegheny chinquapin (Castanea pumila), a relative of American chestnut (C. dentata). Chinquapin oak occurs in northeast Texas to central Texas and south to the Guadalupe River. It has an interesting history; Early pioneers used its straight wood to make thousands of miles of fences in the states of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. They were also used to fuel steamships and as railroad ties for the new railroads that crisscrossed the Midwest.

The chinquapin oak flowers between April and May and produces acorns which ripen between September and October. Both male and female flowers occur on the same tree and they are pollinated by the wind. Like others oaks, this tree supports a wide variety of wildlife, making it an important habitat in its own right. The acorns are a preferred food for wild turkeys, grouse, white-tailed deer, black bears, chipmunks, squirrels and hogs. Cattle will eat the leaves.

You can find my iNaturalist post here.

References

https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=875

http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=101

My apartment complex’s landscaping includes this grass, but I can’t identify it. Can you? This grass is found planted alongside cactus and succulents, in a mulched bed alongside a building. I suspect it is relatively drought tolerant, but it may also function as the plant that removes the excess moisture from the soil that the cactus and succulents don’t need. It’s also hard to tell if the brown patches on this grass are normal or a sign of sickness (disease, too much water, not enough water, etc).  Is it native or non-native to the Central Texas region?Knowing these facts for certain would make identifying this grass much easier, but for now it will be known as the unidentified grass.

iNaturalist Observation: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4376670

Insect identification has always been difficult for me.  Walking back from class I saw this guy (girl – I should just say male/female) hanging out close to the parking garage, and I think it’s a Katydid.

In Costa Rica we were able to see some amazing insects and see their special traits, but usually there was a field guide around to help ID.  The Katydid is named for its song that is usually made by the rubbing of its wings. The song is described to go “Katy-did, She-did”. The fore-wings are convex and oval, crossed by ‘veins’ that closely resemble the veins of leaves.  With its leaf green and brown coloration it has great camouflage and is usually disguised in the leaves.  I’m not sure which species of katydid this one is exactly, but it is in the family of long horned grasshoppers.  The katydid primarily inhibits crowns of deciduous trees in forests, parks, or yard – so keep your eyes peeled!

I found this guy over the weekend in Canyon Lake at a wedding I was attending. They were everywhere. I think it was an infestation of some kind, but it has been very difficult trying to identify this little guy. If anyone has any insight into what this worm/caterpillar might be, let me know! I’m very curious.

my iNaturalist post can be found here.