The Great Egret, Ardea alba, is symbol of successful conservation. The egret was hunted to near extinction for its snow-white plumage, which was popular in women’s fashion, in North America in the 19th century. After a century of legal protection, egret numbers have increased substantially and their future outlook is bright.
iNaturalist Observation: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4256605
Reference
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/great-egret/
I wake up every morning to this beautiful Texas Ash (Fraxinus texensis) outside of my window. I live next to Walnut Creek in north Austin, and this tree is part of the riparian ecosystem near the creek.
The Texas Ash is a medium-sized tree with an oval crown. It’s range is from the Dallas area to Central Texas and west to the Edwards Plateau, on rocky limestone hillsides, bluffs, and ridges. You can identify it by it’s opposite and compound leaves that are 5″ to 8″ long, with 5 oval or round leaflets arranged pinnately. The leaf is dark green on top, much lighter below.
Although I did not identify any flowers at this time of year, male and female flowers are borne on separate trees. Female flowers are in loose clusters appearing with the new leaves, while male flowers appear as dark, purplish clusters near the end of the twigs, often before the leaves. It’s bark is gray, with brown or black blotches, furrowed, with the interlocking flattened ridges common to the ashes.
You can find my iNaturalist post here.
Source: http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/treedetails/?id=37
The other Saturday at the Vireo Preserve we had the opportunity to explore the largely successful recovery and management efforts happening on the preserve. Biologist Jim O’Donnell from the City of Austin walked us through his 20 years of work on the Vireo Preserve. He called our attention to several plant and animal species and explained their significance for the ecosystem and recovery efforts. One of the most interesting things I learned was the use of Turkey-tail, a fungus that grows out of logs and trees, to manage the invasive Japanese Privet (one we have heard a lot about from researchers at Wild Basin-Abby, Savannah, and Eric!). Jim O’Donnell explained how they cut down the privet chopping into two feet long chunks. They inoculate the stumps with Turkey-tail after it has dried and spread it around the preserve. The fungus grows out of the sides of the inoculated pieces of privet and then eventually decomposes the chunks. It is an innovative way to deal with the cut down privets and allows natural biological processes speed up the process of decomposition. Here is a picture of an inoculated privet piece:
The majority of the fungus is within the wood and only it’s tail sticks out, giving the Turkey-tail it’s name. It rarely harms a tree since it lives mostly to decompose dead woody material, providing essential nutrients to the soil. Along with the Turkey-tail’s important role in nutrient cycling it is linked to potential immune benefits in cancer patients. See here for a closer look at the study. My iNaturalist post is found here.
References:
http://www2.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/turkey_tail.htm
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_versicolor.html
I remember seeing this bird for the first time when I moved to Texas, I thought it was a pretty bird. And I still do. But what I didn’t realize that how common they in Texas and that their range is from Mexico to some parts of Mid-West, all of southwest part of United States. The population is steadily increasing and growing the size of distribution to further north into Mid-West and some parts of western United States.
This bird will eat anything. Literally. Maybe not so literally. They will eat from fruits, vegetables, seeds to insects (slugs, worms, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, spiders, wasps, you name it) and some small mammals like mice and shrews. They also sometime eat bird eggs and nestlings. They eat lizards, snakes and fish as well.
Their foraging range is so broad, and that is probably why their population size is increasing over years. It had been suspected that this species had a part in causing extinction of Slender-billed Grackle in Mexico years ago.
My iNaturalist observation can be found here.
Buckley’s yucca, or Yucca constricta, is a native plant in the agave family. It can grow up to 10 feet tall. They like high sunlight levels and do well in drought conditions. They produce white flowers in late spring and early summer. If they can reach them, deer like to munch on the flower spike. It is commonly used as an ornamental because it attracts butterflies and is a hardy plant. I found these plants at Inks Lake State Park a couple of weeks ago.
My iNaturalist observation can be found here.
Source:http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=YUCO