Category: Uncategorized

I grew up in Pelham, NY, a little suburban town bordering the City.  I decided to go undergrad in Virginia to get out of New York and get to know another part of the country.  While I was going to school in Virginia, my parents moved to Austin, Texas.  At the time I imagined Austin to be full of cowboys and pick-up trucks but gladly I was proven wrong and ended up moving here.  On my way to visit my parents one night I encountered an owl in the middle of the road.  I was pumped! I immediately stopped and got my camera out.  When I got home I immediately went to identify it. Luckily I was able to get a couple good pictures before the owl flew off.  I put the most identifying characteristics and let google do what google does best. The results showed that it was a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).

The great horned owl has long, ear-like tufts, and a cool yellow eyed stare. Like most owls, the great horned owl is nocturnal, and are generally seen at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas , or flying across fields or roads. I saw the owl on this residential road, with one side opening up to a large natural property, where it was probably hunting. The powerful owl can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also feeds on smaller prey such as scorpions, mice, and frogs. It is one of the most common owls in North America across a variety of habitats such as; deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any semi-open areas between the arctic and the tropics. The owl like particularly young woods interspersed with fields or other open areas.

 

Source- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/id

Fredericksburg, Texas. Home to Main St. shopping, German food, numerous wineries, and… honey bees! I originally wanted to document this bright orange flower, but I was photobombed by this gorgeous honey bee!

Did you know honey bees represent only a small percent of bee species? Honey bees are the only surviving group of bees from the Apini tribe, which is under the Apisgenus. They are known for producing and storing honey, or liquefied sugar, as well as building impressively large nests using wax secreted by workers in a particular colony. How cool!

Honey bees are usually oval-shaped with golden-yellow colors and brown bands. Although the body color of honey bees varies between species and some honey bees have predominantly black bodies, almost all honey bees have varying dark-to-light striations. These light and dark stripes serve a purpose for the survival of the honey bee: unlike other species that hide when they sense predators close by, the brightly colored bodies of the honey bee act as a warning to predators or honey robbers of the honey bees’ ability to sting.

They are found worldwide and can be seen in many different locations, including Europe and the United States. Because honey bees are found worldwide, their nature and behavior can vary. For instance, while Italian honey bees are usually more docile, German and African honey bees can display extremely defensive behavior. However, all honey bees can become defensive when provoked and can chase humans or animals hundreds of feet.

It is truly terrifying that honey bees are disappearing at an alarming rate. All types of bees perform a vital task to the survival of agriculture—pollination. Most of our global food supply is pollinated by bees! It’s the bees which keep plants and crops alive. Without the bees, humans would have a difficult time trying to survive. Save the bees!

You can find my iNaturalist observation here.

This past weekend out at Wild Basin, this frog was spotted as it was exploring Bee Creek. After googling its description, I’ve identified it as a Plains Leopard Frog, or Lithobates blairi. The Plains Leopard Frog is a frog common to central Texas, and named after a zoologist  from the University of Texas, Dr. Frank Blair. More on the Plains Leopard Frog can be found here.I like to see amphibians move across both water and land in native areas, because frogs are a common bioindicator for ecosystems. This capability as a bioindicator is characterized by the  permeability of their skin, which makes them susceptible to changes in both terrestrial and aquatic environments.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

As we draw closer to the end of semester, each week seems to get longer and longer.  My research group and I have been spending a couple a days each week at the Wild Basin.  As I was walking up to the building at the Wild Basin, I caught a quick glimpse of some Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, off to the side of the main path and took a quick snap shot.  It’s hard to see it in this photo because it is in the background, but it isn’t too hard to find out there.  It is a woody vine, and many animals such as squirrels and deer feed on the leaves and stems. It does need to be maintained because it grows rapidly and can block the sunlight from other trees and plants. It can be found in the southern, midwestern, and eastern United States

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

These little cactus bugs are called Cactus Coreid, or Chelinidea vittiger. I observed them while out on the trail at Inks Lake State Park, about an hour outside of Austin.

As their name implies, they are associated with cacti, specifically Opuntia, which includes prickly pear. Eggs are laid on the underside of Opuntia species, making them very host specific. They feed on the vascular fluid of the host plant they were born on. They have been observed to starve before finding a new host plant if their original was destroyed. Due to this host specificity, their range extends wherever Opuntia species are found.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

Source: http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/216651-Chelinidea-vittiger

Dryas iulia, commonly called the Julia Butterfly or Julia Heliconian, flew past me while I was walking to my car last week on campus. Its dazzling orange color and swift, yet irregular flight pattern drew my attention immediately. Only when it finally landed on a plant was I able to capture a non-blurry picture. Julia butterflies can be found in the southern US but are native to Brazil and are distributed everywhere in between. The females of this species typically have more black on their wings while males are much brighter orange, which makes me think this is a male. Julia butterflies are long-winged, brush-footed butterflies with high fecundity rates and a unique proboscis that allows them to feed on pollen. They are able to get amino acids from the pollen that they cannot get from nectar. Because of this specialization, they often live longer than many other butterflies. This trait makes them very suitable for butterfly farming or gardening.

You can find my iNaturalist post here.

References

http://www.gardenswithwings.com/butterfly/Julia%20Heliconian/index.html

I came across this plant a couple weeks ago and I noticed it because it’s flower stood out to me. Scientific name is Ruellia simplex and it looks like a normal common garden flower, but it can actually be a very aggressive invasive plant species, so aggressive, it is banned in some states. They are able to tolerate a wide range of conditions, surviving in both wetland and desert conditions. They are native to Mexico and the southwest region of the United States. The invasive form of this plant can be difficult to remove because of it’s large horizontal roots that grow above and below the ground and the worst part about this invasive plant is that the seeds form a mucous like gel when they get wet allowing them to stick to the soil like glue. However, developers have made different versions of this plant that are more responsible for gardens to grow.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

I snapped these pictures while on a research trip this weekend in Port Aransas, Texas. This flower was spotted at our second study site right near the water. I put it on iNaturalist right away as “unknown” and began researching what kind of flower it might be. As I came to the conclusion that it was a Dayflower, someone had already identified it as a Dayflower ,or Commelina spp., on iNaturalist. I then identified it to species as Commelina erecta, or Widow’s Tears, and this id has been confirmed.

This perennial, also known as the Whitemouth Dayflower, is in the Spiderwort plant family. It is native to the US, and according to the IUCN Red List, it is of least concern. This plant usually only grows upright if it is supported by other plants; it typically grows along the ground and it can grow up to three feet long. The ephemeral flowers have two big blue petals and one small white petal. These flowers usually bloom from May to October. They bloom in clusters and a flower only blooms for one day, but there are other flowers on the plant that open three to four days apart.

Dayflowers like dry, sandy soils or muddy, clay soils and their habitats include open pinelands, dry scrub, woods, marshes, between rocks, streambanks, prairies, and along roadsides. Because of the broad habitats they can live in, these plants can become invasive. They are also a preferred food source of white-tailed deer.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

Sources

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=COER

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/176972/0

https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_coer.pdf

 

While enjoying the beautiful scenery at Inks Lake we stubbled upon this creature. This spider is not the largest spider I have ever seen but I found it very interesting because of it’s distinct white stripe. I later identified it as the Pantropical jumping spider. This spider originated in Asia but has spread the United States. It is often found on light colored buildings and it eats bugs that are attracted to light. I found this spider on a the side of building near the lake. This is a male spider which is distinct from the females of the same species. Pantropical jumping spiders eat several different arthropods and will vary it’s diet depending on what is available.

The jumping spider gets it’s name from the ability to jump from plant to plant hunting prey. While I find this a really cool adaptation, I am very glad I did not see it jump. I probably would have gotten a picture of it! My iNaturalist post is here.

References:

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/jumping_spiders.htm

 

This blurry little guy is a Mediterranean house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus. Picture taking is not a talent of mine, sorry, also kind of his fault for being the same color as the wall and not very photogenic. We were both watching the rain from the protection of the balcony. It is an invasive species in the U.S., native to southern Europe and northern Africa. It is commonly found throughout the southeastern U.S, almost exclusively in urban or developed areas. They are nocturnal and eat a variety of insects.  They are considered invasive because they reproduce quickly and are highly adaptable.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.