bugs in the water, again

I made it back to the Benthic project collection for the first time in months last Friday. Of course the whole project was derailed in the late summer because there warn’t no water. But the water’s back, at least some, and the critters too.








We went to the Burning Tree, Woodrow, and Gay Street sites. Jackson is still barricaded by the property-owner’s barbed wire. It will be a fairly quick lab session next week, because we didn’t get a whole lot. There were, I heard, dragonfly larvae in the Woodrow riffle, but I wasn’t picking that sample, so I didn't see them. Gay had lots of tiny, barely visible swimming thingies - scuds?? that had to be picked with the pipette, because you could never have caught them with the forceps. And a good many very fast and wiggly mosquito larvae. New folk, Faith and a guy whose name I didn’t absorb, joined us. Also Raquel, Theresa, Marilyn, John and Adelaide, and Don. No Kay.














Dragonfly and mosquito larvae images from Chris@184 Chris Bradbury and NZ Alex on Flickr. The pictures of John and Don, Adelaide, and Kay are from the Jackson site last April.

more chiefs than indians

Wearing my hat as one of the publicity committee photographers, I accompanied a city Parks/Rec-sponsored walk at Cross Timbers park. For the city, the staffer for such activities (I forget her name). For the public, four Brownies and their troop leader. For the naturalists, Dorothy Thetford, Dave Rowley, Marilyn Blanton, Joe Bain, Joanna Fellows and her husband, me, and I think a couple more I have forgotten. [edit - Sharon Barr, Tracy Durmick from city, and the woman who joined us midway.]

We saw several redbuds, just starting to bloom. The mexican plums are glorious! And the scent — aaaaahh! Also a real infestation of privet, which we pointed out and explained too. For herbaceous wildflowers, there were Antennaria (pussytoes) up near the lake.

Since I was last at the park, they have added a wonderful steep, dirt section up to the Lake Forest lake. You can hike one-way now from Hickory Creek Road to Lake Forest Park and the dog park, off of Ryan Road. I especially am glad they have a section of one-person-wide dirt trail, as opposed to the gravel "road" of the main trail.

We all got pretty good exercise; the total distance was something between 1.5 and 1.7 miles. Just about the longest the little girls were up to. Me, too. Really got to get in better shape!

So, a nice morning. Cloudy, temperature in the 70s, pretty breezy. Good company, and! two more hours for my service record. (Plus another hour, conservatively figured, for labelling, exporting, getting disc to Dorothy, etc. Dorothy called to say how much she liked the one I managed to send her online.)

olives olives olives (Texas var.)

Went down to the Fort Worth Nature Center yesterday for a winter woody plants ID walk yesterday, led by Suzanne Tuttle. I almost didn't; I've been in bed for a week or more, miserable and sick or depressed or both, but it had been scheduled for months, and I kicked myself into going. Glad I did. Only problem was I was pretty unfit, but it was a slow amble with stops to look at stuff, so no real problem. Betty Zajac, of the Denton naturalists, was there, and she did fall from an unexpected root under her foot. I was afraid I might, but made out OK. And her tumble did her no harm.

I saw one plant I had totally never heard of, Elbow Bush, Forestiera pubescens. Sprawly little deciduous gray thing that was already blooming, little puffs of quarter-inch yellow-green anthers here and there. It's in the olive family, which was actually fairly well represented -— Texas ash, green ash, privet, Japanese ligustrum (both being eliminated, maybe). Also turns out that lilac and forsythia are Oleaceae.

Another new one, that I had heard of before but not seen to know it, was Eve's Necklace, a tree in the Leguminosae, excuse me, Fabaceae. Also in the family, mesquite and honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos – three-branched spines. Boy, it's a well-armed tree! I don't know if I will recognize Eve's Necklace if I see it again or not; it didn't make a huge distinct impression.

There was a very early Mexican plum blooming; also a pear (non-native) down by the waterside. Today I'll have to get out to feed poor Buddy (made it back to D&L in the nick of time to get him some food, but I was tired and came on home with it). Maybe the big pear's blooming there. I hope Bud's OK after last night's hard freeze; the weather underground site says it was 21! That's way, way colder than I thought it would be. I should have really taken him his food yesterday evening.

So, nice sunny afternoon, sort of sore muscles (muscles? what muscles?) and three hours AT for my master naturalist log.