Commander Ben enlightens us

Commander Ben and our chapter president, Fredi.

Yesterday, Commander Ben the Invasive Hunter both enlightened AND entertained our Highland Lakes chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists. Ben, who's 14 and passionate about fighting invasive species in our state, talked with us for nearly an hour at our November meeting in Marble Falls. Check out his website and see what he's doing in the way of videos, interviews and other science-related work. 

At first, he jokingly told us that he'd injured his hand while fighting invasives. Then he said, no, he'd actually broken it during a Taekwondo sparring match. As soon as his hand heals, he plans to get back to sparring!

As a token of our appreciation, Linda, our vice president, presented a Master Naturalist hat to Ben. He loved it!

Commander Ben and his mother, Mary.

After his presentation, Ben handed out business cards to Dan and other members.

He also shared his popular "I'm an Invasive Hunter!" stickers. As you can see, Celia was thrilled to get hers.

This young man has a great future ahead of him, and I'm so glad to know him. (That's me and Ben.) Thank you, Ben and Mary!

* * * 

Yesterday, I filmed a short video (not great quality, sorry) of Ben giving his presentation to give a flavor of his style and energy. He's amazing! 

PSSSSTT! Watch for my upcoming article on Commander Ben in the March 2013 issue of Texas Co-op Power magazine.

Cool bird cam in the Valley

Way down in South Texas, the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists have installed a live bird feeder camera in the Sabal Palm Sanctuary. It's COOL. This morning, I've been watching green jays gorge themselves on bird seed. Check it out!

Here's how they set up their camera system.

Way to go, fellow Texas Master Naturalists! What a gift for everyone! 

When a light bulb goes off...

Who's been eating our beautyberry?

Last weekend, I was one of 20+ members of our Highland Lakes chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists who gathered for the 13th Annual Meeting and Advanced Training at Camp Allen near Navasota, Texas. The best part of the three days was attending advanced training sessions. I just love to learn! 

Even better is when a light bulb goes off when you're sitting in class, listening and observing. Like Oh, so THAT'S what I saw! or Hey, I've observed that kind of behavior!

My first class was "Bumblebees of Texas: Species Diversity, Sampling and Identification" with Michael Warriner of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. While discussing leafcutting bees, Michael talked about how they cut out circular pieces of leaves to construct walls and partitions of their nests.

* * * LIGHT BULB MOMENT! * * *

Oh, so THAT'S what had chomped on our American beautyberry during the summer! James had noticed holes in the leaves, but we couldn't figure out what had chewed on them. Leafcutting bees! I couldn't contain my excitement and had to raise my hand and comment to Michael in class. 

Later in the class, Michael mentioned how eastern carpenter bees "may steal nectar from the stems of flowers." 

 * * * LIGHT BULB MOMENT! * * *

Wow, we've observed that in our Wildscape! I don't know how many times I've watched bees go to the stems of salvia blooms, not the actual blooms. You can see photos of this behavior here. I don't think I've actually photographed one stealing nectar, though I've seen plenty do it. Cool cool cool!

From there, Michael delved into the life cycle and biology of Texas native bumblebees. Males, who are much smaller than females, are territorial and will hover around flowers, waiting for a female to show up. 

 * * * LIGHT BULB MOMENT! * * *

So THAT'S what those bees are doing around the salvias! All summer, I saw bees hanging around the salvias, buzzing here and there, maybe chasing off other bees. They were funny to watch, but I didn't understand what they were doing or what kind of bee they might be. Those were male bumblebees! Oh, my goodness! 

During the conference, I also took Michael's "Native Been Management Practices" class, "What's New with Texas Wildscapes" with Mark Klym/TPWD, and "The Digital Naturalist" with Jaime Gonzalez with the Katy Prairie Conservancy.

I especially enjoyed "Bryophytes, the Forest Beneath Your Feet," presented by Dale Kruse, curator of the Tracy Herbarium at Texas A&M University. I know NOTHING about mosses, liverworts and hornwort so his session was a real eye-opener. We have a large patch of moss in our back yard so now I understand a bit more about it. 

This is our crop of moss, perhaps some species of Bryum, but I'm not certain.

What I DO know is that the long "stems" arising from our moss are the reproductive parts of the moss. They're called "sporophytes." The "capsule" (elongated point) of a sporophyte contains spores, which are released and start new mosses. 

Later in his lecture, Dale showed an image of a "splash cup," another reproductive part of some bryophytes.

* * * LIGHT BULB MOMENT! * * *

So THAT'S what I'd found inside a pot with a plant that we brought home from a nursery last April! I'd kept the strange "bird-nest" looking things for a while, but I finally tossed them outside. Back at home, I looked through my files and found the photos I'd taken. Then I looked online and found a similar photo of what I'd found in the pot. Ah, ha, mine "nests" weren't actually a bryophyte...

They were FUNGI...perhaps the bird's nest fungus (Cyathus striatus). So thanks to Dale, I solved THAT mystery! Just wish I had photos of MINE!

At the conference, I also attended "Plant ID--The Top 10 Texas Families" with Master Naturalist Diane Humes. During the hour-long session, Diane discussed common characteristics of our largest families of native plants: sunflowers, mints, mustard, spurges, legumes, snapdragons, mallows, lilies, grasses and sedges. She quoted the oft-used ditty, "Sedges have edges, rushes are ground, and grasses are hollow from the node to the ground."

 * * * LIGHT BULB MOMENT! * * *

 AH HA! That "grass" in our Wildscape that James and I couldn't find an ID for was a SEDGE! Duh! I'd even scanned it (below) but finally gave up. I found another sedge and photographed the seed head and also the angular stem. 

My mystery grass is actually a sedge.

 

 All in all, the three-day conference was GREAT! I learned so much and met so many nice folks. And I'm pretty darn sure everyone else in our Highland Lakes chapter (and other chapters from across the state) who went had just as wonderful a time...Just ask'em!

"Texas Master Naturalist Class 2012"

Here's a photo book that I created a few months ago for our Master Naturalist class with the Highland Lakes chapter. OK, disclaimer time: I'll get a $10 credit with Shutterfly for posting this link. But I thought the book did turn out nice. If you like, take a look....

Click here to view this photo book larger

[Shutterfly offers exclusive photobook layouts so you can make your book just the way you want.]

I'm a Texas Master Naturalist!

Photo by Mike Childers

It's official! I am a certified Texas Master Naturalist with the Highland Lakes chapter! This month, I completed my 40 hours of training, 40 hours of volunteer work and eight hours of advanced training. Last Sunday, our chapter hosted a graduation party at Reveille Peak Ranch west of Burnet. Billy baked dozens of pizza for everyone in a bona fide brick oven. James got to go, too (he took all these photos). After visiting and dining, then our chapter president Fredi Franki and training program coordinator Sammye Childers presented our certificates and badges.

Sammye visits with my classmate, Pete and his wife.

Billy's about to bake the first of MANY pizzas!

We always have a good time whenever we get together.

More pizzas.....

Classmate Wayne (middle) has a...uh, er...great...sense of humor! We love you, Wayne!

We each received a Certificate of Graduation and a box of Sammye's famous fudge.

We presented Sammye with a special book of photos and memories of our 11 classes.

(Photo by Mike Childers)
 All 20 of us in the 2012 class graduated. Six of us received our official badge for completing requirements before April 30: Ed, Joy, Eva, Debora, Vicki and me. 

CONGRATS TO MY FELLOW GRADUATES IN THE 2012 TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST CLASS:

TOM A.

ED B.

BARBARA B.

BECKY B.

PAT C.

JUDY C.

JOY C.

CELIA E.

KEN G.

MJ H.

EVA H.

JANIS K.

WAYNE M.

DEBORA M.

VICKI M.

DAN N.

PETE S.

FRED Z.

KAY Z.

Week Eleven: Wildflowers and digital cameras

Judy and Marvin Bloomquist (far left and middle) welcomed us to their home near Kingsland for our last Master Naturalist class.

I use a digital camera a lot when blogging about our Texas Wildscape. In 2008, I started Window on a Texas Wildscape as a way to document what we’d planted in our yard and the changes we saw season by season, year by year.

Little did I know that I’d branch out to citizen scientist contributions (Lost Ladybug Project), reporting a new butterfly species in our county (Falcade orangetip) and capturing insect behaviors and infestations (Phaedon desotonis that ravaged our greenthread).

Week 11 (and our last class) of our Texas Master Naturalist training with the Highland Lakes chapter covered wildflowers and using the digital camera as a tool in the field.

We met at Marvin and Judy Bloomquist’s home, which crowns a high hill northeast of Kingsland. The couple, who both belong to our Highland Lakes chapter, have counted close to 200 species of flowering plants on their 268-acre ranch. Since forecasts predicted storms, we began our morning with wildflower walks led by Marvin and Joan Mukherjee.

 

Pat, Barbara and I joined the walk led by Joan Mukherjee, who's also a member of our chapter.

Kay held up a Drummond's skullcap that's gone to seed.

Joan showed us a Brazos rockcress that'd gone to seed.

Fred pondered the Brazos rockcress for a while.

Half an hour into our walks, light drizzle started.

Like I said, Fred pondered the Brazos rockcress for a while.

Celia, Barbara and Pat got a close-up look at a common sunflower.

Once the thunder rumbled and raindrops got bigger, then we headed inside for our classroom instruction. Our first session: “Wildflowers 101” presented by Joan. “Any time you want to learn about plants, you want to learn the families,” she stressed.

"This is my Bible!" Joan said of her hefty volume, Shinners and Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas.

During our hour-long class, Joan passed around plants and discussed characteristics related to plant families, such as Composite (sunflower) and Solanaceae (nightshade).

Pete looks over a wildflower field guide before our next class begins.

Once the thunder rumbled and raindrops got bigger, then we headed inside for our classroom instruction. Our first session: “Wildflowers 101” presented by Joan. “Any time you want to learn about plants, you want to learn the families,” she stressed.

After Joan’s presentation, Marvin talked about using a digital camera as part of our Master Naturalist studies. Over the years, he’s photographed and cataloged thousands of images taken of wildflowers and plants found on his property. 

Marvin discussed aperture setting and shutter speeds, which he adjusts on his Lumix digital camera to achieve desired effects.

A standing ovation, please, for our training program coordinator, Sammy Childers! During our final wrap-up session, Pat, a fellow classmates, said, "Wayne (another classmate) made a comment that this was the best $135 (for tuition etc) he'd ever spent, and I absolutely agree." ME, TOO! Our official graduation celebration will be Sunday, May 27.