First fox

Today we sat down for lunch today at our dining table. We face windows that look out to the back  yard. A minute or so later, I glimpsed a tail behind the inland sea oats. My first thought was What's Ms. Atlas doing in our BACK yard? Atlas is a cat. Then I got a better look. "James, there's a fox in the yard!"

I ran for my digital camera and did the best I could at grabbing photos through windows. We were careful not to make any noises. I didn't want to startle the fox because I wanted to watch her/his behavior. We knew we had foxes in our neighborhood because we've both seen them and captured pictures of them on James' game camera.

They are such beautiful animals.

The fox meandered back across our yard. Then it jumped into one of our huge live oaks (photo below). It climbed along some limbs, then went back down to the ground. While we watched through the dining room window, the fox climbed onto the chain-link fence in a far corner,  jumped down to the other side and headed toward the woods.

Mexican honey wasps on CTG

Greetings, everyone! I haven't posted much the past several months because I've stuck indoors. Winter is my time off in the gardens. But here come the daffodils and buds buds buds! It's nearly time to get back to work outside. 

In the meantime, producer Linda Lehmusvirta with Central Texas Gardener let me know that Daphne Richards plugged my blog and shared a  January 2018 post about Mexican honey wasps. The episode, "Invasive Species Dilemma," airs this weekend. How awesome is that? Thanks, y'all!

Blog: "Invasive Species Dilemma," February 6, 2020 

YouTube: Central Texas Gardener

Full episode: The Show

First daffodil February 1!

Spring has sprung!

Stock tank prep

Disclaimer: This post is mainly for my own records. I never can remember what I do for winter prepping our stock tank. I know I lower most of the plants to the bottom. But this time, I also cut them back (hence the pile of cut foliage at the bottom of the photo above)–the lemon bacopa, parrotfeather and horsetail rush. I set the rush midway down in the pond on a cement block. 

My poor dwarf waterlily is struggling to survive. Something kept digging into it during the summer. Likely those darn leopard frogs. Sigh....I'm getting to be outnumbered. Between them, the fire ants that keep moving into my potted plants and the deer that have figured out how to jump our backyard fence, I think I'm doomed.

Crag lily

Our first blooms on a crag lily (Echeandia flavenscens). Aren't they pretty?

My crestrib morning-glory presentation

This past weekend, I presented my new program, "From Trash to Treasure: The Saga of an Uncommon Morning-glory" at the 2019 Texas Master Naturalist state conference in Rockwall. Patrick and Gabby, who will bless us with our first grandchild (boy) in December, came to hear me speak. I was honored. (Patrick hasn't heard me speak in public since middle school. LOL!) 

Thank you, Celia E., for taking photos!

 

2019 Texas Master Naturalist state conference

Dr. Brooke Best, botanist, Botanical Research Institute of Texas

This past weekend, I attended my eighth Texas Master Naturalist state conference, this year held in Rockwall. I wish I could share everything I learned at all the sessions I attended, but that's just IMPOSSIBLE. But I'll give you some samples. How's that?

Dr. Brooke Best gave interesting insights on Latin grammar and how to translate the botanical names of plants. We played like detectives and looked up names in the Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners.

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Christopher Ebling, a Black Prairie chapter member, taught us about basic dentrology and tree identification techniques.

At our Friday night dinner, eight-grader Calvin Carpenter gave a brief speech. He's studied white-nose syndrome in bats since FOURTH grade. He should have been our keynote speaker! Here's a 2016 article that gives some details on his work.

Ryan Blackenship, wildlife biologist, Cox McLain Environmental Consulting Inc., introduced me to the amazing world of Texas mussels. I'm going to post some photos separately of some shells he brought to show us.

Nearly everyone has a passion, and fireflies are what light up Ben Pfeiffer, who founded Firefly Conservation & Research. Here are some slides from his presentation.

 

Christine Gurley, a masters student at University of North Texas, educated us about painted buntings and her research on them. Did you know that young painted buntings are BOTH green? Males do not grow their rainbow pluamge until their second year. That reminded me of male purple martins, which do not turn purply black until their second year.

Alison Northup, a PhD candidate in Ecology at UT Austin, and Cliff Tyllick with Keep Walnut Creek Wild shared information from a research project on tree girdling that they're working on. For more information, click here for an article, "Invaders of Texas Citizen Scientist and UT Graduate Student Study Techniques for Girdling Ligustrum."

My weekend grand finale was attending "How iNaturalist Guides Policy," a session hosted by TPWD biologist Sam Kieschnick. He's always informative AND highly entertaining.