Wait! There's more to the crawdad story! We also spotted snakes below the lower dam but just two. The big one was a plain-bellied watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster). Turns out the younger snake was the same species. It was entertaining to watch the crawdads semi-interact with the snakes. James said he saw one crawdad reach out and pinch the bigger snake's tail. I missed that! Overall, both snakes ignored the crawdads.
The crawdad is climbing the dam while the two snakes watch.
A closer look at the adventuresome crawdad.
The adult watersnake just acted chill when the crawdad got closer.
After we wrapped up nature watching at the upper dam yesterday at Blanco State Park, James and I headed to the lower dam. There we found some crawdads – officially called red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) – having a grand time in the fast-moving water coming over the dam. I laughed when they'd tumble down the limestone and then climb back through the rushing water. I hadn't thought about crawdads in YEARS. Seeming them brought back funny memories of one that my son kept in an aquarium in his bedroom. This morning, I dug out a newspaper column I wrote about Bob, Patrick's cranky crawdad, and my daughter Lindsey's mischievous hamster, Hamm. Those were long-ago days when my former husband was the park superintendent at Blanco State Park, and the four of us lived in the state residence.
Life Among the Living, Blanco County News, January 3, 2001
Before supper, James and I visited Blanco State Park so James could get some photos of the Blanco River roaring over the two dams. (Thank you, Mother Nature, for sending some heavy rains Tuesday night.) While he was doing that, I sat down on a ornamental concrete bench that overlooks the river. Right away, I saw a bee approach below me. Then she disappeared into a nest burrow dug into the granite gravel. I also noted that there was more than one coming and going from the hole. Naturally, this bee watching occupied me until James returned from filming. I'm not sure what kind of solitary bees these were, but I'm working on it.
After all these years, James and I finally joined the Native Plant Society of Texas. One reason why: We were asked to submit photos of our native plant gardens for a new inspirational resource on their website. Last week, photos were posted of our front and back yard along with The Meadow. Yay!
As an aside, the NPSOT website has a lot of great resources and tools. Here you can link NPSOT's demonstration gardens and Monarch Waystations around the state. And here's where you can search by ecoregion and tour "Inspirational Home Gardens" across Texas. Ours is located within the Edwards Plateau region. Below you can click on the image and jump to our page. Take a look-see!
Our Eve's necklace (Styphnolobium affine) looks awfully sad right now. James noticed her condition this morning. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm hoping she recovers. We've had her since October 2021 when our friend Matt Murrah gifted her to us.
Look! Our twistleaf yucca (Yucca rupicola) has blooms! It planted itself in The Meadow so it's definitely a neighborhood native. When we noticed the stalk coming up, James put a cage around it. Yep, you guessed why. Otherwise, the neighborhood deer (and axis) would have eaten it. Which has happened in years past. Not this time! James took the first three photos. Then I went outside and took a look-see myself. So beautiful!
This story starts with a wild ruellia (Ruellia nudiflora). But not the one above. I'm just using the photo as an illustration. As I mentioned in a recent post, wild ruellias think they own our place so I often yank them. On one particular ruellia that I pulled last week, I happened to spot something odd. What was that mini potato-looking thing on the plant? Was it part of the plant? And why were the ants interested in it? I posted photos of it on iNaturalist and learned that – oh, my goodness! – it was the pupa of a four-speckled hover fly (Dioprosopa clavata). Here's a photo on Bugguide.net that looks similar to my potato. Since my lesson on fly pupa, I now examine ruellias before I pull them. On one, I did find an empty pupa case so that was cool.
Pupa on ruellia
Last night, while going over my new iNaturalist observations, I discovered that I've seen the four-speckled hover fly in three of its four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Isn't that cool? I thought so.
