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.