Measure of a successful walk

Break out the field guides! Haul out the old big red dictionary! Search my photo files and check the nature websites!  A great walk's been had, and some of my photos turned out. Now the memory jogging begins. (Too bad memory jogging doesn't count as steps toward my employee wellness program).

Although today's walk was at the Heard Nature Sanctuary north of Plano in McKinney, the measure of success is the same for a walk at Oak Point Nature Park.




Pipevine swallowtails have the stunning irridescent blue lower wings, but fewer spots and less orange than other swallowtails.

Eryngo

Every year I have to look for the name these pretty purple pineapple-shaped wildflowers.

The concern with my favorite Gulf Fritillairy is spelling. One t. Two ls.

This was a new sight for me. Grapy berries or berriysh grapes growing on a shrubby vine near the boardwalk with poison-maybe leaves. Behold, beware! Beautiful colors in the fall sunshine. From internet sources I'm thinking these are members of the grapevine family, Vitaceae (Vitidacaae), called Peppervine or buckvine, Ampelopsis arborea, or even "cow-itch."

You might be able to make jam or wine according to one foraging site or hand-pull to remove as a pest plant. How did our ancestors survive without Google's contradictory guidance?

One final lap of memory jogging to log due to the very low water in the seasonal wetland slough. Although dragonflies were busy, the dry months have turned the wetland into a naked lake. Fascinating, but unnerving, it reminded me of watching my Grandma put on her corset and roll up her support stockings when I was a little kid.

"Slough" has given me trouble since way back reading By The Shores of Silver Lake in fifth grade. "Slough" can rhyme with stew or cow but not with fluff unless you are discussing shedding skin like a snake.

Being able to visit a place around the seasons, through different times of day and light, wind, and weather is a gift. It is also a challenge to stay observant and curious. Thanks to those who have given me memberships to the Heard.

© 2014-2019 Nancy L. Ruder

Wee Friendly Flyers

Cute. Small. Furry. Everywhere. Patio or backdoor, fancy garden, prairie, meadow. This evening I salute skipper butterflies.

Good-natured, self-confident, rarely intimidated. Entertaining dancers, but can pass unnoticed just sipping flower nectar under the radar.

The perfect guests, skippers bring the guacamole AND the chips, chat with your visiting aunt, and then stay to help clean up.

Oak Point June 27, 2014

Note on the identification of skipper butterflies. Don't.

There are so many kinds that I've chosen to celebrate their be-happy-don't-worry message, and not wonder too much.

My mom, Fritzi's ©1951 Peterson Field Guide to the Butterflies of North America East of the Great Plains, by Alexander B. Klots, gives me a headache peering at the teeny print and black/white illustrations of skippers. Mom's reference has two color plates for this huge family of butterflies--one standing out in front of the sod house, and one at a 50th wedding anniversary party.

My 1995 printing of the ©1981 National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies is much more generous, but the text is still teeny. Color photos numbered 133 to 315 are all skippers.

Butterflies of North America by Jeffrey Glassberg  spotlights a couple skippers with full page photos.One shows how a skipper folds its wings into newspaper hats and cloth napkin animals. Or not.





© 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Blue and widowed and standing on my head

Sharp-dressed stunners are abundant in the meadow and along the creek. The female Widow Skimmers were everywhere in the tall grass, circling and returning to the same perch once they got used to me being there. Of course, the chiggers took advantage of my patient wait for a better photo! 

Female Widow Skimmer 

Swift Setwing trying to cool off by standing on its head

Unidentified blue damselfly

Now that I know how to net, chill, and warm up dragonflies, I'm pondering a cyanotype sun print art project. Just trying to push the A into STEM.

Splurged last spring on this seven dollar waterproof folding dragonfly guide, Dragonflies of Texas: A Guide to Common and Notable Species, by James L. Lasswell and Forrest L. Mitchell. Too bad there isn't a similarly useful guide for damselflies of Texas.

© 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Tennis shoulder with butterfly net

Capturing insects with digital cameras is so much fun I sometimes forget my introduction to the hobby. As Father's Day nears, I'm thinking of the wise and slightly selfish method my dad engineered to wear us out and send us off to sleep at eight p.m. in the olden days of the Sixties.

Dad formed the wire loops on the bamboo poles. Mom sewed the white nets to fit the loops. It was brilliant, really. Way more exhausting than watching a red/white bobber while holding a bamboo fishing pole; chasing butterflies involved running up and down hills swinging nets with forehand and backhand. It was fascinating enough for the kiddies to keep going for hours at a time.

In the heat of the afternoon we flopped on the living room rug to study field guides. At dusk we were running around hunting sphinx moths with gorgeous pink underwings. Dad read the evening newspaper. Mom loaded the dishwasher. Life was good. By the time the fireflies began appearing near the pine trees we were pretty tuckered out.

Our capture rate was very low, even when we became skilled net-swooshers. Netting insects must be a bit like riding a bicycle. When I climbed back on the task, I managed to catch (two each) butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, squash bugs, and less flamboyant insects to place in the magnifiers.

No carbon tetrachloride or kill jar in this hunt--I transferred my netted specimens to Greek yogurt containers, put on lids, then popped them in the freezer for a minute and a half. My chilled-out beauties were easily transferred into the magnifiers for the class. Afterwards, they all returned "into the wild".

One can argue about collecting specimens in nature preserves, and most preserves prohibit the practice. I would say my impulse to stewardship of nature began in those summer days of netting yore. The fascination of close observation and study inspired all my later environmentalist efforts, and not a few of my creative endeavors.

At Oak Point:

• Hunting, trapping, or removal of any animal, or to let loose any animal is prohibited.

• Removing or damaging plants, grass, or otherwise disturbing any part of the environment is prohibited.

Snapping photos isn't the same aerobic experience as chasing around the neighborhood with nets. Hoping I can still translate the complexity and fragility to my very young students.

© 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Question Mark questions

I saw several Question Marks on my walk, and they were all looking the worse for wear. What have they been doing all winter?

April 3, 2015 Caddo Trail

Pulled out one of my favorite butterfly books, The Life Cycles of Butterflies, by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards.  By the way, it's a very family friendly book. Turns out:

Question Marks emerge from their chrysalises in the fall and spend the winter as inactive adults, hiding in woodpiles or under loose tree bark until spring. 

November 3, 2013 Rowlett Creek Trail

I know plenty of inactive adults who wouldn't mind this lifestyle if they could check out library books. Question Marks perch "head down on the side of a tree trunk", which would be difficult for the inactive adults I know.

What does a Question Mark look like on a good day, after a mani-pedi?

These photos were taken on the Spring Creek Trail in Richardson (trail parking at 75 & Renner) April 10, 2012. The Question Marks look much fresher, so they must be a new generation:

  

 © 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Check up, check in, check out

What's been happening in the Oak Point preserve? I had to go do a quick survey on my odd day off. Everything changes in the blink of an eye or the sudden short thunderstorm. The Rowlett Trail is buzzing. That is partly due to the cicadas from the Twilight Zone. The catocala moths are still trying to discombobulate the big, lunky hiker by flying straight at her eyes. Trees are still falling in the forest where nobody hears, but soon the turtles will celebrate a new sunbathing spot. The amazing process of decomposition is as much a choreographed ballet as the emergence of spring flowers. I'm checking out field guides to lichen, fungi, and mushrooms. So much mycology, so little time. Have to go with slime molds and cicadas for dummies!

A show-off cicada today.

Beauty pageant sparkles on cicada

Flamboyant flamenco fungi

More moderate mushroom, the fruiting body of a fungi

Fish check out the fallen tree, but no turtles yet

Fallen tree's leaves are still green

Cicadas usually have vacancies

Double mint cicadas at Oak Point

The wheels on the bugs go round and round all through the town!

2010

The wheel bug looks like a vintage metal friction toy. It's difficult to believe it is a living creature, but easy to believe it could be harmful. My National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders says:

1 1/8-1 3/8" long. Gray-brown to black. Prothorax raised into a curved series of coglike teeth along midline...This handsome predator can give a painful stab when it defends itself from a careless handler...[eats] caterpillars, even the larger ones including hornworms...

Connemara Conservancy 6/22/2014

I spotted a wheel bug on a soggy walk at the Connemara Nature Conservancy this rainy morning. Tried to photograph it with my camera inside a ziplock bag without great success. Once you have seen a wheel bug, you are unlikely to forget its identification.

Plano 7/7/2013

If you are too young to remember friction toys, you might visit these links to a simpler time:

• How friction cars work
• Friction motor
• Tin friction toy Cadillac
• Tin friction motorcycle