I took some photos today even though it was very windy.
Most of the Monarchs have already come through here in Central Texas and are on their way North. I am seeing one or two, but that is all.
So of course, just now the milkweed is blooming. Not a good situation for the Monarchs.
When the climate is off, the plants are off. And when the plants are off, so are the insects.
If you have been a lifelong gardener or a bird watcher, you have watched this scenario take place. Observing the natural world is better than reading a book on nature.
So, now what should we do?
All I can think of is to try to plant nectar plants that bloom earlier. I do not think that will work with the milkweed. though.
We can encourage others not to mow the native milkweed down and to leave it at least till the Monarchs have moved on, and the milkweed has seeded.
That would help a little.
If each of us did a little, great things could happen.
Saturday was an absolutely glorious day for a field trip and guided walk through Mother Neff State Park. It’s the closest state park to Milam County, so it wasn’t a bad drive at all for the carpoolers and separate drivers. Plus, we got to see lots and lots of wildflowers along the way!
Part of our group
We were very impressed with the new park headquarters that was built after the original one was flooded badly (some of the park is still inaccessible). There are very impressive native plantings all around it.
Native plant landscape
Once we were all gathered and checked in, the group motored over to the trail head and enjoyed a walk through wooded areas, led by a knowledgeable park intern who’s majoring in leisure or something like that.
Into the woods
The hike took us to a cave, a cool picnic table in the middle of nowhere built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a large cave that was used for years by indigenous residents, and a CCC tower that would give great views if the trees hadn’t grown up to block most of it. There was a lot of going up and down involved, so the hike was better for folks with good legs.
MeadowTexas baby blue eyes in the woods The wash pond where residents used to do laundry Looking down the pathLinda Jo handling the steep ascent to the caveLearning about Tonkawa CaveIt was cool in the caveThe group, minus Rosie, the photographer. Those who didn’t climb got to restIt’s a sturdy towerTower stairsTower view
Two of our members were not very good participants in the hike, however. Linda Jo Conn and I were too enthralled by all the interesting plants and insects we saw that we could share on iNaturalist. This park is part of the Texas Master Naturalist GTWT Adopt-a-Loop trail project, so we wanted to add observations to that. Also, well, we are just that way. As Linda Jo states, we proceed at the pace of botany.
Can you ID any of these?
We found some very interesting plants and were impressed by the variety we saw. I wish we’d been there when the yellow passionflower was blooming. But I was impressed that I remembered what the leaves looked like and found it. We had a blast!
Checking for hairy leavesSpongy apple oak gallA violetINat says it’s a nasturtium?Slender hedeoma Canadian garlicEndemic to Texas 7-leaved creeper (Parthenocissus heptaphylla)Yellow passionflower
Everyone was pretty tired after we got back, but since I was driving, I forced my passengers to wait while we parked in the trail head for the walk through the meadow that my husband and I had walked last December.
I wanted to see things that weren’t woodland plants, like Lindheimer paintbrush
We didn’t want to make them sit forever, so Linda Jo and I didn’t walk on the actual trail. We got all distracted by a sunny area surrounded by Ashe junipers. It looked like dismal scrub. But NO! It was filled with interesting and rare plants!
And pretty plants, like cobaea beard tongue
I was particularly excited to find a star milk vine. What beautiful, tiny flowers it has. The one Linda Jo was most excited about was a golden-eyed phlox, which is endemic to Texas. The other chapter members said they could hear us whooping when we found yet another interesting plant in the “bare” area.
Just lovelyStar milk vineGoldeneye phlox
We ended the expedition with a nice lunch on Lake Belton. We’re very lucky to have such a fun group to do our activities with and the perfect day to do it.
PS: Sorry for the lack of Latin names for plants. I had to hurry to finish this. Then a squirrel blew out our electricity and my Internet router.
Success with growing Pink Turk’s Caps from seed is looking more possible every day. I now have seven growing from seeds that wintered in the refrigerator. Then I was surprised to find that the one whole seed pod I planted in the ground last November had come up. I had flagged the site, so I could remember exactly where I put it.
So, they will come up from a baby plant planted in the fall, seeds that have been removed from the red pod covering, cleaned, dried, and refrigerated over the winter, and a whole pod placed in a flower bed in the fall. The only version that didn’t produce plants were the cleaned and dried seeds planted in the fall in containers and left outside.
Now, I’m waiting to get them a little larger, so I can transplant them to the mostly shaded flower bed.
The El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist training class met at Walker Honey Farm, where owner Clint Walker discussed all the wonderful things about bees. Attendees were able to handle the hive frames, see the queen bees, and observe at least three different colors of pollen carried by the bees. They were dressed appropriately for visiting hives.
Bee handler Blake explained the manufacturing process.
Then they had some great “retail therapy” at the Walker Honey Farm store.
Last year I had quite a few Eastern Black Swallowtails eating most of my dill. I was okay with that, as almost all of my cucumbers were too bitter to can. The weather got too hot too fast for my cucumbers. So, I was disappointed not to be able to can any pickles last year.
The dill was fine, though, and the beautiful butterflies loved it and laid lots of eggs underneath the leaves. When the caterpillars got big enough, I put them in my butterfly house along with a bunch of dill and watched until they all got into a chrysalis. A few did come out & looked healthy. They flew good so I assumed they were healthy.
However, I had three chrysalis that didn’t look right but, I just left them alone. I figured after numerous freezes that they were all dead in there. (I had my butterfly incubator on the back porch where it’s not heated nor cooled.)
Nope. One by one those butterflies managed to come out, and we got to watch them fly away, which was just super fun and amazing. I plan to plant a ton of extra dill this year and try that again. I think it’s a great activity for a learning experience for children and adults alike.
So please, don’t put chemicals on your plants, because you will kill “good bugs” with the “bad bugs.” Poison doesn’t discriminate. It kills ALL bugs and possibly birds, too, as birds eat the insects and feed them to their babies.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 