Long ago and not so far away lived a group who called themselves the “Hogna.” Sounds like a Native American tribe, doesn’t it? But, no, we who are better informed know them as a strain of arachnids, joint-legged arthropods. That’s “wolf spiders” for those of you who need a head’s up.
Anyway, it seems the leaders of the group were interested in genealogy and had heard rumors of some cousins that had disappeared from the family tree. These were the antelucana part of the tribe, and they wanted to reconnect with the cousins. They didn’t even know what to call them; they just knew they were Hognas.
Hogna antelucana (photo by E. A. Neubauer)
Fortunately, one day a young man by the name of Eric was discovered in their home territory. Now, Eric was a bit of a mystery to the Hogna, and the Hogna were an equal mystery to Eric. The Hogna were terrified of Eric in the beginning, because he was always running them down and swooping them up in a Tupperware container. Hogna aren’t jumping spiders, and the sides of the plastic containers were too slick to climb out of, so they were trapped. Nobody likes that feeling, do they? It wasn’t too long before they realized that sooner or later Eric would dump them out of the Tupperware, and they could once again go about the business of their daily lives.
Somehow or other those who were abducted by the Tupperware King were able to communicate their interest in their genealogy search. Eric couldn’t promise much since he wasn’t proficient in that kind of search. After all, he was a cross between an engineer and an ice skater! But he said he would look into it for them. Out came the Tupperware and even more of the Hognas got to experience the thrill of the hunt.
One fantastic day, Eric noticed some differences to the antelucana in a wolf spider he had caught. Maybe he was better at this genealogy thing than he had initially thought. He kept finding more of these Hognas with strange markings.
When he needed to see both sides of a spider (wolf spiders being on the larger side) it became a bit of a challenge to Eric as well as to the Hogna. Eric got the engineering part of his brain working on the problem and designed and built a contraption that would allow photographs to be taken without the discomfort of having the Hogna lie motionless on their backs while he took pictures and studied the differences between the cousins. (Some of us think he should apply for a patend for this device! What do you think?)
Well, time moved on, as it has a way of doing, and Eric became convinced that he had truly found the lost Hogna cousins. (He put a talk, with pictures, together and presented it to friends and folks who became staunch supporters of his research. He even presented his research at the Texas Master Naturalist State Conference.) He was becoming something of a celebrity in the world of spiders.
Russell Pfau, who is a professor at a college up in Stephenville, began paying attention to Eric’s research. Russell was able to confirm that our very own Eric had indeed discovered a new species never before documented (again, we are so proud!). Eric even found out what the branch of Hogna wanted to be called. Hogna incognita is the name/title they will be known as from now on. Somewhere in this discovery Eric Neubauer will be forever linked.
We are all so very proud of Eric for his dedication, persistence, and patience in his quest to prove his research was valid.
Catherine shared these photos of sights at her home. Sue Ann Kendall has added identifications, which may be wrong, so feel free to correct!.
Southern dewberry (Rubus trivialis)Crow poison, catchweed bedstraw, among othersCommon vetch (Vicia sativa)Tiny bluet (Houstonia pusilla)Common dandelion (Taraxucum officinale)Cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia)This is the largest native moth in North America
Turks Caps are easy to grow from the little red apple-looking seed pods they put out in late fall. I have verified that through an experiment I decided to undertake last December 2022.
I harvested the seed pods from a very large, pink Turks Cap at the El Camino Real Master Naturalist Wildscape at the Bird and Bee Farm on FM 334 with the hope of growing some in my yard. Turks Caps naturally have a vivid red flower. These had been modified to bloom a light pink. The one at the wildscapesits right next to an even bigger Red Turks Cap.
I googled how to process the seed pods. It was recommended to put them in the refrigerator whole until late February or early March. In late February of 2023, I then did as recommended and removed the seeds from the red pod. Each pod produced quite a few seeds. I planted 16 of them in seed starter packs. I should add that I also took a baby plant from the Pink Turks Cap and put it in a pot at the same time I took the seed pods. I planted one full pod in the flower bed where I intended to put all of them. It is a heavily shaded bed which Turks Caps are known to like. The potted one was getting 6 hours of sun a day.
All of them grew. The potted one grew very tall since it had a head start, I think, and bloomed a lot. Butterflies and bees are very fond of the blooms. I moved the starter plants to a flower bed in my front yard in late March. The full pod plant grew at a faster pace than the seeded plants, but all of them did grow. They grew the most in the shadiest part of the bed.
The whole pod plant bloomed first of the ones in the bed. About half of the others bloomed in the fall. The blooms were all pink – at first. To my surprise, I went to water them one day, and one in the shadiest part of the bed was also blooming red at the same time it was blooming pink. The potted plant had pink blooms throughout the season. The others native gene pool came through. It would appear that they can be planted in any manner I tried.
All of them were still alive up to the freeze. I fully expect them to come back in the spring – even a small one my son weedeated down because he thought it was a weed. It re-sprouted quickly. What I really want to see is what color they bloom.
Usually, I’m the one editing and uploading blog posts for other people, but today I have time to write my own post for this blog. If you live in Milam County, Texas, there’s a very good chance you’ve had some rain over the past few days, very welcome rain, in fact, even if some of us got a lot very quickly.
It’s been wet.
Where I live, at the Hermits’ Rest Ranch in northwest Milam County, we got close to six inches of rain. That’s how it goes here these days, months of drought followed by a big flood. I was expecting it.
Our spring is now springing anew.
It’s also autumn, and since I’m not one of those people Donna wrote about yesterday who think there’s nothing going on in nature this time of year, I thought the days after a big rain would be the perfect time to see what’s blooming or seeding, who’s flying around, and who’s up and about after a rain. Since one of my hobbies is documenting what flora and fauna are around at different times of year on this property, I knew it would be a good idea to document what’s here on iNaturalist (you don’t get Master Naturalist hours for work on your own property, but I’m fine with that, since this is my own research).
That’s an overfull tank!
As the title of this post hints, I found most of my interesting sightings on the ground. Looking down will quickly dissuade you of any notion that nothing’s blooming, growing, and reproducing this time of year. The very first thing I found on the ground was my favorite: this gorgeous leopard frog. I didn’t get a side view, so I can’t tell if it’s a Rio Grande one or a regular one, but it’s pretty.
It’s a big one, too.
As I walked down to my front pond, I saw another resident out of its usual watery location, this pond slider, who must have been going from the back pond to the front. There are so many of these in there, and I bet the flooding moved them around a bit.
Trachemys scripta
Once the sun came out, so did the butterflies and moths. I’m transfixed by the Ceraunus blues (Hemiargus ceraunus) and was really pleased to find them drying off their wings so I could see the blue part when they were sitting still, for once. But I also enjoyed the many sulphurs (not pictured, as they are blurry), Gulf fritillaries (Dione vanillae) and pearl crescents (Phyciodes tharos). There were also monarchs, who refused to pose, and lots of skippers.
Blue wings showingUsual view of ceraunus blueGulf fritillaryPearl crescentSorry they are blurry. Pretty sure they’re fiery skipperes.Lunate zale moth (Zale lunata)
Speaking of flying insects, there are also dozens of dragonflies and damselflies out scarfing up meals. Saddlebags, pond hawks, pink ones, and red ones all flitted by me. But these are the two that sat still briefly.
Variegated meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum), who blends with rocksThe common familiar bluet (Enallagma civile)
And for our pal Eric, I documented some spiders, including a rabid wolf spider mama and my bold jumping spider buddy who lives in my mailbox. There are also many orb weavers out, including these orange ones that may be spotted orb weavers, but I can’t get close enough to get a good photo.
Rabidosa rabida and egg sacOrb weaver in the airThat’s an orb weaver web, all rightHey, Suna, would you get the ants out of your mailbox?
Not a great photo of a pipit.
Of course, this is a great time of year for birds, and this is one time when it’s just fine to look up. After all, birds can be found in the water, on the ground, in the bushes, in trees, on poles, and in the air. I’ve been having a blast with the Merlin Bird ID app on my phone, which has helped me a lot with figuring out all the different sparrows and sparrow-esque birds out in our fields. I say “sparrow-esque,” because just this week I realized one confusing sparrow was, in fact, a pipit. (The link goes to my personal blog post about the birds.) Once Merlin identified it and told me what to look for, I could easily identify it from both sight and sound (and a lovely sound it is).
The list of actual sparrows I have seen and heard includes way more than the annoying house sparrows that have invaded from Europe! Here’s a list:
Clay-colored sparrow
Harris’s sparrow (seen in the winter, not now)
Lark sparrow (bigger ones)
Savannah sparrow
Swamp sparrow
Vesper sparrow
These are probably phoebes, but may be kingbirds. Darn that phone camera.
That’s a lot of sparrows. Added to that are the two kinds of wrens and the amazing meadowlarks (I could listen to those guys all day), and there is a lot of brown to go around. I almost forgot the killdeer. You can’t really forget them, because they never shut up. Between the killdeer and the crows, it can be hard for poor Merlin to hear the more delicate bird calls. The crows have much to tell each other, though I do enjoy all their different kinds of calls and other vocalizations.
Also quite vocal are the loggerhead shrikes and the phoebes. You can’t miss them. Plus, the shrike leaves tell-tale evidence.
A dragonfly captured and impaled by a loggerhead shrike.
You’d think I was done with the birds, but no way. We have large flocks of cardinals here, many warblers (this week the yellow-rumped are around), starlings, grackles, and three kinds of woodpecker (downy, red-bellied, and pileated).
There were two more cardinals on the same fence.
And then there are the water birds. Merlin messed up big time and identified this as a crow. It was right next to me when it croaked, and it sure sounded like a great blue heron to me.
Not a crow.
A seasonal water bird that’s around right now is our belted kingfisher. I do have a photo of it, but it’s a blurry thing with a white neck ring that you know is a kingfisher if you’ve ever seen one. I got to enjoy watching is catch a couple of fish today (and make a lot of kingfisher trills), but there were willow trees between me and the bird, so no photos. Nonetheless, that was a wonderful experience!
The kingfisher was fishing from these trees.
I’m impressed by how many birds are are still here or migrating through, since many summer residents have moved on. I’d miss the tanagers and buntings more if other beautiful singers hadn’t taken their place. But enough on birds. I’m overly chatty.
I had originally intended to focus on all the plants that are blooming or making pretty seeds/berries right now on the ranch, but I got distracted by all the other teeming wildlife. Autumn is a great time to look for flowers here, though, so allow me to share a few of the plants I’m enjoying right now. It’s fun to watch groups of flowers fade away while others start up!
Crow poison (Nothoscordum bivalve) and a tiny insectViolet ruellia (Ruellia nudiflora), still hanging in thereI never get this plant right. Broomweed or something else.Texas Indian mallow (Abutilon fruticosum)Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)White mouth dayflower (Commelina erecta)Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima)Lindheimer’s doveweed (Croton lindheimeri)Slender yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis dilenii)Not a plant. Mushrooms coming up.Rio Grande copper lily (a rain lily) (Zephyranthes tubispatha)Tie vine seed pods (Ipomoea cordatotriloba)Carolina snailseed (Cocculus carolinus)Ragweed, not sure whichA view looking into our wooded area
Well, if that doesn’t convince you that autumn is a great time to go out in nature and look down for a while, I don’t know what will. Heck, you might even see a milkweed beetle.
According to The Cornell Lab, All About Birds, many birds, especially Blue Jays and Cardinals, molt in late summer and fall. It grows and replaces feathers gradually but occasionally a bird may lose all the feathers on its head at once, particularly Blue Jays, in which molt of the feathers of the head “capital tract” in synchrony. This usually occurs in juveniles undergoing their first prebasic molt.
My apologies for somewhat blurry photos since they were taken through the window to not scare off the bird.
The last one is filling in a bit, but don’t worry! They will all be beautiful again eventually.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 