Category: Nature Observations

Donna’s November Garden

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Donna Lewis

Hello everyone,

As promised, I am showing you photos of my pollinator garden through all 12 months of 2021. You can get an idea of what changes take place.   

My garden is 95% native plants and trees. That fact has made it more resilient to temperature and other factors making it easier to manage. Even now I have a few Monarchs, Fritillaries, Swallowtails, Sulphurs, and a host of other butterflies.

It is pretty warm in the garden so many plants like Salvia and Blue Mist Flower still have nectar to provide. Today it is cloudy and windy, not a good day for the butterflies to be out and about. The garden also has more shade now because of the location of the sun. Butterflies need sun to warm their bodies. They cannot regulate their own temperature.

The leaves are starting to cover the open areas and the plants. This provides the needed cover to protect living things from chilly weather. I have tree frogs moving around under the vines.  You can find chrysalis of several butterfly species under branches and along the fencing. Yes, it might look messy, but not for the wild things.

As I like to remind all of us who love nature… you must remember who you are gardening for? Look at the garden from the bird and butterflies’ point of view.

Soon it will be time for the winter nap.

Mystery Flower Revealed

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

By Carolyn Henderson

The mystery flower at the El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist Wildscape that we shared a picture of a few days ago revealed itself one week later at the second weekend of club members working very hard to spread native Texas wildflowers. It is a Purple Coneflower. 

The flower in its mystery state

This particular Purple Coneflower is somewhat unique in that it is a very late bloomer, its bloom is unusually large, and no one knows how it got there. It has several other buds that I hope get to open up before a hard freeze. 

Now it looks familiar!

If you’d like to see the mystery (now revealed) flower, the ERCTMN members will be holding one more weekend of giving free native Texas Wildflowers to anyone who’d like some. Pots to put them in when they are dug up ran out last weekend, so bring something to put them in to take home. The Wildscape is on County Road 334 at the Bird and Bee Farm. 

Echinacea purpurea

The only plant that doesn’t have extras is the Purple Coneflower. Cultivator Catherine Johnson hopes to collect seeds from it to share next spring. 

A Hidden Visitor

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall4 Comments

by Donna Lewis

Camouflaged and silent…

I was out this beautiful morning cleaning and filling my hummingbird feeders. I finished with that, then filled up the ant moat which the chickadees drink from.

I was so shocked to see a very green tree frog not making a move in the crutch of the shepherd’s hook.

I had done all that work and sprayed with a water hose, and it never moved.  Boy was I both shocked and happy at the same time.   

While I was happy, I bet it was scared that I was a predator fixing to get him or her. It was a “Barking Treefrog”.  So wonderful to see.

Today was your lucky day, little one. A planet Earth person who loves nature was the one who found you. You made me smile. I guess we were both lucky today…

Keep Those Leaves!

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Donna Lewis

Fall is slowly arriving, and the leaves are starting to fall into our gardens.

Some of you are thinking, “How messy! I’ll need to rake or mow them up.”

I used to think like that, too, especially when I lived in the city. Now that I live in the country, I have learned better. My bad back has also learned to take it easier.

Mother Nature also has made those leaves fall for a purpose, to protect the new plants that will emerge in the spring and to protect little critters that live and sleep away the winter among the fallen leaves. Those are two good reasons to just let them lie.

Today (October 24, 2021), I walked through my garden to catch one of the last monarchs heading south, lovely and gentle as she had a little sip from a milkweed in my garden.

After I left the garden, I went over to the Celeste fig tree that has frozen back every winter, and has just put out the first edible figs ever!  I was so happy.  A little snack for me.

Remember, leaves are the baby blankets for next year’s new plants. So leave them….

Scissor-tail Beauty

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Donna Lewis

I am sure all of you have noticed the numerous little mini flocks of scissor-tails lately around the county.   They are a bird even amateurs can identify.

Male and female. Photo by Martin Hall on iNaturalist.

We drive to our destination and everyone in the truck says look, look, a scissor-tail!

They have something to say! Photo by the late Greg Lasley on iNaturalist.

So, why do these birds have this tail?  This bird is a flycatcher, so it needs to be agile and able to turn quickly on a dime and in mid-air.  To catch an insect you have to be fast.

She caught a fly! Photo by Judy Gallagher on iNaturalist.

Its tail splits in two to redirect its flight.  Pretty handy.

Scissor-tailed flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus) are beautiful birds with a pearly gray head and chest, and dark wings and tail. They can be found all over Texas and Oklahoma.

Photo by HD Cooper on iNaturalist.

During the winter they will migrate south to Mexico and even South America. That is what they are doing now. Otherwise you would not see them in a flock.  They like to be solitary, except at night when they may roost together as a community.  A sleepover with your friends.

Photo by Lena Zappia on iNaturalist.

In some places they are known as the Texas bird of paradise.

Females (who don’t have as long of a tail as the males do) lay three to six eggs that are white or cream colored with some dark red on them. Lovely to see.

Keep your eyes up and you will see them now.

All photos are some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) and authorized for nonprofit use and were selected by Sue Ann Kendall to go with Donna’s narrative.