A sea of color is in bloom at the Milam Wildscape project at Bird and Bee Farm outside of Milano. Most of the blooms are courtesy of native Texas plants. On a follow-up trip on Saturday, October 24, to check on the Malabar Spinach vine I am trying to keep trimmed, I was met with a surprise of different colors and some catatonic bees.
There were many shades of purple, pink, orange, yellow, red and white from a variety of plants still thriving.
The most surprising was a Cypress Vine (below) that had sprung up, wrapped itself around the awning with the spinach, climbed about four feet and proceeded to bloom since I was last at the site.
Cypress Vine, growing like crazy
There were also Lavender Leaf Sage, American asters, Southwestern Cosmos and some pink flowering vines full of catatonic carpenter bees.
Lavender leaf sage (mealy blue sage in the background)
Cosmos
The carpenter bees had attached themselves to a few different flowers but mostly to this plentiful pink flowered vine (Suna says: coral bells Antighonon letopus). They seemed to be in a state of hibernation – probably temporary. They could be touched with almost indiscernible movement from them. (I thought they were bumble bees until I put them on iNaturalist.)
Also in bloom and growing were goldshower, cut-leaf crane’s-bill, Indian blanket, white and pink roses, and a frilly, white shrub-like flower. A pair of Gulf Fritillary were also weathering the cold front on a tropical sage.
If that’s not enough, a great group of volunteers were planting more including a couple of trees. (Pictured l to r : Carolyn Henderson, Pamela Neeley, Scott Berger, Liz Lewis, Catherine Johnson, and Donna Lewis (kneeling). Most of the foliage is putting out “babies”, and the “babies” are available for adoption to be planted at your place. For information on that, contact Catherine. You also can volunteer to help grow the wildscape by contacting her.
It was a great day last week for seeing new things in my garden. It’s a reminder that to see these beautiful living things, you must always be looking for them.
So after I saw the new Black Swallowtail caterpillar , I walked around in my garden and a fast moving butterfly landed right in front of me. I looked down to find something I had never seen!! It was a Julia male butterfly. They are a brush-footed butterfly (Nymphalidae).
Julia Heliconian (Dryas iulia)
This group of butterflies occur worldwide except at the polar ice caps. They are generally some shade of orange, which is why they are sometimes mistaken for a Gulf fritillary (my second photo), which was on a zinnia at the same time the Julia was. They were both just a foot apart. Lucky for me I was outside with a camera.
Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)
Brushfoot butterflies all have reduced fore legs that are useless for walking, hence their name. Butterflies in this group include: Admirals, Fritillaries, Checkerspots, Crescentspots, Anglewings, Leafwings, Painted Ladies, Tortoisehells, and Longwings.
The Julia caterpillars feed on passion flower leaves.
I will look for their caterpillars, now that I have the adult butterfly here.
Keep your eyes peeled Master Naturalists, it’s all out there.
Believe it or not I just found this beautiful caterpillar this week, on October 14, 2020.
Eastern Black Swallowtail (PAPILIO POLYXENES)
It’s not really the time of year I would expect to find it, but here it is.
Also, if you notice this is not the normal color of this species. It would most often be more green with white stripes and yellow spots.
It’s black!
Since it was on a fennel plant in my garden, that gave me a hint of what it might be. When I looked it up, it was noted that once in a while this butterfly’s caterpillar is black. I have never seen this myself in my garden. Interesting!
The Pipe-vine caterpillar is the only other species that has the two colors on a regular basis in my area. So the lesson we have here is that the plant has a lot to do about identifying a species.
I have to say, it’s pretty neat that this caterpillar has the ability to have two different morphs.
Finding a funnel web a couple of feet off the ground is unusual, and more so when it uses a knot hole as a focal point. This shows nearly as much “intelligence” and behavioral flexibility as using something in the environment as a tool.
Funnel weaver nests are usually on the ground, above a hole
So, where does that “intelligence” reside? I can see two main conclusions: First that intelligence is no big deal after all, and second that intelligence must reside outside the physical being. However it seems logical that the expression of “intelligence” would be subject to the limitations of the physical being.
Here you see the spider peeking out of the knothole it’s used for a “hole.”
As far as intelligence residing outside the physical being, one of the unique characteristics of life is its ability to act with purpose which is something that lies outside of the laws of physics anyway.
My little company held its Board retreat near Wimberley last weekend. I was pretty excited when I found out we’d been booked into a ranch with over 100 acres. I was even more excited when I arrived and realized I knew the area pretty well from having been on retreats nearby in a previous life stage. I immediately formulated a plan to get as much Master Naturalist activity in as I possibly could. That’s my idea of fun, I guess.
As soon as I put down my suitcase and got oriented by the property owner, I set off. I didn’t set off very fast, though, because I was doing a BioBlitz! My goal was to see how many different plants, insects, etc., I could identify from Friday through Sunday. The layout of the land was very helpful in this pursuit, because there were huge meadows full of prairie broomweed and friends, deep oak and cedar elm woods, a creek, hills, valleys, and lots of limestone formations. I made over 50 iNaturalist observations that afternoon.
Some of the things I saw the first day.
When I got back, we sat on the screened porch and watched hundreds of butterflies floating by. They were small, so I knew they weren’t monarchs (I did see three of them during the weekend). I looked on Facebook and saw that my Chapter member friend, Dorothy Mayer, had suggested I join the TX-Butterfly Facebook group. So, I did, thinking I’d at least learn something about SOME butterfly. Imagine my surprise when the first post I saw was describing the migration of the American Snout butterfly! There was my answer!
American snout butterfly, sitting still for once. Photo from news article linked below.
I later came across an article on it in the news, so you can read more here.
The rest of my weekend was a blast. I hiked all over the property, which used to be a ranch, then a resort, then part of it was a disc golf course, etc. There was a sunset tower to climb, hidden meeting areas, lighted paths, and really pretty cattle. Quite a place. It would be a fun Master Naturalist retreat area.
A few of the sites on the ranch
On Saturday, we avoided the incredibly crowded Wimberly Market Day (not many plants to observe there, anyway), and instead we visited the Jabob’s Well park. Jacob’s Well is the second-deepest artesial well in Texas, and it’s really beautiful. Apparently people keep drowning when they try to explore its caves, so I stayed on the shore. I was glad to be there AFTER swimming season, too.
Jacob’s Well
I met some young Park Service staff who were just keeping an eye on things, and they were fun to talk to. They told me to be sure and go find the sign saying how much work Master Naturalists had donated to the visitor center and gardens.
Way to go, Hays County TMN!
Of course, I made some more observations there, especially in the prairie restoration area. There were so many beautiful native grasses to see.
This must be last year’s grass, but it was so pretty (switchgrass).
I enjoyed finding plants that were new to me or seemed rare, as well as old friends (one dandelion, just one). What made me happy, too, was discovering that of all the iNaturalist sightings in the area, only three were by someone other than me, so I did good work documenting what I saw. Maybe it will help someone, sometime!
Metz’s Ruellia, totally white.
Edwards Plateau Five-eyes (a rare one)
Hairy ruellia, Ruellia humilis, perhaps the prettiest flower ever, to me.
Cool wildflowers I saw. Sorry about the links that don’t show up. The good news is they take you to my observations. And, if any of them are wrong, you can correct me!
In the end, I added well over 100 observations to iNaturalist, saw the work of fellow Master Naturalists, met some people at a distance, avoided crowds, and had some fun. That’s a perfect vacation in these times of social distancing!
Nature Along the El Camino Real 
![https://ecrmasternaturalists.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/frilly-white-flower-bush-10-24.jpg?w=480"](https://ecrmasternaturalists.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/frilly-white-flower-bush-10-24.jpg?w=480"){kind=link}