The Hays Humm - August 2020
The Hays Humm
August 2020
Tom Jones - Betsy Cross - Constance Quigley
This photo, taken by NASA Photographer Lauren Hughes, best captures how the comet actually looked without binoculars.
NEOWISE
By John Cassidy
NEOWISE by Hays County Master Naturalist Shannon du Plessis
“Finally got my shot from the top of EmilyAnn-Veterans Memorial. Last night was gold. 500mm ISO 4000 f/6.3 1.6s. I am beside myself! I normally shoot with a macro lens.“ - Shannon du Plessis
I hope you were able to see Comet NEOWISE in July. Some quick NEOWISE facts:
Comet NEOWISE, officially known as C/2020 F3, was discovered on March 27, 2020, by the NEOWISE asteroid hunting mission. NEOWISE stands for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.
Comets are often referred to as "dirty snowballs" because they are made up of ice, rock and dust left over from the formation of the Solar System.
NEOWISE orbits the Sun approximately every 7,000 years.
As it neared the Sun, material began to “boil” off of NEOWISE’s surface to form the tail seen in most images.
NEOWISE itself is only about four miles across but its tail is hundreds of thousands of miles long, making NEOWISE visible to us.
NEOWISE is currently heading away from the Sun toward the outer Solar System.
NEOWISE was first visible in the morning sky in early July. However, Cindy and I waited until later in the month to try and catch it when it passed into the evening sky. We tried on July 12 and 13, but the comet was still lost in the evening twilight and light pollution, and we could not find it. Finally, on July 14, we spotted it with binoculars, a wispy shuttlecock shaped cloud, barely visible in the still-lighted sky. Over the next several nights, NEOWISE rose higher in the sky and escaped the twilight. It became visible to the unaided eye. Its tail extended about ten degrees. While it had been predicted to be brighter, it was still a wonderful sight.
NEOWISE is passing into invisibility now, but August still features the Perseid meteor shower. It peaks on the mornings of August 11, 12, and 13, but there should be a lot of meteors on either side of those dates. The best viewing is after midnight. The moon might interfere after it rises around 12:30. However, the Perseids tend to be bright, and many of them should be visible despite the moonlight. You may see up to 25-30 meteors per hour at the shower’s peak. The meteors occur all over the sky, but looking northeast may be your best bet. No telescopes or other gear needed. Just have a seat and look up. Bring friends and family. The more eyes the better.
Finally, look southeast for brilliant Jupiter rising about sunset. Below and to its left is Saturn. Both are worth a look through telescopes.
View from Old Baldy
The hard limestone capping the hill is exposed. This layer has slowed the erosive forces of wind and rain forming the hill.
Photo by Bob Curie
I love the beautiful look and symmetry of the Wimberley Valley hills. My favorite is Old Baldy, which is part of the Little Twin Sisters Peaks. The twin to Old Baldy is an unnamed hill with a higher elevation of 1219’ on the other side of Highway 2325. Each of the Twin Sisters has a smaller companion hill. For Old Baldy, its companion is informally referred to as EmilyAnn-Veterans Memorial hill. It hosts the Butterfly Festival. All of the Twin Sisters four hills are easily viewed from Ranch Road 2325. Check out the topographic map below to see locations of the Twin Sisters Peaks family of hills.
Old Baldy is loved by locals and visitors. I am sure most HCMN have huffed and puffed up the stairs, earning a great view from the summit. Old Baldy’s peak elevation at 1182’ is not the highest in Wimberley, but the combination of public access and stairs makes it the best known and most visited.
The name “Twin Sisters” is appropriate since the hills share many of the same characteristics. The prominent hills align along a common direction and are part of the Cypress Creek watershed divide. They also have similar geology within the upper Glen Rose formation. How did the Twin Sisters stand tall while the rest of the valley eroded down into the Blanco River and Cypress Creek watersheds? The answer is that their limestone formations are much harder and better cemented, which slowed the erosional forces.
USGS Topographic Map-Old Baldy
The Balcones Fault Zone bisects the Wimberley Valley and is responsible for the topography we see today. Fault lines are not as straight as they are commonly represented on maps. They follow areas of weakness within the rock itself. As a result, faulting tends to follow the path of least resistance, often going around harder and better cemented formations. Rather than one long fault line, there are many connected short segments that trend in the same direction. A fault bisects the northwest flank of Old Baldy. It splintered the limestone allowing rainfall to enter the rocks. The result was increased erosion along the fault line. Rainwater slowly dissolved the limestone, creating karst features in this area. A sinkhole provides evidence of the karst terrain along the fault and can be seen from Cypress Creek Lane near the Messina Inn entrance.
Erosion along the fault created the valley that separates Old Baldy from the its Twin Sister peak. While driving down Cypress Creek Lane, you can see the faulting by the dip in the road. Faulting and karst sinkholes are identified with areas favorable for water supply. As early settlers arrived in Wimberley, I think the “water witchers” would have had an easy time identifying this area as a good location for wells. There is evidence of abandoned wells. More recently Wimberley Water Supply Corporation drilled water well no. 3 in the same area adjacent to the fault. It is currently providing water to Wimberley residents.
Limestone Outcrops on Top of Old Baldy
The hard and well cemented limestone layers on top of Old Baldy slowed erosion from wind and rain.
Fault Crossing Cypress Creek Lane
On Cypress Creek Lane near the Messina Inn, accelerated erosion along the fault creates a dip in the road.
Sinkhole Adjacent to Fault
Logs and other debris placed over the sinkhole prevent larger animals from falling in. The estimated diameter is about 3 feet.
Abandoned Water Well Next to Sinkhole
The well piping extends 4 feet. It was likely a windmill discharging water into an adjacent tank. It is not known if the well is plugged.
First Sighting
June 26
On a late afternoon in June, while working at my desk, I caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar flyer in my peripheral vision. From my office window, looking through the dense clutter of leaves and branches, I made eye contact with the unblinking stare of an owl, a screech-owl. At first there was one, then a second one - two fuzzy youngsters.
Soon three fledgling screech-owls and one adult began spending their days in the tree outside my home office.
The owls came and went from their daytime perch every day for about a month. I was enamored of their soft purr, which I heard even in the middle of the day. Occasionally they came down from their perch to drink from a tub of water under their tree.
They never seemed to fear my presence or my urge to photograph them endlessly. I watched them leave at dusk together in a family group. In the mornings just before daylight, they returned to their tree.
Young [Eastern Screech-Owls] gain flight and hunting skills slowly; they depend on their parents for food for 8–10 weeks after fledging. Both parents feed the youngsters at this stage, and adults, especially the females, shelter together with the young in communal tree roosts. Gradually, as the young gain skill, they begin to roost and hunt apart from their parents and siblings. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Screech-Owl/lifehistory
I never discovered the owls’ nesting cavity, and I didn’t take note of the last day I saw them. But we had many engaging conversations during the days and nights of their stay at Owl Tree.
Funny Faces
Extraordinary Insects: The Fabulous, Indispensable Creatures Who Run Our World, by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson (Simon and Schuster, 2020)
I have been fighting the problem of food moths, scorpions, fruit flies and mosquitoes this summer, and decided to find out why we need insects. I was aware that they have some special functions, like honey making and pollination, but I wanted more proof that there is a need for all sorts of insects in our lives. One of my favorite little poems is one by Ogden Nash – “God in his wisdom made the fly…And then forgot to tell us why.”
“Extraordinary Insects” (previously published as “Buzz Sting Bite: Why We Need Insects”) had been recommended at a Master Naturalist meeting, so I secured a copy and started on an engrossing reading experience. The author, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, is a professor of conservation biology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. She divides her book into chapters with catchy titles, like “Six-Legged Sex: Dating, Mating and Parenting” and “Eat or Be Eaten: Insects in the Food Chain.”
Her writing is clear, filled with humor and personal insights, and extremely readable. She uses a lot of statistics that show the abundance of various insects and why so many are needed. She informs us how important the different species have been to food production, research, decomposition of dead matter, clothing (think silkworms) and other important facets of life. She also makes a good case for a diet of insects, popular in many parts of the world.
“To cut a long story short: insect minilivestock requires very little space, food, and water, reproduces at a tremendous rate, and simultaneously provides an effective source of nutrient-rich food that is high in protein and emits minimal amounts of climate-changing gas.” If fried grasshoppers or slug soup don’t sound appetizing to you, there are many other reasons given in “Extraordinary Insects” to increase your respect for what the insect world provides us.
THANK YOU
NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTORS
John Cassidy
Bob Currie
Jane Dunham
Shannon du Plessis
HCMN Diversity Team
Texas Master Naturalist 2020 Annual Virtual Meeting
Presentation Abstract by Your Own HCMN Newsletter Editors
Tom Jones & Betsy Cross
Wednesday October 14, 2020 1:00 - 2:00 pm
Are Chapter Newsletters Relevant in the Age of Social Media?
Newsletters serve as a communication tool, allowing the Hays County Master Naturalist (HCMN) Chapter to learn about its diverse membership and their work within the Community. It is a platform to share our knowledge and experiences. We also communicate via Social media such as Facebook, email, and Google Groups. Social media allows members to post their experiences and photos as soon as they occur. Are monthly newsletters still relevant in the age of social media? Our presentation explores how a monthly newsletter, published online, can effectively complement social media, attracting many readers both inside and outside the Chapter. In this way it is also a recruiting tool.
Evolving the Newsletter from a PDF document to an online webpage was a key milestone for us in expanding the diversity of content, improving our quality, and increasing readership. An online newsletter simplifies team collaboration, supports video, and is perfect for viewing high resolution nature photographs. As the Newsletter grew, membership started submitting articles, photos, and other content. Publishing on a monthly basis allows time to create well developed articles with content that is different from the short, quick hit messages associated with other social platforms. The challenge of moving to an online newsletter is training a team in using web design programs such as WordPress or Squarespace. Most Chapters have a webmaster who can help with this transition and training. Recruiting a newsletter reporter for each new Training Class is recognized as a best practice. The reporter provides newsletter content about the Training Class members and informs the entire chapter about the Class’ progress and activities.
The HCMN team made the transition to an online newsletter in 2018 and has since improved content and quality. Today its layout design is more like an online magazine, which has expanded its viewership both within and outside the Chapter.
Photo by Pat Liddell
The strong media coverage about racism has reminded our chapter to stop and think about our own diversity. Our areas of conservation expertise are very diverse. As we all know from our training classes, the Texas Master Naturalist program includes just about everything we covered in our schools – Earth Science, Biology, Botany – but directed to what we have here in Texas. For Hays Master Naturalists, there is a closer focus on what we experience in the Hill Country.
But our chapter, you have probably noticed, is predominantly white, and the people to whom we reach out are also mostly white. Our goal is to change that. A Diversity Committee has been formed under the direction of the chapter Board, to identify ways we can be more diverse in our membership and with the people we educate about the needs for conservation of our natural resources. We want to be fully inclusive, in both membership and outreach.
The committee has had three meetings to discuss how we can do this and what our goals should be. The group currently consists of Paula Glover, Chris Middleton, Larry Calvert, Mary O’Hara and Jane Dunham. We want to expand this group and get more ideas and resources that Master Naturalists can use to expand their outreach.
You have received an e-mail requesting your ideas and inviting you to join the committee. Please respond with your ideas, or volunteer to help with this project by emailing outreach@haysmn.org. We want to hear from you!
Jane Dunham
By Betsy Cross
It’s a goal this year to add a running water feature to my yard. In the meantime, I moved my bird bath to the middle of a newly constructed native plant garden, viewable from my office.
I’ve been pleased, and sometimes surprised, with the variety of birds that frequent the bird bath. A few spring migrants stopped by in May and June, and the Summer Tanagers have been daily visitors all summer long.
On hot days, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo and its mate are frequent visitors. Occasionally the roadrunner hops over the fence and grabs a drink.
Keeping the bird bath clean with fresh water is important - see Audubon’s recommendations below.
How do I keep my bird bath clean and pathogen free?
From Audubon:
To keep your birdbath fresh, just rinse and scrub it with nine parts water, one part vinegar.
Skip the synthetic soaps and cleansers; they can strip the essential oils off of bird feathers. And make sure to refill the water every other day to keep it from bugging up. Neglecting your birdbath doesn’t just make for a filthy experience for your birds: It could also do more harm than good, Geoffrey LeBaron, director of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count program, says. “If you don’t take good care of your birdbath, either it will dry out completely, which is no use for birds, or it’ll get fetid,” LeBaron says. “That’s when mosquitoes might become a problem.”
Nobody wants mosquitoes anytime of the year, but they can be really bad news in the fall. While summer may be prime insect time, autumn is an especially high-risk season for diseases, says John Wenzel, entomologist and director of the Powdermill Nature Reserve. With more birds crowding at your bath during migration, there’s a higher chance of viruses being spread.
And those pathogens aren’t just dangerous for birds. Earlier this year, with concerns over the Zika virus spreading, the Center for Disease Control issued a notice for people to clean out their birdbaths for this exact reason. And just blocks away from Capitol Hill, a colony of Zika-specialized mosquitoes were found in a quaint garden-side bath. Not good.
So, consider keeping a clean birdbath not just part of being good host for any backyard guests, but also as a service to yourself and the rest of society.
