THE HAYS HUMM

Newsletter of the Hays County Master Naturalist
November 2020

Tom Jones - Betsy Cross - Constance Quigley - Mimi Cavender - Steve Wilder

2020 - ONE FOR THE BOOKS!

Mark Wojcik, Training Class Coordinator, Coronas de Cristo

I have to admit that completing the 2020 class this year looked pretty iffy back in March. We had so many unknowns that it was hard to determine if it was even possible. The state program has pretty strict standards around topics to cover and the number of hours that have to be spent in class in real time and not on video. We were very fortunate that the state program quickly determined that online classes were permissible, and that allowed us to commit to completing the rest of the year.

Credit goes first to our presenters, who had already been booked for in-person presentations and now had to transition to an online event on a different schedule. They stepped up very quickly and adapted their content to the Zoom format. Credit also goes to Kristy Daniel, who had already struggled through getting her Texas State classes online and was able to use that experience to transition us to the Canvas and Zoom platforms to manage the presentations and all the class documentation required by the state program. David Womer adapted his very popular Nature Watch presentations to what amounted to a tour of his private home nature museum. Awesome! Dean Lalich and Paula Glover handled the attendance and record keeping for the state program along with Sarah Carlisle, Mary O'Hara, and Cate Sitton as hosts.

But most of all, credit goes to the graduates of the 2020 Corona de Cristo class, who committed to weekly online sessions from May to October. On the positive side, everyone could see and hear everything pretty well, but they missed the personal contact with the presenters and the excellent social dinners that are a hallmark of the program. Most of all, they missed the outdoor site visits and field trips, which are at the heart of our program. While we can't make up the dinners, we do promise to invite them to the next class' outdoor events as soon as they become possible again. While their class name, Corona de Cristo, reminds everyone of this strange Corona Virus year, the other name is Passionflower, and this group is indeed passionate about nature and being a Master Naturalist.

GRADUATION CEREMONY

Steve Wilder, Coronas de Cristo class reporter

The Corona de Cristo class of 2020 in the Hays County Master Naturalist program celebrated its graduation Thursday, October 22, in a manner that was perfectly reflective of our year. Susan Neill opened the Zoom session with announcements, then turned the program over to Mark Wojcik. Mark began with comments about the unique nature of our instruction this year, along with complimentary reports about the character of our class and the way we responded to the changes in protocol. Then, he started the presentation as our class began, with unforeseen forces intervening. The presentation stopped and the improvisation began. And with a dedicated mix of intuition, ingenuity, determination, perseverance, and luck…voilá...the presentation was back on track! Just like our class.

Mark went through photos of all the graduating members, with comments from our applications stating our reasons to pursue the program. It was a charming and gracious tribute to our class, and very much appreciated. We all thank the members of the training committee and the Board for the tremendous work they did to adapt the program, make it work as superior instruction, and give us the opportunity to complete the course to become members of Hays County Master Naturalist.

STOMPING OUR FEET — New Ceremony, New World

Mimi Cavender, Coronas de Cristo class reporter

Reading our colleagues’ accounts of the graduation ceremony for Hays County Master Naturalists’ 2020 Training Class, we’re aware of how much was accomplished here in a few months by so many. To celebrate the efforts of teachers and trainees, a new kind of ceremony was required in today’s challenging new world. And it was a surprisingly moving evening for us, the graduates.

Two dozen trainees finished a first-time-ever virtual HCMN course. Its curriculum was comprehensive, dense, rich with the what and how of the Texas Master Naturalist. We postponed outdoor volunteering, site visits, and field trips, and longed for them. David Womer’s Nature Watch segments were the next best thing to being outside with the critters. Our virtual presenters valiantly brought the outside in with screenfuls of photography. But Mark Wojcik’s survey revealed that it was the camaraderie of those first live meetings that we missed most. And the food! We can thank Susan Bell, Linda Paul, and Cate Sitton for that glory, cut all too short. Yes, it was some of the where, who, and yum that was unavoidably lost along the way.

But look what we gained. Yes, Mark, it “looked pretty iffy back in March.” But talk about your rising to the occasion! We were given a college level course in Texas ecology — on our laptop. It’s our doorway to a world of talented, caring people, to their ways of service, their ethic, their love of the natural world. No muss, no fuss, it went off without a glitch. We’re deeply grateful to State, to the Board, and for Susan Neill’s extraordinary leadership, her grace, her calm when there could have been chaos. We’re grateful for Mark Wojcik’s cheerful accessibility, his smooth coordination of trainers and trainees; and for Kristy Daniel’s transitioning us all into a true virtual learning community, earning her the 2020 Training Committee Award.

Our Chapter is lucky to have so many members with experience in virtual business and education. Dick McBride recorded early classes and made them available online. Susan Neill and Betsy Cross took our Chapter meetings virtual. Paula Glover, Dean Lalich, and Meagan Whitehouse kept Class records. Sarah Carlisle, Steve Janda, John Montez, and Mary O’Hara continued to mentor and serve when site visits were locked out. We pause to honor Hays County Master Naturalist and Training Committee member Yolanda Reyes, who passed this year.

All our mentors and trainers have our sincere thanks.

Celebration is in order. It always will be, whether virtual or face-to-shining face. Whatever the new year brings, may the 2021 class, too, experience humility and joy in rite of passage. May this mix of awe and responsibility we feel now inspire us into active work that re-gifts it to our neighbors, to our children. Reading Native American heritage ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (beautifully reviewed by Robert Currie in October’s Newsletter), Central Texans hear ourselves in her account of today’s citified folks rediscovering the power of ceremony to speed our reconnection to the natural world:

Ceremonies magnify life. …the community creates ceremony and the ceremony creates communities. …Ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention. …But generating new ceremony in today’s world is hard to do. Educational events like wildflower weekends and Christmas bird counts are all steps in the right direction, but they lack an active, reciprocal relationship with the more-than-human world.

I want to stand by the river in my finest dress. I want to sing, strong and hard, and stomp my feet with a hundred others so that the waters hum with our happiness. I want to dance for the renewal of the world.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall, Braiding Sweetgrass, Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013. First paperback edition ISBN 978-1-57131-356-0

Gulf Fritillary, nectaring here on Salvia greggii. It’s larvae feed on Passionflowers, but we couldn’t find any Coronas de Cristo since they were all off graduating :-) Photo by Betsy Cross

A CONVERSATION WITH ART ARIZPE

By Betsy Cross

All photos in this article are by Art Arizpe. Click on any photo to view full screen enlargement.

Art, can you tell us how you got into photography?

My wife was in the HCMN Class of 2006. That’s what got me interested in Texas Master Naturalist, and I joined the HCMN Class of 2007. Herb Smith and Todd Derkacz, both Master Naturalists, started the Naturescapes Photography Contest in 2005. When I heard about the Naturescapes contest, I bought an entry level DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera. I had taken a photography course in college in the late 1970s. It included darkroom techniques and the development of film, but it didn’t stick with me.

With DSLRs, photography became much easier and more enjoyable. You could take many photos and get better. And that’s what led me into photography the second time around. Being a member of the HCMN Class of 2007 created a happy synergy with Naturescapes.

The photo of the Freeman Ranch entrance was my first entry in the Naturescapes contest. It won first place in the county. You never know what the judges are looking for. I won first place when I knew nothing. I’ve gotten better, but I’ve not won that award again.

In 2009 I helped Herb with Naturescapes, and eventually I took over for him. When the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance dropped their sponsorship for Naturescapes, I presented the opportunity of sponsorship to our Hays County Master Naturalist chapter, and we’ve co-sponsored it with the Hill Country Photography Club ever since. The Naturescapes contest and Master Naturalist are a natural fit.

“Photography is an outlet — a way to communicate to people.”

Milkvine Triplets
First Place Award in the Plant Category - 2020 TMN State Meeting

Has being a Master Naturalist influenced your approach to photography?

Definitely. Having the general background provided by my Master Naturalist training, starting with the geology, plants, and animals, helps focus my attention on things that I might have ignored or overlooked before.

Your photo entitled Milkvine Triplets won First Place in the plant category at this month’s TMN State Meeting. Could you describe how you took this photo and what prompted you to enter it in the contest?

When I’m on a walk, I look around, scan the horizon, look at the ground. Those little pearl structures in the milkweed vine caught my eye.

I entered the contest at the last minute and am honored to have won first place for my photo. I took it while on a hike at Gay Ruby Dahlstrom Nature Preserve. I only had my cell phone camera, proving the adage that the best camera to use is the one you have with you!

What types of photography do you concentrate on or specialize in?

When I’m on a walk or a hike, it’s whatever catches my eye.

I’ve done mostly landscape photography. I’m always looking for patterns, shapes, and textures. We find patterns to be beautiful. I wonder, does a bee find something beautiful about symmetry and pattern too? What is it about the perceptions of insects that draws them to certain plants? Understanding how things interrelate is interesting.

My background is in electrical engineering. Analytics and the designing of computer chips is what I do professionally. Master Naturalists also focus on interrelated parts — the ecosystem — in the predator-prey relationship for example. It’s that holistic approach that fascinates me about the natural world.

I’m actively seeking images while I’m out in nature. I have a visual memory. When I recall a situation or a conversation, I see the scene in my head. I’m very visual and it helps in photography.

When I find something interesting in nature like the geometric needles on a cactus, I want to show other people — come look at this! I use photography to share this beauty. Sometimes it can even be abstract, which is a visual way to engage the viewer. Photography is an outlet — a way to communicate to people.

Iris

Century Plant Buds

Can you tell us a little bit about your camera equipment and your field routine?

My camera is a Canon EOS 5D Mark III. It’s a full frame camera, not a crop sensor. The most important equipment is the lens. You can use just about any camera body, but I try to buy the best lenses I can afford. The glass has the biggest effect on image quality. My go-to lens is a Canon 24-70 zoom lens.

I do have a macro lens and a 100-400mm zoom lens for bird and wildlife photography, but I don’t get too hung up on equipment. Lenses can make you lazy in a way. I read that if you use a fixed lens for a month, it forces you to change the way you are using your camera and can strengthen your skills. Typically I only carry one lens and it’s the one on the camera, usually the 24-70mm. It’s important to use what you have in the moment. Since I always carry a cell phone, it can become my primary camera equipment in a pinch.

I don’t use any filters. I’ve done a little bit of HDR, or high dynamic range photography. This is where you take the same scene with different exposures and then merge them into one. And I’ve played a little with panoramas.

I’m very attentive to the composition. I try to make sure that what I see in the camera is as close as I can get it to the final image I want. I hardly ever crop or rotate the image afterward. Instead when I’m shooting the photo, I’m very mindful of the edges. After a while with practice and experience, you start to compose the image in the camera without thinking.

Antelope Horns Bouquet

Wet Web

Foggy Morning Oaks

What other tools do you use? How do you manage and process your photos?

I bring the photographs into Adobe Bridge where I review them. I don’t delete anything. I find the ones that are best for processing and work on those. I do simple cropping and maybe a little bit of straightening if the horizon isn’t just right. Sometimes I will play with the contrast. I tend to do vignetting to focus attention on the subject, but with a light touch. What I have in mind is to darken the distracting things and to bring the eye to the focus where you want the viewer to look. All of this is done with a very light touch and should not be obvious in the final image.

I’ve experimented with taking abstract photos, but I’m not always happy with the results. I will sometimes see what a photograph would look like in black and white. When I’m looking at a scene, I will imagine it in black and white based on textures, design, shadows. I’ve gotten better with that technique.

How do you print your photos?

I don’t print a lot of photographs, but when I do, I go the cheapest way possible, usually to Costco. I tell them NOT to manipulate the photo. I’ve done profiling of the paper. You put a “profiler” on the screen to calibrate the colors. Color profiles define the colors we capture with our cameras and see on our displays. They control what colors are used and help provide consistency between devices, such as the display and the printer.

Can you share a story about a photo opportunity that was especially exciting or inspiring?

The '“Sedum Spill” image was especially rewarding. I was on a bird species survey hike with Jaci Kroupa and Jesse Huth on our property. I had my camera with me. We started early in the morning with an overcast sky. Just as we came to a part of the property which is very rocky, the clouds started to clear, providing a nice dramatic backlight to the scene. I got down into a prone position to better emphasize the expanse of sedum. It’s the kind of shot that just happens and would be hard to plan. You have to always be ready, because you’ll never know when they can happen.

Could you share a few tips and give us your best advice for a beginning hobbyist?

Be aware of your surroundings.
Be mindful when you see an image. Why are you taking this shot? What are you trying to communicate or emphasize?
Always look for interesting perspectives or angles. Try to show the subject from an angle which people don’t normally experience.
Learn the technical aspects of your camera — ISO, shutter speed, aperture concepts.
Take an online photography class. There’s so much available now. Check out Udemy.
Join a photography club and interact and learn from others. The Hill Country Photography Club and the Photographers of Dripping Springs are two good local ones. What I find most valuable are the critique sessions during monthly meetings. It’s where I’ve learned the most, even listening to others being critiqued.
Take photographs as often as you can. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes — they’re actually good learning experiences. Why did this photo not work? What could I have done differently?
Take as many shots as you can. Maximize your odds of getting a “good” one.

Mardi Gras Marilyn
Branching out beyond nature!

Art Arizpe - HCMN Class of 2007 - Madrones

Art has served as HCMN Newsletter Editor, Volunteer Service Project Coordinator, and was President of our Chapter for three consecutive years (2013-2015).

He is currently the HCMN Communications Director. As newsletter editors, we report up through Art to the Board.

Art is the event photographer for the Wimberley Community Chorus. He has also served as the event photographer for many HCMN get-togethers.

Art shares his photography mostly through Naturescapes and the Hill Country Photography Club. He also has a blog. “I used to post to it every week. I’d like to get back to that.” Access Art’s blog here: https://mother-natures-son.com/blog/

HCMN PROJECT 2001 - First Release of Texas Horned Lizards on Private Property. Updated by Constance Quigley

HCMN Project 2001 had its first outing to release Texas horned lizards October 14, 2020 at a private property. Jan Wolfe, Steve Janda, Cynthia Grant, Doray Lendacky, Linda Paul, and Bob and Tina Adkins attended. They were thrilled to witness and participate in this historic event.

Here is a brief account from Doray Lendacky:

As Linda Paul and I drove to the release site, I thought out loud, "Where will these little lizards sleep tonight? Where will they make their new homes? How will they know danger?" Perhaps all a bit too motherly, after these little babies were bred and raised in the San Antonio Zoo. But ya know, Mother Nature knows what she's doing and instinct is very strong, as I would learn later in the day.

We arrived at the release site COVID-masked for safety, signed in, listened to Dr. Andy's orientation, asked questions and then broke into three groups. Each group had San Antonio volunteers who carried the large storage bins containing the smaller containers of the Texas Horned Lizards (THLs). These smaller plastic containers were all carefully labeled with the clutch information. One of the San Antonio volunteers took pictures of the underside of the THLs through the plastic container bottoms. As it turns out, the spots on the underside of each THL are its fingerprints (much like our own unique set of fingerprints), and thus, the THL could be identified at later dates when captured. Everyone in our group had the opportunity to hold and then release a THL. Even though I didn't personally raise the THLs, it was a very emotional experience for me. I look forward to our next visit when we try to locate our newly released THLs and assess their success. Go Texas Horned Lizards and Dr. Andy!

The San Antonio Report published a nice article about the THL release. TPWD Wildlife Diversity Director John Davis shared a very informative article about red harvester ants. He also noted that the pesticide trade names in this article are no longer accurate, but the active ingredient can be found today in other trade name bait products, such as Ferti-lome Come and Get It Fire Ant Killer.

There is also a YouTube video of the release that you can watch here.

Thanks to Jan Wolfe, Steve Janda, Tina Adkins, Doray Landecky, and Cynthia Grant for photos! Click any photo to enlarge it.

Andy Gluesenkamp and SA Zoo volunteers

Containers with THLs ready for their freedom

TPWD Wildlife Diversity Director John Davis

Steve Janda releasing a THL

Each THL has a unique spot pattern on its belly!

Cynthia saying "farewell" to her THL friend

Tina Adkins releasing a THL

Linda Paul releasing a THL

Red harvester ants - the primary food of THLs

At a follow-up visit on October 30, 2020, Jan Wolfe reported on the results of their search for released THLs:

A cold morning dashed our hopes of finding Texas Horned Lizards this morning, but we were hopeful the dogs would alert us to lizard poop. That first photo is a jar of lizard poop. It’s bigger than you would think! As expected, we didn’t find any lizards, but the center photo below is of three zoo employees looking for scat in an area where one of the dogs told us to look.

The handlers also worked the dogs with a live lizard, Riker, who will return to the zoo today and get back to his job of fertilizing eggs for next year’s release. Riker was not enthusiastic about dog noses in his face nor about being photographed. I particularly like his expression in the shot of his belly spots. As mentioned before, belly spots are unique to each individual - sort of like a finger print.

Zoo volunteers with trained dogs searching for released THLs.
Chiron K9 is a specialty dog training organization that assists the San Antonio Zoo in surveying and monitoring their THL release sites. Their dogs are carefully trained to search for THLs and their scat during field surveys.
You can learn more about Chiron K9’s THL activities at their website **https://chiron-k9.com/horned-lizard-scat-collection/**.
You can even donate THL scat for the training program, if you’re lucky enough to collect some!

Riker, one of the zoo’s THLs, showing off his unique spots.

City of Austin Aquifer Storange and Recovery Feasibility Study Funded. A Component of Austin's Water Forward Plan — Illustration from Austin’s Water Forward Plan

Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) is a key element of the 2018 Water Forward Plan adopted by the Austin City Council. The Plan is Austin’s 100-year roadmap for a sustainable water future. Development of the ASR project is largely driven by drought related water resource requirements. Projections for water demand show that when considering the effects of climate change and extreme drought, there may be significant needs above supplies currently available to Austin. Aquifer Storage and Recovery is a water resource strategy that is similar in concept to a savings account, where money can be saved and withdrawn when needed.

“The technique could help the city deal with the impacts of drought or ‘system upset’ in the Highland Lakes. Weather is getting more extreme because of climate change. The lakes already got perilously low thanks to drought in 2011 and dangerously muddy because of floods in 2018. If we had an ASR (Aquifer Storage and Recovery) system in place, we could have just used water that had already been treated and was stored in an ASR storage facility,” according to Kevin Crittenden, Assistant Director for Austin Water. www.saws.org

In August 2020, The City of Austin approved $6 million for engineering services from HDR Engineering, Inc., for the Aquifer Storage and Recovery Pilot and Program Management project. A key objective is to survey nearby aquifers to determine which could be a good fit. One likely candidate is the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer that runs near Travis County’s eastern border.

Water in a sandstone aquifer tends to stay in place or move very slowly. A key advantage is that it is possible to store water in sand and come back years later and extract the same water. Aquifer Storage & Recovery technology addresses one of the region’s biggest problems: there are very few storage locations where water can be put in times of plenty for later use. Storing water underground in sand instead of a surface reservoir means that no water evaporates, and it is protected from contamination. Nobody's land has to be condemned and inundated with water, so the social and environmental impacts are minimal.

The ASR project will store drinking water from Austin’s water treatment plants. Storage strategies like ASR will help stretch Austin’s existing surface water supplies through a locally controlled source of water, thereby improving the community’s resiliency in droughts and other emergency situations such as floods and water quality upsets. While completion of Austin's underground storage system is still at least 20 years away, the city has already won praise for its efforts.

Stratigraphic column from the Hydrogeologic Atlas of Hays Co.

What About Hays County?

In 2016, the city of Buda approved a feasibility study to examine the possibility of storing Edwards water in the Trinity Aquifer. Buda water specialist Brian Lillibridge said "Drought resiliency is one of the huge benefits that ASR can add to an existing water supply.”

In April 2020, Buda moved forward on its ASR project with the drilling of a pilot ASR well. Water Resource Coordinator Blake Neffendorf described the plan: "We will inject a particular amount of water in the Edwards Aquifer into the ASR well. Then we will immediately pull that back out and take samples and test the water quality to see what types of results we're getting back from that first initial extraction. SMCorridorNews.com, April 13, 2020.

In Wimberley, ASR has been mentioned as a future method to maintain flow from Jacob’s Well Spring during periods of sustained drought. The concept is to pump excess water from the Middle Trinity Aquifer during high rainfall seasons, storing it in the underlying Lower Trinity Aquifer. During droughts the stored water would then be pumped back into the Middle Trinity limestone to maintain water levels and flow from Jacob’s Well spring.

Okay, she’s beautiful. She’s a big fat female Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus), easily 8 inches long from lip to tail tip. And she gives us this month’s MYSTERY!

She’s common in Central Texas and nowhere near endangered — if you don’t let Fluffy prowl the neighborhood. Housecats are murder on lizards, and Spiny’s our largest (longer than Horned Lizards) and most ubiquitous. Males look exactly like this lovely girl but have a distinguishing blast of turquoise blue along each side of their belly. She gave me a long leisurely opportunity to see that she didn’t.

I spotted her on one of those sweltering August days this year along the Blanco in Wimberley, Texas. She and I were separately enjoying the deep shade of cypress and sycamore. A downpour the week before had brought high water, now receded. Everything smelled dank, green and pleasantly muddy. I was looking for small things to photograph — rotting wood, wet stones, colored leaves — she was doing whatever lizards do.

She saw me first. She bolted from behind that cypress log in the way only a lizard can bolt: first she was there, then she was here, no blurred edges. I snapped her at attention on top of the log, then suddenly she was behind it again. The shade was too dark to shoot in. I padded quietly to the other side, figuring she’d gone to ground. But there she was, stretched out long in the log hollow, staring at me. A curious stare? Or a defensive glare? With lizards, it’s hard to tell. But it was an unblinking standoff while I took shot after shot from a foot away. Not a twitch. I thanked her and backed off. She. Never. Moved.

Most un-lizard-like. This species, normally shy, is known to be confident when attacked — but this? It wasn’t till I got home and reviewed the photos on the computer, forcing a little more light into them, that I saw them — eggs? What are those little round white 1/8-inch balls scattered along the log? There’s a loose cluster of them at the top right of the frame. Aha! She was protecting her eggs!

Look at the egg cluster at the top right of the picture.

Here they are again. If not her eggs, whose are they?

You’ll all not laugh too hard, remembering, please, that I’m a HCMN Trainee and ignorant as slime mold.

So a Texas Parks and Wildlife site showed me Sceloporous’ ½-inch-long, cylindrical, speckled white leathery reptile eggs in the maternity hole in the ground that my Spiny Girl would invariably dig, were she in the family way. She’d bury around 20 of them, cover them up, forget about them and go out to the nearest cockroach bar for a bite. Her dating profile says she is a diurnal arboreal insectivore — she hunts insects both day and night, staying well camouflaged on her favorite mesquite or oak bark. She lives in trees, but maternity nests once a year, early spring, in dry friable soil. What’s she doing there? In August. And why the stare?

Contribute Photos - Articles - Items of Interest - Tell Us What You Think

news@haysmn.org

“Westcave Preserve is my favorite volunteer project to photograph. Having the award means that I can share its beauty with others.”

— Tom Hausler

Book Report by Susan Page. Nature's Best Hope. A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard. Douglas W. Tallamy

My colleague Betsy Cross invited me to attend the Texas Master Naturalist 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting (even though I live in Indiana) because she thought I would enjoy some of the presentations. Was that an understatement! I learned so much, but I’m focusing today on the book Betsy sent to me after I attended Doug Tallamy’s presentation Nature’s Best Hope – Restoring Nature’s Relationships. Doug so inspired me that immediately after his TMN presentation, I joined the Indiana Native Plant Society. Later that day, my book arrived.

Nature’s Best Hope is engaging, easy to read, and so educational – and that is under-selling it. I couldn’t put it down. I am not a master naturalist and am new to nature conservation. I was raised in Vermont and grew up immersed deeply in the outside world. I’ve always loved it, and when I am outside in any kind of weather, I feel more grounded. I had heard of the importance of native species and the problems with invasive species, but truthfully I knew little more than that.

I had no idea the damage that invasive species can wrangle on an ecosystem. Thinking about the extinction of any species — insect, plant, or animal — is heart-breaking. Doug manages to convey the seriousness of this problem while not raining gloom and doom on the reader. I was uplifted and inspired. Invasive or introduced species take a very long time to adapt. Did you know that “the paperbark tree has been growing in the Florida Everglades for more than 130 years? In Australia, where it evolved, it supports 409 species of insects; in Florida it supports 8 North American insects? And in California, only 1 species has adapted to eucalyptus after 110 years, and no species has adapted to the prickly pear cactus after 260 years.” (p. 122)

As Doug explains, North American birds need to consume fat in berries prior to winter or migration. There is variation between species of birds and of bushes that produce berries, but invasive plants from Asia produce berries that are much higher in sugar than fat. Birds will choose the higher fat berry when given the choice, but when an Asian invasive has reduced our native berry growing plants, the birds are forced to eat berries that don’t sustain them.

Tallamy has a great vision of how we could create native species oases in our yards and other public areas around where we live. Reclaiming a small piece of your immaculately manicured lawn for native plants can create an oasis for migrating birds and other species. Think about what it could mean to these plants, insects, and animals if greater numbers of people ripped out their invasive plants and re-established native plants? That is what I loved about this book and Tallamy’s approach; everyone and anyone can make a positive impact on the natural world. Wouldn’t it be amazing to look out your window and see species that would otherwise have passed you by in order to shelter where they could get the food and water they need to survive and thrive? Migrating birds fly all night and rest and feed during the day. These birds eat insects, and Tallamy points out, “a migrating bird will typically eat enough insects to increase its body weight 30 to 50 percent.” (p.195) The birds won’t be able to find the volume and types of insects they need in a community with large quantities of invasive plants. Especially in Texas, where you are the gas station on the way from Central and South America to northern areas, your native plant oasis could produce a remarkable opportunity to see amazing species of birds. I’m sure you will be as inspired as I am to reassess your property and figure out how you can create a native plant oasis yourself. This is a great book, and I highly recommend it for your collection.

POLLINATOR GARDEN

by Art Crowe

Carpenter bee on Esperanza

Pipevine swallowtail on zinnia

It is interesting to note the peculiar way the carpenter bee (above) goes about collecting nectar from the outside base of the flower. This is different from the bumblebee in the lower left photo which goes down the throat of the plant.