A monthly event that the Friends provide is “Know Your Nature Neighbors.” There are plenty of other-than-human neighbors at the preserve, and also the human neighbors who get together to meet the oaks, butterflies, birds, grasses, and everything else that lives at the preserve. On November 23rd, Jan and I got to know Omar, Edgar, and Alicia, three wonderful human neighbors. We visited the south and north ponds and all points between, finding many wonderful things.
I had in mind a focus on butterflies and dragonflies, but in these events we stop for everything that catches our attention. The first thing was a small millipede on the sidewalk just at the beginning of our walk. It turns out that the folks who came to the event today are interested in insects and other invertebrates such as our millipede.
We walked down to the south pond, the one with the boardwalk and fishing pier. The pond’s water level is still low, but it’s holding pretty steady. Maybe it was a little early for the usual turtles to be basking, but we did see caterpillars feeding on cattails. The iNaturalist app identified these as “cattail caterpillars” that will mature into marsh dagger moths. Those are pale moths that can be found coast to coast in the U.S.
We did find a gulf fritillary – a beautiful orange butterfly that stayed on the move today so that we did not get a photo but we sure enjoyed the flash of orange moving among the plants and trees. We also found numerous damselflies, all of them likely the species called “bluets“. Unlike the bigger dragonflies, the damselflies generally rest with wings folded over their backs, and the bluets today were the most gorgeous shade of blue.
We also noticed the small western mosquitofish around the pond edges. I’ve loved this species since collecting them as a kid, even though they are somewhat plainly marked. They can tolerate lower oxygen and water quality and so they are very hardy. They will eat mosquito larvae, and this has led people to transplant them to outside of their native range, but they are a native fish here.
On our way to the north pond we found and talked about prairie grasses like little bluestem, the blackjack and post oaks that dominate the woodlands here, and many other things. Finding a prickly pear cactus with a reddish fruit or “tuna” sparked a discussion of all the local edible plants (but try this only with expert guidance, lest you get sick!).
At the north pond we did spot a couple of turtles and we caught a Blanchard’s cricket frog. We admired this little frog and then released it back into the pond. We also saw a couple of grasshoppers – one of them a two-striped mermiria and the other identified by iNaturalist as a spotted bird grasshopper. It was a pretty green grasshopper with a bright yellow stripe and little yellow speckles on its thorax. This guy led us on a pretty good chase and the best photo I could take is not well-focused.
And all this discovery went on and on, certainly past the stated end time for the event. (Please note that if you join us at a “Know Your Nature Neighbors” event, we can stick to the time limit so that you are not held captive on an endless bioblitz! But if we’re having a lot of fun and want to keep going, well, the preserve is open until 10pm…)