Spanish Dagger

Spring comes early in the Valley, and we started seeing the first signs of it as early as Mid-January as the numerous Spanish Daggers began to put up their showy blooms. Spanish Dagger is a large (up to 25' tall) member of the yucca family, and is seen throughout the refuge system here in South Texas. It is well named for its stiff, very sharp leaves which are capable of going right through the heaviest blue jeans. Just ask how we know!!



The bloom begins as a large burgundy and white bud that elevates itself above the leaves.





The bud slowly opens to reveal hundreds of creamy white flowers in a dense cluster high above the plant.



The flowers are harvested and eaten as a delicacy in Mexico, but here on the refuge the consumers are birds, insects, and other critters. Like other yuccas, the Spanish Dagger is pollinated by a small moth. A fertilized female moth visits one yucca to collect pollen and then flies to another to lay her eggs on that plant's ovary, depositing some of her pollen in the process. The yuccas are fertilized in the process and the moth larvae have a food source in the developing seeds. Isn't nature interesting??



During our bird surveys we have noticed that Spanish Dagger serves as a popular perch for birds. In the coastal prairies this yucca is often the tallest perch available. Among the birds we have seen are Crested Caracara, Loggerhead Shrikes, White-tailed Hawks, Eastern Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds, and even the endangered Aplomado Falcon.


Crested Caracara

Loggerhead Shrike

White-tailed Hawk

Eastern Meadowlark

Red-winged Blackbird

Aplamado Falcon


--Mark

S. Padre Island World Birding Center

Do you know your bird tracks?



We’ve been heading out to S. Padre on Saturdays. The Birding Center has a 10:00 a.m. program every Saturday morning. Since we each bought a 3 month pass, we can enter the boardwalks before the Birding Center opens. It’s really nice early in the morning! Mark is getting some wonderful pictures!


Marsh Wren


Mottled Duck


Common Yellowthroat


Marbled Godwit


Little Blue Heron


Forster's Tern


Belted Kingfisher


American Wigeon


Long-billed Curlew

Did you guess who made the bird tracks?


This little guy made the bird tracks!
Ruddy Turnstone

Winter Outdoor & Wildlife Expo

Our friends, Sharon and Rick, met us out at the S. Padre World Birding Center this weekend. We birded for a couple of hours before the weekly presentation started.


Sandwich Tern


Mottled Duck


Little Blue Heron


Great-tailed Grackle


Black Skimmer


American Oystercatcher

After the program we walked across the street to the Winter Outdoor & Wildlife Expo. We walked around all the booths and listened to a presentation from Sea Turtle, Inc.


Gladys Porter Zoo was there with a Blue Tongue Skink


Sea Turtle, Inc. was there.



Sealife Center had a touch tank.

There was a lot to see and do on the island this weekend. Including a kite festival.

Out my window

I was sitting on the couch one morning and saw this coyote walk by the front door. He stopped under the mesquite tree beside our RV and started eating the mesquite beans that were laying on the ground.

You can see the mesquite bean hanging out of his mouth in the first photo.






There are a lot of coyotes here at Laguna. We see them every day and hear them howling and carrying on every evening.

Coyotes are known for their particular fondness of watermelons and cantaloupes.

Revege and Research - Part 2

A research project going on here at Laguna Atascosa is looking at site preparation vs. seedling survival and growth on the revegetation sites. Combinations of site prep include burning, mowing, treatment with chemical herbicide, treatment with natural herbicide, and many combinations of these. They are also experimenting with Tree Tubes on half of the plots. These are translucent plastic tubes that are placed over the seedlings and anchored into place with stakes.





The tubes are intended to protect the seedlings from temperature extremes, keep animals and insects from eating the plants, and capture morning dew and moisture to help keep the plants watered.

Teri and I installed about 150 of these tree tubes over seedlings. This called for hammering 150 stakes into the rather hard ground here at the refuge.


Placing tube over seedling.


Mark hammered in about 150 stakes!

Some of the little seedlings were quite hard to find!



After placing the tube over the plant, we covered the top of the tube with a mesh sleeve that is meant to keep birds from nesting in the tubes.



Refuge staff will monitor both the tubed and untubed plants to see if there is a difference in survival and growth.

It will be interesting to come back next year and see how our experiment turned out.

Reveg and Research - Part 1

One of the activities here on the refuge is the planting of native brushland species. This is known as Reveg (Revegetation). Reveg takes place on newly purchased agricultural tracts that are bare ground or grasslands, or in areas where one species (like mesquite) has taken over. The goal of Reveg is to get a diverse mixture of brush that supports native animal species.

The refuge complex has a nursery operation that raises hundreds-of-thousands of plants, and they contract with local growers to provide hundreds-of-thousands more. Contract crews then plant these seedlings into areas that have been prepared ahead of time. Since we've been here at Laguna Atascosa there have been plantings of 15,000 and 18,000 seedlings.

These pictures show the plants in their crates as they arrive from the refuge nursery, and freshly planted areas.






There is a research project underway here to look at how the sites are prepared (burned, mowed, sprayed) and evaluate the survival of the seedlings.



There are 18 test plots with different combinations of soil preparation, and one other technique and Teri and I have been implementing. Can you guess what we have been doing?



Here is a hint:



More of Reveg and Research next time!