Coming Soon to a Preserve Near You

This morning, Jim Domke and I walked the preserve, with Lynn Healy with us at the beginning. We started at the pollinator meadow, where we planned to cut down some Giant Ragweed while also doing herp surveying. I brought some pathetic hand-held cutters and cut down a number of plants but nothing compared to my compadres. Lynn was soon joined by Annabelle, and then Jan arrived, all equipped with weapons of war for invasive and harmful plants.

Meanwhile, I managed to get a good photo of what I first thought was a bee or wasp but, when it landed, had the overall form of a robber fly. Sure enough, iNat says it is a robber fly in the genus Saropogon. I walked to the southmost bench, seeing grasshoppers but not a lot more. The Johnson grass, Giant ragweed, and Western ragweed might be worst down there, while further north there are Partridge pea, Silverleaf nightshade, Sunflowers and other plants. No herps were seen. In the shade of the Cedar elm tree, on that middle bench, the temperature was 81F and relative humidity 80%. We could feel the humidity!

Walking to the next location, we came across Rudy working on one of the trails and talking with someone. That person mentioned that she had seen a fox (enough of the tail to identify it as such) this morning. The smiles we got from this were immediately wiped out by her report that she knows someone who periodically comes and releases Mink here. I knew that minks were mustelids but didn't remember much more - but the thought of adding something from outside the preserve was very disturbing, particularly when it is a weasel-like predator. When I later checked, I saw that at least historically Mink have been found in this area, but I could not find any observations of this species on iNat. I'm thinking that if a semi-aquatic, roughly weasel-looking mustelid was already catching mudbugs in the preserve, somebody would have seen it. And so, if somebody really is releasing them here, it seems like it could mess with the stability of our other wildlife. Letting something go in some place that it did not come from is a big "no-no" in my book.

Meanwhile, from the boulder trail eastward to the yucca meadow we found no herps. I did snap a reasonable iPhone photo of a Red paper wasp, and we were seeing some of the usual dragonflies (Jim commented that we seemed to be seeing fewer than we had previously). The temperature was coming up to 85F and the humidity was barely sliding (79%).

At the yucca meadow, I rather impulsively tried my hand at Facebook Live and found that, as one of my colleagues at the hospital used to say, "it ain't rocket surgery!" So after walking around pointing the phone at Comanche harvester ant colonies and such, we stopped Facebooking and looked further. I got a short video clip of a bumblebee and got a passable photo, and then managed a shot of what iNat believes is a type of Sand wasp. No snakes or lizards presented themselves. The temperature was 86F by then and with a humidity of 77%, it was truly feeling hot.

We walked back and encountered a police officer in the parking lot with a Havahart trap containing an adult raccoon (I guess we could have added Procyon lotor to the data sheet, huh?). He told us it had been trapped in a nearby neighborhood and he wanted to release it here "in case she had any babies in a nest" so that she could return to them. Chances are she would be returning to the neighborhood trash cans, other parks, or perhaps the Village Creek corridor.

So, coming soon to a preserve near you, everyone's unwanted animals. Even if they are native to this area, a small, almost tiny preserve is not meant to absorb animals that need a home. Habitats can support so many of a given species, and when you pour more animals in on top of that, at some point there just are not enough resources (shelter, food, etc.) to support them. So please, find somewhere else!!

Posted on July 23, 2020 07:30 PM by drawntoscales drawntoscales

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Eight-spotted Scoliid Wasp (Colpa octomaculata)

Observer

drawntoscales

Date

July 23, 2020 09:41 AM CDT

Photos / Sounds

What

American Bumble Bee (Bombus pensylvanicus)

Observer

drawntoscales

Date

July 23, 2020 09:07 AM CDT

Photos / Sounds

What

Fine-backed Red Paper Wasp (Polistes carolina)

Observer

drawntoscales

Date

July 23, 2020 09:06 AM CDT

Photos / Sounds

Observer

drawntoscales

Date

July 23, 2020 08:15 AM CDT

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