Category: Supervisors

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04/08/2023 Picture Canyon, Comanche National Grasslands, Colorado

We hopped across the border this afternoon to Colorado (and time traveled to Mountain Time). Here is the sign for Picture Canyon under a cloud-speckled blue sky!
This sign points the way to more prairie! (Or, you know, the trail to the petroglyphs. )
Great rocks and lichens along the trail.
Just a hint of green spring on this tiny tough little bluestem!
This rock was very rectangular.
The chollas here were less sad than the Black Mesa ones. Maybe because this is an arroyo?
The sandstone cliffs were very tall but also a nice cooler microclimate!
A series of vertical line petroglyphs higher up in an eroded hollow area. There is another line through them so they almost look like fish ribs.
A human figure petroglyph!
The horse petroglyph was my favorite!
The horse petroglyph with Briar for scale.
Mom looked at holes in the rocks but didn’t see anyone home. I did hear and see some kestrels flying nearby and heard a Canyon Wren singing though!
These petroglyphs seem to show a horse on the left and two tipis (?). Without more signs it was hard for me to tell what were petroglyphs vs vandalism but most vandalism seemed to be names and initials.
This disk-shaped erosion in the sandstone was neat.
The cooler microclimate with shade and a different rock nearby resulted in some foliose lichens!
We found a flower blooming that wasn’t skunk bush sumac! Mom identified this as Ribes leptanthum, trumpet gooseberry. It has lovely flowers and very friendly spines too. We didn’t see many insects out on either species though, presumably because it’s such a drought.
Little sprinkles to the west (if it even hit the ground) on our way back to camp!
A multipurpose state line sign on a county road.
On the way back we stopped to see the replica of a brontosaurus femur that the park brochures note is on private property by the roadside. It is for commemoration of many dinosaur fossils found on the private property.
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04/06/2023 Black Mesa Nature Preserve afternoon walk

Briar posed for us as we began our slow walk up the trail.
Here we go! Briar was on her leash and thought we were slow. Especially when I kept stopping to take photos of grama grass.
Mom also does botany photography along the trail!
I’ll look up this grasshopper when we get home.
I like how this photo has a cholla in front of a juniper with grama grass framing it. These were among the dominant plants along the trail.
Framed by the cholla cacti and distant junipers is a stretch of green tinted soil exposed by erosion! you can also see some of the abundant yuccas.
This young yucca by the trail already has a few strings peeling off the leaves.
One of the volcanic rocks that gives Black Mesa its name was down at our level. The trail climbs the Mesa for a round trip of 8.2 miles, but between botany and my arthritis we did a round trip of 1.6 miles in 1 hr and 50 min.
This dried leaf was very firm and had lovely reticulated veins.
Close up of cholla cactus branches and spines, with Black Mesa in the background.
Briar is the picture of patience once again. The packed earth trail is really broad and smooth!
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04/06/2023 morning wander at Black Mesa State Park

We are now at Black Mesa State Park. Mom and briar look for a bird!
We went to the start of the Petrified Forest trail. We will explore more in a few days.
Here’s a petrified log! Briar also smelled it.
I love all the grama grass here!
This big flat rock had an unexplained old bolt and washer in it.
Here’s the lichen on the same big flat rock!
There’s a Say’s Phoebe in here. we also saw a bunch of American Goldfinches and House Finches. There was a Canyon Towhee by the park office! We have also been hearing flickers and robins.
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04/05/2023 departure

We managed a short walk for dog business before Briar freaked out about wanting to get in truck. On that walk we saw this nice crustose lichen with orange apothecia (the round speckles) on a walnut tree.
Briar safe in the truck and you can’t take her out!!!
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04/04/2023 evening dust and grass

That’s all dust in the sky!
Satellite view on the Windy app definitely shows us in the tan dust area! Boiling Springs is very near Woodward.
On our evening walk along the camp area (almost completely empty) Mom spotted a colony of chimney bees! Zoom in to see the holes in the soil.
A mystery grass.
Lots of beautiful big bluestem here along with little bluestem!
Big bluestem with the dusty sun behind it.
Grama grass with the dusty sun!
Resting on warm concrete after a dusty day. Shackleton would be jealous of Briar.
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04/04/2023 day two of Boiling Springs State Park

The world’s most cooperative Falcate Orangetip butterfly! Feeding at a dandelion here and we also saw it on henbit and speedwell.
The tree with some green is an elm and the pod tree is a catalpa!
This grass was everywhere. Mom says not coastal Bermuda, but otherwise we’re not sure.
The River Trail was full of old and fallen and standing cottonwood trees. I liked the pattern on this barkless log.
Dad spotted this well-camouflaged Buprestidae beetle! I used my macro Moment lens on the phone camera to admire its nice punctate (the dimples) elytra (the hard wing covers).
There were also quite a few Kentucky Coffee Trees with their distinctive seed pods. Mom hadn’t seen them before so we looked it up and they’re not in Texas much.
Briar dog for scale on a bridge over the small springfed creek with a big, big cottonwood tree in the background.
I liked this tree’s bark!
The Civilian Conservation Core pump house near the spring’s source. Briar hopes it has air conditioning???
We didn’t go in the pump house but continued in the visitor center area (everything here was paved and accessible) to see the very channeled spring creek.
Briar did find the cool flagstones in the shade to be acceptable. the “boiling” sand is in the fenced area. Mom will be blogging it eventually so look at her site for video coming in the next week or so!
Mom spotted our second ever Olympia Marble butterfly! It was fast and flighty. It was mostly feeding on henbit flowers in the lawn area behind the visitor center.
On our walk back we saw this beaver-gnawed tree. The park office person told us the beaver had recently moved and she didn’t know where to, so we showed her yesterday’s beaver den and she agreed that was probably it! We have been listening to a great book about beavers lately called “Eager” by Ben Goldfarb. I recommend it so far!
Briar looks out over more CCC work- the stone edged bridge.
Now this afternoon and evening we’re hunkered down in a big dust storm! Glad we walked this morning and early afternoon when the sky was still blue.
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04/03/2023 extended field trip

The painted brown entrance sign at Boiling Springs State Park.
Briar thinks camping might be okay.
A lovely prairie near the Spring Hill trail.
Some beautiful grama grass curled empty seedheads with a background of little bluestem.
Yuccas under a soapberry tree.
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03/31/2023 thanks past self!

Past me ordered plants in the winter!
Pets very much liked the box. It had good smells. Here Gram steps right in before I’ve unpacked the crinkle paper.
Good thing there was cardboard protecting the plants too.
Gram moved to sit on the crinkle paper and smells one of two Blackfoot daisies. Briar observes. We put the daisies in the rock garden. I had one in the backyard once when we first moved here but I think it was too wet. The rock garden is the driest hottest spot in the yard.
The other plant we got was an orange Agastache. The damn invasive human-introduced earwig horde has already started eating it, so we are trying petroleum jelly around the base. It has worked for tomatoes before but didn’t work on a different Agastache recently, so we’ll go back out before bed and check again.
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03/26/2023 field trip to Lexington WMA

Cruising around! We heard an upland chorus frog sing from a pond as we drove by. It sounds like a finger running over teeth of a comb!
I need to add captions and descriptions to the rest of the pics, but this Spiranthes sp was neat to see coming up!
Briar and Paula in safety hunter orange.
False garlic with tiny moths.
Paula caught a Little Brown Skink!
The skink did not want to stay for a visit.
A prairie verbena!
Armadillo!!! Briar ready, but actual briar vines kept her from following it far.
First Lomatium of the day. Briar helped by putting her nose by it.
Arnoglossum sp! Leaves
Bigger Arnoglossum species leaves!
The lovely valley we walked around. Had some damp spots.
Milkweed! Probably Asclepias verticillata??
Echinacea probably angustifolia? Leaf and last year’s seed head.
Thanks for laying down in the mud puddle, BRIAR.
Nostoc algae and scale lichens!
Paula found this great potter wasp nest!
Eventually found a big patch of Lomatium blooming.
Some Lomatium in light shade.
Some Lomatium almost done blooming.
Some Lomatium out in the sun.
Another prairie verbena.
A puccoon just opening!
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01/24/2023 unauthorized entry

I was putting some books on my desk shelf this evening when in my peripheral vision I noticed more purple plant growing light visible than should be. I keep a towel over it to protect our eyes.
I examined the gap in the cover more closely and realized Shackleton was curled up contentedly on the heating pad, which is set to a cozy 85 degrees F. There’s even a bit of dust (spilled potting soil).
Shackleton napping peacefully with the last unsprouted pepper pot, bathed in a purple glow.
Busted, buddy. The nice thing about this tray is that I can slide it out to check on seedlings AND clever cats.
He did a big back arching stretch of casual innocence.
Shackleton emerges from his vacation tray, complete with unnecessary UV exposure. 🙄
Paula moved Shacks back to his actual cat heating pad on the couch. I put a bunch of empty pots in the tray with the one seedling pot and put more up in front of the towel-curtain, as well as a series of inconvenient containers. Hopefully this will persuade Shacks to stick to his heated bed or at least clogging up our amplifier with his hair.