Race Field Week 01 - my marking system

Here's a two-for-one photo. I took it to illustrate one of the plants I'll be watching for blooming so I can identify it. The red is 100% wool, so biodegradable. Unfortunately, I doubt the dye is all-natural. Maybe something I'll teach myself how to do one day. In any case, I'll remove them once the year is up.

You can also see a track to the right. Tracks were everywhere on this visit to Race Field. We had a few days of rain last week and tracks were still dark, wetter than the surrounding dirt. So many tracks — coyotes or dogs, pack rats, something with a cloven hoof, and more — criss-crossed the desert floor, so much so that it gave me a real sense of how busy it is when I'm not around.

Maybe some day I'll get good at track identification.

Race Field Week 01 - impaled bird head

Ew. Gross, right? Imagine my surprise when I shooed away my dog Ansel to see what he was licking.

It's not everyday you see a bird's head impaled like this. In fact, I've only seen it once before and then it was a grasshopper, not a bird, that had met this gruesome fate. Like this bird, only the grasshopper's poor head remained.

I don't know for a fact this is what happened, but shrikes impale their prey similar to this. And until I did some research, I didn't know they ate/impaled other birds, so it's quite possible. I'm counting it still as somewhat of a mystery, though, because I've never seen a shrike. They look similar to a mockingbird, so perhaps I've overlooked them. I'll have to keep an eye out in the upcoming year, especially with this bit of evidence in mind.

If this is the handiwork of a shrike, I have some questions. Do shrikes typically leave the head to be eaten last, or not at all? And why would a shrike use a four-winged salt bush instead of a mesquite, lotebush, or a javelina bush, all plentiful, all having sharp thorns?

It does make for a sad photo. But, in that way of thinking, no sadder than a picture of a bucket of fried chicken.

Outside Links:

• Here is an interesting video on Youtube of a shrike capturing a mouse and impaling it, from Israel.
• According to WhatBird.com, loggerhead shrikes can be found here year round. Both WhatBird and AllAboutBirds.org include audio also. I need to listen a few more times to commit its calls to memory.
  
• This article by Ro Wauer on The Nature Writers of Texas blog (now defunct?) is where I learned that shrikes count birds, including larger birds like mockingbirds and jays, as possible prey.
  

Race Field Week 01 - mushroom

{UPDATE: A preliminary identification via Burr Williams and the FB crowd is: Podaxis pistillaris.}

The last couple of times I've got out to Race Field, I've found this mushroom. It is about 4-5 inches tall, very dry to the touch. I was able to easily disassemble it by just slipping off the cap. The spores inside were as fine as soot, and darkly colored like soot too. The inner stem was stiff, woody, surrounded by a furry-feeling structure.

What kind of mushroom is it, I wonder? (Click on any photo to see larger.)


Photos above were taken on 02-07-2010


These photos were taken on 01-14-2010. The middle photo is after I opened the mushroom on the left and tapped it to release the spores.

Saltbush scale

...
Click to view larger

Here's something new I've noticed out on my West Odessa treks, this crusty growth. So far I've only seen it on fourwing saltbushes (Atriplex canescens) and so far only on young ones. That is to say, on salt bushes that have grown to be a few twigs only.

It doesn't come off the twig easily, but twig and all I crumbled some in my fingers. It felt and looked like crunchy granola. In this picture I didn't capture well the rust-red liquid that also was released. It didn't stain my fingers and wasn't sticky.

I didn't see anything identifiable in the mass, like insects or larva, but I could have missed it, or smashed it. I smelled it, but didn't notice anything remarkable. (And Lord knows, I certainly didn't taste it!)

This stuff -- whatever it is -- raises a lot of questions for me. It appears to be parasitic, is it? Is it a fungus? Or could it be the work of some sort of insect? Will it kill the saltbush? Does it only grow on the saltbush? Is there some reason it only seems to attach to the young bushes, or is that coinicidence? And heck, I might as well ask -- is it edible? Perhaps not to humans but to other critters? And my biggest question, what is that blood-like stuff in it?!

An inquiry to Mr. Burr Williams at the Sibley Nature Center is in order.

UPDATE: Burr has identified it as insect scale. He's seen it and yes, it does attack specifically the saltbush and can kill it. We still don't know what kind of species of scale it is (there's only what, a billion species of insects on the planet?) but I'll keep an eye out for its name.