Recommended Day Trips
Big Spring State Park
March provides the first hints of spring to West Texas. Even in a dry year like 2008, there is plenty to find as you walk along the trails and roads of the State Park. The entry road enters the park in a draw and then steadily climbs up to the top of Scenic Mountain. The Nature Trail also begins in the draw and leads to the top. Photographers were members of the 2008 class of the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists, and are as follows; Chris Cherry, Mark Pelham, Nina McCart, J.D. Drissel, Sean Patty, R.L. Orth, Sharon Long, Taffy Armstrong.
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In the draw, the vegetation is thick - a forest of trees and bushes rarely taller than 15 feet tall. In the background a taller hackberry is seen, but in the foreground is Mohr Oak and Redberry Juniper.
Limestone rock is almost always visible. The soil is a black gumbo common to limestone hills. In places the vegetation is sparse in the gravelly soil.
Near the top of the mountain, the landscape becomes mostly juniper and grasses.
On the right is a dense thicket of javelina bush. Prickly pear and juniper are to the left. Such thickets are impenetrable to humans on foot, but great cover for birds and other animals.
Giant prickly pear is also found on the slopes of Scenic Mountain. Notice that it is more common one one slope than the other. What might explain that? The species is probably not native to the site, but was introduced in the cattle drives of the 1930s during the Dust Bowl drought. Trucks loaded with prickly pear were hauled along with the cattle to feed the cattle (after the spines were burned off.) Semis for hauling cattle had not been invented yet, so the cattle were driven down the dirt roads to the railroad.
The nature trail is well maintained and has a number of signs that discuss the plants found along the trail. A mockingbird searched for a juniper berry on the trail.
Another mockingbird visited a mistletoe clump in a hackberry tree, hoping to find a berry (either of the mistletoe or the hackberry.)
Yet another mockingbird defended a juniper tree with berries.
Mockingbirds were everywhere in March, beginning to sing and display for mates, claiming territory.
A vulture perched on a dead branch, waiting for the sun to create thermal uplift, so it could go searching for carrion, including roadkill.
Deep in the thickets cardinals hung out, singing merrily, also hoping to find mates.
Cardinals hide from threats by flying into the thickets, and then stopping and peering around the branches to make sure the predator (or human) is gone.
In some places bedrock is exposed over large areas. Among the junipers in the background are orangish leaves of the Mohr Oak. Notice the baby juniper that has germinated in the near foreground in a crack in the rock.
Some of the ledges go on for a great distance, giving a person an easy path to follow. How did the one big rock get to where it is?
The same rock, much closer. In the background are some white tridens grasses' seedstalks dancing in the wind.
The rock is often very rough. Rainwater will cause some of the calcium carbonates in the rock to go into solution, and slowly but surely, the rock is pitted.
Are these fossils? Or are they inclusions of other rocks within the limestone?
Scenic Mountain has been a popular picnic spot since Big Spring was settled. Early settlers (and others) have carved their names (with dates) on the rock. One such petroglyph, according to some Big Spring residents, was Coronado's mark, but most historians do not think Coronado came as far south as Big Spring. Some Indian petroglyphs can be found, too.
This appears to be animal footprint in the stone. There is no way it can be a fossil footprint, for the rock dates from Cretaceous times and was formed underwater.
Plants can germinate in tiny cracks in the stone. Over many years, the organic processes associated with the plants will help deteriorate the rock, so more plants will grow in the crack.
One of the solution pits in one of the previous pictures was deep enough to trap soil washing across the bedrock (and a small rock.) A three-awn grass found the location to "its liking."
Many varieties of lichen are found on the rock. Prickly pear and juniper complete the scene.
Four colors of lichen are found on this rock. Some grow on top of another color.
This orange lichen is known as a crustose lichen. Other lichens are foliose - their edges turn up. Other species are fruticose (shrubby) and have structures like stems.
What could have caused this circular hole in the rock?
Cryptogamic soil is at the Big Spring State Park, too, like it is in almost all West Texas soils. Use the website search engine to find more information about cryptogamic soil.
The cryptogamic soil on the left has its normal black appearance. The white dots in the previous picture are the faded green "leaves" of the algae.
Ringtail cats (or cacomixtles) live in the deeper cracks of the rocks of Scenic Mountain. Their scat has both insect and plant parts. They are nocturnal, and often climb the trees on the mountains.
A snake had crawled over an ant nest. One plant was allowed to grow by the ants within its detritus pile around the hole.
The harvester ants worked at moving the dime the photographer placed on the nest to give scale to the ants. They actually moved the dime by working together!
A fox appeared to have an intestinal disorder, judging by the clumpiness of its scat.
Other fox scat was full of the seeds from juniper berries.
Coyote droppings were full of hair and juniper berries. How do the canines eat individual berries - do they lick them off of the ground? Surely they do not pick them from the tree!
Scat full of juniper berries quickly get torn apart by other animals, recycling the nutrients one more time.
Ants pull apart the scat even more, until it is nothing but single pieces.
Red berry juniper (Pinchot juniper, named after the first head of the U.S. Forest Service during Teddy Roosevelt's presidency) is the most common juniper on Scenic Mountain. Blueberry juniper (Ashe juniper) is also found in the region, but prefers deeper soils in most locations.
The leaves of a seedling juniper appear different than the leaves of the adult trees. The sharp spiky structure deters deer and other browsers from killing the new plants.
It was very early for a Common Sootywing Butterfly to be out. It lays its eggs on Lambs quarters and Amaranths. Lambquarters usually begins to germinate in early April.
Gray hairstreaks are common to most habitats. Later in the year, the junipers on Scenic Mountain will also have the pretty Green Hairstreak, whose larvae feed on juniper leaves.
Goatweed leafwings are brown on the underside, but bright orange on top. Croton is beginning to grow in March, so it can lay eggs soon.
The Mohr Oak often has galls on its twigs. This gall shows an exit hole.
No hole is visible on this Mohr Oak gall. Inside will either be an egg, or a small larvae eating the interior. Some gall insects have a prolonged larval stage that can last more than a year. When the adult wasp or fly finally emerges, it will only live a few days as an adult.
Algerita (or agarita in Central Texas) blooms in March. First come the bright red buds.
Then come bright yellow blossoms.
Eventually the blooms will become red berries that make great jelly.
The photographer was not sure what was on the bark of the agarita. Sibley staff believed it might be oak pollen that was stuck to spider silk, but what spider would coat the bark of a shrub with silk? It also might be a lichen, but we are not sure!
The buds of the littleleaf sumac were beginning to swell. Small white blossoms will be followed by red berries that make great lemonade, and feed the migrating birds in May. The shrub is usually a large sprawling tangle.
This bizarre growth was found on a Mohr Oak. Was it some form of parasitical non-flowering plant? We would love to have somebody help us figure out what it is!
A bacterial gall was found on a mesquite.
Mohr oak leaves hang on all winter, and finally fall as the blossoms and new leaves emerge in late March.
Foliose lichen is found on the Mohr Oaks.
Mistletoe is common in Big Spring, growing on many species of trees and shrubs. It does not grow in pastures in Midland, just 40 miles west. Big Spring averages 2 inches of rain more a year than Midland (16 inches) - is that the difference that means whether mistletoe lives or dies in the wild?
The white berries are all gone, eaten by robins, mockingbirds, bluebirds, and many more species of birds.
What killed this mistletoe? Deer will graze it, but this was too high for deer to reach it.
Javelina brush is usually only 2-4 feet tall. A large ground bee nectared on its blossoms.
Javelina brush blooms have a sweetish smell that has a peculiar twist that is cloying. Insects love it, however, and a bush can be swarmed by dozens of bees, flies, wasps, and butterflies, even in March.
On Scenic Mountain the Dutchman's Breeches (a wildflower) has yellow buds. In many other locations, the buds are red. We do not know of an explanation for the "mutation."
Since the leaves of this grass had turned red in the winter, it was probably a sideoats grama. Green growth was showing, even in early March, due to the warmth radiated by the rock.
Fendler bladderpod is a perennial wildflower that always blooms in March. In some years, the species will cover many square miles of pastureland with rocky soil.
In 2008, however, with little winter rain, the bladderpods were found singly, and often in places that might have conserved some water, such as under this mulch of dried grass.
A number of species of tiny cactus can be found on Scenic Mountain. Unless they are in bloom, the Sibley staff has not learned the species.
Prickly pear will often turn colors when cold temperatures come.
A hungry packrat gnawed on a very red prickly pear.
Another of the small cactus has an interested arrangement of spines.
In shady areas, some moss was green. In the open, it had turned black. Like the lichen, it can grow on bare rock, but it also will grow on the soil.
A dried up cloakfern was found by one of the photographers. Arid rocky soil has a number of species of ferns - a group of plants usually associated with moist forests. Most of the arid ferns remain dormant until a rainy season, and then unfurl and set spores in a matter of days.
Allthorn is more common further west. Its presence at the Big Spring State Park probably indicates it is a relict species remnant. It probably was more common during a much drier time, such as the Altithermal (a 2500 year drought that began 6000 years ago.) Some of the plants managed to reproduce and the species remains in the location, despite the more mesic conditions of the present.
If jabbed by a thorn of the allthorn, a person will feel an ache for an hour or two, because of the salts exuded at the tip of the thorn. To see pictures of the blooms and fruit of allthorn, use the website search engine!
Several species of ephedra (popotillo) can be found at the park. This is vine ephedra, a different species than what is found further west. The red swellings at the joints are the beginnings of the flowers (which will look like minature pine cones.)
Despite following the lizard for a few minutes, this was the best photo the photographer could get. It is a southern prairie lizard.
Greater earless lizards are found in rocky soil. This specimen was pinkish - in other locations they are more gray. Since some of the limestone at the park is pale, this may account for the different coloration. Overtime, local populations of many animals will have different coloration that populations with a different rock.
Chris Cherry found an Evergreen Sumac between Water Valley and Robert Lee. The shrub species has yet to be found at Big Spring State Park, to our knowledge, but it might be found in the hills around the town.
Shrubby Dyssodia is common on rocky soils. It usually is only 6-8 inches tall. The leaves smell like lemons, and can be used in cooking.
Javelina brush and prickly pear make a person keep their hands to themselves.
In early spring, the leaves of the Texas geranium make pretty rosettes. Later a wine-red blossom will pop out.
The shiny surface in this fox dropping appears to be intestines.
Is this a damselfly? Or an adult antlion? Or an owlfly? It has short antennae, so it is a damselfly, a long way from water.
Blooms will soon appear on yet another species of small cactus.
An adult grasshopper was located on March 8th. Normally most adult grasshoppers do not survive the winter, but this one found a warm crevice.
As the day became warm, the vultures began to fly. Normally the vultures return about March 15th, but they were a week early in 2008.