Photo Essay
Clay Draws
A number of plant species prefer clay soils, too, and are only found in the bottom of draws (or clay playas). Sneezeweed, blue flax, blueweed, and false grape are among those species that prefer to live in the clay soil.
The 2008 class of the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists visited a draw on a local ranch in mid-May. The photographs were taken by Leslie Harman, Chris Cherry, J.D. Drissel, Nina McCart, Sharon Long, Sean Patty, Burr Williams, Mark Pelham, Taffy Armstrong, and R. L. Orth.
Related Photo Essays: Modified Draws | Sandy Draws
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Mesquite bushes lined the slopes of the draw as the class approached the pocket forest.
A pile of feathers were left by a hawk eating a dove. Another animal came along later, looking for tidbits of meat left and in the process pulled leaves and twigs over some of the feathers.
The bottom leaves of the soapberries had been eaten by the deer that visited the pocket forest. The bottom leaves started at the where the deer could no longer reach the leaves. Lichen grew on the trunks of the trees.
As the trees become older, some of the trees die and eventually fall. Some do not fall all the way to the ground. Walking in a pocket forest can be tricky, stepping around the deadfall, and making sure that a rattlesnake is not half-hidden by a dead trunk on the ground.
False grape (Cissus incisus) is common in a pocket forest. In late summer blue-black berries will provide food for the birds, but the fruit is insipid to a human's palate.
Some of the older trees and some of the dead trees had woodpecker holes in the trunks. Bewick's Wrens will also nest in the holes, as will starlings. Although Eastern Bluebirds often spend the winter in the draws eating hackberry berries, local birdwatchers have not found them nesting in draws in the spring.
When big rains occur, the draw will fill with water rushing down the draw. The floods will be laden with detritus - leaves and twigs - which will be left behind as the water recedes.
Some of the trees had large burls. These are caused by bacteria.
The intricate whorls of the wood of a burl is beautiful. As far as we know, no local woodcarver has utilized hackberry and soapberry burls for table tops or bowls, as is done in other parts of the country with burls on other species of trees.
Western Kingbirds are plentiful in the draw. They nest high in the trees and constantly bicker and fuss as they catch grasshoppers, cicadas, and other flying insects.
Some of the lower branches were dead, and are sometimes used by hawks and owls as resting places during the night and storms.
Had the new leaves of a soapberry caused the rubbing marks to the right of the lichen?
Bullock's orioles were also common in the pocket forests. They build a nest high in the trees that is suspended from a twig or two.
Mockingbirds were common as well. The sounds of the doves, orioles, and mockingbirds were constant as the class walked through the forest.
Between a hackberry trunk and a yucca, an animal had wallowed out a comfortable place to spend the hot part of the day.
Hackberry trunks are somewhat smooth with lots of "warty projections." Soapberry trunks have furrowed bark. The two species often grow intertwined. After thirty or more years, the hackberry will eventually out-compete the soapberry, which will die.
As the class arrived in the draw, a great horned owl flew away. This is a feather from a barn owl, which also can be found in the draw.
Owl pellets are often found under an owl's roost tree. The class searched for an owl's nest, but did not find any because the leaves of the trees were so dense.
One class member did see a turkey, but the rest of the class only found turkey feathers...
...and turkey droppings.
A red-tailed hawk had recently roosted in the trees, but by mid-May the red-tailed hawks had migrated to better nesting areas.
A young rattlesnake was found at the base of a tree. He had hollowed out a small depression in the soil. Despite 15 people gathering around it to oberve it and photograph it, it barely moved to tightened up its coils. It never stuck its tongue out.
After photographing the snake, the class moved on. Forty-five minutes later, the class checked on the snake again. It had not moved.
False grape climbed a dead tree and reached plentiful sunlight.
Turkey vultures also will roost in the trees. The class did not find evidence of a mass roost with plentiful droppings - just an occassional feather or two.
Hackberries have several different types of galls. These big wooden galls were uncommon.
The small galls left by psyllid flies during a previous year were more common. New psyllid gly galls were not found, so the gall flies must be active later in the year.
Many of the hackberries were heavily laden with berries. It may be that during dry years hackberries produce more fruit than in wet years, just like mesquite bushes. This is a survival adaptation - if the drought continues, plentiful seeds will remain for future germination in a wetter year.
Many of the hackberries had cavities at the base. The small white dots intrigued the class.
Upon closer examination, the white dots were revealed to be hackberry seeds that had been broken open. The class decided that mice had eaten the seeds.
Foliose lichen was common on the soapberry trunks.
On a half-dead soapberry small holes were common. They appeared to be too small for woodpecker holes (where the woodpeckers would have hunted for bugs.)
On some dead soapberries the channels left by boring beetles created intricate patterns.
Several soapberries had broken branches. The class decided it was evidence of deer browsing.
Piles of deer droppings were found in the denser hackberry thickets, but not in the soapberry forests. The deer did not seem to eat hackberry leaves, for many had branches with leaves close to the ground.
Cottontail rabbits were also in the draw. This one chewed up the dead leaf in front of it...
...only after he had ducked behind the soapberry branch close to the ground. Not every soapberry leaf close to the ground had been found by the deer.
In the hackberry trees a number of bird nests were found. Because this nest had many larger sticks, they decided it was a Curved-bill thrasher nest, not a mockingbird nest.
Only one seepwillow was found in the stretch of draw the class examined. Closer to Midland, the same draw has many seepwillows. Seepwillows became plentiful in playas and in draws during the rainy 1980s. Before then, the species was found fifty or more miles south, in the dry stream courses of the canyons of the Stockton Plateau near Sheffield and Iraan.
The one seepwillow had over 20 ladybug beetles on it - by far the most found on any one plant. The shrub had no aphids on it, so this indicates that the ladybugs were feeding on either its sap, or that its leaves may have "nectaries" that exude a liquid to attract insects that might feed on other injurious insects.
A Verdin hung around one hackberry for ten minutes while the class watched. The one nest visible did not belong to a verdin. The verdin continually fussed with a "clink" sound.
Some of the smaller hackberry trees had leaves that had been skeletonized by an unknown insect. It might be damage from a butterfly caterpillar. Several species of butterflies lay eggs on hackberry leaves, but none were seen.
In the shade of the pocket forests ground cherry was reasonably common, but no more so than in the mesquite thickets.
At the edge of the pocket forests, the plant community that needs sunlight penetrated the edges of the trees - like this Texas purple thistle.
The thistles were swarming with insects. Ground bees were the most common.
Several species of ground bees (halictid) were present - this one had a striped abdomen.
A small flower beetle with a red head and blue-black abdomen was also present.
Huisache daisy normally blooms in late March and April, but a few specimens were found, and the small flower beetle was present on it, too.
Marine blue butterflies "puddled" on a damp cow patty. Over a dozen butterflies refused to leave while the class observed the phenomenon.
Several species of sarcophagid flies were present on the slightly damp cow patty, too.
On a very moist cow patty small "worms" (fly larvae) were present.
Notice the droppings at the entrance to the hole on the left. The wet cow patty was fully of the writhing fly larvae.
A tiger moth hung on a mesquite in the open.
The class was amazed at the yellow hair on the upper part of the legs of the tiger moth. When it was at rest the yellow leg hair was not visible. The black and white bands on the antennae were also a surprise.
Another spring wildflower blooming quite late was "scrambled eggs." Normally this species blooms in late March and early April.
Filaree was another late blooming spring wildflower. It often begins blooming in February, and is rarely found as late as April, much less mid-May. Without any rain since December, there was no logical explanation for the late blooming wildflowers.
Blue flax can sometimes fill a draw in early May, but the class only found a dozen specimens.
Nama grew in a number of places, Where the plants had a little shade from the mesquite, they grew to fair size.
Where the Nama was in the open, however, the leaves were small, showing signs of drought stress.
This might have been a early instance of a hemipteran (possibly a shield bug.)
Cocklebur seedpods were plentiful in the bottom of the draw. It also prefers the clay soil of draws and playas.
Underneath a log, this large "caterpillar" quickly disappeared after the log was turned over. It is probably the larval form of a beetle.
Several "devil's claw" seedpods were found the hard way - after they had clasped on to a class members heel when it was stepped on.
Coyote droppings were also found in the open ground.
A few fox droppings were found. Gray foxes and porcupines often spend the day sleeping in the trees of a pocket forest, but the class did not see any.
Wolf spider holes speckled the ground in many places.
A queen butterfly nectared on a thistle, but the class did not find any species of milkweed in the draw, which it needs for egg-laying.
Several lizards were seen, but like this whiptail lizard, all were in the heart of mesquites and brushpiles where the sunlight and predators could not reach them.
Southern prairie lizards sometimes climb the trees of the pocket forests. The class turned over many old logs looking for skinks. Great Plains skinks and variable skinks are found in the habitat, but rarely away from the hackberries and soapberries.
Was this the caterpillar skeletonizing the hackberry trees. One of the class members found it on his arm after pushing through more hackberries.
The seed pod of Sida physocalyx is hidden by the bracts. Some members of the family are called "cheeses" because of the resemblance of the seed pod to a wheel of cheese.
Texas Bindweed grew along the edge of the pocket forests in open patches of grass.
Krameria lanceolata (or Rhatany) also grew in open areas. This plant's roots produces a die the color of the flowers. Its seedpods are covered with spines so passing animals disperse its seeds.
Tiquilia canescens covered the ground in some ot the open areas. It has pale blue flowers the size of this "o" when it receives rains. Some native plant gardeners use it as a ground cover.
Several of the class members found a beautiful species of picture wing fly with intricate markings on its wings.
The pretty species of fly was found mating, too. (Notice that the male and female have different colored eyes!)
A brown lady bug was a surprise - but there is a species that is brown, according to Michael Nickell, Sibley's bug man.
Some of the lady bugs were mating.
On the bloom of a Mexican hat, a tiny species of weevil dug around the individual blossoms as they opened.
A few horsecrippler cactus (Echinocactus texensis) were found - and some of the class members took a taste of the red fruit.
Dodder grew on a Calylophus (evening primrose) plant in slightly rockier soil. Dodder is a parasite
On another Texas purple thistle a large soldier beetle dug around feasting on the nectar.
A few Comanche prickly pear grew mostly hidden in the dried grasses of the previous years.
Mark and Debbie Pelham visited another clay draw on another ranch at the edge of the Llano Estacado northeast of Stanton and found a handdug water well.
Eleocharis sedge grew near a waterhole in the draw the Pelham's visited.
A bluewinged teal floated in the waterhole.
In the trees nearby two black-crowned nightherons roosted in the trees. After dark, the nightherons will catch insects, small mice, frogs, and toads.
Salt cedar was also in the draw the Pelham's visited. The draw the class visited had none (so far!)
Germander also grew in the damper draw. Normally it blooms in April.
Narrow-leaf mallow was found in both draws.
Ground cherry blooms hang down, invisible unless a person digs around in the leaves and turns the blooms up.
Ground cherries are edible - in fact, the tomatillo of Mexican cuisine was developed from this species of ground cherry.
Verbena pumila grows in clay soils. It usually blooms in the spring.
J.D. Drissell was a good sport - he nibbled on a pepperweed stalk when asked!