Photo Essay
I-20 Pond, Southwest Midland
In October of 2008 the 2008 class of the Llano Estacado chapter of the Master Naturalists visited the I-20 pond in southwest Midland several times. The large playa receives runoff from the southwestern corner of Midland. Plentiful rains earlier in the season had filled the playa to capacity. A local group is seeking to create a playa education center at the location, and have begun fundraising, including support from the City of Midland. Midland Naturalists, Master Naturalists, and academic personnel have special permission to visit the site and record what is to be found.
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Most of the bottom of the playa is filled with cattails, with only a few isolated areas of open water. When the playa was grazed, the cattails were limited, and most of the playa had open water after good rains.
In the foreground is seepwillow, a common shrub that grows near water (but can be found away from water occasionally.
Sunflowers grow near the upper limit to standing water, between the water line and tree line.
Mesquite is found on three of the sides of the playa, up away from the water.
At the north end of the playa is a small caliche pit that is almost always full of water. It is surrounded by large trees.
Several of the Master Naturalists were fascinated by the reflections in the water.
In this photograph cockleburs and spiny aster can be seen in front of the cattails.
The Master Naturalists met the Midland Naturalists along the trail and discussed what had been seen one morning.
The Master Naturalists attempted to find a way around the north end of the pond, but the seepwillow thickets were too dense, and no trail maintenance had been done in the area for a couple of years.
The trail wanders through a forest - an unusual habitat in West Texas. The forest consists of ornamental trees whose seeds washed into the playa.
The seepwillow thicket on the north end is full of butterflies when it is in bloom.
Giant ragweed prefers clay soils, and is found both under the trees and out in the open on the playa floor.
Bush muhly is a delicate grass that grows under mesquites.
Duckweed produces seeds that ducks devour. The pink blossoms are pretty en masse.
Cardinals prefer forest conditions, so the I-20 pond has several pairs.
Robins also live year around at the pond, nesting and producing young such as this one.
A family of roadrunners live at the site. This one was watching...
...and then with contortions tried...
...to catch a grasshopper.
Morning doves nest by the hundreds in the trees around the playa.
Coots live year around at the pond. (It has dried up only once in 25 years.)
Green herons live year around at the pond, as well. Fish and frogs are their prey.
Red winged blackbirds are also year around residents.
Black chinned hummingbirds eat many tiny insects if nectar is not available, so several pairs nest at the playa each summer.
Vultures sometimes use the trees around the pond for a night time roost.
Barn owls can be found at the playa year around.
Verdins (tiny gray birds with a yellow head) use their nests year around, just like cactus wrens.
Packrats abound in the mesquite forest next to the larger trees, and feast upon the prickly pear that grows under the mesquite.
Fresh coyote scat had some prickly pear fruit in it.
Whiptail lizards hang around the edge of the property, where the ground has bare areas, but are rarely found in the dense forests or thickets.
A diamondbacked rattlesnake snuck off the trail, rattling as his tail disappeared into the tall weeds.
The master naturalists caught a horny toad and swabbed its mouth for a DNA test for researchers at SMU.
A snout butterfly rested on a sawtooth daisy.
A beefly visited an aster.
Several species of damselflies are found along the water.
A sleepy orange visited a spiny aster.
What is hanging upside down from a chocolate daisy?
A band winged grasshopper, missing a leg, allowed the photographer to come close.
An unusual robberfly with green eyes and red legs directly faced the photographer, hoping to minimize its profile.
Dragonflies obelisk, pointing their tail toward the sun, to diminish the radiant heat on their body, when it is hot.
Do house flies have stripes?
The "broketop snail" originally came from Europe, arriving in West Texas at Fort Concho in the 1880s.
Elodes beetles are plentiful scavengers of plant detritus.
The most common bee fly is this fuzzy species.
Schistocerca grasshoppers are 2-3 inches long, and can fly long distances without resting.
A green grasshopper hid on a Johnson grass leaf.
Many species of moths hide in grass during the day.
Hundreds of harvester ants were reducing a pile of scat to nothing.
How did R. L. Orth catch this dragonfly in midflight?
Walking sticks are hard to find on the mesquites, but the group found several.
These beetles eat snails for food. Mating occurred as the female ran along the ground.
A gray and black sunflower beetle nectared on a sawtooth daisy bloom.
Another sawtooth daisy bloom had a soldier beetle and a weevil on the same flower head.
A black beetle hung on a gall on kochia.
A carpenter bee nectared on another sawtooth daisy.
Saltmarsh caterpillars (larvae of a tiger moth) were plentiful on the kochia.
Had a skunk or a lizard dug up this beetle pupa, and then been disturbed by the photographer?
Unfortunately, the fireants dominate the ground at the I-20 pond. A person can not stand still in most locations without getting swarmed.
A water snail was left high and dry by receding waters and left an empty shell.
A large green and white grasshopper rested on a sunflower.
In years past the aquatic insects were plentiful, but in the fall of 2008, few larvae were found, including this whose identification is a mystery. It may be the larvae of one of the aquatic beetles.
Under a flap of bark on a fallen log, adult and immature shield bugs sought shelter.
An adult ant lion hid under a branch in the shade during the middle of the day.
A green grasshopper found the only green leaf on the forest floor so it would be camouflauged.
The cochineal scale insect lives on prickly pear. The crushed insect produces a red dye.
Wolf spider holes always have a turret.
Several species of duckweed grow in the water - this one has a short bloom.
This species has broader leaves than the others, but longer blooms.
This species has narrow leaves.
Cattail seedheads release their seeds in October. All of the vegetation nearby can be totally covered with the hairy seeds and appear to be frost at first glance.
Seepwillow leaves have small teeth. The seeds have short hairs that do not fly through the air for great distances, like cattail seeds.
A seepwillow covered with seeds has a brief moment of shining glory, but the seeds vanish within a week.
Salt cedar is plentiful around the playa. There are several old specimens with trunks over a foot - I-20 pond was the first place this invasive species appeared.
Black willow leaves are slender.
Honey locusts are one of the species of ornamental trees that have germinated at the site.
Chinese pistache nuts are an excellent bird food.
Many species of mushrooms are found in the forest after rains. Puffballs are the most common.
There is no field guide to west Texas mushrooms!
Virginia creeper, another ornamental, covers a number of the trees at the north end of the pond.
Small ragweed is plentiful on the slope of the playa.
The ornamental prickly pear known as "cow tongue" or "mother in law tongue" has established itself in several places.
The stems of ephedra and the leaves of Acacia greggi create a pleasing contrast.
Yellow puff is native in central Texas, but its seeds arrived at the I-20 pond in hay fed to cows that used to graze in the playa. It has persisted for many years.
The leaves of yellow puff are "sensitive" and fold up when touched.
Trompillo is common along the trails.
The red spines on this corypantha cactus were unusually bright - the species normally does not have red spines.
This white mallow species has been found only at the I-20 pond and at a few other playas in Midland County.
Crow poison normally blooms in the spring, but the fall rains had caused one to appear - not another one was found. (And it is very common in the spring.)
Flowering straw normally blooms in May, but will bloom in the summer and fall if there is sufficient rain.
Gaura is also normally a spring bloomer.
The yellow flower is a species of sundrops (Calylophus tubicula) and the tiny white flower is known as innocence.
Tansy aster will bloom from March until December.
Frog fruit lives in clay soils, so it is usually only found in playas and draws.
Kochia americana is a native perennial. Its annual cousin, mentioned above, is not native, but came as an ornamental.
Rabbit tobacco is a short lived perennial that can be found in bloom from March to December after a rain.
Allionia is a common species in every habitat (if there is enough rain.)
Wild lettuce has milky sap, and if a tea is made from it, it can serve as a sleeping aid.
Basket flower seedheads are not as showy as the lavender and white blooms the size of a teacup saucer.
Prickly pear is found under many of the mesquites.