Photo Essay
Porter Ranch, Borden County
Pat Porter ranches in Borden County. The county's total population is less than 800 people. It is 90% ranchland. Borden County is the headwaters basin for the Colorado River at the edge of the Llano Estacado. Her ranch is more xeric than other areas of the breaks, although "dryweather springs" are found in some of the draws. Dryweather springs run when it is dry - after rains have recharged the sandy soils at the head of the draws at the edge of the Llano Estacado. The 2008 class of the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists toured her ranch in mid-March. (She is a member of the class.) The group hiked along a south-facing slope along one of the draws, and then visited a stock tank in another draw. The Master Naturalists are deeply appreciative for the chance to tour her private property. Photographers include; Chris Cherry, Leslie Harman, Nina McCart, Mark Pelham, R. L. Orth, Sharon Long, Taffy Armstrong, Burr Williams.
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In the far distance is Gail Mountain. The headwaters basin of the Colorado River is rolling country, with many small draws joining and forming creeks that eventually (by the Willow Creek Road) becomes a flowing Colorado River. Steeper hills have juniper, javelina brush, agarita and other shrubs. The draws and lower hills are covered with mesquite grassland, with riparian willows, cottonwoods, and seepwillow along the stream courses.
The large gray patch of grass is tobosa. Tobosa is common in the mesquite grassland of the region, where the soils are tighter clays or gravelly slopes. Dark javelina brush and leafless mesquite top out the slope.
Triassic red clays are common features of the landscape. They often erode into steep narrow arroyos. Mark Pelham (in the picture) found two items of interest in this arroyo that will be mentioned later.
Above the red clay is the outwash gravel from the ancestral Rocky Mountains that is capped by caliche deposits. Few junipers are found on Ms. Porter's ranch, but some are on the crest of the hill above the javelina brush.
The wide draw has isolated mesquites, plentiful tobosa grass, and in 2007 thousands of sunflowers filled the valley. Cane Cholla is also common on the ranch. It is a relict species from the Altithermal, or even earlier.
At the beginning, Ms. Porter told the class about her ranching operation. A herd of cows came to be fed, but no feed was available.
At present the ranch is a cow and calf operation. The ranch is lightly stocked.
A young juniper and lotebush are in the foreground. The slope has several species of grass, including good stands of sideoats grama, an "ice cream" grass for cattle.
The buds of Dutchman's Breeches were red, as normal, instead of yellow as they are in Big Spring State Park. The little perennial wildflower is an indicator plant of shallow rocky soils. Its seedpods look just like a pair of pantaloons.
When the Dutchman Breeches flower opens, the inside is yellow.
New growth on the algerita was evident on the March 15th field trip.
Some of the algerita only had flower buds.
Other algerita were in full bloom. A small ground bee carefully worked each flower for its nectar.
The sweet smell of the algerita filled the air.
Some of the algerita were at the crest of the hill above the wide draw below.
The small hybrid cholla (a cross between tasajillo and cane cholla was found in several places. Its flesh was reddish because of winter's cold and dry soils.
Ground plum (Astragulus crassicarpus) was a common wildflower on that day of a dry spring in 2008. The seedpod will be a swollen pod the size of a ping-pong ball that will be plum colored when ripe.
Legume flowers fade when pollinated. Bees working the flowers recognize the change and do not waste their time looking for nectar that will not be there.
Chris Cherry photographed a shrub that the Sibley Nature Center staff did not recognize.
The same shrub had these reddish leaves - or is it a strange flower?
Some of the javelina brush was in full bloom.
A tasajillo is in front of the non-blooming javelina brush.
Leslie Harman thought the red was a fruit on the tasajillo, but on close examination, it turned out to be an early lady bug.
Funnel web spiders were common on the gravelly slope. Most of them waited at the mouth of the funnel for an insect to land on its "porch."
A leaf-footed bug crawled on the ground. He had probably emerged from a crevice in the rock, but it was still too chilly to fly. He will feed on the prickly pear by inserting his "beak" and sucking out the plant juices.'
A longhorned bore (a beetle) was also out early. The larval food for this species is unknown to the Sibley staff.
Black beetles are a common feature of the West Texas landscape. Most eat rotting material, but some hunt snails. Without a look at its mouthparts, the Sibley staff cannot make a determination of its identification.
This small scarab hung upside down in an arroyo bank in the shade.
Why was this grasshopper impaled on a prickly pear thorn? Shrikes place bugs on mesquite thorns and barbedwire fences, but never this low. Did it just fly into the thorn?
This might have been the hindparts to a Jerusalem Cricket, or a cave cricket. Some animal, possibly a grasshopper mouse, ate the head and upper thorax.
Wolf spider holes were plentiful. The class learned how to "jig" them out of their holes with grass stems.
The class also learned about dung-flipping. Many species of invertebrates can be found under cow patties. Roly-polies (pillbugs) are common.
Above the long beetle (and to the right) is a termite. Termites are also common under cow patties.
An old cow patty can be pretty!
The red-rimmed plant bug is another species that inserts its mouth parts and sucks plant juices.
A wolf spider had recently excavated dirt at its hole - notice the dirt pile above the hole.
A small nymphal grasshopper crawled over the gravel. Its coloration indicates that it is a ground feeder, relying on its camouflaged appearance to protect it.
A cowpatty fell on a prickly pear. When the cowpatty was flipped over, a small tube (with termites) was noticed. Do you see it?
A red and black beetle also hid under a cow patty.
One of the class members found a small round structure made of spider silk. When it was opened, hundreds of baby jumping spiders came boiling out.
The class began to notice dozens of the jumping spider winter nests.
A paper wasp lit on one of the class members - her perfume attracted it.
A potter wasp nest was discovered on the twig of a shrub. Inside the larvae along with food items (spiders or caterpillars) would be found.
A robberfly hung around the class, hoping the people would disturb other flying insects for it to catch and devour.
In many places on the gravelly hillside, large green rosettes attracted the attention of the class.
Someone soon found that the same rosette often had these white seedstalks.
In closeup, the seed cases were revealed to have an interesting shape.
The leaf of the rosette, when picked, was easy to attach to shirts, for the leaf has thousands of small stiff hairs (like velcro.) The plant is known as buena mujer (good woman) for it sticks to you like a good woman should!
The class noticed that the seedstalks of the sideoats grama is similar to a Comanche war lance with feathers hanging from the side. Sideoats is the state grass of Texas. It turns reddish to orange in the winter, indicating its high sugar content -- which makes it an "ice cream" grass.
Last years seedstalks of buckwheat stuck up through the grasses. In August and September, yellowish blossoms will appear.
Tiquilia is another common plant in gravelly soils. Later in the year, it will have tiny pale blue blossoms.
Blackfoot daisy also grows in gravelly soils. A small part of the plant had greened up and even set a bloom bud, but without rain, the plant will remain in dormancy for a few months and finally die. The species is a short-lived perennial often used in xeriscape gardens.
Another green rosette caught the eye of some of the class.
It was not until last year's bloomstalk was found that it could be identified as James Penstemon, a white penstemon commonly found in gravel hillsides in the breaks.
A few fleabane daisies were found. In wetter years, this annual can carpet the ground.
A small mammalaria cactus with bright red fruit was found under an old mesquite log.
Taffy Armstrong was one of several class members that took the challenge of taking a bite. All loved the taste, and several later reported finding more elsewhere and harvesting the fruit.
Four nerved daisy had not yet unfurled its ray flowers. It is another common species of the gravelly slopes in the breaks.
Under a mesquite at the top of the hill (and right at the edge of the hill) the class found bones, like this of a packrat.
Snake bones were also found under the mesquite. What predator might have eaten his meals? Was it in the mesquite as it ate?
Just below the edge of the hill, the ground was riddled with dozens of holes about 6 inches across. The class could find no scat to indicate what lived in the holes. Everyone began stepping very carefully, for such habitat would be a great location for rattlesnakes!
Some of the rocks had lichen, but it was not plentiful, as it is at the Big Spring State Park.
A nearby telephone pole had a woodpecker hole in it.
Not far away a Red Tailed Hawk had a nest on another telephone pole. The bone pile mentioned above was probably from the hawks at the nest.
Cane cholla has yellow fruit that hangs on for a year or more. Later in the year, red blossoms will grace the cactus.
The "wood" of cane cholla has an unique shape. The stems were once used for novelty lamp shade poles.
Most of the cane cholla grew where the tobosa grass grew.
A prickly pear had a waxy substance on one of its pads. Was this evidence of some plant sucking bugs damage?
One of the class cut a prickly pear pad, and was amazed to discover the "pocket" inside. The pocket is not normal, but then, the Sibley staff had never cut into a prickly pear pad before, so there might be a good reason for it!
Comanche prickly pear grew hidden among the tobosa. If a walker is not observant, the prickly pear can give a rude awakening!
Mark Pelham, in the arroyo at the beginning of the photoessay, discovered a small layer of gypsum crystal.
He also discovered what he believed to be an arrow scraper. The notches on the rock would cut a stem of a seepwillow and make it a cylindrical shaft.
The class had been instructed to look for chimaya, a root vegetable of the plains Indians. After an hour or more, someone finally found one. As one class member was digging the first one up (so everyone could have a taste) the rest of the class discovered many more, scattered among the tobosa.
One lone blue gilia blossom was discovered. It, too, is another indicator plant of the gravelly hillslope habitat.
Hairy grama grass is also common on rocky slopes.
An ephedra was discovered with a female blossom. Males have anthers - this is the stigma of the style (the female flowering part.) Ephedra have male and female plants.
Not much scat was found as the class walked, except for this fox dropping.
Stock tanks on the Porter Ranch are filled by rainwater. Two small draws feed this pond, which was recently deepened (during a drought) so it would hold more water.
On the east side of the pond many willow seedlings screened the mouth of one of the watershed draws. A huge old willow was on the west side, its top broken off, but with many younger trunks coming from the old base.
In the sandy mouth of the east draw, many sunflowers had grown in 2007. The draw just east of the pond ran through a mesquite thicket. Some of the mesquites were up to 15 feet tall.
The mesquite thicket had a great crop of cane bluestem grass and other grasses. A flock of white-crowned sparrows worked the thicket for the hour the class was at the pond.
At least a dozen red-eared sliders kept surfacing in the pond as the class investigated the scene.
Several dozen Blanchard's pickerel frogs lined the edge of the pond.
The frogs were no larger than half-dollars.
The large tadpole might become a leopard frog or bullfrog.
The wet mud was spotted by dozens of small black beetles the size of a capital B.
In the shallow water, the tracks of a Great Blue Heron were noticeable in the clay mud.
A green algae had begun to grow on the mud of the shallow water. Hunks of the algae floated in the water.
Two shoreflies ran in the wet mud where a coyote had been that morning.
The damp soil within two feet of the water was almost perfect camouflage for this ground spider.
Why was this grasshopper nymph in the saturated mud at the water's edge?
Tiny seedlings had just germinated in the damp soil. On a white quartz pebble, a small bee warmed itself.
In the same area, a land snail shell lay empty.
A green adult grasshopper tried to hide among mare's tail seedlings.
An adult bandwinged grasshopper was in the drier soil 100 feet from the pond.
Why was this large adult grasshopper sitting on a branch of the old willow?
The coyote probably visits every day for a drink.
The Sibley stafff did not recognize this winter rosette. Our best bet decided it was a small white geranium.
The bluestem in the mesquite thicket retained the amber colored stems of winter, even as new green was appearing at the base of the stalks.
The whitecrowned sparrows watched the class leave.
In the east the waxing moon loomed over the mesquites as the class drove away.