Yep, the water is extra turbid today

The high-schoolers showed up and so did the rain.

But the Baytown Nature Center's staffers and volunteers aren't wimps. And the exceptional group of students didn't mind getting wet on a warm day.

So we dodged raindrops while calculating the turbidity, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen and nitrate levels.

Note the tarp-holding technique of the dedicated volunteer (below) protecting students conducting water tests during a cloudburst. -- Lana b.

The sample of water in the bucket pulled from the bridge gets an infusion of rainwater.

Incised Shaman Rock? Mammoth Tooth Fossil?

On Tuesday at the Texas City Prairie Preserve, I was walking along the gravel road between the education center and potting area when I saw this rock among rocks.

The lines etched on the rock were all over the surface and accented by a white coating in the grooves.

Always wanting to find that hidden treasure or prehistoric tool, my imagination ran wild with ideas of its origination and utility!  I asked the others at the potting table if they had seen anything like it...."No" no one had.

At home I took the photos seen above, attached them to an email to Dirk Van Tuerenhout at the Houston Museum of Natural Science who forwarded the inquiry with rock photo to the resident geologist.

The explanation for the "groovy" rock:

 "The chert photos you sent to Inda are certainly the common variety of banded chert. 

Ground water stains the rock with manganese where the chert is more porous.
People bring this into the Houston Gem and Mineral Soc all the time and are disappointed when the inside shows a nearly uniform white color.

This is a natural phenomenon and was not aided by humans."

: )

Marilyn

Lesser Scaup stops by BNC pond

The Scaup was seen on the "fresh water" pond on Golden Bloom Trail.

 I missed the monthly bird count at Baytown Nature Center, but David H. and fellow birder spotted 52 species on a hot day with extremely high tides.

The most interesting finds were a Yellow-throated Warbler and an out-of-season Lesser Scaup.

The September bird count
2    Mottled Duck
3    Blue-winged Teal
1    Lesser Scaup
1    Wood Stork
22    Neotropic Cormorant
2    Anhinga
2    American White Pelican
28    Brown Pelican
10    Great Blue Heron
14    Great Egret
55    Snowy Egret
7    Little Blue Heron
5    Tricolored Heron
1    Cattle Egret
6    Green Heron
5    Black-crowned Night-Heron
22    Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
22    White Ibis
1    Osprey
2    Cooper's Hawk
2    Red-shouldered Hawk
3    Clapper Rail
3    Black-necked Stilt
12    Killdeer
8    Spotted Sandpiper
3    Willet
30    Least Sandpiper
85    Laughing Gull
33    Forster's Tern
3    Royal Tern
4    Sandwich Tern
8    Rock Pigeon
73    White-winged Dove
8    Mourning Dove
15    Chimney Swift
12    Ruby-throated Hummingbird
4    Belted Kingfisher
2    Red-bellied Woodpecker
1    Downy Woodpecker
2    Loggerhead Shrike
12    Blue Jay
2    Carolina Chickadee
4    Carolina Wren
1    Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
17    Northern Mockingbird
42    European Starling
1    Yellow-throated Warbler
1    Northern Cardinal
8    Common Grackle
5    Great-tailed Grackle
1    Orchard Oriole
2    House Sparrow

Mythical Wetland Willy spotted at nature center

Photo taken Sept. 16 at Baytown Nature Center by Marilyn L.

The legendary Wetland Willy has appeared again. And this time a photographer got a photo.

The sighting of the elusive creature caused a bit of excitement this week at BNC.

High-schoolers on a field trip saw a dark form that seemed to be crouching in the tall grasses across from the Brownwood Pavilion at Baytown Nature Center.

They pointed and squinted.

Was it a bear?
A gorilla?
A log?

It must be Wetland Willy, sometimes called Baytown's little Sasquatch or the Burnet Bay Yowie.

The mysterious creature has had many names through the years. In the 1700s, there were reports of the secretive Kakau Kic, perhaps a female version of Wetland Willy.

In recent times the legend of Wetland Willy has waned, but the phantom of the wetlands may have found the perfect home at BNC.

Although little is known about its habits, WW seems to be a nocturnal creature, rather short in stature and usually glimpsed in the tall marsh grasses. When humans are near, it will often stand still for hours to blend with the environment.

And according to legend, Wetland Willy is most active during the fall, particularly toward the end of October.

Catch any comb jelly lately?

Contrails made an early morning X to mark the spot Sept. 16 at Baytown Nature Center where we meet ninth-graders participating  in the "Back to the Bay" program.

It was fun watching the students try to master the cast-net toss even though all they were pulling out of the bay were Comb Jelly.

Not that there is anything wrong with Comb Jelly.

Naturalist Crissy says Comb Jelly are the McDonald's of the bay: They are everywhere and everything eats them.

And they don't sting like jellyfish so you can feel the sliminess in your finger before tossing them back into the water.

Alas, touching their fragile bodies is generally fatal for the Comb Jelly. But when Comb Jellies that survived the cast net were put in viewing containers, the students were intrigued.

Fun facts about Comb Jelly to get high-schoolers' attention.

• Most are hermaphrodites, capable of producing eggs and sperm at the same time.  
• A Comb Jelly has a mouth and an anus, but you won't find a head or tail.
• The ones around here are around 4 inches long, but offshore they can get 4-feet long. 
• They are carnivores.  
• Comb Jelly can emit light -- often seen at night on the waves. That's bioluminescence, and it makes them extra special.

There are translucent Comb Jellies in the sample viewer on the concrete ledge. Squint your eyes and use your imagination.

Hummingbird colors for four walls?

Hummingbird season can be inspiring. I think these colors would be interesting in a bedroom that needs repainting after a boy vacates it.

But I found lots of nature-inspired palettes at the Design Seeds site.

I also love the Love Birds, middle right.

Catching the blur of a hummingbird

Jan Hanson shot these cool photos of the hummingbirds at Smith Point Hawk Watch tower Sept. 8.

Rainy day at a hawk watch tower

We had a good view of rain clouds rolling in during Sunday's visit to Smith Point Hawk Watch tower, but only a couple of hawks flew by.

However the hummingbird viewing was fantastic. My buddy Jan H. got some good photos of the little birds resting on the brush before make another buzz around the feeders. All my photos were taken with my camera phone.

This dog wandering past the tower returned when he heard or smelled us getting food out of the cars for a picnic-style lunch in the tower. When the food was put away, the dog went back down the ramps to go on his way.

Before the rain, some explorers headed down a trail. They came back with at least one tick, stories of mosquito swarms and a couple of bird sightings.

I had on shorts (stupid wardrobe choice) so I stayed in the tower. I didn't get any tick souvenirs, but I bought this cool shirt.

Bluebirds of happiness and mealworms

It is a mealworm feast. (Hanson Nature Photography.)

Neighborhood bluebirds wait patiently each evening for Jan H. to fill her backyard feeders with mealworms.

The birds didn't hatch in her Chambers County yard, but they know where to find a fine dining experience.

Sometimes the restless birds sit on the feeders waiting to be served.

When Jan arrives with the mealworms, the bluebirds fly up to the power lines to wait while she fills the feeders. As soon as she walks away, they fly back down.

Jan says:

We have about 12 bluebirds that come to the feeders. That probably represents two clutches. 

One hatched in early spring and one in late spring. They show up roughly between 6 and  7:30 every day. 

The Bluebirds love the wiggly treats to so much that Jan buys mealworms in bulk and keeps the larvae of the mealworm beetle refrigerated.

Jan is a softie, and Bluebirds have trained her well.

Sometimes they don't leave and I know they want more, so they get more. 

After mealtime -- and sometimes before -- the Bluebirds usually visit the bird bath near the feeders for splash bath.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

More, please.

Mushroom Surprise!

This mushroom is about 8 inches in diameter and has a caramel lacquered color on the cap.  After a little research, I found that it may be a Ganoderma lucidum and called "Artist's Conk" because it's "underlayer (hymenium) is white and can be drawn upon.  As the pores are crushed, a browning reaction occurs, thus allowing the artist to sketch an image."  (Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, Paul Stamets, 2000,        pg. 352)  I've plucked a young growth from this spot several times and it becomes as hard as a plastic.  This time I decided to let it grow to it's maximum size.  I'll place a ruler by it for scale next time I take a photo.
Marilyn