Prairie Notes #197 - Never Cross the Same Prairie Twice
Prairie Notes are monthly photo/journal observations from Tandy Hills Natural Area by Founder/Director, Don Young. They include field reports, flora and fauna sightings, and more, mixed with a scoop of dry humor and a bit of philosophy.
They are available free to all who get on the FOTHNA email list.
You can’t Cross the Same Prairie Twice
Prairie Notes #197
May 1, 2023
1) You Can’t Cross the Same Prairie Twice
2) Field Report: April
3) FW-NPAT Field Trip Report
4) New Species - April
5) City Nature Challenge_2023
6) Prairie-Sky / Star-Party Report
7) Hypothetical Eco-Scapes
8) Debora Young’s Bird Project on TV
9) Prairie Proverb - Heraclitus
1) You Can’t Cross the Same Prairie Twice
It was, Heraclitus, in 500 B.C. who, famously said,
“No man ever steps in the same river twice.”
In other words, you and the river are always changing. Simply put, everything changes. After observing Tandy Hills meadows for about 50 years, I have a slightly different take on this old maxim:
“You can’t cross the same prairie twice.”
The Tandy Hills spring prairies are typically a nicely dispersed mix of wildflower species. Someone once described it as “a big bowl of Lucky Charm cereal.” But every year is different. Drought, fire, rain, seed dormancy and climate change are all factors in what blooms year to year, month to month and season to season. But, good luck trying to make predictions. There seem to be other forces at work not yet fully understood.
In most years, you can safely predict that Purple Paintbrush, Engelmann's Sage, Engelmann's Daisy will dominate the spring prairie. But in some years, Mother Nature throws a curve ball with one species having a super-bloom kind of year. You may have heard of this phenomena in desert regions of California. Apparently, conditions have to be exceptional for this to occur. But, again, it's unpredictable and different every year.
For example, in spring 2004 the prairies along View Street were dense with Greenthread. Their threadlike stems and bold yellow flowers completely covered the meadows. That amazing display has not repeated since then. The next year it was Purple Paintbrush that crowded out other species in extra large numbers. In 2015, it was Prairie Larkspur that carpeted the meadow. In 2016, it was Prairie Bishop that covered the same meadow in millions of tiny white flowers. And so it goes.
THIS year, there have been four species that have had unusually robust years. All of them are rather common and have never been observed by me in such ovwerwhelming quantities. The first of these was, Roadside Gaura. It usually sticks to the periphery of the meadows but this year it covered nearly the entire west meadow and a huge patch on Broadcast Hill. Ditto, Texas Storks-Bill. Ditto, Wavyleaf Thistle. And, at press time, Indian Blanket appears to be on the verge of a super-bloom with an abundance of buds about to pop.
Come on in and behold the magnificence of Tandy/Broadcast Hills wildflowers while the paint is still wet.
DY
2) Field Report - April
Despite a late freeze in March, April was showtime for most wildflower species. There have been a few uncommon “super-blooms” at Tandy and Broadcast Hills, which is exciting to see. Lots of rain kept the wildflowers blooming. The trails are knitted together with wildflowers of all colors. It’s almost overwhelmingly beautiful. Almost.
3) FW-NPAT Field Trip Report
About 35 members of the Fort Worth Chapter of Native Prairies Association of Texas (FWNPAT), visited Tandy and Broadcast Hills on April 16th. Don Young had a captive audience as he told the tale of the 20-year history of Friends of Tandy Hills.
FW-NPAT President, Kate Morgan, along with FW Parks Dept. employee, Michelle Villafranca, led the hike on a perfect day when the wildflowers were looking spectacular. Michelle Villafranca also introduced the group to Broadcast Hill Open Space. While over there, Jo An Thomas, had the group help remove a patch of Bastard Cabbage. A fun time was had by all.
> In a follow up news story by reporter, Haley Samsel, of the, Fort Worth Report, published a nice piece on the field trip and the work of NPAT and Friends of Tandy Hills. read it HERE.
4) New Species - April
The species count to a big leap in April, from 1,840 to 1,873. The 32 new additions include, beetles, spiders, bees, moths and a new plant species. All observations are by Sam Kieschnick. See a few of them below and see all 1,873 at the Tandy Hills iNat Project Page HERE.
5) City Nature Challenge_2023
The annual, City Nature Challenge, is back starting, April 28 and ending on May 1. In a friendly competition, cities around the world collaborate to share observations of nature. The DFW region is always near the front of the pack. Will we repeat this year? Maybe, if you help.
Participating in the City Nature Challenge is easy!
1. Download the free iNaturalist app and make an account.
2. April 28 - May 1, take photos of WILD plants and animals anywhere in the DFW region
3. Upload your observations to share with the iNaturalist community. They will automatically be added to the DFW City Nature Challenge project!
Details:
6) Prairie-Sky / Star-Party Report
The next event is, Saturday, May 27th. Check website for more info HERE.
Here is your May sky commentary by FWAS rep, John McCrea:
For our May 27th FWAS/Tandy Hills star party, we will have our familiar spring constellations. The most popular can be seen in the night sky from about late March to late June. Although there are about fifteen springtime constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere, seven prominent constellations stand out and are generally associated with springtime. These include Ursa Major, Boötes, Cancer, Leo, Coma Berenices, Virgo, and Hydra.
The sun will set at 8:29 PM on May 27th. The moon will be just past the first quarter (54%) and will be in the Constellation Leo (the lion). Venus will be in the constellation Gemini (the twins) and Mars will be in the constellation Cancer (the crab). Jupiter and Saturn will be in the morning sky.
With any luck we may be able to see the Ω-Centauri globular cluster. It will be 5 degrees higher than Canopus was in March. It will be at 166O compass heading (southeast) or RA 13hr 26’, Dec -47O 40’.
7) Hypothetical Eco-Scapes
Several months ago Friends of Tandy Hills were contacted by, Chris Carson, Architecture Program Instructor at Lewisville ISD. He leads groups of students in the, Technology Exploration Career Center - East. He asked us to collaborate with his young students who are developing hypothetical projects that involve the prairie as a site for their work. One group of students have been working on a hypothetical Master Plan for Tandy Hills.
We met with the students, Nadia and Sarah, via Zoom to offer input on their project and listened to their ideas. As the semester draws to a close, they will be presenting their project results at an exhibition on May 18. Other students worked on similar projects at LBJ Grasslands. The public is invited to attend. See details below and at this LINK.
Here is a note about the project from Instructor, Chris Carson:
To complete our Spring semester, the TECC|East Architecture Studios will hold an exhibition highlighting student projects. For the entire semester, student work focused on a central theme -- the connections between architecture, ecology, and landscape. Students were challenged to design meaningful architecture for sensitive and/or endangered landscapes to facilitate a variety of physical, intellectual, and emotional connections with these special places.
On May 18th, students from all studio classes will share their semester projects with the public in an after-hours exhibition. As part of our event this year, our third-year students will present their designs for a visitor and research center in Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Natural Area.
8) Debora Young’s Bird Project on TV
As previously mentioned, artist, Debora Young, was recently interviewed by KTVT about her multi-year, Tandy Hills Bird Project, to document every bird species at Tandy Hills. Her work, was featured in a program on KTVT-TV (CBS 11) that originally aired April 28th. You can watch it HERE.
9) Prairie Proverb
“No man ever steps in the same river twice.”
Prairie Notes© is the official newsletter of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. All content by Don Young except where otherwise noted.
