Nalle Bunny Run Virtual Tour 2020-04-18

On Saturday April 18, 2020 I met a couple Hill Country Conservancy staff members at their Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve for the second virtual tour. (The first tour has not yet been edited or posted anywhere besides as ephemeral "stories" on Instagram.) I hope to update this post and my previous post when these videos are edited and online.

It was a fun morning! We spent about 3 hours covering just 1.25 miles of trail on the preserve. When I first arrived I was excited to find a few patches of Antelope Horns milkweed, and one of them had two Monarch butterfly caterpillars on it!

Antelope Horns Milkweed with Monarch Caterpillars - 1 - 3

Antelope Horns Milkweed with Monarch Caterpillars - 1 - 5

Throughout the morning we got to hear several bird songs and calls that we recorded little segments about.

It was remarkable to find two different White-tailed Deer antler sheds. One was pretty fresh and the other was old. The old one showed lots of gnaw marks from rodents supplementing their diet with minerals from the old antler:

White-tailed Deer Antler with chew marks

We left both antlers where we found them for future gnawings!

We ended the walk locating a Catalpa tree that I first found when it was just 4 feet tall back in 2013. Now it's 15 feet tall and it was covered in white flowers!

Catalpa Tree - 1 - 1

Catalpa Tree - 1 - 3

We found 24 species of birds on this morning. Here's my complete eBird list.

Here are a few more photos on Flickr.

Attached are the same photos as iNat observations.

And here's a video summary of the walk that HCC posted on Instagram.

Update 4/28/2020

HCC posted the edited video on YouTube. I'm embedding it here:

Posted on April 20, 2020 10:32 PM by mikaelb mikaelb

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Monarch (Danaus plexippus)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 10:46 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

I was excited to see half a dozen patches of Antelope Horn milkweed near the stone benches. And one of them had two Monarch butterfly caterpillars on it!

Photos / Sounds

What

Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 10:12 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Near the gate in the eastern oak-juniper habitat we found a tree I first found in 2013. (See it as a small sapling here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/274203) Wow, what a tree it has grown into! And I've never seen it flowering before!

Photos / Sounds

What

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 10:04 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Photos / Sounds

What

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 10:10 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Amazingly, we found two shed White-tailed Deer antlers this morning. One was a recent shed in the deciduous woods habitat. The other was this quite old one. And this old one is covered with chew marks from rodents supplementing their diet with minerals from the antler.

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 09:16 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Photos / Sounds

What

Yellow-striped Armyworm Moth (Spodoptera ornithogalli)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 08:33 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Our second caterpillar of the morning was on this sensitive plant AKA mimosa. The bright pink spherical flowers caught our eye and then we saw a dark caterpillar eating one of them. It's a Yellow-striped Armyworm Moth (Spodoptera ornithogalli).

Photos / Sounds

What

Sensitive Plants (Genus Mimosa)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 08:31 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

Our second caterpillar of the morning was on this sensitive plant AKA mimosa. The bright pink spherical flowers caught our eye and then we saw a dark caterpillar eating one of them. It's a Yellow-striped Armyworm Moth (Spodoptera ornithogalli).

Photos / Sounds

What

Antelopehorn Milkweed (Asclepias asperula)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 08:13 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

I was excited to see half a dozen patches of Antelope Horn milkweed near the stone benches. And one of them had two Monarch butterfly caterpillars on it!

Photos / Sounds

What

Pearl Milkweed (Matelea reticulata)

Observer

mikaelb

Date

April 18, 2020 08:24 AM CDT

Description

Taken during the second virtual tour of Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve.

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