It has been quite some time since I last posted. My first semester of college wasn't particularly challenging, and I definitely had enough time to post, but I was lazy and didn't. I'll try to run through the highlights of as much of the past few months as I can. I'll have to divide the material into two posts, but hopefully I can make it entertaining.
Ross Barnett Reservoir
A friend from church, Bro. Williams, took me out on the Rez in his bass boat early one August morning. Knowing my interest in bugs, plants, and wildlife in general, he figured it would make a good going away gift for the last weekend before I started college at Mississippi State University. He was correct. As the sunrise illuminated the intricacies of the clouds against the pale sky, we slid out of the harbor through patches of plate-sized lotus flowers and meandered to the mouth of the Pearl River.
Nelumbo lutea, the American Water Lotus, visited by a skipper. |
Nymphaea odorata, the American Water Lily |
Within the first few minutes, we spotted our first alligator. Bro. Williams stopped the engines and dropped the electric motor over the side, and we got within twenty feet of it before it frothed the water with a flick of its tail and disappeared under the placid surface.
Unfortunately, the glare on the water was such that I couldn't get any high-quality pictures, but we did see at least ten alligators, some upwards of twelve feet long, and got within touching distance of several smaller ones.
Pectinatella magnifica, magnificent bryozoan |
After pausing for a few minutes to fish (unfruitfully) at the mouth of the Pearl, we decided to explore a small, flooded cypress cove. I found several cool insects and spiders, including a juvenile Dolomedes triton (six spotted fishing spider) and a still-unidentified beetle. I also found some colonies of the invasive Eichhornia crassipes (Water Hyacinth) and some interesting aquatic natives, which I took home and pressed. Then, Bro. Williams noticed a weird blob bobbing just under the surface. I grabbed a net and scooped it into the boat, where I took a picture of it. At first I thought the gelatinous mass consisted of salamander eggs, but iNaturalist suggested Pectinatella magnifica. I had no earthly idea what that was, nor did I have good enough internet connection to google it, so I set it back in the water where, to my dismay, it broke into several smaller chunklets.
Later research revealed iNaturalist was correct: I had found a tiny magnificent bryozoan (they can reach over two feet in diameter). Bryozoans are colonies of filter-feeding organisms that basically just float around and clear the water of algae and mud--God knows the Rez needs it.
Aside from learning about bryozoans and how to navigate through cypress swamps, I discovered an excellent strategy for getting close to deer. As we snaked our way up the Pearl, we noticed a deer moving across the river.
Oh deer! |
On the way back to the dock, we saw a couple more gators, as well as some herons, egrets, and even some ospreys. With bugs in my pockets and plants in my hand, I thanked Bro. Williams for the wonderful trip and went home to press the plants in my high-tech plant press. It was my first time pressing aquatic plants, and I ended up ruining my biology textbook. But it still works as a plant press!
University
From an ecological perspective, most of Mississippi State's campus is pretty bleak. Even though we have 10,000+ trees on our 1,500 acres, many of them are Chinese Parasol Trees, Bradford Pears, and Crepe Myrtles. That's tantamount to a food company tossing in a handful of deathcaps with their portabella mushrooms. On the main academic campus, concrete and lawn dominate the view, with a peppering of majestic live oaks, some of which are cloaked by invasive English Ivy. All of them, however, are successfully creating a shaded desert of bare earth where even plastic grass would die. On the plus side, a few raised beds are brightened with invasive, poisonous Lantana during the summer and early fall. But then they're stripped and allowed to lie fallow for a couple of weeks before a few pansies are patched in like band-aids on leprosy sores.
On the way to the dinning hall, Nandina shows its cheerful berry bunches through the suckering stems of non-native magnolias, beckoning in the Christmas season with certain death (via internal hemorrhaging) for any hungry migrating birds. The landscapers are trying to get rid of it, I'll give them that--I saw an excavator leveling several patches over a week-long period. But because it's Nandina, it came back within three weeks.
There is, however, a beacon of hope. The immediate vicinity of the Agriculture buildings is actually well thought out and stunning for most of the year, even if it isn't all native. A massive colony of Passiflora incarnata "incense" creates habitat for hundreds of Gulf Fritillary butterflies, which ineffectively defend their territory against passers-by by whirling around their heads. It's quite a majestic experience, especially when coupled with Passiflora flowers, which are about as large as an adult male's fist.
Gulf Fritillary feeding on invasive Lantana. |
Flower of Passiflora incarnata "incense." |
I would be remiss if I did not also mention the effective, mostly native landscaping around the Landscape Architecture buildings--I just don't happen to have any pictures of the aesthetically designed water retention basin that replicates natural habitat to improve both human life and environmental conditions.
Insects: Pests and Pets
Quite possibly, the highlight of my first semester at college was my Insects: Pests and Pets class taught by Dr. John Guyton. In addition to being able to handle cool arthropods such as "The Ambassador" (a golden-knee tarantula) and even an Amblypygid, we got a weekly PowerPoint presentation full of beautiful pictures and weird insects facts. (For instance, did you know that Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence in gall-wasp ink? I didn't)
Tailless whip scorpion, or Amblypygid. Incredibly fast and difficult to catch when it escapes. Not if. |
Clockwise from top left: Solidago sp., Conoclinium coelestinum,
Peucetia viridans, and Veronia sp. (?)
Until next year,
Nate Venarske
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