Summer update 2006
The plants have grown in quite nicely in all parts of the schoolyard garden and our cold frame has a variety of herbs, vegetables and flowers growing in it. The leak in our stream has been fixed and I have not had to fill up the pond very often this summer at all. Our turtle and gold fish are all doing well and there are many toads, lizards, and frogs that live happily in the garden. We continue to have various dragonflies use our ponds to lay their eggs in and there is no shortage in the insects the live in and visit the garden as well. This year our garden and school grounds have attracted a road runner that is interested in both insects and lizards that are found in great numbers in our garden areas.
Fall / Winter update (2006)
We now have three turtles residing in our water garden area. Once the weather warms, I will be taking the largest Red Eared Slider and placing him in the pond in our preserve. We lost one goldfish but the rest are doing fine. Our Leopard Frogs did well and we had numerous egg sack layings over the summer months. Our campus has quickly become a butterfly magnet that has had a wide variety of different species frequenting our gardens this fall. I'm afraid I have not seen the roadrunner that was on our campus daily in the spring. I have also noticed a large reduction in rabbit sightings since last May as well. I am afraid a number of predators have done a good job of reducing our rabbit population. The lack of water during the summer months probably did not help them very much either. Hopefully there are enough left to use the new burrows that we have created to bring their numbers back to a normal level again. The rabbits are an essential part of the food chain . We have also noticed that the greenhouse is a winter vacation spot for the lizards living in the garden area. It is common to see the Green Anole inside the greenhouse in the winter. We have begun to build a small retaining pond in the wildlife preserve. Once this pond fills, it will provide a source of water that is critical to all that wish to live in our preserve. If not for the retaining of this water, there would not be a steady source of water anywhere near our wildife preserve. Having a pond will allow all sorts of wildlife to take up residence in or near our preserve. We are also in the planning stages of purchasing native plants from the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in early April at their annual spring plant sale.
February "07"
Our pond is complete and measures a little larger than 8x8 with a depth of up to 3 feet deep. The pond will receive water from rain run-off in two different directions. If the pond should fill to capacity, we have installed an overflow that will be designed as a marsh. The marsh measures 5 x 8. Our bird sanctuary is feeding a wide variety of birds. We have Yellow Rumped Warblers who vacation here for the winter who are very attracted to our suet feeders. I also just noticed a Screech Owl living in the nesting box, in my yard, that I build in October. We have 3 nest boxes on campus and two in our wildlife preserve that we will be keeping a close eye on to see if and when they become occupied by a Screech Owl. I have seen a young road runner on campus this month and a few students of mine have just recently sighted two cottontail rabbits in the bird sanctuary. Now that we have a pond and a number of protected rabbit burrows, we should begin the see an increase in rabbits as spring approaches. In late March and April, we will be purchasing a diverse range of native
April "07"
So much to tell..... A pond, marsh, and garden system that are all functioning very well. A rabbit garden that has kale and strawberries growing in it and is completely protected from the deer. A couple of cactus gardens, a prairie that has been completely finished and we are awaiting the wild grass seeds to sprout. We have a hummingbird garden overlooking the prairie. The meadows in the bird sanctuary have many wildflowers growing in them. We have planted many many native plants that provide both food and shelter to a wide variety of wildlife. We have sign posts that have student writings posted as well as trail signs that share information while walking the trails.
We are very excited to give our tours for Earth Day this year.
May "07"
The Preserve is on its way to becoming a wildlife magnet. Our pond is full of life. Tadpoles from Clif Chirping frogs, toads, and Leopard Frogs. We have a crawfish and turtle as well as a host of other creatures in our schoolyard pond. Our prairie is filling in nicely. The grass seed has germinated and will soon cover what was once just curshed caliche limestone. We have had numerous sightings of rabbits and even a pair living in one of the burrows we built in the rabbit garden!! The rabbits were eating the kale and lettuce leaves we had planted during our enrichment cluster. Finally, we have had numerous sightings of a screech owl in the owl box right next to the pond. A few students and I were also fortunate to see 3 red tailed hawks fly from about 40 feet from us....one of them was a juvenile hawk.
June - July "07"
Things are really taking off on our preserve this summer. The prairies grasses and flowers are coming in nicely. All of our new plants are doing well from all the rain this summer and our fig tree is getting bigger. Hopefully it will produce fruit next summer for the wildlife. The pond is also full of life. Recently, I have noticed the young Screech owls, from the nest box near the pond, sitting above the pond at dusk. From this observation, I have also noticed that our Leopard Frogs population has gone down around the pond as well. The good news is that I have transfered eggs from our school pond to the drainage pond and we will continue to have Leopard Frogs. Still, these owls seem to have easy pickings from the branches overlooking the pond at night when the frogs are most active. As the vegetation in and around the pond continue to grow, the frogs should have better cover and should be less likely to be picked off from above. Only time will tell if they are able to adapt to both day and nightime predators.
The bird sanctuary meadows have really taken off over the summer. No longer do these areas look like barren fields surrounded by a rock border. They are full of grasses and flowers now.
During July, I will be preparing for a few projects that we will work on during the school year. I will be cutting back a number of Cedar Trees in the prairie area and will put much of the trees into a wood chipper. The wood chips will provide a base mulch that will break down into a fertile compost. The goal is to open the area so that it becomes one large prairie area. I have also prepared a drainage area to be used as a wood /tree frog habitat.
January 08
So much has taken place since the last entry. We now have a large bird feeding station at the east end of our track. We have 4 feeders and a couple of suet feeders. We have noticed our common birds such as Titmice, Chickadees, and Cardinals. We also have noticed a migratory group of warblers feeding during the winter time. In October, we built another pond in the wildlife preserve that is located about 30 feet to the right of the entrance to the preserve and is called the Frog Pond. Also, students have built a field mice home that has been covered by a large mass of branches for protections. Over Christmas break, I have chipped all of the dead branch piles in our preserve. This new mulch will help to provide some substance to the prairie for which grasses and flowers can grow. To accompany this mulch, I will be ordering another dump truck load of dirt to add to the prairie as part of our grassland restoration project. We are also in process of building our third and final pond in the prairie which will be fed by heavy spring rains. Over the first half of the school year, we have seen many different animals. Our rabbit population is doing well and I have seen a couple of younger rabbits around campus. Our rabbit garden is doing well and we have numerous leeks planted in the garden that provides food to our Cottontails. We also have a group of Rock Squirrels living in a burrow that I had built with some students last January. We have sighted Great Horned Owls and a Barred Owl. We also have a female screech owl continueing to stay in our owl box that was put up last May. I have also sighted a woodpecker by our new frog pond. This is significant because it is the first ever sighting of a Downy Woodpecker on our campus. I have recently ordered a large amount of wild native grass seed and flowers to spread over the prairie once we have put down the new dirt. Finally, I have purchased a wildlife motion detecting camera for viewing wildlife during day and night. Hopefully we can get some really good pictures of wildlife in the near future.
April 08
So many things to share!!! We have completed our prairie restoration project. We have brought 13 cubic yards of high quality soil down into the preseve. We have planted both native grass and wildflower seeds and will be purchasing some plants at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center's plant sale. We have also just about finished our third and final pond located in the prairie. Once again collecting rainwater that runs off our campus. My class is also beginning to develop a new native garden area on the back side of the preserve. A 40 - 80 garden area that is called the "Golden Cheeked Warbler Habitat" The students and I have developed a trail system and gardens for it and are in process of researching native plants to put in the garden areas. I have purchased a heat sensing, motion detecting camera for our preserve and have great pictures captured in our rabbit garden. We have pictures of field mice, rabbits, foxes, and a coyote. We have another screech owl box that has a screech owl living in it and many of our bird homes in the prairie have birds living in them. So far, they all seem to beTufted Timice. I have also spotted a couple of birds not seen ever before as well. A Downy Woodpecker and a Golden Cheeked Warbler. That's right, a Golden Cheeked Warbler right near our bus loop. Unfortunatley I did not have my camera on me. Now that the Warblers are back in the area, my class and I will begin to listen for their calls to determine if there are any nesting in or near our preserve.
May 08
Our prairie pond is now officially a pond. It is an incredible addition to the preserve. The toads have laid their eggs in both the prairie and the new frog pond. We also have a first this month.....we were able to see and get pictures of a Golden-Cheeked Warbler this week. Also, a female painted bunting was seen in our prairie. Finally, we have a new screech owl in one of our homes. Last week, we were ableto see a very young bunny. I am a bit worried for these little fellows since I have spotten very large owls on the prowl at night and in the early moring hours. One Great Horned owl was seen exactly near the brush where the young rabbit was seen a couple of days earlier. Also, there was a Great Horned owl in the main parking lot last weekend as well. They must know we have some rabbits in the area. Other than this, our prairie grass is coming in strong and many insects are heading in. This has brought an increase of wildlife to our prairie areas. From rabbits eating on the fringes of the prairie, to lizards in our lizard habitats, many different snakes have been seen as well. Also, hawks have been flying over and perching above the prairie area looking for food. Much excitement and I must say the wildlife is increasing in this area now. ( May 8) May seems to be the month this year..... today I was able to get pictures of two new bird species found on our campus. A pair of lesser goldfinch were eating from our thistle feeder. Also a pair of Western Kingbirds were in our preserve and also by the drainage ditch by the 5th grade playground. I was also able to get a picture of a male housefinch. Though the house finch are found in our area, they have not been seen all too frequently.
December 2008
So much to talk about since the last entry. We have spent the last couple of moths building a 10 foot Chimney Swift tower. These birds will arrive from South America in March and we hope the swifts find our tower and make it their summer home. We have a kiosk built around the tower to display our signs that have been created by our students. Signs will include information about winter, summer migratory birds, butterflies, native grasses, wildflowers, amphibians and reptiles. It will also feature a professional map of our preserve. The students and I have created a 27' cicrcle surrounding the tower that will act as a compass. We are in process of designing a floor pattern that will act as a compass for people to use as a direction indicator. We are also going to use the tower as a sun dial for telling time as well. We have build our final habitat area called the woodland habitat. It features a mixture of Ashe Juniper, Texas oak, and Yaupon. In this small habitat area, students have built anouther preserve rabbit burrow and field mouse home. We have already seen both animals at the new home site. We also put up a large nest box in the southwestern corner of our preserve. Along with the tower and woodland habitat, we have also worked with Travis County Natural Resources Division to develop an erosion control area to slow the water run-off so it spreads over a larger area soaking into the ground. We have created a serious of dams and a large circular thicket fence to keep the deer out. Inside this area, we have planted a wide variety of native plants that not only will help hold down the soil but will provide nuts, seeds or berries at different time of the year for wildlife. These plants would normally be browsed to death by the deer so we have attempted to prevent that problem from occurring.
Along with the projects, we have been keeping a close eye on the wildlife. We have a number of wildlife cameras and video cameras taking images of wildlife. We have a camera on our bird feeding station that has collected pictures of birds that had not every been seen previously on our campus. Our first sightings of American Goldfinch, Purple Finch, and even a Gold-Fronted Woodpecker. We eagerly look forward for future pictures and birds that have not been sighted thus far on our campus. We have also placed a seed tray up about 7 feet high in our prairie for birds to eat from. we hade to wrap sheet metal around the pole to keep the squirrels from hogging all of the seeds from the birds. From August - December we have found many new species of snakes and birds that we have collected pictures of and have added to our species list. We also continue to find new bush and tree species as well.
Our next job for the second half of the school year will be to get the students research of their wildlife picture and info onto signs so they can be posted in the preserve for people to use and learn from . Along with the signs, we are having small signs printed for all of our trees and bushes found on our campus. We will be finishing our compass and sundial, adding benches and observation points, and bringing in some soil from our compster to enrich our rabbit and hummingbird gardens. Our mission at this point is to make the preserve a very functional area from which students can learn and conduct research from.
JUNE, 2009
Things just keep getting better and better in our preserve. We now have 3 cameras running full time in our preserve. One on our Frog Pond, Prairie Pond, and on our Chimney Swift Tower. Our preserve has 4 benches in our prairie area and our tower has a brand new map of our preserve as well as a host of wildlife species and native plant species that have all been created by the students. We have placed signs for our mant different trees and shrubs in our preserve and have made booklets for students to use to share information about the benefity to wildlife these trees and shrubs provide. We are in process of developing a butterfly and wildflower books as well. This year saw the new addition to our erosion control area, Chimney Swift Tower, and Woodland habitat. We have also built two new burrow areas and added a woodpecker home and another owl box.
We continue to see a wide variety of wildlife as well and some of these are first time appearances. This year we have gotten pictures of an Indigo Bunting and Gold Fronted Woodpecker. We have many pictures of the famed Golden Cheeked Warblers. As a matter of fact, we have two nest areas on the border of our preserve and were lucky to get pictures of the babies from both nest sites. We are also having a few more woodpecker sightings as well. Over the course of the year we have observed and video taped a Cooper's Hawk in our preserve. This hawk was seen hunting birds in our prairie as well as being video taped perched in our erosion control area. I have also taken numerous pictures of the Great Horned Owl and have gone out into the preserve at night with my night vision goggles to locate them. We have also had a first sighting of a Ring Tailed cat by our frog pond and rabbit area. We have also had many new sightings of snakes in our preserve. We found a large Diamond Back Rattlesnake and Rat Snake this year. We also came across a Patch-Nosed snake that hunts primarily for lizards. Also, we have Red Ribboned Snakes living around our frog pond.
We are also noticing a decline in fox sightings on our frog pond camera from winter to spring/ summer months. For the second year in a row there are many more sightings of fox in the winter than in spring and summer.
We also have a wildlife camera positioned on our bird feeding station by the track. We are able to collect hundreds of pictures in a day and use the camera during migrating months.
At this moment, we are expanding our prairie pond to include overflow pools that will serve as mini marshes. We are presently building a second praire pond as well as another pond in our drainage area by the erosion control area. Finally, we have diverted the water from D.K. ranch road and the drainage pit by the bus loop to head down into our preserve towards our tower. We are presently digging this area to make a shallow marsh pool for a wide variety of plants.
November, 2009
We have had frequent rain this fall. Our prairie is continuing to thicken with grasses and flowers. We just received 12 cubic yards of good soil for our prairie area with money received from a grant. We are dropping soil in places where water collects after heavy rainstorms. we are also mounding soil to make a deeper base for a greater variety of plants to grow. Looks like we will have a large blue bonnet crop this spring. Many young plants. We have added soil and plants to our overlook hummingbird garden. the plants were purchased at the wildflower center's fall plant sale. We have also purchased a large amount of wildflower and grass seeds that we will spread this winter. We also have two trees to plant in the prererve. Our frog pond has become home to a blotched water snake. We also have baby black necked garders (3 total) that hang around the pond and at least two red ribbon snakes. Very few frogs in this pond because of the snakes I'm sure. Our prairie pond has had many images over the course of the summer when water was scarce. We have a number of videos of Great horned owls as well as pictures of hawks, deer, raccoon, coyote, and skunks at our prairie pond. We have a new hillside pond by the erosion control area. We are now building two outdoor display cases for artifacts to be shown. We are also designing an over flow pond and a marsh system area. We have a new bird species not seen before in our preserve. The grey headed dark eyed junco. I believe he is just passing through. also, we have just had our first ever sighting of the Texas Alligator Lizard.