Monday, June 13, 2022

On the creeks: Turk's cap and scorpions

 Henry David Thoreau’s journal reported that on Dec. 10, 1840, he found a strange track in the snow. He discovered an otter had been on the prowl during the night.

He followed the track, reconstructing the otter’s night in town, and wrote:

I cannot but smile at my own wealth, when I am thus reminded that every chink and cranny of nature is full to overflowing — that each instant is crowded full of great events.

Which reminds me that it’s been a while since there’s been a report from the creeks.

• The Turk’s caps have put out their little red flowers. I saw the first bloom on May 23, which is late for us. Malvaviscus arboreus is such a common shrub people don’t notice it. We’re on the northwestern edge of its range. You can find it south and east to Cuba and southern Mexico.

• Hummingbirds are into the Turk’s caps and red yucca. Most of the ones I’ve seen have been Black-chinned, Archilochus alexandri.

• Earlier this week, we watched a scorpion crawl across the trail at Confluence Park, where San Pedro Creek joins the San Antonio River. Texas has 18 species of scorpions, and I’m no expert. But this was a Striped bark scorpion, Centruroides vittatus. It was light tan, with two dark brown stripes down the back. Scorpions are arachnids. They catch insects, mostly, with their pinchers — the claws might remind you of a lobster’s — before delivering the sting.

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