Greetings from West Texas!I’m writing to you from the beautiful plant and wildlife

refuge of Guadalupe Mountains National Park located around Salt Flat, Texas, which is about 110 driving miles east of El Paso. Grant the Gopher and I are on an adventure to look for common signs that animals leave behind, such as tracks, food scraps, droppings, nests, burrows, and marks on trees. These give us clues about where they live, what they eat, and their daily or nightly activities.

What’s so fantastic about a place like this is that both the days and nights are filled with interesting things to see, smell, and hear. We are amazed at the evidence of all that goes on around us! Steep slopes and high ridges set a stunning backdrop while we follow a desert trail marked with broken egg shells, rodent footprints, hawk feathers, and an occasional whiff of coyote urine (pew!) Small piles of dark droppings reveal bits of colorful berries that were once part of a raccoon’s meal. At dark, if Grant’s not snoring, I like to lay back, stare at the stars, and listen for the hoots and howls of the nighttime hunters. Though I cannot see these predators, I am aware that the coyotes and owls are out there, silently stalking their prey.

One morning, I arose from my tent and sleepily walked to the picnic table where Grant was sitting. He seemed to be quietly concentrating on something lying on the table. As I looked at the ground around him, I matter-of-factly said, “Hmm… I can tell what you ate for breakfast by your leftover roots, seed pods, and tossed cactus spines.” I pointed to the trash can, but Grant was too busy to notice my gesture.

I sat down at the table and gasped at what Grant was studying so intently. “What is that disgusting clump of fuzz that you’re picking at? It’s not dessert, is it?”

Grant laughed, “Oh no, Nancy. It’s something I found while on my morning walk near an old, hollow oak tree in a canyon.

Texas Wildlife Association presents....

Kid’s Quarterly Mini-Mag!

P o s t c a r d s f r o m N a n c y . . . By Carolyn Bierschwale

March 2012 Vol. 6 No. 1

Critter Connections is madepossible by a grant from the

San Antonio LivestockExposition.

Nancy Nine-band

Attention Teachers: Free class sets available while they last!

Send your name, school name,grade taught, and mailing address to

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It’s fairly light in weight and seems to be made mostly of fur. I am going to investigate it by carefully taking it apart. Would you like to help?” “Sure,” I chuckled. “I’ll let you do the touching while I do the watching.” This odd-shaped clump was grayish-brown and about the size of a small chicken egg. As Grant delicately pulled small clumps of fur and fiber away, we discovered tiny, white bits scattered throughout the oblong mass. Each bit was set aside until all of the fur was separated, then Grant and I studied what

we found. “Wow!” exclaimed Grant. “These are bones! Do you see the tiny jaw, leg bones, and skull? This must be the remains of some animal’s meal, like we saw in the raccoon poop!” “What an exciting discovery,” I said. “It looks like droppings, only it’s made of fur and rodent bones, like a giant hairball. Let’s look in our animal signs field books to find out what this might be.” Our research showed us that the mass is called

an owl pellet. I explained, “It is the regurgitation of indigestible parts. In other words, an owl swallows its prey whole. The fur, feathers, and bones of mice and small birds are too hard to digest so the owl throws up a rounded, compacted pellet of the waste.” “Well, that’s a hoot!” responded Grant. Pellets are a common sign of owls present in an area. Discovering and dissecting one can be an exciting way to investigate one of the many interesting traits of owls. You can visit www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/index.htm for a virtual owl pellet dissection. ‘Owl’ be seeing you!

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Owl pellet with contents (Wikimedia)

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Last year, we provided programming for over 62,000 youth across the state through Distance Learning, Discovery Trunks, Enrichment Modules, Wildlife by Design¸ Learning Across New Dimensions in Science (L.A.N.D.S.), and Texas Brigades. Contact us to find out how we may help you incorporate wildlife and natural resources into your classroom!

Most programs are free for teachers.

For information on our educational programs, please contact us at 800-TEX-WILD (800-839-9453).Joining TWA is optional. Each membership helps support TWA programs but it is not required to participate in our programs.

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Kids Sp tlight Questionnaire1. What is your name? Audrey2. What city/town do you live in? Houston, Texas3. How old are you? 9 years old4. What grade are you in? 4th grade5. What is your favorite school subject? Why? Music, because I can imagine I’m in a different world.6. What is your least favorite school subject? Why? Math, because it’s very hard and you have to think so much.7. What are some of your hobbies? I like singing outside, playing with animals, and I like taking pictures of nature.8. What is your favorite outdoor activity? Making piles of leaves, and then jumping into them!9. What do you want to be when you grow up? I would like to be a country singer because you get to go to different places for music videos, and all sorts of things.10. Who is your “hero”? Taylor Swift because she loves the outdoors, and she’s a country music singer.11. If you were granted one wish, what would you wish for? All the kids who need help would get help, and there would be no more homeless people.12. Describe yourself in three words. Caring, not shy, and a good friend.13. What is the best way for kids to get involved with the outdoors? Just spending an hour or 30 minutes outside playing your favorite games.

2 Photos courtesy of Audrey’s family

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puzzles... . .mazes... . .oh my! go ahead... . . w

ord

sear

ches

......give it a try!

Owl Sudoku

Predator - Prey MazeCreated by Puzzlemaker at DiscoveryEducation.com

Directions: Cut out the shaded owl pieces below and place them in the grid so that each row and column contains one of each.

Directions: Owls are nocturnal so nighttime means dinnertime!

Help the owl to the mouse by working your way through the maze.

Eastern Screech-Owl by Suzy Beck

Fisher Reyna Education offers professional development and a website subscription to provide resources in reading and writing. They work to better connect teaching and testing. See them at www.fisherryena.com. TWA and Critter Connections have partnered with Fisher Reyna Education to bring authentic children’s content in reading language arts.

Sudoku Key:Maze Key:

c o r n e r

critter

While all owls possess a form of these adaptations, each species boasts unique features which enable survival in a particular environment. Described next are a few of Texas’ common owls and their features:

Barn Owl -- This owl is known throughout the world and is well-known for its heart-shaped face and dark eyes. Its body is mostly golden brown with white underneath, and spotted with black and gray. Its role in rodent control makes it a favorite rooster of both urban and agricultural areas. The barn owl can be found nesting in hollow areas of a tree, building, cave, or bridge throughout most of the state year-round, except in the Trans-Pecos Mountain region. It prefers small rodents but may also take snakes, lizards, birds, and large insects. Its call includes harsh, raspy screeches, hisses, and metallic clicking sounds.

Western and Eastern Screech-Owls -- These two small owls live year-round in Texas, roosting in hollow trees or old buildings by day and hunting semi-open grounds by night. Though they overlap along the Pecos River and western half of the Edwards Plateau, the Western species resides in the arid regions of the west while the Eastern species occupies the rest of the state’s woodlands, parklands, agricultural areas, and suburbs.

The Western Screech-Owl is gray overall with yellow eyes, dark bill, ear tufts, and dark vertical streaking. Its diet consists of insects, amphibians, small mammals and birds. The Eastern Screech-Owl can show red, brown, or gray color morphs (forms), which is unique among Texas’ owls. While the gray or reddish-brown morphs are more likely to be seen, it too has yellow eyes, short ear tufts, pale gray bill, and dark streaking. It eats small mammals, earthworms, fish, birds, and flying insects.

The best way to identify the two is by their calls. The Western Screech-Owl’s voice

consists of a series of soft, quick and accelerating whistles, like that of a bouncing ball coming to a stop. The Eastern Screech-Owl sounds like a horse “whinny” that rises and falls.

Great Horned Owl -- With sharp hearing and powerful vision, this large owl is superb at camouflaging and can swoop down on any prey that moves, like snakes, rodents, birds, amphibians, and fish. This tall owl has plumage

(feathers) that vary from light gray to dark brown overall and heavily mottled (with blotches), has yellow eyes and wide-set ear tufts. It can be found statewide in forests, meadows, suburban parks, agricultural areas, and at the outer edges of landfills. The Great Horned Owl’s call is 4-6 deep hoots, like hoo-hoo-hoooo hoo-hoo.

Burrowing Owl -- Best known for and appropriately named for its burrowing habits in grazed pastures and prairies, this small owl is easily identified by its long legs and oversized eyes. It has brown upperparts with white flecks (spots), yellow bill, and no ear tufts. Often seen perched atop fence posts or rocks near its underground burrow entrance, the Burrowing Owl can be found year-round in the western third of Texas and is a regular winter migrant to the rest of the state eastward until the Pineywoods region. It uses its talons to enlarge an abandoned ground squirrel or prairie dog burrow and can even be found in dry, developed areas near airports and golf courses. Their diet consists of mostly ground insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, as well as small rodents, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Its voice is a harsh chuk or QUEE! kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk call.

Barred Owl -- This larger owl owns a very distinctive call that is most characteristic of the owls, echoing through the eastern Texas deciduous forests saying, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” It has mottled, dark gray-brown plumage with horizontal barring around the neck and upper breast, dark eyes, pale bill, and no ear tufts. With its relatively weak talons, the Barred Owl will often choose small prey, like mice, cotton rats, squirrels muskrats, and small birds.

By Carolyn Bierschwale

Often heard yet seldom seen, owls are considered the nighttime equivalent of hawks, eagles, and falcons. With over 200 owl species existing worldwide, there are around 15 species which commonly inhabit Texas in the summer, winter, or year-round. They can be found almost anywhere from areas of desert brush to the lush evergreens of high mountains. Like other members of Class Aves (birds), owls are warm-blooded, have beaks, wings and light-weight bones, are covered in feathers, and reproduce by laying eggs which hatch into owlets.

These carnivorous birds have been a symbol of superstition among many people because of their haunting appearance. For example, ancient tribes of Africa and Native Americans viewed owls as very bad omens that when seen, supernatural evil was to soon come over a family member. The ancient Aztecs and Mayans called owls “messengers of fright.” In more recent times, however, owls have become an icon for wisdom. Owl cartoon characters represent knowledge and learning, as with the U.S. Forest Service’s mascot “Woodsy Owl,” who once used the slogan, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.”

Still today, many around the world believe that these frightening birds are a sign of ill health, bad luck, or death. The owl’s physical features, however, are what make this animal such a supreme nighttime hunter. Like a comic book ninja, owls possess the tools and traits to fly silently, stalk with stealth, hear from far distances, see in the dark, and quickly catch and kill prey.

Owls are highly distinctive with a large, rounded head, short neck and tail, upright posture, and ear tufts (short clusters of feathers) in some. Soft, specially-fringed flight feathers muffle the sound of air turbulence as owls silently glide through the air. Acute hearing allows for easy tracking of the quiet squeaks and rustles of prey beneath leaves or snow. Large, forward-facing eyes are able to gather all available light and judge distance. They are placed inside shielding facial disks of feathers and create excellent eyesight, day or night. Sharp talons on flexible toes enable effortless perching, and with the help of hooked beaks, owls can easily subdue and eat prey.

Sources:Arnold, Keith A. and Gregory Kennedy. Birds of Texas. Auburn, WA: Lone Pine Publishing, 2007.Burnie, David and Don E. Wilson. Animal. New York, NY: DK Publishing, Inc., 2001.Kaufman, Kenn. Kaufman Focus Guides – Birds of North America. New York, NY: Hillstar Editions, L.C., 2000.Texas Parks and Wildlife, “Wildlife Fact Sheets.” http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/speciesU.S. Forest Service, “About the US Forest Service’s Insignia and Symbols.” http://www.fs.fed.us/lei/About%20Me%20Page.htmlWhitfield, Dr. Philip. The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Animals. Great Britain: Marshall Publishing, 1998.

Photo by Russell Graves

Eyes of the Night

Burrowing Owl by Rusty Ray

Other owls in Texas:

Barn Owl by Wyman Meinzer

Eastern Screech-Owlby Suzy Beck

Western Screech-Owl by Rusty Ray

Great Horned Owlby Wyman Meinzer

Barred Owl by Kate Czapleski (Wikimedia)

Elf Owl by Dominic Sherony (Wikimedia)

Long-Eared Owl by Angus Leonard (Wikimedia)

Ferruginos Pygmy Owl by Glenn

Proudfoot, USFWS

Short-Eared Owl by Ronald Laubenstein, USFWS

6

Color Me

Great Horned Owl in flight by Russell Graves

Tufts of feathers that look like ears (but are not)

Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus

…that what the Great Horned Owl lacks is a good sense of smell, making it a consistent predator of skunks?

...that Burrowing Owl babies, or owlets, will make a rasping rattlesnake-like warning from inside the burrow to ward off predators?

…that the asymmetrical (uneven) positioning of some owls’ ear openings create a 3-dimensional hearing range that adds to their already powerful sense of hearing?

…that an owl’s vision is 100 times that of a human?

…. the Western Screech-Owl is an adaptable hunter despite its small size and will often capture prey larger than itself?

Did you know...

Three Great Horned Owls in a nest by Wyman Meinzer Burrowing owl with prairie dog by Russell Graves Screech-Owl, by Rusty Ray

Barn Owl in flightby Russell Graves

Radiating feathers

around the eyes

Whitefeathers on chest

Sharp talonson toes

enchantedlearning.com

Large yellow eyes with

round black pupils

Curved beak

Thickbrown/gray

feathers

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TexasPurple Sage

Article and Photos By Rose Cooper

Jean Louis Berlandier, a French naturalist, came to Texas as a botanist to collect plants for the Mexican Boundary Commission in the 1820s. Imagine how he would feel if he knew that almost 170 years later, a plant that he was the first to discover would be given the official title of “State Native Shrub of Texas.” The 79th Legislature of the State of Texas did just that in the year 2005. Just as in the days of Mr. Berlandier, Texas purple sage can still be found growing in the South Texas Plains and the southern edges of West Texas and the Texas Hill Country.

Is it going to Rain?An old saying is that if the Texas purple sage is in bloom, then it is going to rain. This gave rise to the name barometer bush. As you may know, a barometer can be used to determine the pressure changes in the atmosphere which can predict weather changes such as rain. However, Texas purple sage generally blooms shortly after it rains. It may rain on Monday, triggering the plant to bloom and then rain again on Thursday. This may have lead old timers to believe that the plant was predicting the rain. Usually it blooms during the spring and fall, but it can bloom year round in some locations given the right temperatures. When in bloom, hundreds of flowers cover almost the entire plant. The flowers are nearly campanulate, or bell-shaped. Where the edge of the “bell” would normally be, there are structures that look like individual flower petals. These structures are actually referred to as lobes, since they are connected at the base and are not individual petals at all. The lobes are then grouped into “lips” with two lobes on the upper “lip” and three lobes on the bottom. The inside of the “bell” is called the throat and is slightly inflated. The flowers have small hairs on the lobes and in the throat giving them a soft appearance. They are usually purple to violet in color, but white flowers do exist.

CenizoAnother name for Texas purple sage is Cenizo, which is Spanish for “ash-like.” This name refers to the leaves, which have thousands of tiny stellate or star-shaped hairs that make the leaves feel soft and fuzzy. There are so many hairs that the leaves look silver or gray, which gives rise to a third name, Texas Silverleaf. When looking at a cross section of the leaf, you will see a green strip of chlorophyll-filled plant cells in the middle and white hairs above and below the leaf. Texas Purple Sage is considered an evergreen, which means it will hold onto to its leaves through the winter instead of losing them in the fall. The genus name, Leucophyllum, also refers to the leaves. When broken down to the Latin root words, “leuc” means white and “phyll” means leaf. The species name, frutescens, comes from the Latin word fruticans which means shrubby. So, Leucophyllum frutescens means shrubby plant with silver leaves. Now you know Latin!

Texas ToughNot only can this evergreen shrub thrive in poor rocky soils, it is also drought and heat tolerant. It can withstand high winds and freezing temperatures, though it may lose some of its leaves. Texans have used this plant for decorating their landscapes as ornamental shrubs or hedges. When in bloom they are spectacular to see. They are also planted for wind breaks and screens and planted in culverts and as hedges along highways. Texas purple sage is resistant to most pests and diseases. However, when used in landscaping, it may develop cotton root rot if it is over-watered and not planted in well-drained soil. For not being considered a very big shrub, Texas purple sage does many big things for wildlife. It provides shade and shelter to small mammals and birds and is even a nesting place for songbirds, such as our state bird, the mockingbird. It is also a host plant for the caterpillars of the Theona Checkerspot and the Calleta Silkmoth. When other food sources are scarce, due to drought or winter conditions, deer and cattle have even been known to browse Texas purple sage. Since Texas purple sage is such a tough plant with all of these great characteristics, it is not hard to see why it was chosen as the official native shrub of Texas.

Leaf cross section

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