Prairie Notes #225 - Double Takes
Prairie Notes are monthly photo/journal observations from Tandy Hills Natural Area by Founder/Director, Don Young. They include field reports, flora and fauna sightings, and more, mixed with a scoop of dry humor and a bit of philosophy.
They are available free to all who get on the FOTHNA email list.
Double Takes
Prairie Notes #225
September 1, 2025
1) Double Takes
2) Field Report - August
3) New Species Report - August
4) Newsworthy & Noteworthy
5) PrairieSky / StarParty Report
6) Prairie Proverb - Don Ivan Punchatz
Peek-a-boo!
1) Double Takes
This happens a lot: I take a close-up photo of a wildflower, being careful to get the light and angle just right. When I get back to my computer and look at it on the screen I am surprised to see a bug or other critter smack dab in the frame that I completely missed when taking the photo. Sometimes, years pass before I notice the wildflower was photobombed by some bug. That’s partly due to my focussed attention while framing a photo and partly due to the disguises many insects and other animals have.
Some have evolved uncanny camouflage features intended to aid their survival. Others are just highly alert and sneaky, which also aids their survival. In other cases, the critters are so small they escape my notice until I see them on a big screen, or, what is plainly obvious NOW was simply not noticed at the time of the photo.
In these slow summer months when not a lot is happening here, I decided to carefully look through a few thousand of my Tandy Hills photos from the past 20+ years and see what I missed. It’s akin to playing Where’s Waldo or that, hidden pictures game for kids in Highlights magazine.
Some of these are pretty obvious and others required a little circle or arrow to make them pop out. Among the things I learned are that spiders, particularly Crab spiders, are very good at playing hide and seek. Also, some plants attract bugs more than others and those bugs attract other bugs, and so on. And some bugs just look similar to plants, like the Walkingstick bug.
For instance, Leavenworth’s Eryngo attracts Bumble Bees which attracts Preying Mantis, Green Lynx spiders, Wasps and Wasp Killer bugs. But, aside from the Bumble Bees, the others are very stealthy, remaining quite still until they are ready for the kill. The plant itself aids the killers with it’s velcro-like petals.
Mammals are also pretty stealthy, which they certainly need to be. It can be comical when they think they are better hidden than they actually are, especially Rabbits. You’ll find a few mammals, below, as well as a few birds that caused me to do a double take.
> CLICK on each image below to see it un-cropped and with captions.
> Thanks for reading Prairie Notes and supporting Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area. Your donations are welcome HERE.
DY
A Coopers Hawk waits stealthy and nearly invisibly for his Crow escort to back off.
Goatweed Leafwing Butterfly (Anaea andria) blending in quite effectively among the Oak leaves.
A tiny, Eastern Screech Owl, playing, Where’s Waldo?
2) Field Report - August
It may be 3 more weeks until fall arrives but, Tandy Hills is already starting to look that way. Several of the iconic fall plants are blooming, including, Snow-On-the-Prairie and Leavenworth’s Eryngo. The bright red hips of White Prairie Roses were visible in mid-August. A couple of uncommon birds and a rabbit were among the critters I observed. Fall is all about prairie grasses and they continue to amaze. Indiangrass is the last to bloom and is just starting to do so.
We had four significant rain events in a relatively mild August including, torrential rains on August 12th that conjured up, La Parfum du Prairie. That is the distinctive terroir of Tandy Hills and imparts a composition rich with notes of Juniper, Pennyroyal, damp limestone and a hint of prairie grass. It can’t be bottled so you will have to visit next time it rains.
NOTE from Don Young: We have been burning through a lot of cash this summer with activities such as, keeping the meadows free of invasive species, conducting plant surveys, prescribed fire, sponsoring science studies, public engagement, etc., plus insurance, supplies, equipment, hired crews, website maintenance, etc. The core group members are all volunteers so all your donations go directly to keeping Tandy Hills properly maintained. Your generous donations accepted here: https://www.tandyhills.org/donate
Click photos to see them uncropped.
Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), last seen here at least 10 years ago.
The Milkweed Tree blooming! Its real name is, Climbing Milkweed (Funastrum cynanchoides). It’s a pollinator paradise, too.
August 12th was hot and dry at Tandy Hills. Then, life-giving, torrential rains came down from the sky.
3) New Species - August
August was a slow month for new species. We ended the month of August with 11 new species bringing the new total to 2477 species. Notables include, a Hercules’ Club tree and a new spider. Check out a few of them below and see them all at the Tandy Hills iNat Project Page HERE.
4) Newsworthy & Noteworthy
>>>>>>> North Texas Giving Day is coming up soon but donations are now being accepted at the link below. We have been burning through a lot of cash this summer with activities such as, keeping the meadows free of invasive species, conducting plant surveys, prescribed fire, sponsoring science studies, etc., plus insurance, supplies, equipment, hired intern crews, website maintenance, etc. The core group members are all volunteers so all your donations go directly to keeping Tandy Hills properly maintained. Stewardship and celebration of Tandy Hills is our daily mantra. Your generous donations accepted at the Giving Day website HERE: https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/organization/friends-of-tandy-hills-natural-area-inc
>>>>>>> Cross Timbers Master Naturalist’s (CTMN) have completed their Acoustic Monitoring of Bats project in north Texas for 2025. It includes sites in Tarrant and Parker counties: 5 private landowners and 8 public sites. They have partnered with TP&WD, Nature Trackers and a collaborate with researchers at North Atlantic Bat Monitoring Program (NABat). Tina Olivas is the Coordinator. Mary Beth Lampe is the local Chapter sponsor. Karen Harden is the volunteer who installed the monitor.
Their report was issued in late August and it’s pretty exciting. An Acoustic Monitor was installed at Tandy Hills in early June and stayed there for about a week. The data collected reveals that 4 species are Highly Likely to be found at Tandy Hills and 2 species are Possible. They are: Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus), Seminole Bat (Lasiurus seminolus), Evening Bat (Nycticeius humeralis), Mexican Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), Silver-Haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) and Cave Myotis Bat (Myotis velifer).
Here are images of the 6 species from the Texas Master Naturalist Report. You can view the full report HERE:
>>>>>>> On August 22nd, Sam Kieschnick, was interviewed by Fox News about a Bioblitz at Sendera Ranch Park in Fort Worth. More than 350 species were recorded on iNaturalist in one evening. You can watch the 4 minute video interview HERE.
Bell Helicopter had a, Nonprofit Partners Fair, on August 27th. Friends of Tandy Hills were invited to participate. Our summer interns, Paige and Calvin did a superb job of representing Tandy Hills after a long summer of land management here. Bell has been a very good friend to Friends of Tandy Hills. They send volunteers for cleanup events, offered us a grant and invited us to this event to spread the good word about Tandy Hills.
5) Prairie Sky / Star Party report
The August star party drew a nice crowd of about 40 people plus 10 members of the FW Astronomical Society. The next star party is September 27th. See the full schedule on the website HERE. Come out and see the night sky and visit with members of the Fort Worth Astronomical Society (FWAS). 2025 is their 10th straight year at Tandy Hills.
Here is the September sky-watching commentary from FWAS rep, John McCrea:
Our September 27th FWAS/Tandy Hills star party will continue our Summer Under the Stars with some of our favorite summer constellations plus some fall constellations. The center of our galaxy can be found in the constellation, Sagittarius (the Archer). Also, visible will be some of the well-known constellations such as: Scorpius (the Scorpion), Lyra (the Lyre), and Cygnus (the Swan). The remaining are Ursa Major, Cancer, and Hercules. Virgo will be setting, and Pegasus (the Winged Horse) and Pisces (the Fish) will be rising. The summer triangle (Vega (25 LY), Deneb (1,411 LY), and Altair (17 LY)) will still be visible.
The sun will set at about 7:18 PM-DST on September 27th. The moon will be a 5-day old waxing crescent in the constellation Scorpius. The “Lord of the Rings” of our solar system, Saturn (♄) will rise about 7:30 PM in the constellation Pisces and will be up all evening, about 796 million miles away. Our telescopes will become time machines, and we will become time travelers, providing a look into the past as Saturn was, about 1 hour and 11 min. ago. Neptune will also be in Pisces.
The autumnal equinox, on September 22nd, is when there is equal light on the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. It is also when the earth’s tilt causes the Northern Hemisphere to have less direct sunlight.
6) Prairie Proverb - Don Ivan Punchatz
“I’ve always said that my father might be best known for the art for DOOM, but in my eyes this by far was his most important piece of work”
In 2008, Don Punchatz, who lived in Arlington and taught at TCU, gave me permission to use an image of, America the Raped (1977). I find the message in the image to be more pertinent than ever. Image copyright, Don Ivan Punchatz and may not be used without written permission of the artists estate.
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Prairie Notes© is the official newsletter of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. All content by Don Young except where otherwise noted.
