Salton Drive CNC 2024
Due to a confluence of external circumstances, I will be limited in my perambulations for this year's City Nature Challenge. That said, I live in a hot spot of urban biodiversity, so my intention is to thoroughly document the fauna and flora of Salton Drive over the period of April 26-29 with every tool at my disposal. I recently (4/24/24, 6 a.m.) did a "trial run" on my moth sheet with a new 395nm blacklight on the back porch and managed to document about 100 species of insects and other invertebrates in about a half hour. The Salton Drive Biodiversity project currently stands at 1,995 species so with some effort and a little luck, I hope to push that up over the 2,000 species threshhold. I'm going to set some modest diversity goals just to prod myself to keep at it:
Mammals: 8 species
Birds (difficult with my equipment): 10 species
Moths: 100 species
Other Insects: 100 species
Other Invertebrates: 25 species
Plants and Fungi: 100 species
I have done much gardening (transplanting, seeding) of native plants in the yard, but for the record, I will only be documenting species and individuals which are native to the lot or have spread of their own accord from my original plantings. Thus species like Crucita (Siam Weed), Plateau Goldeneye (Viguiera dentata), Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus arborea var. drummondii), and Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) in our butterfly garden were originally planted but these have subsequently spread widely elsewhere on the lot.
I'll be doing some blacklighting each night (weather permitting), sweep netting, and dip-netting in the creek. I'll also be trying to use Merlin to record and identify bird sounds and will try to capture images of a few bird species visiting a feeder outside my office window and with my long-standing trail camera which is pointed at the bird bath. Just to be thorough, I'll probably prowl the recesses of my garage to document such commensal species as the silverfish eating all my old papers, etc.
Observations
What
Cliff Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus marnockii)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Various chirps and trills can be heard throughout the 43 sec recording. One frog is closer to me; two or three others were more distant (< 50 yards). Recorded with Voice Memo app on iPhone 14. High and low pass filters applied with Audacity software to minimize noise.
Photos / Sounds
What
Cherokee Sedge (Carex cherokeensis)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Documented several times previously (and keyed out).
Photos / Sounds
What
Siam Weed (Chromolaena odorata)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Spreading in my yard, but won’t bloom until the Fall.
Photos / Sounds
What
Beaked Cornsalad (Valerianella radiata)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Just about done blooming.
Photos / Sounds
What
Scribner's Panicgrass (Dichanthelium scribnerianum)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Recently thoroughly documented at same location.
Photos / Sounds
What
Toothleaf Goldeneye (Viguiera dentata)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Won’t be blooming until late Summer and Fall.
Photos / Sounds
What
Eggplant Tortoise Beetle (Gratiana pallidula)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Lifer bug for me; I almost overlooked it as it sat on a leaf of silverleaf nightshade.
What
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus)Observer
gcwarblerDescription
Three sharp upslurred whistles. High and low pass filters applied to reduced noise.
Comments
Best of luck on getting over the 2000 mark!
UPDATE: Preliminary results as of 5/2/24: I've finished uploading all my usable observations for the CNC. The entirety of my effort (with the exception of a single recording from the nearby Wells Branch neighborhood) was accomplished within my home area, the 33-acre Salton Drive Biodiversity project which encompasses a little over one suburban city block. Although the stats continue to be revised as identifications roll in, it looks like my final haul included 674 observations with the following taxonomic breakdown. (Note: My taxa counts reported below, and that on the CNC-Austin project differ by about 15%. This is apparently due to the fact that collection projects like the CNC 2024-Austin project only count species-level IDs and disregard observations left at higher level like genus, subfamily, or family.)
All Life: 483 species (probably will increase by just a few more)
Mammals: 6 species
Reptiles: 1 species
Amphibian: 1 species
Birds: 17 species (13 spp photographed; 10 spp recorded)
Insects: 259 species
Lepidoptera: 134 species
Moths: 122 species (and thus 12 spp of butterflies)
Other Insects (non-Lep): 125 species
Other Arthropods: 7 species
Plants and Fungi: 183 species
So my insect take, including moths and others, well exceeded my expectations, even though I thought the mothing was a bit slow for the season. My tally of vertebrates (all) and non-insect inverts were sub-par, although I managed to tally more than I expected bird species via the method of Merlin sound recordings. Due to inclement weather, there wasn't much visitation to the bird bath to be captured by my trail camera (day or night) so several mammals went without documentation. My main gap (out of exhaustion, not from a lack of interest) was the failure to search for much of any aquatic life in the creek with dip-netting or other means. And I never did chase down a silverfish in the garage. I have to leave something to accomplish in next year's event!
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