Capital Area Master Naturalists 2009 FIELD JOURNAL Meeting September 30, 2009 6:30 p.m. Austin Nature and Science Center Sept 30th — Daniel Dietz: "Managing Stress in the Wildland Urban Interface." CAMN Board Meeting There is a Board meeting on September 3rd and we are hoping for a big attendance and very little hot air!. Join us! Our meetings are open to the membership and we are meeting this month at ProEd on Shoal Creek, Ausitn. Jim Weber Volunteer and Fall is coming Advanced Training I saw my first migrating Monarch MoRanch is a wonderful location Opportunities today as well as a Baltimore Oriole nestled in the Texas Hill County. If you Visit the CAMN website at hanging around my garden. It seems like to hike then this is the place for www.camn.org and log in to the CAMN early but I guess that is just because you. If you love Advanced Education Volunteer Calendar to start fulfilling those we have had such a long hot summer with a purpose then, again, this is for volunteer hours. with no cool down until this week. I you. If you want to have fun with other am so ready for Fall! Apparently so is people of a like mind, then sign up. the wildlife! You don’t have to go for the whole I think I am so ready because I have weekend - they have day passes. so much to do that I have put off over CAMN is trying to have a definite the last few months because it has presence there this year so we need been so hot. One thing I put off until you. We will have a wonderful display the summer was my project for the for the NatureSmart Family project arts fair at the Annual Master and Julia Osgood will be giving a Naturalist Conference at MoRanch. I presentation on the relationship we think I am too late but some of you have with the Austin Nature and may not be. See pages 2 and 3 for Science Center. Jeri Porter and I will more details and inspiration. be heading up the Silent Auction and I am sure each night there will be fun The conference this year looks good and a good time. Join us. Sign up now on paper and I am sure it is going to be for this year’s Texas Master Naturalist even better there. We are hoping for a Conference while there is still time really good CAMN turn out so if you and room! are trying to decide then let me Christine Powell Giuseppe Arcimboldo ~ Autumn, 1573, oil on persuade you to join us there. canvas, Musee du Louvre, Paris CAMN FIELD JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009 P A G E 1 Field Trip: State Conference Calling all Artists I know we have many very talented people out there and we temperatures of Colorado. For several years Roger was our need you to come forward and enter your art work in the Texas Curriculum Chair, avid herpetologist and frog monitor for Master Naturalist Art and Photo Competition. To give you Texas Parks and Wildlife. He also spent many hours some idea of the standard and what to expect I contacted all volunteering for McKinney Falls and was active as an those who had won from CAMN in previous years. interpretive guide at various locations in the area. Apparently, in his abundant spare time he was able to produce award Below you can see the beautiful journal entry from Norm winning artwork. See the next page for his entry. McGinnis’ award winning submission. We all could and should be keeping a journal and hopefully some of us are What can I say? These are incredible pieces but I know there managing to do something on the lines that Norm taught us are others of you out there who can do same. If you want to on our first day of classes. include something but are not going we can take of it for you. Just contact a Board Member and they will make sure it gets Our other winning entry is from Roger Myers. I am sure you there and back safe and sound. Let’s show the State how all remember Roger who has now moved to the cool talented we are. “When I entered this record of my visit to Palo Duro Canyon, I did not set out to win any awards. I simply knew that I would have the best little painting of coyote scat among the entries. When my name was announced as the winner for the drawing and painting category I was VERY surprised. A few moments later when my name was announced for best of show, I was overwhelmed. Later that day during lunch I overheard a conversation between two of our fellow Capital Area Master Naturalists. "I heard one of them say that "what he is doing any one of us could do. The difference is he is doing it." So I have kept at my observing and recording. Whether it's art or not can be debated. But in this age of little caring for our natural world, I believe it's an important practice.” Norm McGinnis CAMN FIELD JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009 P A G E 2 Field Trip: State Conference Calling all Artists “I don't know what comments or advice I have to share, but as a natural science illustrator by training, I probably had a slight advantage entering the competition. But the quality of all the entries was high and reflective of the fact that naturalists are generally good observers and recorders of the natural world. I was both surprised and honored to have been chosen a winner. I basically became a natural science illustrator because I am visually oriented and love to observe critters closely. Close observation and a keen interest in the subject are the most important ingredients. Artistic ability is less important and is manifested in how well one observes. As master naturalists, we are all equipped with the attention to detail and the patience to record information with care and precision, be it in the form of words, numbers, sketches, paintings, photos, sculpture, or even fabric or stained glass. So I guess my advice would be, "Go for it!". We all possess unique and valuable insights into the natural world that we should share with our fellow master naturalists. We are all enriched by those shared insights.” The subject is a male Eastern Box Turtle that I did in transparent watercolors using a maskoid cement technique to preserve a hard edge where light areas are surrounded by dark as in the shell and skin patterning. The framed size is about 22.5 in. x 18.5 in. Roger Myers Photo & Art Contest: Revised Rules This Year! Enter your favorite photo or art work into the Texas Master Naturalist Photo & Art Contest while at the Annual Meeting. Just bring your item(s)—or send them with a friend. Winners will be announced during the Awards Ceremony. Photo & Art Contest entries should be placed on exhibit no later than 5:00 pm in the designated area on Friday. Judging is to be done by popular vote of attendees. Photos should be brought to the meeting labeled on the back including the participant’s name, chapter, category and a title for the work. Contest Rules: All entries must be the original work of and submitted by a Master Naturalist volunteer. Photograph categories include: 1) Wildlife 2) Plants 3) Scenery 4) Chapter Projects and/or Master Naturalist(s) at work or play. Photographs (black & white or color) will compete together in each category. Photographs should be unmatted, unframed and be of a standard size up to "8x10" and have no digital enhancements. Photos must be Texas-specific (i.e. taken in Texas) Entries are limited to one per category per individual. Art entries may include original drawings, paintings, carvings and sculpture, etc. All art entries compete in one category. In the event there are less than five entries in a given photo or art category a placement ribbon will not be awarded. CAMN FIELD JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009 P A G E 3 Field Trip: Dale Rye with Images by Jeri Porter Aquarena Springs Those of us who have spent awhile here managed by the in Central Texas will remember when Biology Department Aquarena Springs was an amusement and Aquatic park notable for mermaids and Ralph Resources Program the Diving Pig. Well, the amusement at the university. park is gone, but the springs at the This is a large area headwaters of the San Marcos River are of very shallow still pumping out 90 cubic feet of water water providing a per second (58 million gallons per day) rich environment at 72˚ F., even though the current for wetland flora drought has cut flow by half. On and fauna. A Saturday, July 18, a group of almost walkway built of twenty CAMN members visited what is recycled plastic has now Aquarena Center, a research and been constructed education project of the River Systems for several hundred Egret Institute of Texas State University—San feet over the Marcos. submerged wetland, allowing the rare far escaped eradication). We had originally intended to tour the opportunity to closely observe such an Next, we went to the area where the wild rice research site studied by Flo environment without getting one’s feet Center’s managers are propagating Oxley, a friend of CAMN, the Director wet. The biologists managing the area plants that they will eventually relocate of Education and Conservation at the have had to work hard to control the to other parts of the property.