Texas Master Naturalists ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER NEWSLETTER Vol. 11, No. 6 http://txmn.org/rollingplains June 2019

TMN Quiz Bowl! EVENTS Do you know calls? Can you identify plants? If so, you and other LOCAL Rolling Plains Chapter Members are all invited to the TMN Quiz Bowl! Join us at the June chapter meeting for a “friendly” master naturalist com- JUNE 4: Rolling Plains Chapter petition involving questions from our extensive curriculum. Study up for training meets in Bolin Science a fun-filled educational experience of teamwork! The top team will get Hall room 209 at Midwestern bragging rights and the illustrious quiz bowl trophy for this year. Hope to State University Time: 7:00 PM. see you all there! The program: TMN Quiz Bowl!

JUNE 6: Region 9 Education Ser- It’s Time to Catch Some Fish! vice Center Math/Science Confer- Photos by Lynn Seman ence from 9:00am to 4:00pm - We Lake Arrowhead State Park hosted the 25th annual Mark Howell Memo- will have a booth set up for this rial Fish Rodeo on Saturday, June 1, 2019. The weather was great as was event. the turn out. JUNE 8: 5th Anniversary of Whi- teside Museum of Natural History in Seymour - We will have a booth set up. (need volunteers to be at booth from 10:00am to 4:00pm) This will be an amazing fun event!!! New exhibits, new things to come see!

MAY 14: Bat Tour at Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway from 7:00p to 10:00p Join us on a guided vehicle tour to historic Clar- ity Tunnel for the bat emergence flight.Tours take at least 2 hours to complete. Registration is required with a $10 fee per seat. Please call the park at (806)455-1492 for 25th Annual reservations or for more informa- tion. During these guided vehicle Mark Howell tours along the Trailway, visitors Memorial can view the bat emergence flight Kid Fishing and enjoy spectacular views of the Rodeo rugged and beautiful breaks of the Llano Estacado. 2019

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 1 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST Rolling Plains Chapter Members Congratulations Plant Milkweed Rolling Plains Chapter Photos by Terry McKee Members Prior to discussing the value of and types of milkweed seen in Lake Ar- Lynn Seman has eclipsed the 2,500 rowhead State Park on May 10, chapter members cleaned the butterfly volunteer hour mark! garden and planted milkweed by the park headquarters. Norm Mason has reached the 250 Thanks to Laura, Lynn, Susan, Jim, June and Debra for their hard work. hour volunteer milestone! Warren and Sue King have both recertified for 2019!

L Clepper has recertified for 2019!

Donna Beaver, Debra Miller and Larry Harvey have obtained enough Initial Training Hours to graduate from the TMN course.

Congratulations to all!

REMINDER Report Your Hours in a Timely Manner! I know it is easy to forget to submit hours, but it is impera- tive that we do so. Perhaps it would be helpful to mark your calendar for the 1st of each month to submit those hours earned the previous month. Remember you EARNED those hours and they do need to be submitted in a timely manner.

If you attempt to enter hours are Flocking to Texas past the 45 day limit: Texas appears to and breeding in be a paradise for 23 states. • TPWD is now enforcing the parrots. A new 45 day rule for chapter ad- study puts Texas The most com- mins as well as volunteers. at No. 3 among mon the states with species in the • Your chapter president can re- the most sight- U.S. is the monk quest a change/ addition past ings in the wild parakeet, dis- of these one-time tinguished by 45 days via a help desk ticket exotic pets. its bright green after vetting and approval by feathers and the chapter board. From 2002 to Monk parakeets can be found all over Austin — incessant chatter. 2016, bird watch- including UT’s intramural fields in Hyde Park. According to the • These requests should be a ers recorded Photo by Andrew Lankes Texas Invasive rare occurrence and only hap- 23,992 sightings of parrots in the out- Species Institute, Austin is among the pen given extenuating cir- doors in Texas, according to the study, most popular places in the U.S. for cumstances (hospitalization, recently published in the Journal of monk parakeets. These typically family emergencies, etc.). Ornithology. Florida ranked first for use power lines to support their stick- Forgetting to put them in is parrot sightings (39,054), and Califor- formed nests. not legitimate. nia ranked second (32,418). Researchers behind the parrot study In all, the study tracked sightings of say tens of thousands of monk • Volunteers need to put in their 56 species of parrots in the wild in 43 parakeets were imported from South hours well before the 45 day states. “Naturalized parrots” are now America to the U.S. as exotic pets in limit to enable Larry the time widespread in the continental U.S., the the 1950s and 1960s. Inevitably, many to review and fix the entries. study said, with 25 species established continued on page 3

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 2 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST ll though it looks like CORNER Aan ordinary lizard, RESOURCE the tuatara is anything but. Wild Edible Plants of Texas This scaly senior is a close by Charles W. Kane relative of the dinosaurs Paperback: 72 pages that ruled the planet long ISBN- 978-0977133390 before humans came along. More specifically, tuataras are Price: $8.45 on Amazon the only surviving from the order Phynchocephalia, a group of reptiles that flourished during the Mesozoic Era Designed approximately 200 million years ago. They are only found in as a light- OIDS New Zealand. weight he opossum is a slow moving crea- and field- Tture by nature. It can spend a whop- portable ping 18 to 20 hours a day sleeping. reference When the opossum is not sleeping, they booklet, use their tongue and paws to groom Wild Ed- themselves frequently and thoroughly ible Plants much like house cats. of Texas highlights oing for a meal is a the Lone FACT Gclassic first-date sce- Star State’s most important edible nario and is one used by the wild plants. To the point and un- rooster. When a male is in derstandable, this guide best suits the mood to mate, he will the prepper or outdoor enthusiast in call out to a nearby female need of a salient introduction to the and drop some of his food. field. No fluff. Just the facts. If she doesn’t respond, the male will pick the food back up and drop his offering a little Each of the 60 (actually 62) entries closer. Once the female’s interest is aroused, the male will are comprised of the following drop a wing and begin a slow dance around her. sections: Range and Habitat, Ed- FUN ible Uses, Medicinal Uses (when continued from page 2 applicable), Cautions, and Special of these birds made their way into the from a “complicated interaction” of Notes. Both common and scientific wild and began breeding. environmental, ecological, and climate names are listed. Over 100 color factors, the study explained. With the photos assist in identification and in Just three states — Texas, California, possible exception of the red-crowned many cases showcase each plant’s and Florida — support all 25 known amazon and green parakeet in South choice edible part. Every profile is breeding species of parrots, the study Texas, all of the parrots now winging assigned a Texas-only location map says. In Texas, these include the yel- it in this country were initially brought and a seasonal guide on the best low-crowned amazon, the red-crowned here to be kept as caged pets, accord- amazon, the budgerigar, and the green ing to the study. harvesting time. A general index is parakeet. The Audubon Society says included as are a dozen photos of hundreds of green parakeets can also Researchers say parrots have settled in the state’s poisonous plants. be found Texas, California, and Florida to take flying advantage of the warm climates (just Some of the entries have a greater- around like humans do). than Texas range, however many neighbor- are uniquely Texan, and hail from a hoods in Parrots are no longer native to the U.S. specific region. West Texas’ Chi- the Rio Originally, the U.S. claimed two native huahuan Desert, the Hill Country Grande parrot species: the of the Edwards Plateau, the Plains Valley. and the thick-billed parrot. According of the Panhandle, and the Piney to the study, the Carolina parakeet is Why now extinct, and the thick-billed par- Woods and Swamplands of the these par- rot, a Mexican species, was driven out state’s Coastal Plain all are botani- rots are scattered across the U.S. stems of the U.S. cally represented.

Chapter Contacts: Terry McKee, President 766-4097, [email protected]; Kay Murphy, Vice President 704-0406, kay_vince@sb- cglobal.net; Lynn Seman, Secretary, 867-3006, [email protected]; Larry Snyder, Treasurer 569-4534, [email protected] Committees Chairperson: Paula Savage, Newsletter Editor and Designer 691-0231, [email protected]; Tami Davis, Website Manager 224-013, [email protected]; Dian Hoehne, Communication Chair 704-3461 Advisor: Robert Mauk, TPWD Advisor 766-2383, [email protected]

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 3 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST