Turtles

If you know me, or if you have looked around at the website at my books or found the herpetology sub-page, you know that reptiles and amphibians are a nearly lifelong passion for me. And I am in the middle of a series of talks I’m offering on this subject. This Thursday, May 28, is the next one, covering the American alligator and the turtles of North Texas. The talks are free and offered via Zoom; you can register here.

*American alligator seen at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge*

These presentations came about after I taught incoming groups of Master Naturalists for a number of years and I always wished I had just a little more time to cover more of the story of these remarkable animals. The participants often seemed to feel the same way, and so I put this series together. The topics are:

Part One: Getting Started (past session)

We will discuss what these animals are and introduce the topic of herpetology and things like scientific names and community science. We will also try to answer the question, “what good are they?” We’ll also cover some essential skills in the field, skills that can help participants find the animals safely. There are photos of a poison ivy, bull nettle, and our local venomous snakes.

Part Two: Amphibians (past session)

We’ll start with what makes a species an amphibian, and the frogs, toads, and salamanders that represent this group in the U.S. The presentation offers photos of most of the species encountered in North Texas along with the calls of frogs and toads. We will talk about amphibian extinctions and the threats to their survival.

Part Three: Crocodilians and Turtles – this week

These are the oldest reptiles in terms of evolution and paleontology. We will talk about our American alligator and its adaptation for aquatic life and get into the strange but successful structure of turtles and their shells. There are plenty of photos of most of our North Texas turtle species. We will discuss turtle conservation issues.

Part Four: Lizards and Snakes (two hours)

We will talk about the natural history of these species (why do some lizards’ tails break off, and how do snakes move and swallow big food items?). Photos will illustrate representative species from each family, including each of our venomous snakes. We also will discuss venomous snake bite. This presentation will be longer than the others.

Part Five: Herp Conservation Challenges

These animals are facing severe conservation challenges. We will talk about how conservation scientists keep track of various species, how federal and Texas state laws and policies may help protect them, and we’ll take a good look at several representative Texas species. We will also take a look at how we, as citizens and naturalists, can help.

Our local Master Naturalist chapter considers these sessions to be advanced training, and perhaps other chapters will as well. If you have some familiarity with reptiles and amphibians and wonder if the sessions will offer some depth, I believe that they do. On the other hand, if you are concerned that they will be too technical, I think that the answer is no.

If you are not on Facebook (the link above is to a Facebook page) and you want to attend, please send an email to events@friendsofscnp.org.

Yesterday I spent an hour and a half at Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve on a spring afternoon full of wonderful things. I wrote the following at the Friends of Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve blog, and I hope you’ll go visit there. But meanwhile I have reproduced it below.

March 13, 2026 – Clear sky, breezy, and temperature in the mid-70s at 3:00pm.

I’m starting to think of spring as beginning when March arrives, as opposed to the more official date of March 20th. Trees are leafing out and flowers are popping up like the delightful crowpoison, which grows from a bulb and looks a little like wild onion but is not. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center says, “Some references list this species as poisonous to humans. The jury is still out about its toxicity to crows.” That part about toxicity to crows sounds a little tongue-in-cheek, but it makes for a fascinating name for the plant.

*A mournful thyris visiting a cluster of crowpoison flowers*

The flowers were visited by several small mournful thyris moths. These are black-and-white moths that fly during the day early in the year and reportedly just for a few weeks. It’s another species with a name that makes me want to find the story, but so far I have not found a reason for it to be mournful. Even its species name makes me curious (Pseudothyris sepulchralis, where “sepulchralis” seems to refer to a sepulchre, that is, a tomb carved in rock).

Meanwhile at the north pond, dragonflies were flying and turtles were basking in sunshine, including a pair of red-eared-sliders sharing a small branch of wood at the water’s surface. Those pond turtles are active even on warmer winter days, but spring sunshine makes them seem very content – though that is a perception from a human point of view that could be completely off-base.

I tried to capture the overall look of the woodland in a photo that, seen on a phone’s little screen, is probably very plain. But the crowns of trees are covered in a sort of mist of pale green, the budding of new leaves and the catkins of the oaks. I checked to be sure of the details because I’m not a botanist or even a knowledgeable plant person, but catkins are the dangling strings of the male flowers of oaks. They will be releasing the yellow pollen that coats your windshields, sidewalks, and noses in the coming weeks. And with any luck, they find their way to the female flowers on the oak trees, which are much less conspicuous.

*New blackjack leaves – notice the spines at the end of each leaf lobe*

The other thing that always seems wonderful to me is how the blackjack oak leaves come in as little red leaves, then turn such a wonderful deep green later on, and next autumn may once again be red – or yellow or some combination – before dropping to the ground.

*Blunt woodsia growing in a protected spot along with some moss*

Along the north side of the woodland, where it meets the patch of prairie, there are shaded spots and little embankments where the land moves up toward the top of the hill. In one of those shaded places I saw a fern that you can find around the hillside and up toward the bluff. It is the blunt woodsia, also called by a couple of other common names like blunt-lobed woodsia. Finding these little ferns, or the various mosses or even liverworts, brings you to a different perspective, like looking at tiny worlds existing in the shaded places in the preserve where moisture is not too scarce.

*The grand old post oak designated as the Caddo oak, after the Caddo people who once lived in the area*

I walked by the Caddo oak, a huge post oak designated as a historic tree by the Texas Historic Tree Coalition, and its crown is speckled with new green leaves, just as it has done every year for roughly 200 years.

Nearby, I watched a medium to large bird sail through trees and across a part of the north prairie, disappearing into understory and trees to the west. I immediately thought of the northern harrier, a graceful hawk that tends to hunt on the wing, flying low and listening for rodent movement. This bird had the right shape and the kind of flight I would expect with a harrier, and I saw that this brownish bird had some white markings but I could not spot the white band that should go across the base of the tail. So I just don’t know. I noticed that Brent Franklin saw one here at the preserve in 2018, which helps make it plausible, but of course doesn’t confirm my observation today.

Walking around the blue loop, I saw a couple of mourning doves near the boulder trail. They were behind a sort of thicket and did not seem perturbed by me and my camera about twenty feet away. They were probably foraging for seeds along the ground.

*Texas spiny lizard, watching me carefully*

On the way down the south-facing hill, glint of reflected sunlight caught my eye. It turned out to be reflected off the back of a male Texas spiny lizard clinging to a small tree trunk. He eyed me in that way that these common lizards do, making his best guess about whether to remain motionless and hopefully unseen, or quickly scurry around to the other side of the trunk. After I took a photo as I moved around him slowly and hoped not to scare him, he quickly scooted around the trunk and out of sight.

It was certainly a walk full of wonderful things today. Everywhere I went there was butterfly and moth activity, either more of the mournful thyris moths or else goatweed leafwings, sulphurs, or a swallowtail or two. And the southern dewberries are blooming with those beautiful white flowers.