Päiväkirja-arkisto kohteelle joulukuu 2021

joulukuu 6, 2021

A new City Nature Challenge team for Texas!

The East Texas Master Naturalist Chapter has formed a new team for the 2022 City Nature Challenge. It covers the Longview-Tyler area and the following counties:

Anderson
Cherokee
Gregg
Henderson
Rains
Rusk
Smith
Upshur
Van Zandt
Wood

Please join us!

Julkaistu joulukuu 6, 2021 01:48 AP. käyttäjältä cosmiccat cosmiccat | 2 kommenttia | Jätä kommentti

joulukuu 14, 2021

My Planned 2022 Adventure: Texas Hill Country

One of my naturalist goals is to iNat all the ecoregions in Texas and Arkansas. Earlier this year I went to Brownsville, Tx, and Hot Springs, AR. Next year it's the hill country. Johnson City in April, to be exact.

Planned stops:

Pedernales Falls State Park
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/pedernales-falls

Longhorn Caverns
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/longhorn-cavern

Blanco State Park for a day of fishing!
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/blanco

Enchanted Rock
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/enchanted-rock

I may not get to see everything, but that's the plan. Later in the year I want for a weekend in one of the cabins at Crowley's Ridge SP in AR. https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/crowleys-ridge-state-park

Almost all of my family is in nearby Jonesboro, so I can see them and this park at the same time. :-)

Julkaistu joulukuu 14, 2021 11:27 IP. käyttäjältä cosmiccat cosmiccat | 0 kommenttia | Jätä kommentti

joulukuu 25, 2021

A very fungal Christmas for me. ;p

When you begin to study mycology, you quickly realize that you need a microscope to work through the keys, which will ask you to check for you to check for things like the shape of the spores. For Christmas, I bought myself a couple of cheap used microscopes from eBay---a dissecting or stereo microscope, useful for examining large things like beetles, seeds, and lichens, and a compound microscope for examining fungal spores.

I got the stereo microscope in yesterday and have used it to look at beetles and lichens. Those lichen keys are easy to work through once you've got the right equipment. I don't know when the other one will come in. It's currently sitting in a post office in Mumbai, according to the tracker.

To examine fungal spores, not any microscope will work. You need one with a x1000 oil immersion lens. This page explains how to use it to look at mushroom spores: https://www.mushroomexpert.com/microscope.html

Julkaistu joulukuu 25, 2021 03:54 AP. käyttäjältä cosmiccat cosmiccat | 2 havaintoa | 3 kommenttia | Jätä kommentti