Photos credit: wildfower.org
For the last month of 2021, we thought it would be interesting to review what amateur naturalists have observed in the Bull Creek parks and watershed over the past year. You can see these observations in iNaturalist in a project called Bull Creek Austin Texas (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bull-creek-austin-texas2(11.8%)).
In 2021, 271 observers logged over 2,600 observations of 774 unique species of plants, bird, insects, mammals, and fungi. In 2021, the Bull Creek iNaturalist project logged:
- 408 plant species
- 207 insect species
- 59 species of fungus
- 24 birds species
- 23 reptiles
- 8 species of fish
- 7 mammal species, including two ringtail observations
The five most frequently observed plant species the past year were:
- cedar sage (Salvia roemeriana)
- Lindheimer’s silktassel (Garrya lindheimeri)
- buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
- Texas milkweed (Asclepias texana)
- Engelmann daisy (Engelmannia peristenia)
While plant species dominated the observations, observers did see things that fly, crawl, and swim as well. The most observed non-plant species were:
- juniper hairstreak (Callphrys gryneus)
- Kiowa dancer (Argia immunda)
- northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
- common spotted whiptail (Aspidoscelis gularis)
- Texas spiny lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus)
Observers also logged three species classified as threatened:
- stretchberry (Forestiera pubescens), also known as desert olive or elbowbush (https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=fopup4(23.5%))
- chuck-will’s-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) (https://ebird.org/species/chwwid3(17.6%))
- Texas ash (Fraxinus albicans) also know as mountain ash (https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=FRAL34(23.5%))
When you need to stay at home in bad weather, explore these observations in the Bull Creek iNaturalist project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bull-creek-austin-texas3(17.6%). When the weather is great, get outside and explore all that Bull Creek has to offer. And sign up for iNaturalist to log your observations!