Black Skimmer at the beds

[Combatbirder]

This mourning between 8:00 and 9:00 a Black Skimmer was seen flying over the beds,From east to west. The bird was last seen heading southeast. No drugs were part of this observation

[pchannell]

Black Skimmer siting confirmed at Drying Beds...totally awesome!

[Administrator]

Did not get to see the skimmer but I saw possibly 2 different tri colored herons. One was past mile marker 4 in the forbidden zone and the other was at the drying beds.

I did find a mystery tree on the path down in the forbidden zone. Does anyone know what tree this is?

http://www.fwas.org/images/flowers.jpg

It also had leaves shaped like this.. They are also very fuzzy

http://www.fwas.org/images/leaf.jpg

[SusanT]

What tree is this? Jim Varnum, the metroplex plant expert, took a look at your photos, and said it looks like Red Mulberry, Morus rubra, a native small tree found in floodplains or moist wood edges. I Googled "Morus rubra TAMU Simpson" and found photos and more info that looks and sounds like what you posted.

[Administrator]

No it is not a mulberry, I made the same mistake when I first saw it.. The big red thing in it is a flower and not a fruit. I grew up around mulberry and their leaves are slick. The leaves on this tree is covered with a soft fur like. Feels like suede almost.

[Larry S]

Bob,

I'm not much of a plant person but my wife Marilyn is somewhat of a plant expert. She says it's a Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera, syn. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonymy) Morus papyrifera L.), an invasive originally from China.

See http://www.texasinvasives.org/invasives_database/detail.php?symbol=BRPA4

She'd like to know where you spotted it and she'll add it to the Texas Invasives locator map.

Larry S.

[Seattle Slough]

Are you sure you don't have photos of two different trees? The leaves in the second photo are mostly multi-lobed, with a definite appearance of a mulberry. In the one with the flowers and fruit I don't see any of the multi-lobed, only single-lobed spade-shaped.

[Administrator]

I know but they both had the same flower on them and the same texture to the leaves.

Larry your wife is correct. I searched more and found the same flower on the image at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_mulberry

[Larry S]

Looks like it's pretty disruptive stuff. Did you happen to notice if there was lot of it or just kind of confined to one area? And can you give a guess as to approximately where on the trail you saw it?

[Administrator]

There were only the two trees together that I saw. Been there a few years as one was about 15-20 feet tall. I think I have seen them elsewhere along the trail but not too sure where.

They are right next to the trail close to the 4 mile marker on the east side of the park. You can not miss them as the flowers are falling onto the path and at first glance look like red fruit.

Do you think we should advice River Legacy to remove them?

[Larry S]

My wife works with a group that maps invasives with GPS coordinates so that state and local organizations can find and (sometimes) eradicate them. She's worked with River Legacy before on this type of thing so we'll try and get out there for a walk one of these days - while I'm looking for birds she can find the invasives and turn them over to the removal crew.

[Elaine]

My plain old mulberry trees here at the house also have both kinds of leaves on them, just not velvety-textured. I understand you wouldn't want them taking over the place, but if those are the only two trees in that area, and if they are producing fruit that the birds eat, perhaps they are best left in the area to help feed migrators.

[Larry S]

The Wiki article Bob pointed to says, in part, "The fast growing Paper Mulberry when introduced to non-native areas can quickly disrupt the native habitat, becoming a highly invasive species and upsetting the natural ecosystem".

Since the influence of invasive plant species touches so many other aspects of ecosystems in general, I guess my my feeling is it would probably be better to get rid of two than to lose an entire area to them.