So July 8th was an awesome day. There is always so much to find and enjoy on the grasslands!
A shelter from the elements under the ledge. Looked like this tree grew its own water dowsing stick.Jeanne spotted this yellow and brown larva on this tree that been marked with red paint.A funky looking bolete mushroom! I think it resembles a satellite dish looking for alien life? The colors on the Ganoderma species are so gorgeous. The species is pretty distinctive. And they get real hard.The bumps on top are called warts.And this one had short gills and a ring/skirt.It is a Texas Cooter (Pseudemys texana)! The pond was nearby. Was it looking for a place to lay eggs? So I found out that Texas Cooter males have a long tail and long front claws. I can not really make a comparison, so it is my guess that it is a male. The claws look long to me!The pond the Texas Cooter may have traveled from. At least it was not too far from it.
On this pond, we saw a Banded Pennant dragonfly. It was too far out for a photo. However it was pretty with the all black abdomen and three black spots on each wing with a brown patch close to abdomen. This concludes the July 8th outing.
That’s a big mushroom – guess I need to start looking for it among the cedar elms here!
I sure did love meeting that Ganoderma. That was a first for me. Thanks for getting the turtle ID too.
Very cool! Those turtle claws look substantial to me too! Nice on new state mushroom.