Evident of several critters were seen on the Aug.3th outing. The first one was the Smaller Sand Cricket (Ellipes minuta). It can be found along creeks edges with sandstone. However the actual cricket is hard to find.
In fact, first you will see this. The remains of tunnels the Small Sand Crickets have left behind.
The tunnels are more noticeable when the sandstone has this algae crust on it as seen here.
In this example, the tunnels are intact. The water has not washed away the top of its tunnel.
It is only about 4-5mm. This is what they looks like. I took this photo last year when I first discovered them. In addition, they are hard to catch. I did not try this time.
This leads us to the second critter. These holes covered the whole side of the embankment. So we named it the holey wall. The holes were about 1 cm (.39″) across.
This mud extrusion hung off some of the holes.
A few were plugged.
Naturally, we dug into one. This is what we found. It had a hole in it. In the end, it will remain a mystery for now! I love mysteries, don’t you?
Now this is not part of the grasslands outing, but just to let you know for those us who got rain a few days ago, the Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes chlorosolen) are popping up! I had four in my spot here.Last but not least, I have one bluebird nestling. As you can see, most of the eggs were not fertile.
Ive often wondered what made those squiggles and now i know. Poor little lone baby bird. But i bet its fat. Thanks.
Are those bluebird eggs white?? Or is it just the lighting.
Never knew about the sand cricket.
The eggs were very pale almost white yes.