The last part of the journey in Cooke County follows. It was a great day. Our next stop was at a creek that feeds into the Red River. And then we ended our journey looking out over the Red River. I always hope I will see a Bald Eagle cruising by, but not this time. On occasion, I have seen them at the river.
This Hoary Edge skipper was on Western Ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii). I would say, it was a bit worn.
Near the end of our day we came to a creek we had not stopped at previously. It had easy access by the way of a concrete ramp to the creek. As you can see in this photo, the creek has had rushing water in the past. The debris was packed tight on top of the beam.
A good place to look for nests of the Organ Pipe Mud Dauber (Trypoxylon species). Interesting to see how they end up using several different colors of mud.
Another type of nest at bridges are the Cliff Swallows.
As the season is over, the Cliff Swallows have moved on.
This was what they left behind under a nest. Certainly looks like they may have had a successful nest.
Common Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)! To be truthful, even though I recognized it as a new plant for me, I was more excited when I got home with the specimen. Why, because it had not been documented in Cooke County before. We found it at the edge of creek where grasses were starting to grow.
A wonderful creek!
The algae in the creek was waving in the water a bright green!
Turkey vulture feather!
Finally, we were at the river. The Red River was flowing, however it was not churning red.
Here a creek was draining into the river. The water barely trickled to the river at this time.
The mud had cracked, but still it was too soft to go any further for us. The turkey nor the raccoon let the mud stop them as evident by their tracks.
Fork at the river! LOL
We got a little rain shower today! A whooping .05 inches went into our rain bucket! Woohoo, glad we have paddles. LOL. At least the temperature was not too hot. Our high was 85 degrees.
Looks like a very productive river fork 🙂
Very cool about the new record for Cooke County!
Adds to our growing list, eh!