Today, the wind was mostly out of the south. However by 3pm it had changed to the WNW (292 degrees). Forecast predicts 43 degrees in the morning. And even colder Friday morning. At our house, that means it could possibly be as much as ten degrees colder. Out comes the winter apparel!
The Texas Paper Wasp (Polistes apachus) was out today! It will soon locate a nice warm place behind our house siding along with all the ladybugs.Yesterday’s Garden Spider had wrapped its meal tightly. However, a few hours later, the wasp package was discarded from the web.The Stalked Lattice Stinkhorn (Lysurus periphragmoides) is always fun to see. My sense of smell is not that great so it is not stinky to me. The immature fruiting bodies start as oval “eggs”. Here in this photo, you can see the gelatinous matter of the “egg” at the base. This part is called the volva. The gelatinous mass of spores at the top attracts insects. This helps it disperse its spores. A small brown spider on the barbwire!A close look at the beautiful thalloid liverwort. Colors are quite the looker!Less than a millimeter, this tiny insect was crawling on the liverwort. I do not know what it is, but I do see them quite often. I guess I need to collect one.
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.
5 Comments
Stinkhorns are like train wrecks for me. Gruesome but it’s hard to look away. LOL
I have a large lynx spider in my yard guarding a nest of babies. I assume it was a large egg sac and now a bunch of tiny little spiders crawling around in a mess of web. I’ve got photos. Really cool.
Have y’all seen many migrating winter birds? I’ve got kinglets but not seeing much else. Just the standard chickadees and titmice around.
Kathy, we’ve had juncos, flickers and sapsuckers for a while. Also kinglets. I’ve heard that golden-crowned have been spotted more than usual so far. I’ve been seeing lots of LBBs flying up from roadsides but haven’t had a chance to get out with binoculars yet.
Kathy, We have most all the usual winter sparrows, Chippies, White-crowned, Harris’, Juncos, Vespers, Savannahs and so on. Heard the Golden-crowned Kinglet a few days ago.
I have never seen lynx babies. ;-(
Stinkhorns are like train wrecks for me. Gruesome but it’s hard to look away. LOL
I have a large lynx spider in my yard guarding a nest of babies. I assume it was a large egg sac and now a bunch of tiny little spiders crawling around in a mess of web. I’ve got photos. Really cool.
Have y’all seen many migrating winter birds? I’ve got kinglets but not seeing much else. Just the standard chickadees and titmice around.
Kathy, we’ve had juncos, flickers and sapsuckers for a while. Also kinglets. I’ve heard that golden-crowned have been spotted more than usual so far. I’ve been seeing lots of LBBs flying up from roadsides but haven’t had a chance to get out with binoculars yet.
Kathy, We have most all the usual winter sparrows, Chippies, White-crowned, Harris’, Juncos, Vespers, Savannahs and so on. Heard the Golden-crowned Kinglet a few days ago.
I have never seen lynx babies. ;-(
Maybe a springtail/Collembola? Catch one 😏