So yesterday I left you wondering what I was checking for under the bridge. Have you made a guess?
A view of the bridge structure. Actually this concrete type structure was why I went down. Furthermore most of the backroad bridges in our North Texas counties are not built like this one. So I thought I might get real lucky and find a roosting bat. It was kinda stinky because the cows had been down here. I even manage to step in a fresh patty. Jeanne assumed me she had paper for a car mat. But I was able to clean it off. Whew because it was stinky.
Checking it over carefully, no bats. 🙁 However there was a good number of Organ Pipe Mud Dauber nests and a phoebe nest. Those were still neat.
In another section I found an Owlet Moth (Noctuidae). At first glance I got briefly excited. I had thought maybe a bat. Nah. 🙁 Do think the organ pipes could play a tune with all those holes? LOL
As we walked back to the car Suzanne found a dead Western Dusk Singing Cicada (Megatibicen resh) in the road. Suzanne pointed out its long mouth to us. Here’s a link to site that is dedicated to cicaadas.
The next creek was dry and no way to get down. ;-( Crazy that there were no guard rails on reflectors warnings.
Sycamore Creek had running water and Sycamore trees. But alas again there was no access to get closer. Using my binoculars I did see a Rubyspot Jewelwing (damselfly)l
A thistle (Cirsium) with only half of its flowers blooming. They belong in the Asteraceae or Compositae family. Thistles do not have ray flowers (ie petals) like most of those in that family do. The middle flowers are called disk flowers which is all that thistles have. An example of a flower that has both ray (petals) flowers and disk flowers (the center) would be a sunflower.
This was the last creek stop that day. However there were two more roads to check. The conclusion of this outing will be tomorrow.
I was thinking swallow nests.
That second bridge is really strange with no guard edging of any kind. Our low water crossings sometimes have reflectors or concrete nubs. But they are low, just a couple feet off the water. Yours was almost creepy. It looks like a cattle passage way?
It’s wonderful to know there’s still a creek running in this terribly hot summer. Love the organ pipe mud daubers.
That’s a nice big moth!
I was thinking swallow nests.
That second bridge is really strange with no guard edging of any kind. Our low water crossings sometimes have reflectors or concrete nubs. But they are low, just a couple feet off the water. Yours was almost creepy. It looks like a cattle passage way?