Today we got more rain. I thought it was supposed to wait until tomorrow. Well, we got another 0.31″ today. Sure makes the plants happy!
Still a little bit of blue sky was seen this afternoon.
The Dickcissels are really singing it up now.
The little seed heads of a Dichanthelium grass.
Milkweeds are starting to bloom. A Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) was on the verge. 🙂
The Broad-nosed Weevil (Entiminae)!
The Prickly Pear Cactus are starting to make new spines. At the base of the spines are the brown glochids. The glochids are generally barbed and very near impossible to get out. Moreover many times I have thrown away an article of clothing that had glochids embedded in them. Ouch!
And of course the bugs are coming too. An unknown nymph snuck in the pic with a Common Tree Cricket (Oecanthus) nymph. 🙂
Yesterday I found a few butterflies out like this Dogface!
Indeed the capsules of mosses are very cute with their teeth showing. These teeth are called peristome teeth. This structure allows for the gradual releasing of the spores.
Along the edge of an embankment theTurban Cap Lichen (Cladonia peziziformis) was barely hanging on. Cladonia and mosses can often be found on the edges.
A close up made for a dramatic pic. 🙂
More rain tomorrow. Perhaps its time to get the oars out. LOL.
I don’t have them either Judy. But I do have a nesting Summer Tanager, just outside my dining room window. But she was sneaky and wove her nest among a bunch of leaves so you can’t see her. She and her mate fuss at us if we are outside. But it is right over the hummingbird feeders and it is just so much fun to stand a foot away from the feeders and have 15-20 hummers buzzing around your head. I saw juvenile bluebirds today in our yard – a first for us. Need to go inspect our houses and see if they selected one of them. I expect the Bell’s Vireos are nesting nearby by how much we hear them.
Also a dickcissel fan here! This year, for the first time I know of, we appear to have brown thrashers nesting in our yard. I didn’t know they stayed around here to nest, but every morning we have a male singing his heart out from the treetops in our yard and our neighbors’.
I miss Dickcissels. Alas they don’t like cities
I don’t have them either Judy. But I do have a nesting Summer Tanager, just outside my dining room window. But she was sneaky and wove her nest among a bunch of leaves so you can’t see her. She and her mate fuss at us if we are outside. But it is right over the hummingbird feeders and it is just so much fun to stand a foot away from the feeders and have 15-20 hummers buzzing around your head. I saw juvenile bluebirds today in our yard – a first for us. Need to go inspect our houses and see if they selected one of them. I expect the Bell’s Vireos are nesting nearby by how much we hear them.
No dickcissocles in our woods for sure but enjoy hearing them sing in the prairies.
Great bee video on their flight and wings.
Also a dickcissel fan here! This year, for the first time I know of, we appear to have brown thrashers nesting in our yard. I didn’t know they stayed around here to nest, but every morning we have a male singing his heart out from the treetops in our yard and our neighbors’.
I’m envious Kathy. And Suzanne we have had thrashers in our yard too but not for several years now.