Had some nice birds today. No this is not a bird, but it is evidence that the Loggerhead Shrike was hunting in the area late yesterday or early this morning. I saw the shrike yesterday, but there were no field crickets cached then. Today there was. Must have been a cricket day for the shrike….

 Don’t get me wrong, I loved the rain we got, but it is always nice to have the sunshine back. This is just the shell of a snail. The snail can not detach itself from the shell. In the winter, snails will go under the leaf litter or other nooks and crannies and seal up…

The Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) was closed for business today. I don’t blame it with temp being near 41 degrees around noon. Temperature kept falling in the afternoon so by 5pm it was 38 and ’twas windy all day…brrrrr!    The stinkhorn (Phallus) was out however. I cut it open to take a gander at its inners. Hollow…

 If you remember a few posts ago I showed you the Cedar Waxwings feathers that were found on the grasslands. I decided to do a closer look at them under the microscope. Of course it was cool 🙂 These are the subjects for today. The yellow is on the tips of tail. 30X 100X 400X…

The old saying “Red sky in morning, sailors take warning” might be applicable with rain and snow forecasted this week. “A red sunrise can mean that a high pressure system (good weather) has already passed, thus indicating that a storm system (low pressure) may be moving to the east.” Looks like Denton is on fire…

  Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) is blooming so I will nominate that the common name be changed to Winter Beauty. It is not uncommon for me to see this flower blooming now. Perhaps for the last five years, it has started blooming in early January. This is definitely the earliest date I have seen it…