Second Collection

Second Collection

First plant was collected. So now we headed to the east for the second collection. And a sincere thank you to Austin for stopping along the road last month! A new friend is always special. It was getting rather toasty out now. So it was time to fly down the road in the cool AC….

Arthropods

Arthropods

The phylum Arthropoda are the invertebrates. Moreover this group comprises (by some estimates) over 97% of the animal species on our planet! Therefore take a moment to soak that in. They are the animals that have: three or more pairs of jointed legs (some mites have less, many insect larvae have none), body segmented, bilaterally…

Snow!

Snow!

Snow sounds very refreshing today doesn’t it? Of course there is none in North Texas. Well, at least not the ice crystal type. However we do have Snow-on-the-prairie (Euphorbia bicolor) and Snow-on-the-mountain (Euphorbia marginata)! And we have the Snow-on-the-prairie (Euphorbia bicolor) here at our house. So guess what? That will be the “snow” today. LOL…

Waste?

Waste?

Y’all have heard the saying one person’s junk is another’s treasure, right? I believe this can be applied to nature as well. Kathy made this video of the dung beetle with its treasure. “They roll it backwards a little, stop, climb on top then survey their direction before continuing with the rolling. They are fascinating.”…

Nectaries

Nectaries

Nectaries are small glands that secrete nectar in plants. However to complicate things there is an additional place where these glands are located. When the glands are located outside the flower they are referred to extra-floral nectaries. Some scientists think the extra-floral nectaries provide an enticement to insects to help protect against other insects. The…

A change of plan

A change of plan

We were cutting the trip short and heading home. But we were not driving straight through. A stop at the Lake Colorado City State Park was in the cards. And this was a new park for us. There seems to be abundant of red ants here. Which means it is good habitat for horny toads….

Day 4 Restful

Day 4 Restful

On the fourth day, we decided to stick close again to the camp. However, it would be just as great for seeing new stuff we soon found. It had been a great day staying closer to camp! And we had an exciting evening lined up which I will share in the next post. 🙂 I…

Wonderful Rain

Wonderful Rain

Wasn’t the rain just fabulous yesterday! I hope everyone got some. Of course, Gracie and I did not let the rain keep us from our walks. Here’s what we found! The coyote did not see me at first, but then the after-burners kicked on when he did! As always, it was a splendid rainy day…