Welcome to my nature blog! I love sharing my photos of North Texas! I will keep looking out and hope you do too.
Comments welcome. Thank you, Mary
It certainly was a great day to be hunting fossils. Judy and I use to go all the time some 15+ years ago. Maybe we should start again. 🙂 The formation is called Duck Creek. The creek’s name is Morris Branch. A future fossil! Gastropod fossil, maybe Cerithium bosquense Two smaller Heart urchins (Macraster)! Brachiopod, Kingena wacoensis…
On Friday, I went out to Judy’s farm south of Decatur. We looked in her creek to find these wonderful fossils. Judy spent many childhood days in the creek and even found an arrowhead one time! Here’s what was found on Friday. The formation is in the Cretaceous Period which is between 145 to 66…
There is a bird’s nest up in the tree. The trees are also at the head of a seep on the hillside. I’m not sure, but maybe a vireo’s nest. Can you see the calf? It was brand new and Gracie found it. Mama watched us very carefully. She did not charge us, but closely…
Ah, the temperature was so nice this afternoon. No breeze and 62 degrees, I could not have asked for better. Today’s mission on the grasslands was to check if the Trout Lilies (Erythronium mesochoreum) were blooming. The first critter was this Dainty Sulphur. A delightful find! I have not seen the usual numbers this winter….
Continuing on with Tuesday’s grassland visit… Possumhaw. Bushy Bluestem. It likes the wet areas. The sandstone is just wonderful! It is like a sun! Beautiful reds. You can’t see too much of these colors? I would say not. 🙂 I can see a cat’s face in here. Back further from the cat face. Colors are…
I hope everyone gets time to celebrate nature this holiday season. These are the last of the photos from Tuesday’s adventure. First big petrified wood! But wait…there was second big chunk of petrified wood further along! I like this photo because of the rainbow glare surrounding the sandstone. The honeycomb rocks were cool in the…
Spent another afternoon on the grasslands. Such a beautiful day out. In fact I found enough interesting stuff to save some for tomorrow’s post 🙂 For most of the afternoon, I was down in the dry creek bed. I love seeing the different layers of the soil. Mushrooms always have been amazing to me, pushing…
Yesterday’s finds were great. The orchids were the highlight of the day’s adventure, but certainly not all. The following are some of the other highlights. It just blows me away that the remains of these creatures lived some 145-100 millions years ago and that most all of our area was under the sea. Mussels and…
Yesterday, after we climbed out of the creek bed, we walked along the top of the mesa in the prairie. So the following are a few things that capture my eye on the top of the mesa. Gayfeather (Liatris mucronata) with a Meshweb weaver (Dictynidae) web under the blooms. Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on Gayfeather. We…
Had to get a drive-about before the rain…fingers crossed! Rough-winged swallows were our first stop along the side of the road. We also had first of season American kestrels. Other birds of the day were Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, doves, Loggerhead Shrikes, roadrunner, red-shouldered hawk, vultures, White-eyed vireo and one mad-at-us Carolina wren. Then…