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 was pretty good day for birds yesterday. On the grasslands outing, I had my FOS of White-eyed Vireo. I didn’t see it, but certainly heard it. Also heard the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Black and White Warblers! The best bird seen was the bobbing tailed waterthrush! Hard to tell whether it was Northern or Louisiana….
While at the Garnett Preserve, we came across some scale on a Chittamwood (Sideroxylon lanuginosum subsp. oblongifolium) tree. It really was quite pretty. And my curiosity was stirred as well. Here is what I found… This is a Chittamwood tree. When the new leaves are coming on, they are this light green unlike most of…
Do you remember I found these cocoons on the grasslands last week? I left half of them in the prairie. They were tiny and bright yellow! Well, they hatched! They opened each cocoon with this perfect round lid. Here’s what they looked like. There were about 2-3mm long not including legs or antenna. Amazing how…
Rain drops made this interesting pattern on sandy loam in our woods. Colorful inside of a grasshopper leg. The color jump out as I walked along the path! A Mexican plum flower blown off in the storm yesterday. Petals have already dropped. The sepals look like a starfish! Ten-petal Anemone with a small bee….
Paula saw the first of season Scissortail Flycatcher! This was up in Norman, OK. They got spring before us LOL. But I believe I heard one on this afternoon walk, but could not see it. Yeah Paula! Yesterday, Kathy (down in Fredericksburg) had multiple flocks of Sandhill Cranes go over. I also saw my FOS…
First find of the day was this bright yellow larva on a piece of grass! The Eastern Tent caterpillars are growing! Getting more colorful every day! Last year we put up new nestboxes after our original boxes fell apart. We used regular zip ties and they deteriorated after one season. This year going with old…
The front that can through yesterday, has left us a chilly day. And the wind is still blowin! The colors on the Ten-petal Anemone (Anemone belandieri) never cease to impress me. The underside Ten-petal Anemone’s petals are interesting too. I thought we had lost our Plains Nipple cactus (Escobaria missouriensis). It showed up again in the path….
When the wind arrived, boy oh boy is it blowin! Our high gust was 35 mph at about 4pm. I think two rocks was appropriate to hold me to the ground 😉 This was just 10 minutes before a 32 mph gust. I think this guy or gal may be in the family of the Large…
Pecan out in the middle of the prairie. Maybe a crow dropped it? This is what we came to check on…Blue Funnel Lily (Androstephium caeruleum). Oh darn, we will have to go back to see it blooming! LOL Another Square-bud Primrose with two red galls. Pineapple cactus (Coryphantha sulcata). It will have pretty yellow flowers…
We went to the grasslands today, of course. LOL. It was a cool start that made Gracie a bit more perky. It was about 55 or 60 degrees when we started at 9:30am. So many things are starting to come out. The Goatweed Leafwing and Dainty Sulphurs are the most numerous of the butterflies seen…