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
This caught my eye in the driveway. A baby pine cone must have blown off in yesterday’s wind. It was about 15 mm (1/2″). So pretty. Closer yet. I wonder how far this fluffy down feather got blown yesterday? Leaf beetle (Chrysolina auripennis) was a surprising find today. Host plants for it are Beebalm (Monarda)…
What was this larva doing out on this cold day? It was only in the lower 40’s, but at least the sun was out eh. Yesterday’s stinkhorn was breaking it ties to the grass. I found a second one near by today. It seems to be in rougher shape. Keep looking!
I found this beetle shell at the base of Post Oak. I guess the head and the inners are yum parts. Goldeye lichen (Teloschistes exilis) with the outer layers of some seed. I actually found several of the same outer layer of this seed in several places as I was hunting for stuff with…
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…
Pleasant day eh! Wispy cirrus clouds form between 16,500 and 45,000 feet. The ant and the Darkling Beetle (maybe Eleodes tricostata). Both went their separate ways. This ground beetle was making a meal of the leftover pecan. Maybe in the Pterostichus genus. Milkweed fluff. Gayfeather (Liatris mucronata) standing tall! Not sure what plant this is,…
Yeah, for the sunshine I say but of course grateful for the rain we got. The wood of a dead Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis). Kinda of an oxymoron, eh. A few scales left on the armadillo tail. Snake skin in our garden pond. The Loggerhead Shrike has a new item on its menu…the field cricket…
On October 27, 2017 we had sleet (at least at my house). Glad it is not a repeat performance today. Thirty-three degrees is the lowest we have had today. That is cold enough for me. Sure makes Gracie frisky. Drips on honeysuckle vine. Drips on Frostweed (Verbesina virginica). Drips on the grasshopper (might be Chortophaga…
The eggs I found on the Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) took about 16-21 days to hatch. This is what they looked like when I collected them back in September. Closeup of the eggs hatched. I identified them to the superfamily Chalcidoidea because they do not have any venation in their wings. I could not…
Are you on the fence? I’m not and I have voted BUT this is not about that. The following is about stuff on the fence, my barbwire fence! The Loggerhead Shrike was quite busy storing its cache on the fence. This beetle was still twitching so it was very fresh. Maybe the Loggerhead Shrike’s poop?…
Can you guess what this came from? I will give another hint at the bottom of the post. Someone had a meal last night. Imagine someone having a cup of coffee and conversations around the table? We often find pottery and glass shards on our place where there was once an old homestead. The unmistakable…