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
Weather was sooooo nice for exploring the grasslands today! Found lots of cool stuff. Left the house by 7:30am A dandy group of small mushrooms. They were a bit wet to the feel and the stem was almost translucent. Shelf mushroom (Polypore) This small shelf type mushroom reminds me of shell Turkeytail polypore Short and…
This is the Beet Webworm or also called the Hawaiian Beet Webworm (Spoladea recurvalis). It is a new county record. It was a little thing; only about 1/4 inch across. I know it’s not a very good photo, but sometimes that all I can get. This was gorgeous red-pink. It is of the Melanoplus genus …
If you remember I posted on 9-6-2020 about some eggs I found on Eastern Red Cedar. They have not hatched but… To my delight some are turning pink. Look at the little knobby hairs at the top. These eggs are only about one millimeter across! Fingers crossed for hatching soon!
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…
The mosquitoes are back with a vengeance! At least this girl won’t be getting my blood. This handsome fella, Salt Marsh Moth (Estigmene acrea), showed up at my backdoor last night.. He had just emerged. You can tell because in the top photo you can see his wing has not fully pumped up. Females…
Another warm day. Counting down for the days to cooler weather. 🙂 Gracie stood in the water for a good 6-8 minutes. She wants the cooler weather too. Thiers’ Lepidella (Amanita thiersii) Closeup. It was pretty white and the surface had a moist feel. A polypore, a Ganoderma species. Looks like a bowtie I thought. Underside…
Always something to new to see and always fun see old friends (plants, etc). We started on top the mesa and headed down the hill. Ditches and gullies just love’em. It is like a black hole…it just sucks me in :-0 Purple cliff brake ferns (Pellaea atropurpurea) Liverwort and moss Closer view of the liverwort…
Yellow bumble bee was the highlight this afternoon for me. I looked for birds but didn’t find much in the way of our feathered friends….phoebe, cardinal, Great blue heron, egret and heard a white-eyed vireo. Yellow Bumble Bee (Bombus fervidus) on cowpen daisy. It was a busy bee. Rucker’s Pond Unit 55 was full and…
We got 3.61″ over the last few days. Just wonderful! In the last post you could see our pond filled back up. Yesterday afternoon, Gracie and I went over to look again. Dragonflies and damselflies were all over. Many were laying their eggs. I felt sorry for them because the pond does not hold water…
Good afternoon! We have gotten 2.73″ rain this morning. Gracie and I went to check it out. Our front pond completely filled but not quite over flowing yet. Dragonflies and frogs love it. The eryngo –Eryngium leavenworthii is really getting to its peak. Giant ragweed is sure pretty even tho….you know And has a pupa…