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
More photos from the grasslands… Eastern Red Cedar with fungus where a limb had been cut off. Closer view. Gnarly oak! Can you find the dragonfly? Closer…sometimes even when you know where it is, they can be hard to spot. It is a female Common Whitetail. Greenbriar is starting to flower. This is a…
White Compass Plant or White Rosinweed (Silphium albiflorum) was nibbled to a stub. The cows or maybe the deer must like it. We found multiple of the plants eaten. I don’t know what caterpillar this is on the Chittamwood, but it will completely defoliate the new leaves. Don’t worry, the tree will quickly get new…
More good stuff 🙂 Pussy toes (Antennaria parlinnii)! Did you think it was going to be a kitty cat? 😉 This was a favorite plant that Shirley liked to show me in Cooke County. It was certainly easier to see there since it was on the roadside. Pussy Toes (Antennaria parlinnii) are in the Asteraceae…
Perfect day to finish a book Claire loaned me. The book is Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll. It was a great read on evolution and the scientists who help bring the amazing story to life. We managed to not walk in the rain today,…
This is a continuation of the hike to unit 31 from yesterday. This snag really stood out where the bark had fallen off. It was such a pretty brown and orange color. The shaggy brown is a part of the tree. Lots of neat rocks with moss. I found this moss interesting on how it…
What a beautiful day! Gracie said she needed a short hike on the grasslands so let’s go! Well, semi-short…only two hours. Gracie thought it was perfect. I liked it too 🙂 This scat was so black and then it looked like an insect decided to dig there. You take a photo of something, then you…
Forgot to mention yesterday, I had another American Woodcock in our woods. Exciting, but alas no photo ;-( I have seen more of them this year (three total) then I have ever seen before. Also had a Fox Sparrow and Northern Harrier. Neither seen very often anymore at home. Script lichen (Alyxoria varia). It was…
The internet got fixed. YEAH! Sorta miss it when I don’t have it. So on with the grasslands photos! This is Coryphantha sulcata. One of the common names is Pineapple Cactus. It will have a pretty yellow flower with a red center. Note it has a center spine. Blue Funnel-lily (Androstephium caeruleum). It will have…
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….
This is the second part of our prairie scouting trip on Saturday. This is the Three Sisters farm. David told us he acquired the land in 1991. He named it Three Sisters for his three daughters. Nice name! The land was not in very good shape. David has been trying to restore it. He has…