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
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….
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,…
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…
We watched the crow land in the tree. Jim noticed the crows first and saw that one had dropped something. We had to investigate! It was a field rat! I’m showing you the less gory side. It’s guts had spilled out. I don’t know if the crow killed it or if it had scavenged it….
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…