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
Spiny-aster (Chloracantha spinosa) is a plant that likes to be near water or in a drainage area. The plant is sorta scraggly and just starting to bloom here. Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) is an invasive but sure has a pretty seed head. The Poodle skirt mushroom (just what I call it…not an official common name)…
Update: So the insect that was burrowing in the sandstone has been identified by BugGuide to genus. They say there are 5 described species in the U.S and the only two in our area are the Smaller Sand Cricket (Ellipes minuta) and Ellipes gurneyi. So maybe I can catch it and see which it is. Fingers crossed… See post dated 9-11-2020…
I spent most of my day looking at spores under the scope. I did not know what I was going to see or what I was looking at half the time. Thank goodness for Google! Purple cliff-brake spores (Pellaea atropurpurea) are the roundish things to the right side of the photo. This is at 400x. …
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…
Wow, love this cool day and the rain. We have gotten .8 inch but I have heard some of you got 1.5 inches. Just wonderful! Before the rain came this morning, I found this dead luna moth. Its wing span was about 4 inches. I don’t see them real often and the caterpillars even less….
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…
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…
Well, I still must get outside. Gracie says so too. Gracie finds a way to cool off. Palafoxia (Palafoxia callosa) a hard to see plant that likes limestone type soils. Mine is in the my driveway. Pretty tiny flies were visiting. Don’t know what it’s is name. Underside But I made a cool spore print. …
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…