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
That’s how far Gracie went on the grasslands yesterday. Humans went only 2+ miles in the three and half hours. A good part of the day was in the gullies and the creek bed. The side of some of the gullies were this red sandy/clay loam. Roots and red sandy/clay loam were beautiful! From the…
We had some patchy frost this morning. Our recorded low was 31.6 degrees. First frost of the season! When it warmed up, the bugs came out. This is a Little Yellow (Pyrisitia lisa). White Checkered-skipper (Pyrqus genus) Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon) on the Fall Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides). I believe this little red spider might be in …
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?…
Yesterday’s finds were great. The orchids were the highlight of the day’s adventure, but certainly not all. The following are some of the other highlights. It just blows me away that the remains of these creatures lived some 145-100 millions years ago and that most all of our area was under the sea. Mussels and…
This cool and cloudy day meant the insects were not moving much so easy shots. American Bumble Bee (Bombus pensylvanicus) was right where I left it when I returned four hours later. And again it was still on the gayfeather at 3pm. Harvestman (Leiobunum vittatum) was cooperative as well. Pearl Crescent (Phycoides tharos) Common Meadow…
The Blue-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum ambiguum) is a colorful fellow. The male sports the blue eyes and the red with black rings on the abdomen. The female has brown over gray eyes and the abdomen is tan with blackish incomplete rings mostly. A delightful find! This Crab Spider (Thomisidae) waiting for a meal on Eryngo (Eryngium…
It was a slow start to this morning, literally. LOL The common garden snails (Cornu aspersum) can move at a lightning speed of .029mph. Not sure if the above two snails are that species but they were not moving very fast. Correction: The one without a shell is a slug not a snail. Snails…
Every day, twice a day, the local Canada Geese fly by first one way, then back. The flock has grown from just two in the spring to about 35 now. Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) Meshweb weaver spider and insect prey A hundred is my guesstimate of the millipedes on my backporch. Closeup Corn Earworm (Helicoverpa zea)…
But no photo 🙁 First one I have ever seen one here at our place. So it was pretty exciting. Of course, my phone was in my pocket when it was disturbed and flew. Bold Jumper (Phidippus audax) looks like it is ready for Halloween? This Banded Argiope (Argiope trifasciata) is a male. He is…
Yesterday, after we climbed out of the creek bed, we walked along the top of the mesa in the prairie. So the following are a few things that capture my eye on the top of the mesa. Gayfeather (Liatris mucronata) with a Meshweb weaver (Dictynidae) web under the blooms. Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on Gayfeather. We…