Kale and bird poop

Lacinato kale is sprouting for Mom and Dad!
Scotch blue curled kale is up too!
Two dogs, having fun.
Look at the bird poop on the coralberry leaves! How unappetizing!
It’s actually a bird dropping moth. It’s even a bit lumpy! It’s probably Antaeotricha leucilliana but there are a few similar species that can’t be distinguished for sure without looking at the genitalia. Luckily for the moth, that sounds like a lot of work.

Afternoon walkies

Here at Camp Arthritis we’re taking lots of slow short walks. Perfect to admire the resident plants! This is a blackberry in the old, less productive patch. These plants keep their leaves over the winter. They turn a dark purple.
The new blackberry patch is expanding rapidly. These plants lose all their leaves in the winter. This patch is where our yard ones were dug.
A trailing winecup leaf (Callirhoe involucrata). I have seeds for this in cold stratification in the fridge right now.
A true armyworm moth is having a very bad day. Its mate appears to have died and is stuck to it. I guess really both of them are having a bad day.
Tiny tiny tiny ants. Diane says probably Monomorium sp. Thanks Diane!!
Cute little new leaves on a post oak!

Dixon Water Foundation morning

Bladderpod with small native bee
For someone who is probably growing this fellow’s relative, I sure have a hard time identifying cacti. I believe it’s Coryphantha sulcata based on having one central spine per areole. Here’s my baby.
Mom looks at photos she is taking.
Mom takes more photos.
It’s a magnificent creek!
Bubbles on moss.
Neat rocks the creek goes through.
A mournful thyris moth. We saw more in redbud flowers. I think it may have been getting water here, because if you zoom in you can see its proboscis out.
A cricket frog!
Another big view. You can see a redbud in the woods.
Englemann daisies growing above the creek! They’re much smaller than the ones in my garden. Presumably less water.
A white bush honeysuckle (a native one, Lonicera albiflora) branches over the creek.
This is probably a hawthorn shrub. Thanks to Abby for the suggestion that helped me look it up! There seem to be a lot of very similar species.
Here’s the probably-hawthorn trunk.
This seems familiar.
Ah ha!  A Missouri fluttermill primrose!  Note the red speckled and sort of square long flower bud.
An old seed pod at the base of the primrose plant. The leaves are much less red than the ones in my garden.
Ceanothus herbaceus, redroot or New Jersey tea.
Here are the leaves. I am growing its relative C. americanus (also called New Jersey tea) in my garden, from seeds bought from prairiemoon.com.
Blue flax!  It’s probably Linum pratense, which is an annual.  Apparently it does intergrade with the perennial Linum lewisii which is what I planted in my yard.
This flax hasn’t bloomed but you can see the leaves are very like the L. lewsii ones in my yard.
Another Englemann daisy demonstrates how adaptable this species is, growing up on the barrens away from the creek.
Just to the left, just below the middle of this picture is another fluttermill.
Cymopterus, a very early blooming wildflower, starts to go to seed.
I think this must be a much younger fluttermill Missouri primrose that has already bloomed.
This is prairie burnet.  I’d never noticed it before.  Thanks to Abby for the identification!
Yellow star grass (not actually a grass).
Another fluttermill primrose, this time in a big beautiful mound.
The face of abandonment.
Another dog who didn’t get to go.

Vacation! Days 1 and 2

Day 1: arrival

Wow!!! Gracie!!!!!
A male Black-chinned Hummingbird. Mom says they arrived recently.
Greeneyes! A nice big rosette to compare to my baby greeneyes in the garden. Mom says the crenate leaf edge is pretty distinctive.
It was over 90°F. Warm for fluffy.

Day 2: Wednesday.

This cluster of tulips is probably nearly 30 years old. Not bad for an “replant this every year” bulb.
Lots of frogs singing at night!
A fringed puccoon blooming. After looking at the veins and the curled under edge, I think my mystery plants in yard are not puccoon.

Spring in the wild at Saxon park

I checked over the Cardamine sp. where we saw a Falcate Orangetip butterfly two weeks ago, but could not find any eggs or caterpillars. A few are still flowering but many are starting green seed pods.
The wild violets are blooming!
Good smells

Field trip of spring

Happy dog heading home from Saxon Park
I think this is a Mexican plum.
Leaves of same tree.
A falcate orangetip butterfly visited this plant!
Mom suggested an identification of Cardamine parvifolia. Thanks Mom!
It is apparently a host plant for the orangetip.
Chickasaw plum blooming!
Paula gave me a combination garden tote/seat/knee pad. Pets investigate.
Briar displays the seat mode.
Gram examines the knee pad mode.
Gram refuses to go for a ride in the rolling tote part.

A weekend field trip home

Negative covid rapid tests meant we were safe to travel south to Texas!
Annual bluets
Controlled burns on the LBJ national grasslands were visible by smoke.
Briar!
Gracie!
A hackberry tree having a long term discussion with the big mesquite tree.
The big old mesquite tree.
Draba cuneifolia
Mom documents our dispersal of native plants.
Heading back north to Oklahoma, an interesting juxtaposition of old and new energy.

Last week Nov. 12 hike, no dogs

Gracie needed a rest so Mom and I went out to the Grasslands sans dogs last Friday.  My home ecosystem! You can see Mom’s photos on her blog in two parts (posts start Nov. 14 and then there is a second one after).

This Escobaria vivipara cactus is surrounded by babies!!
Without my silly human finger.
Escobaria missouriensis has red fruit.
Native white honeysuckle bush has red fruit too!
Great Spreadwings have big yellow stripes on the thorax.  This set of ravines and seeps has always been a reliable place to find them.
Looking up out of the ravine at the surrounding red oaks.
Mom showed me her exciting find of this 6+ foot tall waterfall with travertine stalactites, maidenhair ferns (zoom in to find), and frostweed (at front edge of picture).
On the way back up the ravine I saw this tiny pokey spider.  Gasteracantha cancriformis.
It was steep!

A neighbor ecosystem

On Tuesday this week, Mom and I visited the Dixon Water Foundation’s property near Leo, TX (north of FM 455). Mom has been blogging it all week! Have a look starting on her Nov. 9th post (opens in new tab) and keep going to the next post through Nov. 12. She took a lot more pictures than me.

An ammonite impression!
Going places
Blurry jumping spider but I liked its colors.
Round hole on rock
Neat tiny fossils
Mom said this is considered Fort Worth Prairie, adjacent to cross timbers. Hence neighbor ecosystem.
Hmm a rock.
Surprise!! Second small rock on a big rock with a spider under it for this trip.
Neoscona crucifera
Buttonbush
The grotto
Snail hiding
Fossil mollusc
A pretty live oak acorn
Native grass and lichen covered rock
Maybe a grape seedling.  I have these come up in my yard, I think, so I guess I better let one grow.  I had been assuming they were trees of some sort.
A sea urchin fossil!  Probably Holaster sp. according to the book Mom has on fossils of North America.
A view of creek leading to grotto.
Neat lichens
More neat lichens
The grotto again. Kept going back to look at it.
A shrike left some frog jerky.
Late fall is Spiranthes season! Commonly known as ladies’ tresses orchid