Neighborhood Nature
-
Mid-Summer Nature Tidbits | Neighborhood Nature
Summer is slipping away and I feel like I have had my head down and haven’t been enjoying nature the last couple of weeks. Everything is happening in a blur. But the monarchs are here again, not that they totally left this summer, but we’ve had more hanging around this last week than I’ve seen since spring. And they’ve been leaving evidence of their progeny all over the place. I get a kick out of watching them methodically chow down on a milkweed leaf! I have not been able to identify this caterpillar yet. I found it on the path leading to our office and moved it over to a…
-
Neighborhood Nature | 3
Last weekend was the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge, though iNaturalist pushed it as less of a “challenge” and more of get out and enjoy nature safely and where you can locally. That didn’t put a damper in folks getting out to explore their greater local area, though, and I did my best to capture as much as I could on foot in the neighborhood. Some of these are from that weekend but many are just from daily sightings around the yard or just beyond! And of course this isn’t all of what I documented for the CNC, just a few highlights. Fall Webworm Moth, Hyphantria cunea I have no idea…
-
Neighborhood Nature | 2
Late last week Forest and I hit up the empty lot across the street to see what kind of nature we could find. Turns out there is quite a bit going on in that little lot! Texas Vervain Verbena halei — I might have to keep an eye on this particular plant, if it doesn’t get mowed, and collect some seed to throw into the garden. Metriorrhynchomiris dislocatus — Since we’re just poking around and going slowly I’ve been trying to look for little bugs a bit more than I usually do. Texas Ragwort, Senecio ampullaceus Scaphoideus incisus – cute little leaf hopper nymph! I wouldn’t have noticed it if…
-
Neighborhood Nature | 1
Considering we’ll be staying close to home for the foreseeable future I figured it would be nice to start a new theme here—Neighborhood Nature! I definitely encourage you to join along if you’d like and showcase what you see around your own neighborhood. Yesterday evening we went out for a walk and right off the bat I rescued a caterpillar crossing the road. I took a few photos of course and later when I tried to identify it on iNaturalist nothing seemed to fit. I opened my caterpillar book and still had a hard time thinking any of the potential families that I knew would fit. Then my book haphazardly…