Outdoors
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W.G. Jones State Forest | Nature In The City
Last weekend we took Forest out for his first ‘hike—he strolled, we hiked—at our local state forest, WG Jones State Forest. Chris and I have been there a few times and thought it would be a great outing for us to stretch our legs and to get away from the house for awhile. The forest is split in two by a road, FM 1488, with the larger tract being on the south side of the road. This tract also has the most trails. We set off from the western most parking area on 1488 and Forest managed to stay asleep during his transfer from truck to stroller. I had debated…
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Backyard Leopard Frog
About a week ago I was coming in from hanging up diapers and noticed a leopard frog on our back porch. It hung around for a few days and let me get a photo of it before finally disappearing into the garden. We have a healthy frog population around our house but this was the first time I had noticed a leopard frog. Southern Leopard Frog information from TPWD
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Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars
Over the weekend Chris was out in the yard and came inside to tell me that I had to go out and check something that was on the citrus with him. It didn’t take me but a few seconds to decide he was probably showing me a caterpillar that was munching on the citrus. At the time I couldn’t remember which caterpillar used citrus as its host plant and I had to look it up later. Sure enough my hunch was correct! There were several small caterpillar nibbling on our citrus trees. I’m sure that in a citrus grove this would be considered a pest, but considering that the caterpillar…
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Fuzzy Wuzzy Airplant | Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
Always fun to find one of these! Tillandsia pruinosa information.
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January at Westcave Preserve
I finally got around to finishing this video I shot back in January when Chris and I were in Austin. I’m having serious outdoor exploration withdrawls these days—the heat paired with being pregnant and unable/not feeling up to hike and get out of town has me missing this kind of stuff. Good thing my yard has a diversity of things to keep me entertained until fall and the baby arrives.
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Cyrtopodium punctatum | Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
The first time I saw a cigar orchid was on private property at my job in Florida. I had walked by it without realizing it was an orchid until I walked back by it later on and it registered that it was a cigar orchid. They aren’t all that common but since seeing that first one I’ve gotten the chance to see a few others in Fakahatchee as well as the specimen that is probably the most well known down in Everglades NP.
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Janes Scenic Drive Ramble | Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
Zebra longwing butterfly, Heliconius charithonia A weedy but beautiful native, Bidens alba. Firebush, Hamelia patens Northern needleaf bromeliad, Tillandsia balbisiana On our last day of our swamping trek through Fakahatchee Strand back in early March, I spent most of the morning hanging out at the parking area on Janes Scenic Drive at the East Main Tram gate. Chris was going out into the swamp with a few of the others that morning and I was not up for another morning in the swamp. I was still dealing with some mild morning sickness and general malaise at that time and preferred to just soak in the time spent at the cabin…
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Ionopsis utricularioides | Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
I’m digging through the last of the Florida photos from March and have several orchids I want to share with you, this species being one of them. This is a tiny, epipyhytic orchid with small purple flowers resembling the purple utricularia, a species of carnivorous plant that lives in the water, hence the species part of its name. There’s some other interesting information about this orchid in the Dade chapter of the Florida Native Plane Society’s newsletter here if you scroll down about 3/4 of the way. It’s a sweet little orchid that is easily passed by if you aren’t looking for it.
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Tribute To My Favorite Trails: National Trails Day 2014
Today was National Trails Day and I was unable to get out and enjoy a local trail as we were working on house related activities. I thought I’d take a few minutes and share a photo from some of my favorite hiking trails and areas over the years. The Florida Trail in Ocala National Forest…you might see a black bear! Caprock Canyon State Park, Texas The view down to the Lake of the Clouds Hut from Mt. Washington. White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire. Appalachian Trail From the trails at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida On the Crosstimbers Trail. Lake Texoma, Texas From the trails at the St. Sebastian…
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Toad Song
It’s been a rainy 2.5 days here in my neck of Texas. Between 11am Monday morning and about 5pm yesterday afternoon we had 4.7″ of rain. We’ve had even more since then and my backyard is more flooded this morning than it was last night. There’s even more of a swimming pool in my front yard than you see in this video. The chorus you hear singing is from the eastern narrow mouthed toad! At one point last night I asked Chris if he was playing this video and he said, “No, that’s the toads outside!” So, that’s how loud they were! Usually we get a lot of green tree…