Travel & Places
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New Years Eve in downtown Ft. Worth
Having grown up in the suburbs of Ft. Worth I am partial to this town versus its neighbor Dallas. I love walking through the streets, checking out the old buildings and when the Tandy Center was still in existence, my friends and I would drive down to the subway that took you to the Tandy Center and we’d go shopping or ice skating and then walk around Main Street or Sundance Square. It’s an easily maneuverable city and in the past several years has seen a revitalization on the west side of the town. I particularly love the arts district on the west side and with the new shopping and…
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Of Sycamores and Endings
Yesterday Chris found a gigantic leaf in the woods that turned out to be an American Sycamore. It is almost 18″ in width and the little Chris has found on the internet it seems that the largest so far is only 15.5″. Perhaps this is a record? If anyone out there can find more information, please let me know! Our time in Sabine National Forest is up. I think I’ve walked over almost every inch of this forest from Patroon to Shelbyville. It has been an awesome experience, walking this forest. When we first arrived it was warm and fall was just beginning. The leaves were turning red and yellow…
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Galveston
Karen at Chookooloonks is posting some photos of her recent trip down to Galveston and it reminded me that I never got around to posting photos from when we went in early October. We drove down to go to the TAMUG All Class Reunion and to visit some friends while we were there. Living in Galveston was very fun while in college. I lived there from 1998 until 2002 when I graduated and we moved to Florida. There were many instances where ditching class occurred in favor of the beach. I remember thinking I’d go and study on the beach—hahahahahaha! Yeah, right! Anyway, it was nice to see some old…
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Nature in the City: Trinity River Audubon
On our last break we took a visit to the Trinity River Audubon south of Dallas. Not much was going on in the way of wildlife, but it was still a beautiful place to visit. I had no idea the place even existed until a few months ago. It was cold and windy the day we were there so the wildlife was probably hiding as well. I am sure migratory birds enjoy a nice stopover here. Now some photos: The education center. It hosts an area for school groups to eat lunch, nice restrooms, and great exhibits, including a hands on build your own river exhibit. Pretty cool! Near the…
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The Woods: Part III
When I initially saw the plant there on the right I thought it was some type of coral root orchid. After consulting our Texas orchid book I quickly realized it wasn’t but was left hanging on what it actually was. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps it was a parasitic plant but I still wasn’t sure. So I sent an email off to Prem who is much more of an orchid expert than we are and I knew he’d be able to tell me what they were. Turns out we have beech drops a parasitic plant to beech trees! Pretty nifty and interesting! Parsley hawthorn What I really need…
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A Photographer At Work
Caddo Lake, Texas.
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The Big Thicket
The Big Thicket is a patchwork of forest in east Texas that is run by the National Park Service. It is similar to Big Cypress National Preserve in that hunting and other recreational uses are allowed unlike many other national parks in the system. I had been here 9 years ago in a wetlands class in college but didn’t quite remember everything about it. We went to a few different trails, the Sundew Trail, the Pitcher Plant Trail and the Beech Woods Trail. The last ivory billed woodpecker verified in the United States was seen in the Big Thicket near the Neches River. Interesting stuff! We found a black rat…
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*Contest Winner* Five Lined Skink
Our contest winner is Christine who I figured might be the first person to guess. Honestly, I thought this would be trickier than it ended up being! Next time I will crop it differently to make it more difficult! The other morning I was doing some QC on some trash lines in the forest when I looked down over a smashed pine log and saw the skink just sitting there. It’d been a chilly morning but I wasn’t going to take my chances so I took my initial “I saw it” photo and then decided to try to get closer. It worked! These little guys/gals are quick and are incredibly…
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Fall Thoughts
-I get annoyed when people don’t seem to appreciate the Fall that we have in the south. Sure, it isn’t as glorious with color as the northeast, but you have to take the subtle hints of Fall and run with them. The wonderful Fall blooms are still lingering, goldenrod, sunflowers, crotons (not the tropical, hideous ones)….they are there, you just have to look for them. -I miss liberal Florida. The political ads out here in ArkLaTex are very much anti-Obama and Obama isn’t even running for anything at the moment. If any Democrat or incumbent has done anything remotely in favor of Obama the ad is completely negative. They aren’t…
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The Woods: Animal Edition
I was about to put flagging tape on this sapling when I saw this snake! I’d seen his relative a few miles away earlier in the day and was surprised to see another one. I think it is a rough green, Opheodrys aestivus. I only had my point and shoot for work, not my good one so it was a bit difficult to get a good shot. I haven’t had any luck identifying this hornworm, but it was a fat, cute and squishy and needed its photo taken. The Mr. and Mrs. getting ready for dinner. The Mr. is the smaller one, by the way. A spiny oakworm caterpillar, Anisota…