After the rains

Yesterday, God blessed us with a little more than an inch of rain! I was sitting in my office, reading, when I happened to glance out the window. Tiny winged insects were flying upward from the ground and into the sky. Apparently, the moisture had triggered their emergence. What were they? I ran outside with my camera and caught a few in my hand. The photos aren't great, but I did my best....

UPDATE...BAD NEWS! THOSE WINGED THINGS ARE TERMITES! Likely a native subterranean species. Ugh! I'm reading up now about them, including a FAQ posted online by AgriLife Extension. They were swarming yesterday....  

James walked outside, too, and spotted this small toad in the Meadow.

The raindrops on the lilies in the stock tank pond were pretty....

This and that

We planted two calylophus (Calylophus berlandieri) in April 2009. They've bloomed every year since just beautifully. But now they're dying back, which saddens me. I thought I'd take a picture because I can't remember if the plants did this last year. I'm hoping! Because I'd hate to see them go.

What I once considered a pesky weed is NOT. The common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) has very pretty flowers and is a host plant for the silvery checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis). See my July 7, 2010, post.

However, common sunflowers are GIANTS in the garden!

James found a little frog yesterday. We can't decide if it's a Rio Grande leopard (Rana berlandieri) or a southern leopard (Rana sphenocephala). 

Frog call

My good friend and watercolor artist Pat Glenn e-mails me now and then with nice comments about my articles and questions about the flora and fauna around his place outside of Blanco. Recently, he's been stumped by a strange call at night. This week, he recorded it and sent it to me. I tried to figure it out but decided I'd better let an expert handle it. So I forwarded the recording to Dr. David Cantantella, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin and curator of herpetology at the Texas Natural History Collections.

"This sounds like Pseudacris streckeri," he wrote back. "It calls early in the spring, usually before March."

The species is commonly called Strecker's chorus frog. Here's another recording of the frog. Thanks, Dr. Cantatella! In the meantime, I also let Pat know, of course.

"He sure did nail it," Pat wrote me back. "That is great! Thank you so much. I am amazed! Thank your friend for me. Now that you have solved it, what are we gonna do for entertainment? I just am amazed at this, there is no doubt."

Toad child

I was watering some potted plants earlier this afternoon when I spotted this little toad not far from the water faucet that's attached to our hose (it drips when the water runs). At least, I assume it to be a toad of some kind. It was tiny, about the size of a quarter. How did he/she do that? I mean, we've had a drought in recent months, broken only by a few rains last month. There's no water puddles near the water faucet, where this little guy was hanging out. How did he make it from a tadpole to a toad then? Really makes me wonder. Nature is so amazing.

"It's Raining Toads, an article in the September 2008 issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, describes how a toad species in arid Monahans Sandhills State Park in West Texas has adapted to short rain cycles there. More than likely, our species here in Central Texas have adapted, too.

Blessed rain....

Sapphire showers

We've had more than 2 inches of rain in the past week. Such a blessing! I took my camera outside a few times yesterday. While I was shooting closeups of the sapphire showers, a tiny jumping spider jumped on the blossoms. I snapped off two photos, and the above turned out the best. The spider only stayed on the flower a few seconds. So I was lucky to catch it at all!

In the evening, James spotted this load lounging in the Sanctuary, and I got a few photos. The water's muddy because the ox beetle shoved dirt from its hole in a pole near the plate. The toad didn't care!

In the soggy soil, we spotted some kind of tiny, round mushrooms.

Another mushroom? It's definitely not a "plant."

James transplanted the gold shrimp plant from the front to the back because hungry deer kept browsing on them. As you can see, they love their new location. As for the deer, recent rains have kept them at bay from our yard. We hope.

New residents in the salvias

James spotted a new resident in our salvia bed............an anole. Our other anole still lives in the African milk tree (succulent) on the front porch. We visit nearly every morning.


And then this morning, I found two salvia blooms of a different color on the same plant! They're whitish with pink markings. The dominant plant bears fuchsia blooms, which is the blurry color in the top right of the picture below. Surpise!

Toad haven

So tonight we sat on the front porch until late. Nearly 10:30. That's LATE for old folks like us. For the first time this summer, we spotted lots of Mexican free-tailed bats flitting about in the darkening sky. I'm sure they've been around....we just haven't been out that late in the evening.

While we were sitting there, we heard a commotion behind us. So did Abe, one of our boy cats. James dashed into the garage for a flashlight. When he returned, we found a big toad in the corner in between the bromeliad and the African milk tree. Then I found a dish to set out near him with water. Alas, the lid had holes (a lady had brought me a huge wolf spider in a coffee container), and I had grabbed that lid. (The spider died soon thereafter, much to my dismay.) So I went inside the house and found a plate that I could trade out. As you can see, the toad found the water and had a nice time. Last summer, when we had so much rain, we had lots of toads. We kept plates filled with water in a wild area in the back yard. We hadn't done that this year 'cause we hadn't seen any toads.

Until today.

This morning, I rescued a toad, treading water in a container we keep under the a/c drain in the back yard. He looked a little bloated but alive. So tonight's amphibian was our second today!

We decided we'll start filling those plates again regularly with water.

Isn't he cute?