I often find these living amongst the large hydroid colonies. But despite many colonies of the same species of hydroid growing up and down the dock, I will find the sea spiders collected on a single colony or a few colonies next to each other.
Big Thicket National Preserve. The trail/road behind the yellow gate.
These eels live in the sublittoral zone in the surf on Galveston Island, TX. They have burrows in the sand, and one day when the tide was extremely low their holes in the sand were exposed and many of them were lethargically crawling out. They are about 18" long, light greenish brown, with a blonde colored stripe running the length of the body.
One Fishie Down The Hatch
Thanks to the sunlight, you can actually see the fish that the parent just fed this baby. The sibling looks like it is asking, where is my fishie?
Caught red-handed near the chicken coop only seconds away from killing my smallest Roo. After being given a good telling-off, the bird was taken to a nearby park and released safely.
I saw this dazed and hungry-looking ringtail on an afternoon walk in my neighborhood. I expect it had been made homeless from the Texas #icepocalypse we just experienced.
This plant found life from a rock!
Would love to know what it is
kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
order: Passeriformes
Family: icteridae
Observation from aboard the TAMU-G trawler as part of a field trip for the Galveston Bay Area Chapter Texas Master Naturalists Fall 2022 class.
This animal was part of the demonstration trawler haul, and was safely released back into the bay shortly after this photo.
Fell out of an ancient dead tree I was trying to remove for work. I tried to put him back in an existing burrow in a chunk of wood from the tree.
BIDENS ANDICOLA H.B.K., Nov. Gen. et Sp. 4:237 (186). 1820; B. andicola H.B.K. vars. normalis and heterophylla O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 3^II^: I36. 1898; B. fruticulosa Mey. and Walp., Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. 19 Supplem. I. 271. 1843.
Descript. amplific.- Herba perennis, semi-procumbens vel etiam erecta, valde hispido-pubescens vel fere glabra, ramosa, 2-8 dm. alta, caulibus parce angulatis. Folia 1-7 cm. longa, valde polymorpha; nunc indivisa, ovata, serrata, sessilia vel alato-petiolata, ad apicem obtusa vel subacuta; nunc tripartite vel 1-3-pinnata foliolis ovatis vel lanceolatis vel linearibus et ad apicem sensim vel abrupte apiculatis. Capitula ramos terminantia, longe pedunculata, radiata; pansa ad anthesin 2-4 vel rarius etiam usque ad 5.5 cm. lata, 0.7-1.4 cm. alta. Involucrum perspicue hispidum, bracteis ex-terioribus 8-10, lanceolatis vel lineari-oblongis, ciliatis, supra saepe glabratis, apice plerumque obtusis, quam interioribus lanceolatis dense hispidis plerumque multo brevioribus. Flores ligulati saepius 8, lutei, ligula elliptico-oblanceolati, apice plerumque minute 3-denticulati, 1.2-2.5 cm. longi. Achaenia tenuiter linearia, inferne sensim attenuate, obcompresso-quadrangularia, sulcata, supra plus minusve erecto-hispida, fusco-nigra, corpore 0.7-1.4 cm. longa et 0.4-1 mm. lata et paleas demum superantia, apice bi- (vel pauca tri-) aristata, aristis tenuibus, brunneo-stramineis vel rubescentibus, re-trorsum hamosis, 1.7-3 mm. longis.
BIDENS ANDICOLA var. DECOMPOSITA O. Kuntze, I.c.; B. macrantha Griseb., Abhandl. Goett. I9:I38 I874; B. grandiflora Balb. var. breviloba 0. Kuntze, I.c.-Folia 2-3-pinnatisecta, usque ad I dm. longa, achaeniis superne valde attenuato-elongata.
For many years the identity of the South American Bidens andicola has been obscured for herbarium workers by the great multiplicity of foliage forms encountered. WEDDELL, as early as 1856 (Chloris And. 1870) described it as a polymorphous plant ("Plante polymorphe et très repande dans la chaine, mais presque exclusivement alpestre"). Later, OTTO KUNTZE, who like WEDDELL had collected in South America, commented upon the variability of the leaves ("Eine robuste Art mit einfach oder mehrfach ternatisecten Blättern, mittelgrossen gelben Strahlblüthen, ziemlich grossen Blüthenköpfen, äusseren zottig behaarten Involucralbracteen etc., aber in Bezug auf Blatttheilung wie manche andere Bidens-Art sehr variabel"; Rev. Gen. Pl. 3^II^: 136. 1898). In herbaria the numerous foliage forms are seen to simulate corresponding forms of B. triplinervia H.B.K. (B. humilis H.B.K., B. crithmifoliac H.B.K., etc.), and this has led often to confusion between the two species. Recently I was enabled, through the courtesy of OTTO BUCHTIEN (cf. SHEREFF, BOT. GAZ. 76: 151. 1923), to study a great number of specimens collected by him and displaying a wide range of variation. From these (all in Herb. Field. Mus.) and many others, totalling more than two hundred specimens, the preceding descriptions are drawn. It was found that sometimes, in poorly developed material, distinction from B. triplinervia is apparently impossible. In well developed material, however, the distinctions are usually very definite, B. andicola being coarser, its thicker heads having commonly about eight instead of commonly about five rays[4], etc. B. andicola has the paleae shorter than the mature achenes and this character separates it from the surprisingly similar aggregation of Mexican forms (Purpus 1547, 1548, 2637, 4135, 5089, 5620; Rose and Painter 6666, 7949; Pringle 4915; E. W. Nelson 3220, etc.) that in late years have passed erroneously under the name B. daucifolia DC. In the latter[5] the paleae are usually very blackish above and commonly surpass the mature achenes.
Occasionally a form of B. andicola is found with the leaves highly compound and the achenes strongly narrowed above, somewhat like those of Cosmos. If it were not for various connecting forms this would seem to be specifically distinct. KUNTZE, who himself collected specimens of it, referred at least one of them, a plant from Cochabamba, Bolivia (Herb. N.Y. Bot. Gard.) to B. andicola, naming it var. decomposita. In a careless moment he named a precisely identical form from between Cochabamba and Rio Juntas, Bolivia (Herb. N.Y. Bot. Gard.) B. grandiflora Balb. var. breviloba, although B. grandifjora is a Mexican species and is not known to occur in South America.
[4] Unfortunately, B. triplinervia produces at times an 8-rayed form. Discussion of this form must be deferred until a later date.
Sherff, E. E. (1926). Studies in the Genus Bidens. VII. Botanical Gazette, 81(1), 25-54.>>
Location approximate
i am pretty sure this was a lichen/fungi, but lordy it looked like a baby turtle.
?. Also note the potentially century old can grown into the trunk. Don’t know what it was for
Cat brought this in. He seems okay, but has a small cut on his side, which I assume is from a cat tooth. I’m taking him to the wildlife rescue tomorrow (they’re closed today) in case he needs antibiotics. That’s one strange tail! I assume he qualifies for the Aberrants project with that.
Aransas County, Rockport TX
First observed on sunning on driveway
Strange wiggling motion to move
Weather: 73 degrees and sunny
Reported by Luna & Selva
couldn't get any good pics bc he was hella fast
This leucistic individual is Salamander C. This one has been photographed and observed since 2010 many times by Don Scallen and it had at least been alive two years before that, making it thirteen years old- two years older then me!
Spider eating some kind of worm.
A green chiton attached to a half crab. We observed this alien looking commensal beast while undertaking an intertidal survey on the reefs off Hawera. It made us jump when we first turned over the rock.
Female
On Eriogonum fasciculatum. Stem deformities may be fungal related. The last photo perhaps shows a terminal bud gall that then induces some stem weirdness. I really have no idea what's going on here.
My young friend Ethan Griffin found this beast in his garden and would love to get any insights on this warped snail. Photos by Ethan.
White morph (Great White Heron) - rare vagrant continuing at this location for several weeks. Much larger than Great Egret, pale legs.
more or less 30mm in lenght and 10mm wide
First sighting of this large blue butterfly fluttering about in my Costa Mesa, Southern California, USA urban organic residential food garden yesterday.
iNaturalist suggested that it was a common morpho.
Is this sighting not too north in latitude to be seeing this Amazonian butterfly ?
I am interested to know what species this is and to learn of its host and nectar plants, so I could encourage its repeated presence.
Big specimen I found on a morning walk.