cowpokeamericanas dagbok

Area seemed mostly for recreation, with man-made body of water and lots of tire tracks indicating offroading(?)

White Beggarticks positively everywhere, feeding a host of nectar-feeders and their associated predators. Was lucky enough to spot a massive American Bumble Bee and some Green Anoles, not just browns this time. Also saw some neat moths, including two similar species - Florida Oakgall Borer Moth and Texana Clearwing Moth (name from Bugguide, since it doesn't show up on iNat). Also saw several Velvet Ants, including what might be the male of one species (totally would not have guessed if iNat hadn't suggested it as the taxon).

Was interesting seeing the shift in composition as time went on. Earlier in my observations I saw lots of honey bees (didn't bother taking too many photos of them), then as time went on I saw more of the Feather-legged Scoliid Wasps. Also wish I knew a bit more about the honey bees, there were some distinctly whitish colored ones there, compared to the more golden-yellow I'm familiar with.

Probably will not visit this park again, or if I do I expect it to be rather dull once all the flowers are gone.

Don't use the Apple Compass app for location coordinates, it's useless -_-

My observations... no...

I'm in the DC area and exploring - there's a surprising amount of wild areas interspersed into the city areas. On Halloween I went hiking through Soapstone Valley park and saw a ton of mushrooms in a rainbow of colors.

I also ran into a coven of 4 witches (2 dressed as witches, 1 as a black cat, 1 as unsure) who were reading tea leaves by the stream in the park. I read their palms in exchange for a tea leaf reading - apparently they're going to all have 1-2 "kids" (cats lol) and I'm expecting annoyances and misfortune in my future. RIP.

More observations for this location coming soon, it's slow work uploading them from my phone.

Today I went out with some coworkers during lunch because they were interested in how I take photos. I let them try my hand magnifier, and they seemed to have a fun time searching for bugs to photograph and learning about the animals and plants in the area.

One of them spotted a billbug weevil on the widewalk, silly thing played dead once we poked it. Good eyes.

I miss doing outreach!

I should use it more, hah!

Yesterday I went to explore more of Texas, walking down a small portion of the Lone Star Trail in Sam Houston Forest. It looks like they recently did a controlled burn, so I didn't find as many bugs as I'd hoped. I did luck out and run into a Texas Coralsnake.

Probably won't visit again for another month or so, so there's more plant growth and bugs.