Swallowtail caterpillars munch fennel

On a fennel plant about 2-feet tall, four Black Swallowtail caterpillars were spotted today at Baytown Nature Center.

This was the fattest of the four caterpillars on the fennel.

Can you spot the caterpillars.

There is a similar sized plant on the other side of the bed, but we didn't see any caterpillars on it.

Put on your boots, hibiscus seed is ready to collect

The brown pods are open so we take a few to get the seeds.

Collecting hibiscus seed pods reminds me a little of picking cotton, which my family knows a bit about.

The hibiscus seeds were collected around pond 5 at Sheldon Lake for distribution around other ponds.

The cotton farm I grew up on was in West Texas.

That's me (below) in the red tennies picking cotton.

I never filled a tow sack. Most of the cotton was collected with a stripper.

San Jacinto Monument in a landscape

Here is a view of the San Jacinto Monument from a fishing pier at Baytown Nature Center.

On the other side of the island obscuring the monument base, ship channel traffic passes regularly

Yellow blob in the yard

Some think it looks like dog barf.

But when I noticed the yellow blob, I thought it looked like a couple of sad Peeps, possibly trying to escape, had melted in my yard.

Actually it is yellow slime mold, a bright spot in the yard that sometimes causes alarm, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service. However this blob won't hurt anyone and will disappear with weather changes.

According to Fun Facts About Fungi:

Physarum polycephalum is a plasmodial slime mold. The yellow blob we notice is a huge single cell. Unlike most cells, which have only one nucleus, this cell contains millions of nuclei. Physarum plasmodia are usually 3 or 4 cm ( ½ - 1 " ) in diameter, but can get to be 30 cm (about 1 foot) or more in diameter, and 3 to 5 cm thick. This giant cell moves, but only pictures taken over several days can show its progress. Its top speed is 1 mm per hour.

Tree frog rides along for change of address

 A feisty tree frog came in from a nearby ditch with the clumps of grasses to be sprigged and relocated in ponds at Sheldon Lake.

 This one was released in a pond near the environmental learning center at Sheldon Lake. Maybe you will see it during your next visit.

Sometimes you are surprised by what you find in the smelly, muddy buckets of grasses. Usually it is a pleasant surprise.

Mod squad: American Lady vs. Gulf Fritillary

They both have orange topsides, although they are not as studied as Texas' state insect, Monarch.

But American Lady and Gulf Fritillary butterflies have distinctive undersides that really pop.

They look so mod.

These two were cruising the Basket Flowers along a mowed field close to the butterfly garden at Baytown Nature Center.

American Lady

Gulf Fritillary

Duskywing finds red flowers

An expert could tell which Duskywing butterfly I noticed on the Turk's Cap.

A common Duskywing in Texas in the Horace's Duskywing.

Check out this video. It's about the Northeast, but most of these skippers skip through Texas.