i-wheeler's Journal

There are so many interesting species that can pop up in your yard. After having some time, several species of plants came out of the ground. While I usually would just assume that all the species growing were just weeds and needed to get cut down, this gave me an appreciation for the nature that can be seen just in my backyard. Seeing the Rhodophiala bilida, or Oxblood Lily was especially nice because it contrasted so much with the usual weeds seen in our yard. While the Plantago virginica and the Torilis arvensis were interesting, I definitely paid more attention to the Oxblood Lily.

I have lived in this neighborhood for several years and this was the first time I saw this animal up close. I'm pretty sure I've seen different species of heron flying during the day so obviously they couldn't be the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. I am a bit curious on what Nyctanassa violacea found in our neighborhood, considering we don't have any water flowing through it, like a river or a lake. We get flood water that will get mosquito larvae at best. I thought it would prefer something like crawfish or crabs based off the reading given off of iNaturalist. The ones in my area were probably living off of insects and frogs or traveling very far to get other sources of food.

While cutting the grass, I came across a Great-tailed Grackle. It lowered down from the fence a few times and found something to eat from the ground I just cleared. The bird is called Quiscalus mexicanus and I think it's one of the cooler animals that I came across. It wasn't intimidated by me and just watched while I cut the lawn and took pictures of it. I think that this was one of the more difficult shots I had to take because it was a bird. It's rather small and was just hopping around doing it's own thing. But I ended up getting good enough pictures to get identified.

I'm having a difficult time identifying some of these insect species that I have in my midst as of right now. I'm doing my best to try and find insects in nature but I feel like not being able to hold them because they fly or they're dangerous. I might have to get some sugar or something. I could try another park or something before it rains but it's getting a little frustrating.