Measure of a successful walk

Break out the field guides! Haul out the old big red dictionary! Search my photo files and check the nature websites!  A great walk's been had, and some of my photos turned out. Now the memory jogging begins. (Too bad memory jogging doesn't count as steps toward my employee wellness program).

Although today's walk was at the Heard Nature Sanctuary north of Plano in McKinney, the measure of success is the same for a walk at Oak Point Nature Park.




Pipevine swallowtails have the stunning irridescent blue lower wings, but fewer spots and less orange than other swallowtails.

Eryngo

Every year I have to look for the name these pretty purple pineapple-shaped wildflowers.

The concern with my favorite Gulf Fritillairy is spelling. One t. Two ls.

This was a new sight for me. Grapy berries or berriysh grapes growing on a shrubby vine near the boardwalk with poison-maybe leaves. Behold, beware! Beautiful colors in the fall sunshine. From internet sources I'm thinking these are members of the grapevine family, Vitaceae (Vitidacaae), called Peppervine or buckvine, Ampelopsis arborea, or even "cow-itch."

You might be able to make jam or wine according to one foraging site or hand-pull to remove as a pest plant. How did our ancestors survive without Google's contradictory guidance?

One final lap of memory jogging to log due to the very low water in the seasonal wetland slough. Although dragonflies were busy, the dry months have turned the wetland into a naked lake. Fascinating, but unnerving, it reminded me of watching my Grandma put on her corset and roll up her support stockings when I was a little kid.

"Slough" has given me trouble since way back reading By The Shores of Silver Lake in fifth grade. "Slough" can rhyme with stew or cow but not with fluff unless you are discussing shedding skin like a snake.

Being able to visit a place around the seasons, through different times of day and light, wind, and weather is a gift. It is also a challenge to stay observant and curious. Thanks to those who have given me memberships to the Heard.

© 2014-2019 Nancy L. Ruder

Fritillaries to remember

Neither of these shots were taken at Oak Point, but I want to remember the variegated fritillary spotted on a walk in my neighborhood at noon today for future IDs. It was the right shape for a fritillary, but a little smaller than the gulf fritillaries I usually see.

© 2014-2018 Nancy L. Ruder

Variegated fritillary

From Thursday to Monday

What a difference seven inches of rain makes in the lake level. So why is my apartment complex using its sprinkler system twice a day on the lawn?

This week Variegated Fritillary butterflies keep bleeping up on my radar. Not as flashy as the Gulf Fritillary with its metallic underwing spots, the Variegated is the plain spinster taking care of the elderly family members and working at the telephone exchange in her sensible shoes.

© 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Just a bit more about fritillaries!

At the Oak Point lake today

Sept. 24, 2014 Oak Point gulf fritillaries

Sharing my excitement about the fritillaries with garden visitors and coworkers has been a real high point. Enthusiasm is contagious, so a coworker rushed to tell me two fritillaries had just emerged. My photos aren't as clear as I would like, but the butterfly wings are still wrinkled and the abdomen is fat, ready to pump fluid into the wings..

Dallas Arboretum Sept. 20, 2014

There's so much more to life

Life cycles are so amazingly complex and simple and graceful and violent -- and that's just the photographers jostling for position!

The unfolding drama on the passiflora vine continues. Sunday a gulf fritillary caterpillar began the process of forming a chrysalis.

Rory Meyers Children's Adventure Garden 

September 15, 2014 RMCAG

Another chrysalis, same fence

What is going on inside that chrysalis? The transformation is almost beyond comprehension. Here's just a snippet of the changes to the digestive system between caterpillar and butterfly from the Living With Insects blog.

Had a rare chance to walk at Oak Point Monday, and spotted just a few fritillaries. This one was the most cooperative:

Near the lake September 15, 2014

Oak Point August 5, 2012 Gulf fritillary

Spring Creek trail near the 75/"George Bush" interchange

Camo fritillary October 22, 2013 Spring Creek trail

Sensitive folks should avert their eyes:

Fritillaries mating October 3, 2012 near Plano, TX

Also October 3, 2012

Fritillary life cycle

I am delighted to share these photos of the life cycle of a fritillary, even though they were not taken at Oak Point Nature Preserve. These were all taken September 5, 2014 on two passion flower vines at the Rory Meyers Children's Adventure Garden of the Dallas Arboretum within about five minutes. It was a major thrill.

Butterfly laying an egg.

Another egg laid.

A brand new egg.

Egg close-up.

Another egg AND a fritillary caterpillar.

Caterpillar on the passion flower vine.

A very hungry caterpillar.

Passion flower or Passiflora

Fruit of the passion flower, sometimes called a pop or a maypop.

A chrysalis before the butterfly emerges.

An empty chrysalis.

Sadly, I did not actually witness a fritillary emerging from a chrysalis!

Here are a couple of interested, and probably hungry, bystanders:

An assassin bug dressed for the occasion.

An anole.

According to the Texas Butterflies website, passion vine and passion flower are the host plants of the Gulf Fritillary. There nectar plants include lantana, butterfly bush, zinnia, aster, thistle, verbena, and others. Here is a useful article about passiflora from the Dallas Morning News.

Thanks to the Online Etymology Dictionary for explaining the word origin. I thought frit had something to do with silver. Nope.

Next time I will share Oak Point fritillaries. Thanks for stopping by this blog.

fritillary (n.) 

type of butterfly, 1857, earlier a type of plant (Fritillaria Meleagris, 1633), from Latin fritillus "dice-box," from fritinnire "to twitter," imitative of the rattle of dice. The butterfly so called perhaps from resemblance of its markings to those of dice; or the names may have been given in confusion, perhaps on the notion that fritillus meant "chessboard."

August--See you same time next year!

Exactly one year 

 It's deja vu all over again now that I have my Oak Point photos sorted by date.

Swallowtail near the dam yesterday, August 13, 2014

Swallowtail near the dam one year ago, August 13, 2013

August 13, 2013 bittern or heron

I never did positively identify this handsome bird last year. Ideas?

Fritillary at noon August 5, 2012

My photos of a fritillary on the same flowers in the parking lot yesterday did not turn out.