I've been mixing up the vast numbers of Queens I'm seeing with the occasional Monarch mixed in.
Looks somewhat like a monarch but doesn't have that black veining. Anisacanthus is very popular for nectar.
Blue-grey color with orange on the lower wings. Large numbers of them especially in a sunny opening in the trees near the creek.
The spike is quite yellow when it first opens. Beautiful! Open prairie.
A very short grass, surviving in mowed lane around main blackland prairie.
A beautiful native bunch grass. I tried to photograph the stalk with florets arranged like alternating "caterpillars" along the rachis as well as after they fall off the "cups" with silky hairs on each cup that remain. The plants I saw were at woods edge where they escaped Corps of Engineers maintenance mowing for hunters and the overwhelming density of Alamo switchgrass in the main blackland prairie.
A nest.
Moving thru dry grass and down tree trunks. Rattles about 2.5" long. Entire snake maybe 4'. My dog alerted and barked, staying well away from it.
Found dead on side of highway 30 in grimes county near a small creek crossing by the new land fill.
grazing in a bit of shade
A spectacular display of this Texas native wildflower in bloom at the north end of the 80 acre prairie restoration site at Granger Lake.