Can you Identify this toad :-)
The circular area is where a pine once stood, but the fire burned it down even through the root system....However check out the well baked mud wasp nest that surved the inferno..Must be it was a hollow tree.
This Cottonwood and Flame Sumac are well over six feet tall, this area was barren in March. There are zillions of cottonwood trees here, there were zero as far as I know before the fire. There is even a Black Willow to the left and no water nearby.
The forest of Pokeweed has set fruit everywhere. If only they were grapes.
Depiste the dry conditions, there are lots of wildflowers. Blue waterleaf is found in damp soils and it is thriving in the ash enriched soils near the toad ponds
Houston Toad Pond
Long-tailed Skipper and American Lady nectaring on Gayfeather.
Long-tailed Skipper
Firey Skipper on Gayfeather
Aquatic color
I do not remember the name of this pastel flower....Copper Mallow?
A family of Black-bellied Whistling ducks
This is a cucurbid I do not know, not sure if it is native.
