Lizard wall

There is a nice warm brick wall at Durant Park.  The lizards come out whenever there's sun.

These guys look like they're playing follow the leader.

These two just wanted to laze around.

They're green anoles, even if they aren't green.  (see here)

 

Cattails

The cattails are letting their seeds fly.

 

Planet walk

The Prairie Ridge Ecostation has a new "planet walk."  It starts with a sign for the sun and then at a proportional distance it has signs for each planet.  The first four are fairly close.  (in the picture the sun is on the left in front and then Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are in order down the path.)  We had  to walk pretty far to get to Jupiter and Saturn.  We thought that the sign for Uranus was missing but found it way down the path.  Neptune was clear across the park.  Poor Pluto doesn't even make the list anymore.

 

Hollies

It didn't quite look like holly, but it is-Yaupon holly. (see here)  It's latin name is: Ilex vomitoria, named after the unfortunate aftereffects if you eat it.

And here is our more common, American holly (see here).

 

Back to the nest

The eagles are back at Shelly Lake.  

 

Angry bird?

The yellow eyebrows on this white throated sparrow makes him seem particularly angry.

 

Lichen

When the forest is mostly asleep for winter, I start noticing the smaller things. Lichen are really unusual, a symbiotic partnership of moss and algae.  This one lives on rocks.  It's a greenshield lichen, I think.   (see here)