Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Center: June 2020

As much as I fancy myself the major outdoorsy person in our family, it's actually my wife who's planning to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in September. I'm admittedly a little jealous. But I at least get the opportunity to help her prepare by doing some short hikes now and getting used to things like carrying a 30-pound backpack. THAT I'm not jealous of.

Our first destination was the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Center in McKinney, which really needs a much shorter nickname.  The Bluestem, Wood Duck, and Cedar Brake Trails there all connect and cover about three fairly flat miles.  The center itself has some great gardens that include local plants like Coneflowers...

... and Passion Flowers.

The trails go through some of the little remaining blackland prairie in the country.

The trails have at least a mile of elevated boardwalk through wetlands.

Where one has water in North Texas, one invariably has Red-eared Sliders.  Especially on sunny days.

I found the Cedar Brake Loop really interesting and unique.  I should have paid better attention to the signage to understand just what we were walking through, though.

There was one short section of trail that was fairly flush with a variety of wildflowers.  Otherwise grasses seemed to dominate the prairie.

I thought I'd see more dragonflies like this Widow Skimmer, but there were surprisingly few.

Pickerelweed is not the prettiest name for a very pretty aquatic flower.

I know almost nothing about fungus, but iNaturalist claims this is Oak Mazegill.  Now THAT'S a cool name.

It's always good to see pollinators at work, like this American Bumble Bee on a Texas Thistle.

I didn't see many butterflies on the trails, but the center has a nice enclosed butterfly garden with species like Black Swallowtail ...

... and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail ...

... who I captured one final shot of once the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

Two hours in 90-degree heat to cover three miles.  Danelle's journey to Georgia has officially begun, and I got a few pictures out of it!