Wildlife Spotting

Very unusual! It looks like a cristate form of this 'thistle.' Here's a link to an article on this phenomenon in the Texas thistle (Cirsium texanum) https://txtriffidranch.wordpress.com/tag/cristate/ You might want consider that species for this identification. I suggested C. nutans because of the individual flowers nearby - but it might be good to take close up pics of the individual non-cristate flowers to confirm the ID either way. (I've photographed cristate forms of the common mullein and hairy cat's ear but I've never seen cristate forms of thistles)