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Other Nations: A Naturalist’s Blog about Buffalo Bayou
by Alisa Kline

Posts Categorized: Insects

Oct 23

Do over

Two years ago, I saw something I had never seen before. It was during our regular walking tour, so a bunch of other people got to watch it with me, but the only photograph I managed to get was of the footprints left behind. What we saw was a wasp laboriously dragging an immobile caterpillar… Read more »

Oct 16

Autumn

The calendar says fall and the heat just laughs, but the Park is nevertheless changing. Nectar is getting harder to find. The sunflowers that filled every glade are gone to seed. Morning glory is still lighting up the morning, but those flowers are done by mid day. The prairie grasses are poking their flowers higher… Read more »

Sep 25

Jane Gregory Garden is AMAZING!

The Jane Gregory garden is a model for what can be accomplished if we make decisions with insects in mind. (I’m going to refer you to my insect rant if you don’t understand why that is crucial to our survival.) The plantings are so lovely that it is one of the prime spots in Houston… Read more »

Sep 18

Cherokee bean v. carpenter bee

This post was supposed to be about the Cherokee bean plant blooming on the path south of the greentree trail. I took tons of photos of bees feeding on the plant. I even saw a hummer visit but was too slow with the camera to share it with you. I researched all about this pollinator… Read more »

Aug 28

And the winner is…frog fruit!

Heat be damned! I spent an hour sitting in the miracle prairie because I couldn’t wait to see what was going on in there. Lots. But I didn’t get any photos. No one stood still long enough. Everyone was looking for something to eat. And since almost everyone is also edible, everyone hustled. I positioned… Read more »

Aug 21

The jigsaw puzzle problem

Over the past year and a half writing this blog, I have become aware of what I’ve taken to calling the jigsaw puzzle problem. Until I began looking at plants and animals in detail, I didn’t realize how interdependent the whole enterprise of life is. Monarch butterflies are a familiar example. Monarchs have to lay… Read more »

Aug 14

The power of naming

In fairy tales, magical creatures guard their names because knowing the name of something gives you power over it. They were right.  Sort of. I don’t get power over plants and animals when I know their names, but I do get to Google them; there is amazing knowledge you can unlock with a name. But… Read more »

Aug 07

Miracle prairie

It is perhaps a sign of advancing age, but I often ask myself about the purpose of this and that. Life, emotions, the entire living enterprise that is Earth. This is a blog about a park, so don’t expect big answers, but from the unique perspective of a minor nature blogger, the purpose of everything… Read more »

Jul 24

Wasps. Hard to love, but let’s give it a try.

Bees and wasps have such different reputations. Bees are industrious and beneficial. Wasps are sadistic missiles with attitude. A bee gets in the house and I will lovingly carry it out in a water glass. But if a bunch of paper wasps set up shop behind a shutter, oh honey, where’s that can that sprays… Read more »

Jul 10

The insect rant

Our Park is full of insects, but not as many as I wish we had. Insects are in precipitous decline around the world. And by precipitous, I do mean falling off a cliff. Biomass of insects is down almost 70% over the last 25 years. That’s why you can drive across Texas at night and… Read more »

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“[Animals] are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

—Henry Beston, The Outermost House

 

For sightings, questions or comments email blog@alisakline.com.

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