Lots of family stuff this week so just a short post. I have found yet another viewing spot for the red-shouldered hawk nest that involves standing on a tall ladder at some remove. After I work out a few kinks, I think I might use this perch to see more into the nest at eye… Read more »
People gather the most information about their surroundings visually. I realized this when an old dog of mine lost both his sight and hearing and it hardly slowed him down. If I were blind and deaf, I would have been in terrible trouble, but Al (my beloved corgi) did not gather the most important information… Read more »
Big shout-out to fellow master naturalist David Strong who noticed two red shouldered hawks tending to their nest in the Park, snapped a great photo (above) and let me know where to find the nest. The plan formed immediately! I would document the nest-building, egg laying, fledgling feeding, first flights. This was going to be… Read more »
Ahab had his white whale, I have my beavers. There are a pair (at least) of beavers living on Buffalo Bayou. I have seen them in the Park a few times, once on land feeding and several times swimming (the beavers, not me). When I started this blog, I couldn’t wait to write about the… Read more »
It’s a brand new year and this blog is starting it off with a bang. We have a pair of loggerhead shrikes in the Park. Wait, you’re not jumping up and down with glee? Then let me explain. Loggerhead shrikes are cool birds for a bunch of reasons I will get into. But the reason… Read more »
There aren’t that many weeks left in the year. I thought I might use that fascinating observation as a excuse to post some photos that I had taken this year but had not used. Next week, you might get that post. But while combing through a year’s worth of photos, I ran into this striking… Read more »
Cormorants are not rare, and until I spent some time photographing this pair on Monday, I didn’t think they were particularly lovely. They were interesting but aesthetically challenged. Boy, was I wrong. Up close, they are gorgeous birds. These are Neotropic cormorants. They are a Central and South American bird; the only places in the… Read more »
There is an eye-catching plant in our Park right now. Usually, when I post about an eye-catching plant, it is in glorious bloom. But in this case, the plant is in glorious seed. It bloomed months ago and I have to admit, I didn’t even notice. The plant is Baccharis halimifolia, its common names include… Read more »
I am seeing queen butterflies all over the park. I cannot stress how unusual this is. iNaturalist records 331 reports of queen butterflies in Texas last year between October 1 and November 6. This year, for the same period, we have had 1036 reports, a more than 300% increase. Inside the Loop Houston had zero… Read more »
Our Park is part of a prairie restoration project that aims to show off the native coastal prairie ecosystem that was present in this part of Texas for the last 23,000 years. The silt from Hurricane Harvey dealt this project a setback, but there is a stunning patch of prairie plants going strong just to… Read more »