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

Posts Tagged: Houston green space

Dec 17

Good-bye bee

A quick post this week. I have been trying to write about anything other than this photo, but I have failed, so meet my friend, the eastern carpenter bee who has done his job well. At the end of each summer, the solitary native bees (that’s every bee flying around that isn’t a European honeybee)… Read more »

Oct 21

Best little carpenter-bee ranch in Texas

In my Texas fantasy, I own a small ranch in the Hill Country where I raise longhorns. In my Texas reality, I own a small private nature preserve just north of the Park and I raise carpenter bees.  I did not set out to raise carpenter bees, but my haphazard land stewardship could stand as… Read more »

Sep 30

Catfish 911

Each year I train for the half marathon by running the trails in the Park. You might have passed me while out for a walk. I run that slowly. The slower you run, the less you miss. This is the only benefit I have found so far to my pace. Last week, I was crossing… Read more »

Aug 26

Windy

This post was supposed to be a contemplation on the nature of nature. Then nature decided to aim a hurricane towards the small private nature preserve I manage and the time I should have been writing was spent disassembling various decorative archways and moving future projectiles to safer ground. This morning, we got the good… Read more »

Aug 06

Mental health day

Galveston Island State Park was the balm my soul needed. Not nature in little pockets; not hooray, I stumbled on something; NATURE, glorious, free, exuberant nature. I needed to be surrounded by wildness, dipped into it and rolled around until the stench of indoors had completely washed away. Mission accomplished. I spent over an hour with… Read more »

Jun 17

World’s Best Dad

Cardinals have a special place in my heart. They are ubiquitous. Everywhere I have traveled in the U.S., I have been awoken by cardinal song. It is the same song I listened to in bed as a child and every time I hear it, I get a warm cozy feeling. Also, and I can’t really… Read more »

Jun 10

The case for happy bees

Fifty years ago, any suggestion that an animal was more than a stimulus-response machine would be met with accusations of anthropomorphism — ascribing to animals some attribute that could only belong to humans. Pavlov rang his bell each time he fed the dogs and eventually, the dogs so associated the bell with the food that… Read more »

May 20

Flight Patterns

Flycatchers sew buttons. Their flight pattern is so distinctive that you often know it’s a flycatcher before you have seen a single field mark. Flycatchers sit on a perch, usually high up, with a commanding view. They take flight abruptly, flying up, up, up and then back down to the same perch or one very… Read more »

Apr 29

Exquisite timing of migration

Plants can predict the arrival of birds. Blooming and fruiting Mulberries forecast the appearance of orioles, tanagers and grosbeaks. Their disappearance presages the departure of waxwings. My enormous acacia tree that was taken by Ike could forecast the appearance of magnolia warblers. It was always magnolia warblers. Other warblers hopped through the pecan trees, probing… Read more »

Apr 11

Houston Naturama Challenge Week 2

In case you found your way here without knowing the rules, here’s a link to the Houston Naturama intro page. Find each of these plants Snap a photo Upload it to iNaturalist The easiest way is to take the photo from within the app itself. If you’re not sure if the plant you are looking… 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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