I am thrilled to see the Park so well used during our coronavirus lockdown. Sanity can be found on those paths. The blog, however, requires quiet, empty spaces that are not as easily found in the Park nowadays. However, I do still have access to a secret (not really) nature preserve a half-mile north of… Read more »
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 »
Yesterday evening, a cardinal stuck himself at the top of a tree down the street and blasted the end of the day. His song was sparse. One descending note over and over. I don’t know if he knows only this much song or if he chose to give an abbreviated performance. Either way, it was… Read more »
It’s not right for a naturalist to have grudge against a species. But I do. Yellow-rumped warblers are my nemesis. I am probably not alone. Yellow rumps are the empty fork from which delicious food has tumbled just as it approaches your mouth. In other words, they are a disappointment. And it’s not their fault. … Read more »
This is the first blog post I ever wrote. And I never got to publish it until now. That’s because I have finally found another polyphemus moth cocoon. I found the first one (photo at the top of the page) two years ago and by the time the blog was up and running, the cocoon… Read more »
Field of Dreams is a 1989 movie in which a voice whispers to a farmer, “if you build it, they will come.” On the strength of this, he builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield. They turn out to be the 1919 White Sox who do come and play. It’s all very magical. Buffalo Bayou… Read more »
The processes of the natural world operate at all scales, from tiny to enormous. But however large or small, complex or simple, every living thing is pushed by two drives: stay alive and reproduce. Knowledge of the natural world is essentially the details of how each species manages these drives. The natural world in our… Read more »
I have a nemesis in the plant world. Dogfennel. This weed, in which apparently no one is interested, has blindsided me time and again. Dogfennel is the kind of weed you don’t even really notice. That’s a photo of it above and you can hardly find the outlines of the plant. The only reason I… Read more »
There are many lenses through which to view nature in general and our Park in particular. Recreation, tranquility, civic pride, aesthetic beauty. There’s a more prosaic lens as well. Nature, and our Park, can be seen as a collection of eaters and their food. Some organisms are always one or the other; some creatures can… Read more »
The black tipped white moth is active in the Park right now. I’ve seen this lovely moth only once before in the Park a few years ago and mistook it for a butterfly, which made for a challenging ID. iNaturalist AI wasn’t as robust back then, or I would have had the answer in a… Read more »