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 »
Not a long post this week, but I want to let you know how to find the red-shouldered hawk nest. I have found two spots from which you can see the nest and I will be checking out a third when I get a moment. The nest is in a large sycamore on the… Read more »
The Park is full of wild onions. All of Houston is full of them. They are visually intriguing, but I didn’t think they were interesting enough to write about. This is an onion. Story told. So I didn’t do much more than enjoy how they bite back sharply when you nibble them. But this week,… 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 »
Waxwings arrive in Houston after Christmas and stick around until they eat all the mulberries, which don’t even get going until late March. They aren’t large birds, about the size of a starling, but they are dapper. With a red tip on each wing, a yellow band at the tip of their tails and a… Read more »
I don’t know how many creatures live in Buffalo Bayou Park, but I do know that we have almost exactly as many as the Park can support. If the Park could support more critters, they would have been here already. When you run into critters in the Park, they are not there for rest and relaxation…. Read more »
We have just one Park and just one bayou within it, but lots of different shore birds find ways of staying fed on the same basic diet (fish, amphibians, insects and crustaceans.) You might imagine, given that this, that our Park is a battleground of all against all. But that’s not what happens. Each animal… Read more »
The Snowy Egret In this corner, we have the magnificent snowy egret, the most elegant bird in North America. This is the bird for whom the entire Audubon Society was formed. Hunted almost to extinction for its fabulous feathers, the snowy egret is now plentiful, a conservation success story. Snowies are energetic fish hunters who employ… 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 »
I am yet again going to write about herons. Do not blame me. Blame the juvenile Tricolored Heron that was standing, almost invisible, in the run-out of the McGovern Cascade. She was so well camouflaged that I noticed her only because I wanted a better look at two turtles with whom she shared the log… Read more »