Everyone stay calm. We are going to talk about snakes, and trigger warning, there is video. I adore coral snakes. They are lovely, secretive and very docile. You pretty much have to ask one to bite you. They have tiny mouths and their fangs are short and fixed unlike most of our venomous snakes. Most… Read more »
In the summer, almost every night, Swainson’s hawks fly through the stream of bats emerging from the Waugh Drive bridge and indulge in an orgy of bat consumption. They grab a bat in one claw and put it in their mouth, often while grabbing another. I really should have written about this in the spring… Read more »
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 »
I love sycamore trees, especially in winter when all the leaves have left and the white branches shine like bones. As much as I love sycamores, I haven’t written about them much. We have an incredible one on the greentree path. I believe it to be one of the oldest trees in Houston. But I… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
I am an enthusiastic birder and through the years, have picked up this and that. But there are always birds that simply mystify me. This week, I ran into three such birds. They were all on the high-tension power line that runs north from The Dunlavy. That tower and the line strung from it is… Read more »
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 »
People have long argued about which is the sexiest heron. Okay, no one has ever argued about which is the sexiest heron. But that little blue heron I saw on Monday was damned sexy! Little blue herons are not nearly as common as the other herons we see regularly in the Park. iNaturalist has only… Read more »