The calendar says fall and the heat just laughs, but the Park is nevertheless changing. Nectar is getting harder to find. The sunflowers that filled every glade are gone to seed. Morning glory is still lighting up the morning, but those flowers are done by mid day. The prairie grasses are poking their flowers higher… Read more »
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 »
The Jane Gregory garden is a model for what can be accomplished if we make decisions with insects in mind. (I’m going to refer you to my insect rant if you don’t understand why that is crucial to our survival.) The plantings are so lovely that it is one of the prime spots in Houston… 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 »
I have fallen down a rabbit hole. It started so innocently. I saw a whitemouth dayflower that had a very flamboyant presentation. I took a few photos (that’s one of them, above) and posted them to iNaturalist, thinking that this might be a different type of dayflower. Nope. Same kind. Commelina erecta. I thought 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 »
In fairy tales, magical creatures guard their names because knowing the name of something gives you power over it. They were right. Sort of. I don’t get power over plants and animals when I know their names, but I do get to Google them; there is amazing knowledge you can unlock with a name. But… Read more »