Each blog post begins with a walk. If nothing jumps out at me, or crawls up to me, or flies over me, I look for the nearest patch of frog fruit and stay for a while, something will always happen. But this blog is also driven by photography and I have never managed to get… 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 »
I had never seen a night heron until I moved to Houston. I first noticed them when I played softball. They were the large birds wading around in the puddles beyond center field. You might imagine my proficiency at softball from the fact that I spent my time facing the wrong way. We also had… Read more »
When you take a really close look at butterflies, there’s a lot more going on than gossamer wings toting a straw from flower to flower. For example, what’s up with those eyes? Each of our eyes has a single lens and both rods and cones. Rods allow us to perceive light and dark. Cones are specialized… Read more »
Baby birds behave in unexpected ways. This is because they are idiots. I have mentioned this before in passing, but this post will be almost entirely about the incompetence of juvenile birds and referring to two in particular: a Coopers Hawk and a Great-Tailed Grackle. It is a heroic tale of peril, escape, and maternal… Read more »
Vast swathes of Buffalo Bayou Park are a banquet for butterflies. Wildflowers spread across sunny hillsides. Yet, when I visit the shady Greentree Nature Trail, I always see bunches of butterflies. This is odd because I cannot think of a good reason for them to be there. Butterflies do not waste time. Their job is… Read more »
Almost every time I walk under the bat bridge I see a Black-crowned Night Heron (BCNH) or two and they are almost always standing still. I imagined that they were waiting for a baby bat or egg, or who knows what, to fall at their feet and provide a meal. These were apparently lazy birds… Read more »
This little butterfly is a Hairstreak, probably a Red-Banded Hairstreak. There is a Dusky-Blue Hairstreak that looks a lot like its cousin and it is possible that they are really one species. They both employ the same little trick, which isn’t really apparent in a still photo, so I have posted a video below. Imagine… Read more »
You might never have noticed the sign pointing to the Green Tree Nature Trail on the north side of the bayou just east of the bat bridge. Or, if you did, you might have thought twice because the trail is dark and isolated. But, if you summon your courage (it is, by the way, absolutely… Read more »
According to a 1998 Gallup survey, more Americans were afraid of snakes than of anything else. In 2001, again, snakes led the way. In 2014, surprise, it was SNAKES! You can safely say that at almost any point in human history (I mean, it was a serpent in the Garden of Eden) humanity’s chief fear has… Read more »