Red-bellied woodpeckers abide. They don’t depend on any particular food source, happy to tuck into a nice beetle or chow down on an orange. In fact, as far as citrus farmers are concerned, they are a bit too fond of oranges. RBWs are also happy to eat the eggs of other birds, nuts and vegetables…. Read more »
Sometimes your shrubbery can get, let’s not mince words, a bit buggy. The leaf suckers start to pile up. The mites get a bit mitey. Beetles are out-beetling you. You need help, but who do you call? Well, you call the gnatcatcher. That’s who! If only. We cannot summon birds to do yard work, although… Read more »
“Birds of a feather flock together” is an old saying based on an observable avian truth. When you see a flock of birds, they are almost always all the same species. Until I began to write this post, which is about birds not of a feather, I hadn’t thought much about why birds flock by… Read more »
A quick post this week. I have been trying to write about anything other than this photo, but I have failed, so meet my friend, the eastern carpenter bee who has done his job well. At the end of each summer, the solitary native bees (that’s every bee flying around that isn’t a European honeybee)… Read more »
I spent Thanksgiving day in Galveston on east beach because there are always tons of birds on east beach, right at the point where the ship channel and the Gulf meet up. This year, I really needed to be surrounded by wildlife and Galveston did not disappoint. Camera in hand, I immediately settled into my… Read more »
This is a list of local resources for plants grown from wild-collected seeds. I will update this list with more information as I get it. If you have a recommendation for someplace that sources plants from wild-collected seeds, please let me know at blog@alisakline.com. For more information about why plants created the old way (by… Read more »
This is the first in a series about saving the world. I am neither exaggerating nor kidding. The bad news is that the world needs saving. The good news is, you are in a perfect position to save it. In this first installment, I will introduce you to two plants currently making their debut in… Read more »
In my Texas fantasy, I own a small ranch in the Hill Country where I raise longhorns. In my Texas reality, I own a small private nature preserve just north of the Park and I raise carpenter bees. I did not set out to raise carpenter bees, but my haphazard land stewardship could stand as… Read more »
Each year I train for the half marathon by running the trails in the Park. You might have passed me while out for a walk. I run that slowly. The slower you run, the less you miss. This is the only benefit I have found so far to my pace. Last week, I was crossing… Read more »
This is the season for juvenile Cooper’s hawks to entertain everyone as they struggle up the learning curve. Cooper’s hawks are about the size of a crow. In their juvenile plumage, which is mostly what we have right now, they are a mass of brown streaks and yellow legs and look more or less like… Read more »