“I like vultures,” a friend said when I mentioned my blog idea. “They kettle and they’re easily identified.” They are, except when not yet in full adult uniform and hulking on a dead mesquite branch, head hunched Dracula-cape-esque. A sight I had one morning exiting the garage. Up close, the hulk was huge. Condor…

  Black cats, jack-o-lanterns, spooky noises and folklore signify the fun fall festival of Hallowe’en. If you use your imagination, nature has its own fall fun, depending on which side of the prickle you find yourself. Let your imagination wander along a shadowy walk under a waning moon through a Rio Grande Valley thorn-scrub forest.…

  There are always surprises around Ebony Loop as we volunteers move from one garden to another. Ebony Loop is one of the trails at the south side of Harlingen’s Hugh Ramsey Nature Park. Rio Grande Valley Chapter, Texas Master Naturalists and a couple of friends of the park tend specialty gardens each Thursday morning…

  Trees and shrubs serve many purposes – food for insects, butterflies, birds and other critters; housing for things in the form of cocoons, chrysalises and nests; and shelter for countless critters. Trees can even modify local climate, reduce air pollution, and reduce soil and wind erosion. Something not ordinarily conceptualized is that trees and…

  In a July blog about Mexican Black Bellied Whistling-Ducks, I wrote that when one bows its neck and hisses, the other duck backs away. Well! That’s apparently not always true. The other morning we had a rumble like a scene from “West Side Story” between opposing duck-gangs on the banks of the Resaca. It…

  Our faithful crew of Ramsey Park volunteers take precautions against the worst of the summer heat. Here’s how: taking plenty of water breaks working less strenuously planning shaded ventures heading for the breeziest spots working less hours wearing hats Watering some of the heat-stressed specialty gardens around Harlingen’s Huge Ramsey Nature Park’s Ebony Loop…