This busy little fellow’s rust and black feathers blend so seamlessly with the quartz and feldspar crystals embedded in the granite of the jetties, one might miss the creature were it not for its bright orange legs, white underparts and dappled head.
Category: Kathy’s blog
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Eastern-fox-squirrel-1-Harlingen.jpg)
Leaping from branch to branch, chasing one another and outwitting birdwatchers who try to block them from feeders, an expanding population of fox squirrels now thrives in the Rio Grande Valley.
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carpenter-Bee-photo-3-800x600.jpg)
Bzzzzz! scolded a plump black bee, swooping and darting at me as I hacked at the last stump of an unwanted bougainvillea. Yikes! I sped
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Gray-catbird2-800x600.jpg)
A cry of “Mwee! Mwee!” sends an earnest cat-lover, shouting, “Here, kitty, kitty!” scrambling into bushes after a lost, forlorn kitten. But, no, it’s a
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Harlequin-Flower-Beetle-672x600.jpg)
The ornate creature in the soil-filled crotch of our ash tree appeared to be a decorated rock or a lost jewel, a pendant perhaps. Never
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/sand-dollar-800x600.jpg)
Our local sand dollar is the keyhole urchin (Mellita quinquiesperforata), which Spanish-speakers sometimes call galeta de mar (sea cookie) or dólar de arena (sand dollar).