Category: Kathy’s blog
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Great Kiskadees—Voices of the Rio Grande Valley
by M. Kathy Raines “Kis-ka DEE! Kis-ka-DEE!” The great kiskadee, a feisty, strikingly-colored flycatcher, shrieked its name as it swooped through the foliage fringing a boardwalk at Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville. Though chirps and calls often baffle me as I seek out flitting songsters, I never fail to recognize the brash call of this…
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The Black-bellied Whistling Duck: Our Perpetual Neighbors
by M. Kathy Raines We’re surrounded. These perky, red-billed, red-footed black-bellied whistling ducks— like cats—think they belong everywhere, it seems. They perch with their buddies on rooftops, fences and telephone poles, and, in the summer, they shepherd their fuzzy black-and-white striped children down irrigation canals. They even paddle in our swimming pools. Then, near…
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Diamondback Water Snake
by M. Kathy Raines Relax, it’s not a cottonmouth. Those venomous water snakes, you’ll be pleased to know, live no further south than Corpus Christi. No, that long, thick, brownish snake swimming in or basking along a Rio Grande Valley resaca is likely one of our benign and quite plentiful diamondback water snakes (Nerodia…
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Awesome Possums
by M. Kathy Raines Mouth agape, tongue sticking out and fur matted, the possum lay stiff and motionless. Its victor, a lab mix, grinned excitedly, but the dog, like many carnivores—especially well-fed ones— has scant interest in gnawing a creature that won’t play along. “C’mon, possum, you can do it!” I cheered, bundling the dog…
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The Texas Spiny Softshell Turtle, a Feisty Survivor
by M. Kathy Raines Don’t let the name “softshell turtle” fool you. This oddly elegant creature, though toothless, can snake its neck under and over its shell and deliver a nasty bite. Best leave these lovelies alone unless you see one walking in the path of heavy traffic. Its spotted, serpentine neck and head, fleshy…
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Cownose rays
by M. Kathy Raines “Shuffle your feet!” This is tried-and-true advice for those splashing in the surf. But if you forget—if you feel the searing pain of a stingray’s barb—the culprit was likely an Atlantic or a Southern, not a cownose ray (Rhinoptera bonasus). Southern and Atlantic rays bury themselves in sand, and,…