Category: Blogs
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The Handsome, Articulate Gray Catbird
by M. Kathy Raines 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 Gray Catbird making its namesake call. Besides mewing, the catbird—one of our occasional autumn and winter visitors— engages in an intricate array of songs, whistles, squeaks,…
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Harlequin Flower Beetle
by M. Kathy Raines 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 had I seen such a thing—a beetle’s yellow carapace embossed with an ink rendering of an outspread tree, or maybe a Rorschach test. Then I picked…
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Our Local Sand Dollar
by M. Kathy Raines 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). It thrives in the Gulf and Caribbean as well as warm, salty bays and Atlantic waters from Virginia to Brazil. This spiny-skinned creature is an echinoderm,…
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Silver Garden Spider, a Decorative Creature
by M. Kathy Raines Like a bejeweled gymnast, the Silver Garden Spider lay with paired legs forming an upside down “x”, its web hammocked between pads of a prickly pear cactus. Unphased by peering eyes and camera, she awaited a change—a vibration signaling that her silk had entrapped an unwitting butterfly or moth. Like a…
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Red-Winged Blackbirds
by M. Kathy Raines Conk-la-ree! Conk-la-ree! The shrill, liquid burbling of migrating male red-wings—scarlet epaulets aflame—fills the air from mid-March to early May, ushering in the many delights of late springtime in the Rio Grande Valley. “Your backyard is so noisy!” laughed my neighbor. Yes, it was. Wave after successive wave of red-wings not only…
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Yellow-headed Blackbirds Stopping By
by M. Kathy Raines Throngs of noisy, migrating male yellow-headed blackbirds, heads and chests aglow in the setting sun, descended upon limbs and open swaths of lawn to forage for seeds and insects at South Padre Island Convention Center last April. I can hardly wait to see them again. Our wondrous spring fall-out—during which fatigued…