Like an actor parting the curtains, a Texas tortoise took the stage from behind foliage near the visitors’ center at Palo Alto Battlefield one steaming August day, its curvy forelegs pigeon-toed, its back ones, elephantine.
Tag: Creatures Among Us
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Wood-thrush-2-by-Charles-Lorenz-800x600.jpg)
This wide-eyed thrush—pot-belled, brown-spotted and robin-like in posture—traipsed among eager photographers at the South Padre Island Convention Center one October. It, like other migrants resting and refueling during their southward journey, looked weary.
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/snowy-egret-3-on-jetties-july-2019.jpg)
The snowy egret slipped its yolk-yellow feet, toes first, into waters of the saltmarsh and strode across, stealthy and alert, ready to strike.
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Texas-spotted-whiptail-3-yard-july-2023-800x600.jpg)
The long-tailed, striped lizard, its limbs splayed out like a gecko’s, suddenly materialized on the porch as I swiveled back from watering the birds.
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Brahminy-blindsnake-3-800x600.jpg)
We lifted a small log, one with critter-enticing voids and cracks, exposing an expected assortment of busy creatures—beetles, ants, silverfish and roly-poly’s. But, amid them, to my surprise, squirmed a dark, glossy worm. What is an earthworm doing in a Harlingen yard in this arid climate? I thought. I rarely see worms here.
![](https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Northern-mockingbird-800x600.jpg)
“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word! Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird!” begins a cherished lullaby. Yet, one wonders: why would anyone buy a mockingbird when its melodies tumble from treetops for all to enjoy? And the folk song apparently originated in the South, the mockingbird’s original realm.