Tag: Creatures Among Us
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The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, our Beautiful Guest
by M. Kathy Raines The striking bird—its white chest seemingly splattered with crimson paint—hopped about with his female companion in the grass at the South Padre Island Convention Center last April, eating its fill, undaunted by ardent photographers. These rose-breasted grosbeaks, fatigued and famished, stop off here in April and early May to rest and…
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Laguna Fiddler Crabs
Fiddler crabs are small, their carapaces, or shells, rarely over two inches in diameter. Only the male fiddler bears an oversized cheleped, or claw-bearing limb, which it waves to attract mates and defend turf.
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The Portuguese Man-of-War: a Beautiful, Venomous Colony
A Portuguese Man-of-War (Physalia physalis), also dubbed “bluebottle,” is not a jellyfish. Rather, it is a siphonophore, a colony of same-sexed organisms, called polyps or zooids, working cooperatively as one.
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The Rio Grande Ground Squirrel
The ever-vigilant Rio Grande ground squirrel, like a rabbit or mouse, faces the daily trial of feeding itself but not becoming dinner. A coyote or hawk is no more frightening than I.
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Harris’s Hawks—Guardians of the Grasslands
Like no-nonsense lifeguards perched along a shoreline, Harris’s hawks scrutinize grasslands from multi-tiered poles and brush piles along the Brownsville Historic Battlefield Trail of an evening—sometimes two or three raptors to a pole.
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Golden-fronted woodpecker — drummer supreme
by M. Kathy Raines Its vigorous, automatic rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat startled me when it first appeared. Whose cell phone? What alert is that? Then this creature — hitting his stride, hammering on a metal vent on our roof early each morning — served as a consistent, unwelcome alarm clock throughout April and early May. We worried the…