Tag: Creatures Among Us
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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,…
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Black and white warbler
by M. Kathy Raines New to the rigors of warbler identification—an exasperatingly large number of these charmers being yellow, adorned with varying patterns of black—I thrill to spotting, and confidently IDing, the lovely and lively zebra-striped black-and-white warbler (Mniotilta varia). This five-inch wood warbler, in the family Parulida—which includes small, primarily arboreal, insectivorous New World…
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Those Hardy Roly-Polys
by M. Kathy Raines Many of us have fond childhood memories of playing with roly-poly bugs (Armadillidium vulgare)—also called pill bugs, woodlice, sow bugs or doodlebugs—those tiny, tough, multi-legged creatures that roll up into a ball. My three-year-old grandson snatches up the little black pills—troubled when they do not promptly curl up—then nudges them to…