Posted on

For the last three weeks of 2017

 We did everything we could to get one more year-bird.  We searched The Valley.  We drove to Houston.  We drove to Salineno.  Couldn’t get one no matter what we did.  We finished the year one shy of my predicted count. Today we’re out birding at Falcon State Park, a hundred miles away, starting off a new year-list, and we get a text from Jon.  There is a long-eared owl at Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, five miles from our house.  Long Eared owls *never* come to the tip of Texas. So two hours later, we’re standing on a trail, looking past a cactus, into a small tree, and there is a perched long-eared owl.  A walk-up lifer! He wasn’t out in the open, but we could see enough for a positive I.D.    Birding is a funny thing. 
Posted on

I’ve been thinking about the Supreme Court

 In High School I learned that there were three branches of government.  The President and Congress are political elected positions.  The third branch is an independent judiciary.  The ultimate judiciary, the Supreme Court, is not a political body, it is the arbiter of what is ultimately right and wrong, constitutional or unconstitutional. So what’s up with all the political upheaval over Supreme Court nominations?  If they are political too, then they’re just another political branch of government, but they don’t even have to campaign and get elected.  They just get appointed and approved by the party in power!  How independent is that?  The most revered independent court in the land.  Political cronies?  It feels so wrong.  
Posted on

Comfortable dogs

  Willow and Bailey.  Come to our house for a visit.  If Willow and Bailey are going to lie on cushions or stuffed animals, then so is Henry! 
Posted on

Trees

 I really like this tree. It’s so tropical. Although that’s not all one tree.  The vines growing all around the trunks could be strangler fig.  Sometimes it’s a beneficial relationship between the two plants, one providing additional support for the other.  You can tell by the name that it doesn’t always work out so well for the host tree though. Whatever, that’s how it works in the tropics.  
Posted on

Highway Palms

 As we approach the Valley, we know we’re almost home when we see the palm trees in the median. Well-spaced palms with mowed grass below.  That’s how Texas parks often look; they mow everything.  It looks nice.  The median looks like a park.  It always make us smile. Then I got to thinking.  What if they didn’t mow?  These are native Sabal Palms they’ve planted here.  They live in this environment without additional tending.  They survive our heat, cold, floods, and drought.  They’ll put out seeds every year.  If any seedlings pop up though, they’ll get mowed right off.  If they stopped mowing, I wonder if a palm forest would grow.  In fact, what if they sprinkled in a few other native tree species and let them propagate naturally from there.  It would be like the Jeep.  The Jeep engine shuts off at every stoplight until we let off the brake, then it starts up again.  We save a tiny amount of fuel and pollution by not running the engine for a few seconds or minutes, but if you add up all those few seconds and minutes for a year, and if you multiplied that by every car on the road, it could add up to something significant. A few trees in the median, what difference could that make?  But think of all the roads with wide medians like here in Texas, and what if every one of them sported a restored natural habitat, think of the bird and wildlife corridors that would accumulate all over the entire country.  It could be something significant! I suppose if we imagine that though, we have to imagine all the critters that would find that habitat attractive and would risk their lives and the lives of motorists as they crossed back and forth across the roads.  Not so much of a problem with birds and the smallest mammals, but the larger mammals like javelina and deer might be a problem.  But then again, wildlife is already crossing our highways and creating hazards for motorists and themselves.  Maybe splitting the highway crossing into two smaller, easier to cross, parts would actually decrease the risk. And there is another comparison to the Jeep.  It probably doesn’t cost much to keep one stretch of highway mowed and neat.  But what if we multiplied that small amount by all the plantable highway medians in the country?  No more mowing.  No more maintenance.  Native plants only.  Just think of all the manpower, equipment, fuel, and pollution that would save.  And it would still look good; natural vegetation that belongs there. Okay.  I’m ready to declare.  Genius!