I Love Texas Wildlife

So, today I was parked in my car on the side of a busy highway finishing up some paperwork when I looked in the small ditch next to the road and saw this bird (well, not this exact bird but the same kind). He was a Black-crowned Night Heron and stands at about two feet. This was a small ditch with only a few inches of water and he was just standing there staring blankly.

I thought it was a neat looking bird and glanced at him every couple of minutes and each time I looked he had moved a little bit but not much. One time I glanced up and now he was in the grass on the side of the ditch with a small, doomed fish in his beak. I watched for several minutes as the bird gnawed on the flopping fish until he cut it in several pieces with his beak, swallowed them and flew away.

How cool is that? I found it so interesting that here I was on a busy road with a lot of traffic and the small drainage ditch with bits of trash in it was home to an interesting natural world event! We have seen so many neat nature things since living here, well, I don't know if watching a bird eat a fish was neat but it sure was cool.


Another thing we enjoy is the Texas Wildflowers. These were the brain-child of First-Lady Lady Bird Johnson, may she rest in peace. She encouraged her fellow Texans to spread wildflower seeds throughout Texas and now they are seen along the road throughout the state frequently with signs designating the area a Texas Wildflower Area. I might sound a bit wimpy admiring the wildflowers but it makes driving around a little more pleasant and with Houston traffic this is welcomed scenery.


Not long ago I read "Last Child In The Woods" by Richard Louv. His contention was that our children are not getting enough of the natural world and this is having numerous impacts on them mentally, emotionally, and developmentally. He pointed out that our children know more about the natural world of foreign countries than they do in their own backyard. It's a great book, I'd encourage all to read it, especially if you have kids.

A few days ago, I bought a small pamphlet with pictures of the wildlife and plant life found on the Texas Gulf Coast (that is how I figured out the bird I saw was a Black-crowned Night Heron). I'm determined to spend a lot of time in nature with Henry and I want to be able to tell him what it is were looking at. I really hope he is a curious boy and I hope that rather than quelling his curiosity discussing it will only encourage further exploration.