Category: Big Country Blog

  • Bobcats Behaving Badly

    Three little bobcat kittens were discovered in a tree next to the Dyess AFB Hospital in mid-August (one of them is pictured above). This story has its beginnings in the spring of 2005 when a bobcat who apparently had no natural fear of humans gave birth to two kittens in the hospital’s courtyard, out in […]

  • August Doldrums

    Gone is the predawn chorus. No longer do birds defend territories by singing. Most of the neotropical breeders have moved south and migration has started. There’s a quiet stillness in the air. So what’s there to find when birding these days? Plenty! John and I bring you pictures of mid August birding, completed before the […]

  • August Lessons

    It’s been hot, folks. Duh! But the juvenile Swainson’s at Dyess are learning their lessons well. After all, it’s a matter of life or death. The adults initiate hunting lessons by calling to the young. Once the parents are satisfied the young will follow, they both rise into the air to soar overhead and look […]

  • BASH Those Rattlesnakes

    At the beginning of 2006 when we started this web site I thought I would have to scramble to find something to post on a weekly basis. I’ve been holding some stories back for a “rainy” day. Hmmm…that rainy day is nowhere on the horizon. So here’s an article created in April about how one […]

  • What Are All These Butterflies…

    …all over the place? They are known as snout butterflies (photo: Bruce Marlin) because they have a prominent elongated mouthpart (labial palpi) which give the appearance of the petiole (stem) of a dead leaf. Wings are patterned on black-brown with white and orange markings. The fore wings have a distinctive squared off, hook-like (falcate) tip. […]