Author: Anita Westervelt
-
Anita’s Blog — Signs of Autumn
Amazingly, summer noticeably turned into fall here in the Deep South of Texas for a couple of days. This short cold front gave us a fall-like respite for tending to outdoor chores. Most notably making yard work fun again on our small squiredom are the legions of dragonflies. Hundreds of them are flying over the…
-
It’s a rare treat when the wood storks visit
—
by
Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Wood stork, Mycteria Americana, is the only member of the stork family (Ciconiidae) native to America. There are 20 species in the Ciconiidae family, all generally found in temperate and tropical regions. In America, wood storks breed primarily in the Florida Everglades and along the coasts…
-
Fun fungi to find
—
by
Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Heavy summer rain in the Deep South of Texas makes for hot, dripping-humid days and sultry, mosquito-infested hours at dawn and dusk. Only the brave and curious venture out to find the odd surprises that nature bestows on the land. Those hot, humid conditions, so annoying…
-
Anita’s Blog — Foretelling the Weather
The moon belies what the rain crow says. If the moon looks like it’s tipped on its back cradling water, it won’t rain. If it’s tipped forward so water can spill out, it will rain — so I was told by a retired nurse when I first moved to the Valley. The call of a…
-
Anita’s Blog — Achromatic Beauty
There it was! The long-awaited for visitor — the giant leopard moth — in all its achromatic beauty, perched on the moth sheet. Giant Leopard Moth, Hypercompe scribonia (Tiger moths tribe) Genus Hypercompe — one of seven species in the genus in North America. Wingspan — 2 ¼ to 3 ½ inches — males are…
-
Moths of all sizes show up for moth week 2020
—
by
Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist National Moth Week 2020 saw people around the Valley putting together moth-attracting set-ups to see what flies our nightly skies. https://www.stbctmn.org/post/mothing While some moths that were attracted to a blacklight and moth sheet set-up were as tiny as a grain of rice, most had a wingspan…