By Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist SAN BENITO, TEXAS–The Lower Rio Grande Valley placed 10th in a recent City Nature Challenge bioblitz in competition with 67 other cities around the globe. The challenge rated three levels of competition: most observations (of nature), most individual species and most people participating. The four counties of the Lower…

By Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist The largest toad in the world calls the extreme south of Texas home. The cane toad (Rhinella marina), also known as giant toad, neo-tropical toad or marine toad, is a large land toad native in the Valley, south to Mexico, and into Central and South America. Cane toads are…

Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist September’s rains provided a tremendous favor for our fall kaleidoscope of butterflies. What’s rain got to do with it? It created a burst of blooms in our native plant communities. More blooms, more butterflies. The opposite is true in drought years. No rain, no blooms, butterflies…

Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Identifying birds isn’t always easy in the Rio Grande Valley. Young birds don’t always come into their adult markings until they are a year or more old. In the field, or in your backyard, when you see an unusual bird you’ve not noticed before, scout the…

By Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Many are familiar with the startlingly shrill shriek of the great kiskadee, but many don’t realize what a rare treat it is to have this bird in North America. The Rio Grande Valley is the great kiskadee’s northern most range where it is a permanent resident. Another not so…