On one particularly hot, humid spring day, back in 2022, before I began working on my chore list at the ranch and arboretum for that day, I took a few moments to glance around at the habitat to see if anything of note stood out that needed to be addressed first.

The eclipse this fall will be a partial solar eclipse, but it is not an ordinary partial eclipse. It is the rarest type of solar eclipse, an annular eclipse. At maximum, and as seen anywhere along the center line of the eclipse, you will see the entire Moon silhouetted against the Sun.

The indescribable beauty of the scarlet musk flower is best illustrated with a picture. This picture was snapped on a somewhat cloudy day in Starr County while I was out and about on a driving tour of the countryside.

Among the most common, and most maligned, of South Texas birds, the Great-tailed Grackle, or “devil-bird” as some have dubbed it, has on most occasions proven as great a personal annoyance for me as the English/House Sparrow and the European Starling. I have found it a noisy, messy bully: a bird menace.

At the National Butterfly Center (NBC) near Mission, Texas, we had been receiving reports of a bobcat being seen jumping out of the bushes and pouncing on squirrels and large birds in the bird feeding area. Since this was occurring on a daily basis, I decided to make it a priority to see and document…

Its rich geometric patterns of blue, yellow, orange, green and black recall delicately inlaid stones in Zuni jewelry or a tinted cut-glass pendant. I wonder where this elegant creature has been hiding the 40 some years I’ve lived in the Valley, but then realize it is I who have been inobservant.