Category: Anita’s blog
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Anita’s Blog — Urban Bird Habitat from an Expert
I attended a fun and interesting lecture at Quinta Mazatlán, in McAllen, about Bird-friendly Urban Habitat Design. The lecture, presented by the park’s Urban Ecologist, John Brush, may be offered again in April. You’ll want to get on Quinta’s mailing list for event notifications: http://www.quintamazatlan.com/support/newsletter.aspx During the lecture, John noted that feeding birds with seed,…
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Anita’s Blog — A Time to Plant
It’s tree planting time — the annual winter mantra here in the Valley. Lately, it’s been perfect to be outdoors — except maybe for those 50-mile-an-hour gusts and high winds the other day! Winter here is mainly for the birds. January was busy with the Christmas Bird Count and backyard feeder count. Read to the…
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Vines add color and vertical interest while attracting birds and butterflies
by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Several years ago, I dedicated a partially dead mesquite tree as a natural trellis for a native climbing milkweed (Funastrum cynanchoides). The vine travelled up the trunk, veered off in the appropriate direction and reached the highest branches by the second spring. Lovely globes of pink-edged white blooms peppered…
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Anita’s Blog — Volt, Venue or Wake?
Audubon’s 120th Christmas Bird Count — CBC — is close. December 14, 2019 to January 5, 2020 Something to do with your holiday houseguests, friends and family while you earn volunteer hours! How fun is that? Check it out: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/join-christmas-bird-count I thought this would be a good time for fun with bird words. Question: What…
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Anita’s Blog — Road Tripping through Texas
We often don’t know what sort of journey our chapter FaceBook posts or ListServe notices will offer, but most guarantee interesting learning experiences. I was recently intrigued with a workshop notice that talked about interpretive writing. If the words writing and workshop are in the same notice, my attention is usually piqued. Think back to…
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Anita’s Blog — Important Events Wrap Up
It was the last day of the 17-day 4th Annual Texas Pollinator BioBlitz. I’d just spent an hour searching for something I hadn’t already uploaded to iNaturalist.org, when I looked up beneath the security light on the utility pole and VOILA! A most unique sighting! A pink-spotted hawkmoth! And cleverly camouflaged it was in the…