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…

Check out this link as we head into Week 2 of the 4th Annual Texas Pollinator BioBlitz! https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TXPWD/bulletins/263c397 I challenged myself to the “Something Blue” from the Daily Challenges last week and found a Red-Shouldered Bug — what’s not red is blue, in real life — a startling bug color to come upon. Track minute-by-minute…

For all of you who joined the 2019 Great Backyard Bird Count — the many results categories are available at the below link! It’s a pretty exciting world-wide look at birds! https://gbbc.birdcount.org/all-summaries/2019-gbbc-summary/?utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=5221942c5d-GBBC_eNewsletter_Feb2017_1_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_47588b5758-5221942c5d-303444081 Closer to home: The Barn Swallows are back! Too late to include in my GBBC list, but fun all the same! They’re in…

Thanks to the cat, I finally captured a decent shot of one of our resident yard-fellows. During the recent Great Backyard Bird Count, I was out with the cats and camera just after sunrise on a foggy grey day, when suddenly, the cats did their something-wicked-this-way-comes pose: statue still, rigid side stance, arched back and…

The Great Backyard Bird Count is Friday! Easy Peasy — you don’t even have to leave home. There’s still time to join this fun four-day event beginning Friday the 15th — https://gbbc.birdcount.org/ In other news, fellow TMN member and freelance travel writer Eileen Mattei and her trusty photographer (me) are again in pursuit of stories.…

  Harlingen’s Hugh Ramsey Nature Park is still reaping benefits from the fall rains. December’s First Friday guided native plant walk around Ebony Loop was anything but boring! The recent cold snaps, and then subsequent warm weather, have urged a few pink mint, Stachys drummondii, into bloom at the entrance to Tom Wilson Garden. Generally…