One night this December, I noticed two dazzling gems feeding upon the fruit of my backyard Turk’s cap. One, with its crimson head and patchwork of black, white and yellow on its abdomen, was a Turk’s cap red bug. The other, a smartly-dressed spot-sided coreid, wore nestled cream and brown triangles on its head and…

Congratulations to those receiving certifications and milestones for December, January, and February 2023.

The Texas Master Naturalist classes offer insight into what’s going on in my own backyard. For example: mutualism. Years ago I noticed carpenter bees spending time at the base of the flowers in our backyard as opposed to entering the front door, so to speak. My son who studies entomology at Texas A&M said the…

With her eyes wide open for a rattlesnake, Akeye crawled on her stomach – the sharp thorns of the low blackbrush and mesquite branches scraping across her back as she gathered mesquite screw beans and Texas ebony bean pods. The strongest Coahuiltecans had disappeared with their bows, arrows and nets before sunrise.

For two years now, my husband, Jim, and I, have become Peregrine Falcons. When the aspen trees in our beloved home range of Colorado exchange their murmuring golden tresses for shimmering crystals of frost, we are now joining the peregrines on their autumn migration to warmer climes. Sometimes I wonder if the supersonic peregrines hunting…

My husband and I have been coming to South Padre Island (SPI) off and on for 39 years. It has been the beach and its environs that draw me back… and the restaurants and things to do and ease of being here…and the Roseate Spoonbills and Sanderlings and the monarch butterflies and….the turtle sanctuary at…