Spring was back this year! There was so much missing in the landscape last spring after the “Big Texas Freeze” as the habitat struggled to recuperate through the season. I remember how the migratory birds had little to no food available for them in their passing. The insects were hardly there, and some of the…

One late spring, I was volunteering at Hugh Ramsey Nature Park in Harlingen and noticed a man walking along the trail followed by his three sons. The boys were each about two years apart and were in stair step order, the smallest one trying to keep up. As they passed me, the man asked me…

Since the opening of the South Texas Ecotourism Center (STEC) in Laguna Vista this past February, there has been a lot going on at the Center. We are receiving a steady amount of visitors to the Center as well as holding a number of events.

Scientists, as we were taught in the early days of our Texas Master Naturalist training, use a two- name system called a Binomial Naming System, naming plants and animals using a system that describes the genus and species of the organism. The first word is the genus and the second is the species. It’s as…

As the plight of the Monarch Butterfly in North America is discussed, the conversation always includes their host plants in the Milkweed family. An excellent source of information on these plants and their impact on nature is a booklet that is, unfortunately, no longer in print Milkweed, Monarchs and More by Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser,…