I had some fun this summer with two new pretty plants at the resaca bank. The plants sort of just appeared one week, about five feet apart, one yellow and one lavender. The yellow one goes by the name, Mexican primrose-willow (Ludwigia octovalvis). It is listed in Richardson, A., King, K., p. 338. 2011. Plants…

by Javier Gonzalez There is a new resident breeding species along the South Padre Island Birding Nature Center & Alligator Sanctuary’s (SPIBNS&AS) boardwalk trail, but technically, it currently stands as a subspecies, rather than a full species. “Mangrove” Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia sp. oraria), is a subspecies of the most common North American warbler, the Yellow Warbler (Setophaga…

by Joseph and Nellie Kowalski Back in July 2010, weather experts with the National Weather Service posed the question, “How can there be a flood coming when there’s not a cloud in the sky?” Hurricane Alex of 2010 came ashore in early July in northeastern Mexico, about 100 miles (180 km) south of the Rio…

contributed by Joni Gillis Newly Certified Texas Master Naturalists Dan Martin ’22 Adrienne Wheatley ‘22 Victoria Grayson ‘22 100 Hours Milestones Bobbie Brown ’22 Butch Palmer ‘20 500 Hours Milestones Dana Allamon ‘18 Volker Imschwiler ‘17 Shelby Bessette ‘18 Molly Smith ‘21 1000 Hours Milestones Ed Langley ’14 Susan Upton ‘21 Kathy Raines ‘18 2500…

I cringe every time I see a grasshopper. Sure, I’ll stop and photograph them, but then turn my back, quelling the panic that could so easily arise. Many Midwesterners recall the summer of the near defoliation in the 1990s by grasshoppers – if not the year, certainly the event. I had a cute little cloth…

Flashes of yellow dart through the branches of a honey mesquite tree outside my kitchen window in the late afternoon. They’re Couch’s Kingbird (Tyrannus couchii) and I think there’s one or two adults and possibly four young from this year’s brood. These birds are a permanent resident in the very tip of Texas. We’ve had two or three…