This is an archive of articles written by Anita Westervelt between 2015 and 2021 for the Rio Grande Valley Chapter, Texas Master Naturalist. To focus on the most current information, these earlier articles were retired from the original site. We are pleased to provide a permanent home for them here. Please note that the articles are preserved mainly in their original form and may contain outdated information or links. For Anita’s current work, please visit the South Texas Border Chapter’s blog: stbctmn.org/blog.
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Nature Gifts
Gifts of the Seasons By Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Gifts come in many forms. To Texas Master Naturalists it might be a “life” bird or a surprise “first ever” sighting of an uncommon butterfly. A butterfly that’s created quite a stir recently at a couple of local nature parks is the Isabella’s Heliconian, Eueides…
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Hummingbirds
Bring on the Hummingbirds By Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist If you want to see hummingbirds, there’s a tree for that. Several native trees and shrubs, as a matter of fact. The Buff-bellied Hummingbird is our only year-round resident hummer. One of the larger hummingbird species, it is identified by its red bill and green…
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Anita’s Blog — More than Bargained for at Butterfly Center
If you’re on the Rio Grande Valley Butterflies Facebook page, you’ll know how enticing it is to see what’s happening at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission. I’d last visited the center 10 years ago when it consisted of little more than a tiny house, large palapa-pavilion, a few-dozen host plants and two picnic…
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Anita’s Blog — So Many Birds!
The Christmas Bird Count has come and gone but there’s still plenty of fun birding activity to be had during the Valley’s winter migratory bird season. For last week’s Harlingen Christmas Bird Count, all the usual suspects were around our yard. I counted 236 birds in 34 species during the morning hours while I sat…
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Anita’s Blog — Winging Into 2019
I’m a window snooper — looking out — not peeping in on other people! I’m interested in what’s happening outdoors while I’m in the house. The opposite is not true. I get amazing, spur-of-the-moment bird shots all the time because I keep my camera handy with the long lens attached, battery charged, camera in on…
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Tree Planting
It’s tree planting time in the Valleyby Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist November through February is optimal tree-planting time in the Valley. Cooler months allow trees a dormant period when roots can grow without heat and drought stress. Trees will be more established and flourish with spring rains. Criteria for planting anything should be: “what…
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Common Pauraque
Common Pauraque – Master of Camouflage by Linda Butcher, Texas Master Naturalist Have you ever been walking through your favorite nature park on a brushy trail with abundant leaf litter on the ground and wondered what might be lurking nearby? If so, you may have passed right by a Common Pauraque — a tropical bird…
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Beneficial Bats
Myths and facts about the beneficial bat by Jolaine Lanehart, Texas Master Naturalist Many people think bats are dirty, rabies-infested, and evil. Bats are very clean, grooming themselves constantly. They do not carry rabies but, like most mammals, they can become infected. Bats will not attack humans nor get tangled in your hair. As members…
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Don’t Mow
To mow or not to mow; discovering native plants in urban lawns Story by Robert Gaitan, Texas Master Naturalist Ever wonder where this American idea that we ‘ought’ to have a large well-kept lawn came from? In the early 1840’s, Andrew Jackson Downing, landscape designer, wrote, “No expenditure in ornamental gardening is, to our mind,…