Welcome to Our Blog

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Hello, friends. This blog is where the El Camino Real Chapter, Texas Master Naturalists shares news, articles, and reflections. You’ll find our posts right under this introduction. We encourage your comments and likes, and of course, shares!

Texas Parks & Wildlife
AgriLife Extension

The Texas Master Naturalist program is sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

Our chapter meets monthly on the second Thursday of the month in the fellowship hall at All Saints Episcopal Church, 200 North Travis Avenue, Cameron, Texas. Presentations begin at 6 pm, after a potluck meal. All are welcome to attend.

Our Mission: To develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas.

What does Alabama have to do with spiders in Texas?

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by Eric Neubauer

Nature doesn’t recognize manmade boundaries. During a recent visit to Tennessee, I stopped in northern Alabama to photograph and collect some spiders very similar to some seen a few places in Texas. The most recent literature suggests spiders west of the Mississippi River are Pardosa mercurialis and those to the east are Pardosa lapidicina. The literature also postulates mercurialis may be a subspecies of lapidicina. Both are extremely variable and share several distinctive forms. Their DNA would help answer the question, and that is our intention. This particular form is one of the most spectacular among wolf spiders. It camouflages them well along rivers bordered with limestone rocks and sand. These are small spiders that could easily sit on a dime with room to spare.

This year on the blackland prairie was a lot like 2019 with lots of tall sunflowers. In October there was a profusion of yellow flowers and tiny asters.

Friendly Alligator Creek Residents

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by Eric Neubauer

On the way back from the October chapter meeting I stopped by Alligator Creek. It’s a location that always has something to offer, and there is an early winter species I haven’t been able to identify yet for lack of an adult female.

I picked up two spiders that looked interesting. Both cringed and flattened themselves against the ground as I approached but obligingly ran into my contain when poked from behind.

They turned out to be adult male Tigrosa georgicola, a species which is common there. Once they were in my container, they appeared much larger when their long legs became fully visible. During photography, I used my smaller ventral chamber and immediately realized I should have used the larger Both were very mellow and just barely fit with their legs stretched out.

The chamber is 2.75″ in diameter so I was able to get a good idea of their overall size which was about 4 times their body length. Females tend to have longer bodies and shorter legs.

I took them back for release 8 hours later. The release of one was particularly gratifying. I dumped him from the container into my hand and he just stood there. Usually they’re off in a flash as soon as they land. As I lowered my hand toward the ground he leisurely walked to the edge of my hand and then hopped to the ground.

In my opinion, a ventral view is necessary for a positive species identification within this genus.

Outreach at Blessing of the Animals

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By Linda Burgess

Last weekend, the All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Cameron held their annual Blessing of the Animals/Fall Festival. Our Master Naturalist Chapter was invited to have a table there this year, and we were thrilled to participate.  This was a great educational public outreach opportunity to discuss the importance of pollinators, promote our seed libraries, and recruit members for our upcoming Master Naturalist class to begin in January 2027.

Thank you to our TMN volunteers who helped at this event: Debbi Harris, Scott Berger, Alan Rudd, Terri Brickey, Liz Lewis, and myself. We gave away 100 wildflower seed packets, shared information about fall planting of wildflowers and planting native to promote conservation to create essential pollinator habitat, disseminated brochures about being a friend to pollinators, and also recruited prospective candidates for our upcoming TMN class. It was a great success!

Seed Sorting Fun for All

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by Linda Burgess

Volunteers of the El Camino Real Master Naturalists and the Little River Basin Master Gardeners met together Tuesday to collaborate and fill the card catalog drawers of the Sow & Grow: Milam Seed Library (located in the Cameron Public Library).

Hard working seed sorters

We meet monthly to provide Milam County residents with free access to native seeds. We also stock a free-standing seed library at the Milam Wildscape. We will be expanding and adding a second seed library at the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library (Rockdale) later this month. This allows Millam County residents the opportunity to support pollinators and create their own natural habitat at home.

With fall approaching, it’s a great time to get your seeds in the ground to produce beautiful blooms in the spring. Just like nature does it, flowers drop their seeds onto the ground at the end of their blooming season. The seeds rest in the soil all winter and use a natural chilling process called cold stratification so the seeds sprout easily once spring arrives and the soil warms up. That’s how we get beautiful wildflowers in the spring!

Come get your seeds today!  Planting native maximizes wildlife benefit, conserves water, and creates essential pollinator habitat directly sustaining the food supply and our quality of life.

Cameron Public Library hours are Monday – Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm.