by Carolyn Henderson, with additional photos from Linda Jo Conn
Young girls with boundless curiosity swarmed the Birds and Bees Wildscape Saturday, July 17, to perform public service in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the USA. The El Camino Real chapter of Texas Master Naturalists hosted the event.
Approximately 40 scouts and their leaders and parents attended the event. It started with talks given by Catherine Johnson, Donna Lewis and Alan Rudd. An additional 15 ECRMN members helped the girls.
Donna Lewis spoke to them about planting milkweed to help promote the continuation of monarch butterflies. Alan Rudd spoke about the control of mosquitos with a totally natural method. Many adults were particularly interested in controlling mosquitos. The scouts then put that information into practice by planting milkweed in several sections of the wildscape.
The girls and members were also excited to watch the release of many Bob-white quail into the pasture at the Bird and Bee Farm. The pasture is in the process of being returned to its natural state, and the quail were released to try to repopulate the area with a native bird that once was abundant in the area. They are rarely found east of I-35 now.
The girls also found stray eggs laid by other birds on the farm [guinea fowl], and monarch caterpillars that were already on the Milkweed plants that were to be planted Saturday. It was an informative and entertaining day for everyone and the scouts left with bags full of goodies and some native Texas plants to grow at home.
So much went on! Enjoy more photos, as well as some taken by Linda Jo Conn. What a fun day! Click a photo to see it enlarged.
Scouts and troop leaders plant Milkweed 
Alan Rudd talks about “Wigglers” ( early stage mosquitos) to the girls 
Girl Scouts, GS leaders and ECRMN members wait for the quail release 
Mature quail released into the wild 
Girl Scout holds a baby quail. It was not released – too young 
Debi, Eric, and Scott look on as Girl Scouts plant milkweed 
Catherine Johnson gives her presentation 
Donna Lewis shows how monarchs fly to Mexico 
Phyllis Shuffield talks as Gene Rek of Bird and Bee Farm looks on 
Alan lends a hand with planting 
Milkweed with a bonus (another view)
Nature Along the El Camino Real 