community outreach – Nature Along the El Camino Real

Preparing to Add Pollinators

November 2, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Sue Ann Kendall and Carolyn Henderson

As part of our grant from the H-E-B Pollinators Across Texas Project, members of our chapter spent the morning at the Milam Wildscape making sure invasives have been removed and preparing for planting the native plants we hope will attract the set of pollinators we want to document over the coming months.

Chad, Scott, Bill, Liz, and Kit shoveled and moved a whole lot of crushed granite. Luckily, we had multiple shovels and wheelbarrows to get the work done.

Meanwhile, Tina, Catherine, and Carolyn spread the gravel and stomped on it. It was quite satisfying to stomp, and the rose bush did not permanently injure any volunteers. The end result is beautiful and will make the area safer for visitors.

Don’t worry, we need more gravel spread- for our chapter members who missed the opportunity!

Patsy and Sue Ann recorded the whole event for reporting purposes. They even found a few pollinators lurking around the Wildscape.

Donna, Ann, and Kim greeted visitors who wondered just what we were doing. The visitors got free wildflower seeds and pollinator brochures to answer all their questions.

The most impressive achievement of the morning was that the excessively aggressive (though native) Cypress vine that took over the awning was removed – again. Kit, Tina, Liz, Scott, Chad and Carolyn slayed it – for the moment. This will probably need to be repeated. The vine is beautiful but very aggressive.

We look forward to sharing the progress of this project and are grateful to H-E-B for the Pollinators across Texas grant.

Seeds and more seeds

September 18, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

By Linda Burgess

This past Tuesday, the El Camino Real Master Naturalists and the Little River Basin Master Gardeners came together to contribute to a shared volunteer opportunity. We meet the third Tuesday of each month to package native and adapted wildflower seeds, herb and garden seeds, and some landscaping plant seeds…..all for the Free Seed Library located in the Cameron Public Library.

We are sharing stories, getting to know one another, and providing free seeds to the residents of Milam County. It’s become a great opportunity to learn and grow from each other’s expertise….. and there’s a wealth of knowledge in these two organizations!

A Visit with a Houston Toad

August 24, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

By Pamela Neeley

The Famous Endangered Houston Toad also attended the Wildlife & Woodlands Post Oak Savannah Landowner Workshop, where our chapter had a booth last week.

The pair traveled in customized carriers with their chauffeur, back to the Ft Worth Zoo (a 2.5 to 3 -hour trip each way). I only managed one photo of his handsomeness. This species is leading the resistance against riparian and native species destruction.

A few live in the southern part of Milan County. The Brazos River splits this county. I’m on North side of the river, and the soil is Blackland. South of River is sandy soil and that’s where our small Houston Toad population lives.

I enjoyed getting to see their huge back feet, which are all the better for excavating their holes while moving backwards! They don’t have to turn around to watch their world!

Fight of the Invasives to Continue at City Wildscape

July 28, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

By Carolyn Henderson

On Saturday morning I took a side trip to the El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist City Wildscape to find a pleasant surprise in the overgrown mess. Queen butterflies had found the place. I counted about 20 that morning – all on the Gregg’s Mist. That is by far and away the Queens’ favorite nectar producer.

Not only had the Queens landed, American Bumblebees had also located nectar sources for themselves – mainly the Common Sunflower that planted itself in the city wildscape and reproduced many more this year.

I also saw Ligated Furrow Bees and Jagged Ambush Bugs. Those are pending identification verifications in iNaturalist. I also saw Oblique Longorn Bees – a second time for a new to me bee. They are very tiny and in near constant motion. All of these were on the Sunflowers.

Other things we planted were in bloom, but they are mostly overwhelmed by the terrible invasive “Tree of Heaven” and the Persimmons. Persimmons have taken over the right half of the wildscape (if you’re looking at it from the street) and the Tree of Heaven, an invasive from China, has the left side.

I met with the church directors Sunday morning, and they agreed to let us make a last ditch effort to eliminate both of those. Crape Myrtles also are spreading, which are not native to this area either. They have lots of pretty blooms, though. More Queens had arrived.

Alan Rudd has devised a plan to kill these invasives. We believe that we can do it without harming the Pecan tree in the wildscape, but there is no guarantee of that, so we needed approval from the All Saint’s Episcopal Church to do it. They were in agreement, since they also were dealing with the Tree of Heaven in most other parts of their landscape.

Liz Lewis is having the source of the Tree of Heaven, three trees nearby, removed, too. Otherwise, they’ll just come back. No one knows where the Persimmons came from, but we hope we can get them out, too.

Once that is done, the wildscape needs weeding. Good for volunteer hours, everyone.

Get Your Birding Resources at Wild Wings

June 1, 2025June 1, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

By Sue Ann Kendall

I went out to Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary yesterday to see what birds were out there and to take some new resources for visitors.

I joined Ann Collins, who was as happy as I was to see new bluebird houses have been put up, one in the sanctuary and two others along the property driveway.

We appreciated the newly planted native plants and red lantana in the raised beds, and no doubt the hummingbirds will, too.

That’s good, because curious heifers have been having too much fun with the official hummingbird feeders. You can’t help but be amused by them, though. Gene Rek found one of them had drunk all the water in the bird bath and was licking the water dripping down the drip chains. That’s just too cute.

As we listened and watched for birds, I put two of our new bird sheets in the mailbox for visitors to take. One’s an alphabetical list of birds found in Milam County (an updated version is linked on the Wild Wings web page), and the other is our beautiful color bird sheet to help visitors identify what they may see at Wild Wings. You can also download your own copy on the web page. By the way, there’s also a bird list in taxonomic order in the collection as well. As soon as I can get these printed, you’ll find them in the mailbox as well.

We are still waiting for our signs to arrive, but I did put a few magnets in the mailbox, so visitors will know they’re at the right place.

I forgot to take a picture of the mailbox!

Mornings are a wonderful time to hang out with the birds and squirrels, so check out our growing sanctuary! Enjoy some of the sights we found during our visit.