Educational Material – Page 2 – Nature Along the El Camino Real

A Visit with Purple Martin Friends

May 22, 2026May 19, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

On May 16, a group of El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist chapter members (and their friends and family) visited a hidden gem of Milam County, one of the largest collection of Purple Martin houses in the US. Chapter friend Mike McCormick and his family have been growing the colony of Purple Martins (members of the swallow family) for many, many years.

They now have around 800 breeding pair, who each produce multiple babies each year (ideally).

The group enjoyed a talk by Mike as he updated us on improvements and changes since our last visit and answered questions about martin behavior and habits. The birds come here in mid-February to nest, then take off in the autumn to return to their winter homes in Brazil. While they’re here, they eat many insects, for which we can all be grateful.

After the more formal talk, we dispersed to look more closely at the birds and the clever houses where they live, which have been refined greatly to deter snakes and other bird species from messing with them.

This is like a condo for birds. Each cell holds a breeding pair

You can see in these photos the difference between males and females. The males are solid dark purplish black, while the females have white breasts. One easy way to tell them females apart from Barn and Cliff swallows is the others don’t have any color on their breasts.

Many of us took some time to explore the relatively new nature trail the owners have added for guests to explore. It goes through a wooded area and a beautiful meadow full of wildflowers. We had many things to add to iNaturalist before we were finished.

There was so much to see and do here, and the setting was so lovely that it was hard to leave. But there’s already talk about our next visit!

Show Stopper

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

In late April I made my first extensive visit to South Texas. My primary goal was to explore the ranges of three closely related wolf spider species/subspecies, only one of which has been officially recognized. I was successful in that although populations along the Rio Grande appeared reduced by an extended dryness there. South Texas has a broad range of habitats from coastal grassland to dry thornscrub, and each of the three species/subspecies has found a different niche there. Going by
iNaturalist observations, they are endemic to South Texas and Reynosa, Mexico.

This effort was suddenly interrupted when I started looking for them at Mustang Island State Park and found something else. Along the road near the park office I came across a bunch of “little brown spiders” except that they were more like medium size with body lengths of up to 12 mm. I immediately knew they were an unusual species for me and photographed 6, which thankfully included both male and female adults. The ones below are all males

After I got home and started uploading them to iNaturalist, I was unable to find an exact match. I thought Alopecosa was best choice for genus based on face and general appearance but none of the described species in the genus were a match. Granted that no images of some small species exist, wolf spiders of this large size are pretty well documented. I was very lucky to discover a whole population in this case. We are aware of a couple of larger spiders that also defy identification, but these are known from just a few observations and remain paused due to lack of evidence.

At 11:30 PM, it was time to drive back to the motel after spending hours in the dark with wolf spiders at Port Aransas and the State Park.

Pigged Out!

May 18, 2026May 17, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

by Eric Neibauer

She’s an adult and significantly underweight suggesting she just used up all her reserves during her adult molt. While I was trying to photograph her, there were dozens of moths fluttering around the bowl she was in. As I dodged the moths myself I saw her grab three moths in less than a minute. One is in her jaws with the wings showing at the lower left. The other two are pinned down with her forelegs and their heads are clearly visible. Pound for pound these must be some of the most ferocious animals in the world. If I ever see a tiger take down 3 antelopes in less than a minute, I may change my opinion.

This is possibly another unnamed species, and thanks to my most recent expedition to Val Verde County, I finally have enough photos to characterize the macroscopic appearance of both adult sexes. I’ve come up with a provisional common name, Buttermilk Wolf Spider, and created a project on iNaturalist under that name. We first found some at a bioblitz in April, 2024, and thought it might be Schizocosa mccooki. Further study suggested significant differences. Specimens were collected for DNA analysis this time around have and will help provide answers.

Another novel experience on the same trip was photographing four juvenile Hogna coloradensis that had recently left their mothers. Catching them was the first major challenge. Not only are they surprisingly fast but they’re unable to climb over the edges of most containers. I had designed a special scooper, a solo cup with the rim cut off and sides trimmed to a scoop shape. Cups are only a couple thousandths thick and the spiderlings had no trouble climbing over the edge. In general they
didn’t like being there, and I had to upend the scoop quickly before they turned and ran out.

I don’t think anyone got spiderling photos of this species before and the usual practice would involve taking them off their mother. I had tried scooping up Hogna incognita spiderlings a couple of years back but I had to push dirt with spiderlings on top into the scoop and then separate everything. Going after free running ones with confidence was something new.

Hummingbirds from March

May 17, 2026May 17, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

This pair of male hummingbirds appeared on March 23rd and immediately started chasing each other around. It seemed to be play rather than combat as one would dare the other while they took turns being the aggressor. There were quiet moments when they both refueled on the feeder or shared the perch nearby. I like to think they were among the three males that had staked out the feeder last year or had been juveniles that grew up here, and that they had been together ever since.

PS I missed the pair sharing the perch the first time I saw it but they were kind enough to give me another chance later.

Hi everyone — the blog uploading person (Sue Ann) had a series of events happen that made getting blogs uploaded difficult. We will be sharing the backlog over the next few days, so get ready to learn about Milam County nature and activities from the end of March through mid-May!

Milam County Bats

March 14, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

By Carolyn Henderson

The bats are in residence in a strip mall here in Cameron. I believe they are Mexican Free Tails. Every evening around 6:30 pm they exit their abode in search of the evening meal. I’m unsure where they get their water.

The still shot is of a bar that appears to have gotten a leg stuck in the sign panels. It survived there for at least three days. Unfortunately. I couldn’t get it loose.

Postcript

At our March chapter meeting, Michelle Lopez shared the results of our Milam County bat monitoring project from last year. In addition to Mexican free-tail bats, we have Tri-colored bats (these are rare), evening bats, big brown bats, and eastern red bats. Nine sites were monitored for a week each. Michelle spent countless hours analyzing the sound files.