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

Spider Chase

June 8, 2026June 7, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

If you happen to be in Dickens, TX, and head west on US 82 toward Crosbyton, you will soon find yourself crossing the White River, where there is a highway rest area. This is no ordinary rest stop, because it’s connected with historic Silver Falls Park. A series of steps lead down to the White River from the parking area. About two-thirds of the way down there is a font off to the right with a dribbling pipe sticking out from the back wall. The font has settled a bit, and a trickle of water
flows across the bottom and down into a crack at the back.

I revisit the park periodically because someone else saw some large, unidentified wolf spiders there years ago. On May 28, I made another stop. I couldn’t use my headlamp until 9 PM because of the late sunset and then spent a futile hour looking for something interesting on both sides of the river. About a half dozen fireflies in one dark corner was the best I could find. Coming back up the steps while planning to leave, I looked to the left and saw a large wolf spider on the near rim of the font. I went closer and could see it was just what I wanted, and that it was a female with a lumpy abdomen. I tried to catch her, and she went down the inside wall to the back of the bottom. I stepped into the font and tried again. She went into the crack, and all I got for my trouble was some drips of water on my back and shoulders. It was obviously hopeless, so I went up the rest of the steps and to my car. Then I had to
go back just in case. There she was on the far side of the font. I knew she’d be heading for the crack at the bottom again and was able to head her off into another crack between the side and the back. It took a while but eventually I was able to gently pry her out with a small stalk of something. Then I got her into a container and took her to be photographed.

She had lost two of her right legs and only had a few spiderlings left, possibly the results of a single earlier incident. Whatever it was, it all had happened before I started chasing her. She turned out to be a Gladicosa gulosa, the first I ever encountered in person.

Wolf spider behavior is pretty easy to understand. When thinking with their stomachs, they jump on anything that moves. Faster than can be seen, they decide if it’s food than can be subdued or something else that isn’t. If the latter, they immediately disengage and prepare to run long before even considering taking a bite. Subduction begins by pinning its prey against its sternum with as may legs as necessary. A spider may end up on its back so it can use all 8. Somehow they can flip themselves back upright while holding prey. Only then does it grasp the prey with chelicerae and inject venom. When not thinking with their stomachs, various evasive maneuvers are used. This time, the female was doing all she could to run off with her remaining spiderlings. After photos I released her on the far rim of the font. She immediately ran into the font and partway down the side as if she knew exactly where she was.

Fog plus cobwebs equals magic

May 26, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

By Linda Burgess

On Sunday morning, I went for a walk at sunrise. The fog made the morning quite beautiful over my property.

As I walked I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the garden spiders’ webs looked with frost on them.

I got curious and looked up how the dew and spiderwebs interact. The droplets condense on the webs, and when the sun comes out, the droplets can create prism effects.

The webs are present all the time, but usually the spider silk is so thin that we humans can’t see it. Thanks to Nature for providing these ephemeral beauties!

Wildflowers and Critters at the Muller Place

May 25, 2026May 24, 2026 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall4 Comments

by Sue Ann Kendall

On Saturday, May 23, our chapter finally enjoyed our long-delayed field trip to the Muller property on the border of Milam and Burleson Counties. It’s probably a good thing there were delays, because ample rain in the last couple of months prompted the May wildflowers to make up for a lackluster March and April.

In preparation for the field trip, Terri Brickey created rustic signs pointing to trails and other landmarks, and she also made beautiful maps of the property and the trails AD Muller has carved out through the woods, meadows, pastures, and scenic vistas. This undertaking was much appreciated by those who explored the trails. The property has many interesting trees, shrubs, forbs and wildflowers, so it’s a dream for iNaturalist fans. I also heard or saw 25 bird species, which is pretty darned good, too.

Some of the chapter members didn’t explore the woods and fields, but that’s okay, because Carolyn’s front porch is a prime nature watching location. We enjoyed watching Rocky the friendly raccoon (no, no one touched him), a mother Phoebe and her nest, a large swamp rabbit, the resident catfish in the pond, and plenty of songbirds. If we’d stayed longer, we could have seen the many armadillos and deer.

Those of us who like insects and reptiles were not disappointed, either. I found many butterflies (including an elusive small sulphur) and various wasps. Terri tried to get photos of native bees, but they were very active!

And of course, there were plants! I uploaded 125 or so observations to iNaturalist, with only a few duplicate entries. There were a few rare plants that I’d seen last year and was hoping to find again, and I did see some of them. There was also a new plant for us, the Fourpoint evening primrose (Oenothera rhombipetala). It apparently will grow up to five feet tall! There have been a few observations in the area, and it appears to not be seen west of I-35. Another fairly uncommon plant is Texas Sandmint (Rhododon ciliatus).

There was lots and lots of Gaillardia sp. and spotted horsemint (a type of beebalm, Monarda). Plus other beauties.

Maroon blanket flower (***Gaillardia amblyodon)***

We enjoyed some teeny tiny flowers, too. Both Terri and I like those.

One of my favorite sites was all the blossoming American beautyberry. That is one fine plant when it’s not drought conditions.

When we finished walking around (and stepping in lots of mud), Terri fed the resident catfish. Of course, we also took lots of photos of the wetland plants, which were many rushes and sedges.

It was extra pleasant to just hang around on the porch for a while, too. We do get excited about all the natural wonders we encounter, and we love to share!

There were many more sights, but you’ll just have to come on our next field trip to see for yourself!

Photos by Sue Ann Kendall and Terri Brickey. Thanks to Carolyn and AD Muller for sharing their property.

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.