Nature Along the El Camino Real

Finding Hidden Treasures of the Plant Kind

June 11, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

By Sue Ann Kendall

A week ago, two members of the El Camino Real Chapter, Texas Master Naturalist were invited to scope out the property of a third member to see if there were any interesting plants, birds, or other organisms there. Ann Collins and I made many discoveries at Carolyn Muller’s Burleson County property.

Ann and I experiencing species overload.

It’s always a privilege when private landowners allow you to catalog what’s on their land, so we’re very grateful to AD and Carolyn for their hospitality. We enjoyed finding out what thrives in this sandy soil with a nice mix of hardwood forest and untouched prairie-like fields.

A stand of Lemon Beebalm leads to the woods.

While Ann and Carolyn worked on bird observations from a guest cabin porch, I ran off and checked out the woods and open area under electric lines. There are often great flowers in those areas.

I then found a nice wide path through the woods with many Halloween decorations on it. While they weren’t great for iNaturalist, I’m sure little kids love it. And I found my first interesting milkweed, Tayalote (Cynanchum unifarium).

After I got back and we practiced entering sightings into iNaturalist, Carolyn took us on a ride around all the impressive paths that wind around to various outbuildings and such. There we found interesting mosses and fungi.

Pale Cow-hair Moss (*Ditrichum pallidum) was interesting*

The highlight of the visit was the magical wildflower patch. It grows in a strip where a neighbor had erected a tall wildlife fence about ten feet behind regular cattle fencing. This strip doesn’t get mowed or grazed. It was spectacular.

This area also contained plants neither Ann nor I were familiar with. Upon investigating, I found some of these natives have very few sightings in Milam or Burleson Counties. In fact, this Slimspike Prairie clover was the first observation in Burleson County. There are only 4 observations in Milam, all but one by a chapter member!

Other interesting rare plants were these. Maybe they’re not spectacular, but they’re not observed often.

Ann and I were pretty hyped up about all these new plants, and Carolyn was thrilled to find out her property had plants we got excited about. As we looked around the property more, we also found yellow passionflower and the beautiful propeller flower, purple pleatleaf or Alophia drummondii. I stuck in some scenery so you can see the big picture!

Yellow passionflower, a favorite of mine (*Passiflora lutea)*

After another fun ride through the paths, we headed out, but I had my brain full of new-to-me plants, and Ann enjoyed hearing and seeing Swainson’s Warblers, Summer Tanagers, and two vireos (white-eyed and yellow-throated).

We’d all love to return, and we plan to arrange friend trips. The presence of air conditioned rest facilities with refrigerators and water will make this a great place for our chapter’s naturalists to explore and learn about the amazing variety of ecosystems in this part of Texas.

Ann and Carolyn basking in wildflower glory.

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.

Viper’s-Bugloss Invades Texas

May 30, 2025May 30, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Carolyn Henderson

A new invasive plant has made it to Texas. It has only been spotted with verification nine times in the state, and one of them is in Milam County. The other eight are in a small area of Burnet County.

During the field trip to the McCormack Purple Martin conservation place, I took a photo of a flower I had not seen before. Of course I put it on iNaturalist. It got one “favorite”, but it couldn’t be verified as the Viper’s-Bugloss (genus Echium ) I had chosen to identify it. I had noted that I wasn’t sure, but it looked just like it.

Then an iNaturalist ecologist took note of it. He was very concerned about it, and he asked if I would go and take more photos of it for verification purposes. The gentleman has a PhD from the University of Texas and is a retired Wildlife Biologist at Balcones Canyonland NWR.

Mike McCormack said I was welcome to do that. I met him out there last Saturday and we went looking for some. McCormack noted that they had been dying out when I called, so he watered for me where he knew a cluster of them to be growing. They were blooming. The blossoms were smaller than the one I had seen earlier and had different colors.

The ecologist had warned me to wear heavy gloves and not touch them otherwise. They sting severely and cause a rash. You’ll see an ungloved hand in one of the photos. That’s Mike. He had handled them before and he said it wasn’t that bad, but they do cause an uncomfortable rash. I didn’t risk it. Mike said he first noticed them two years ago. He didn’t know their name until now. His theory is that they were transferred here via a pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that were nesting in a tree above the main site of their location.

I posted several more photos, and the ecologist verified that they are Viper’s-bugloss plants.

They are native to Europe and temperate Asia. They are used in landscaping in a few European countries. They have been spotted in the northern United States and some other countries that didn’t use to have them.

These plants are actually harmful to horses and cattle because they produce a type of Alkaline that harms their livers. The ecologist recommended strongly that “the plants should be herbicided and dug out, bagged, and disposed of – being very careful not to drop any seeds.”

Years ago in Asia, they were thought to resemble snakes on some parts and were used to treat snake bites. Needless to say, that practice fell by the wayside. If you see any, it’s advised you remove them quickly – wearing heavy gloves.

New Members Crush It!

May 26, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Catherine Johnson

Ten volunteers braved the heat this Saturday. Tina, Bill and granddaughter Jordan worked several hours including transplanting Coral Honeysuckle to the Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary.

Kay worked on weeding and planting Texas Natives Skullcap and Frogfruit. We learned some facts about frogfruit, which was originally Fogfruit because it resembled fog on freshly mowed fields in the Middle Ages.

Jackie cleaned bird baths and Ann, Patricia, Gene, and Cindy contributed helping with chores and sharing nature information.

Members took home Milkweed, Frogfruit, and goody bags.

Do not miss out seeing the Wildscape now with so many blooms.

Purple Martin Update – Plus, What is This?

May 25, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

By Carolyn Henderson

On a quest to take more photos for another iNaturalist on a possible Viper’s Bugloss plant, I discover baby Purple Martins and something else. There is always something new to discover in nature.

There are photos of parents feeding the recently hatched Purple Martins. Plenty of the houses at Mike McCormick’s considerable housing for the birds are occupied with hatchlings and eggs.

McCormick says the majority of them will take flight in mid-June. He also noted that the late male arrivals are fighting the older males for housing. This is apparently common. The debate is over whether they are drawn to their nest they were hatched in the year before or they are trying to establish territory.

While standing out among the martins, I noticed a ball on the ground. It was between cow patties, but it was too perfectly round to be that.

The challenge of the day is to identify it.