Remembering Alston Thoms

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by Sue Ann Kendall

One of my early Master Naturalist memories was learning about the Native Americans in our area from Alston Thoms, a professor at Texas A&M and friend to many in our chapter, especially Mike and Joyce Conner. I always looked forward to his presentations, whether in person or virtually. We had him scheduled to speak at this month’s chapter meeting, but we hadn’t heard from him. We just learned he passed away in June. I wanted to share our condolences to all his family, friends, students, and colleagues. He was a treasure trove of knowledge about the people who lived in Texas in the past.

Here’s my favorite photo of Dr. Thoms, at our meeting location in Milano

I wrote a little about him and put a link to his memorial in my personal blog, and just wanted to share it here. If any of our chapter members would like to share more, please do.

And speaking of people who volunteer their time…yesterday, I also found out that one of our Master Naturalist mentors, an amazing human being named Alston Thoms had passed away in June, and we hadn’t heard about it… If you read his memorial page, you’ll see what a real treasure the world lost when his life ended. I learned so much about the Native Americans who lived in this part of Texas from him, and I always hungered to learn more. His teachings will live on through the work of his graduate students and the many Master Naturalists he generously taught through the years.

Here’s what I said about him in my blog from early in my Master Naturalist career:

We also had a very interesting speaker, Prof. Alston Thoms, an anthropologist from Texas A&M. He is an expert on Native American history, and focused the talk for us on what people ate in past centuries in this area. It was lots of roots and berries, cooked in earth ovens (which he does yearly for his grad students). The most “duh” moment came when he asked what the most common food source would have been. It took a while to realize that of course, it was the white-tailed deer. It’s been in the area as long as humans have, and always on the list for what’s for dinner!

I could listen to this guy all day long.

Proud of Me, May 14, 2018

So, please. If someone you care about is no longer with us, share your memories. They can mean a lot, even to people who didn’t know them, and the little things, their quirks, their stories, their adventures…they can mean more than you know to someone else.

Surprise at the Wildscape

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by Catherine Johnson

While I was watering and checking milkweed at the Wildscape, I discovered for the first time, Monarch caterpillars. 

Wildscape caterpillar

So many creatures can kill them, and the fowl were roving (it is, after all, a chicken farm). I decided to take them home and raise them in my house. I have done much research on this topic and also took home milkweed stems.

They stayed in a covered container with damp paper towels in a warm bedroom.  I have since received an enclosure and vials.

The enclosure

One baby from my house was added to three from the Wildscape.

Three from the wildscape and the “baby.”

One night the Wildscape Caterpillars formed J’s . Next morning, only one was alive and shaking. My baby was ok. I saw head parts in the paper towels and was relieved to see they had shed their skin for the last time and were now a green chrysalis. I left about 20 minutes and missed seeing the last one turn! 

Shed skin and chrysalis
Chrysalises, through their screen

Baby is still going thru instars. Right before they emerge, I will space them out so they can spread their wings, dry and be released back to the Wildscape. We hope to release hundreds in the future.

Vials and chrysalises

Interesting fact: bigger caterpillars will eat babies emerging from eggs.

Butterflies Are Still Here

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by Donna Lewis

Can you believe it is almost what us Texans would consider the end of summer? It is HOT!!! I would like to know when the humidity will go down and the temperatures lighten up just a tad.

Gulf Coast fritillary

For those of you who don’t know me, I hate cold weather. But now that I have matured (a nice way of saying I’m older),  I do like it to be in the middle somewhere, say 70 to 80 degrees with no humidity.

Today as I walked through my garden, there were so many butterflies everywhere trying to find the last flowers of summer that  were still blooming.  I have sulphurs, queens, pipe vines, Gulf Coast fritillaries, black swallowtails, tiger swallowtails and an assortment of small skippers.                             

Swallowtail
Common buckeye (by SA Kendall)

The zinnias are tired and ready to go back  to Mother.  The salvia are looking ragged. The cosmos, mist flowers, sunflowers, daisies , coneflowers and lots more are just pooped out.  Now, the vines are at their best.  Passion flowers, cypress vine, coral honeysuckle, and others like it hot. The milkweed also likes it hot and dry.  I still have some of it, just no monarchs right now. I guess my little beauties will be with me to the end.  I hope they are here a little longer, I love them so.

Drink a little nectar and carry on.

Garden Spiders: Photo Essay

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by Pamela Neeley

Suddenly, in last two weeks, the garden spiders are out.


I went on a walk, around my house, and found all of these lovely yellow-and-black spiders. They have carved out distinct territories for themselves and are working on their signature web patterns. This one is on the carport.

The photo with shadow may be my favorite house spider photo. Many of the spiders look like dancers caught in mid-leap.

This next one is dancing under the eaves on north side of house. Her distinct patterns and colors are so fresh.

This one is the biggest and fattest. She set up her kingdom between buildings, but on the west side of my tool shed. That’s the best setup for dramatic photos.

Where do the garden spiders live the rest of the year? Why are they here now (hopefully the answer is grasshoppers) instead of July? I only found one spouse spider “shell,” by the way.

Here’s a minute-long YouTube video I found of a garden spider spinning her web.

And here’s a video Sue Ann Kendall made of one wrapping up a grasshopper for dining on later (39 seconds).

Milkweed Project Update

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by Donna Lewis

The Milkweed Project a few of our El Camino Real Chapter Master Naturalists started last year is still ongoing.  We were given a grant to obtain these.  Chapter member, Cathy Johnson, applied for the grant for us.

No matter what the weather throws at us, we love it.  We actually want the conditions to be as close as they can to nature, and we all know the Mother can be unpredictable. If we provide too much help, we can not call them natural.   

I had planted four areas of Zizotes.  Weather and critters have taken out three of the areas, with one remaining. I have never watered the plants this year. I wanted them to be on their own.

I also have some Antelope Horn plants that started growing on our drive shell driveway from seeds I planted some time ago.  I want to have an open buffet for the Monarchs!!!!

 Thryothorus ludovicianus, Carolina wren. Photo (c) Joseph F. Pescatore – used with permisison.

Just another note: while I was looking at all the milkweed today, I heard some interesting chatter on some of the milkweed plants and some other native cowpen daisies.  I stayed still for a moment, and saw that there were two Carolina wrens upside down going after insects on the plants.

These are interesting little birds.  We had four sets of babies this year in our barn. They are so tiny at birth. 

So many many wild things to see, so little time. By the way, one of the best books I have for Monarchs is the book  Milkweed, Monarchs and More by Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael A. Quinn.