From Carolyn: Alan Rudd, Patricia Coombs, Debra Sorenson, Catherine Johnson, Jackie Thornton, and Michelle Lopez staffed an El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist table at the annual Milam County Senior TRIAD on Tuesday, October 29. They informed visitors about the program and recruited some possible students for the upcoming class.
From Michelle: We had a great time at the Senior Expo in Cameron today. We have three or four possible students for the next class and we were able to speak to a lot of people about nature and found that there were people who love wildlife and had never heard of Texas Master Naturalist. We were able to share the things that we are passionate about and gave out a lot of information and directed people to our website for more information. We invited people to our monthly meetings and let them know they were free of charge and there is a potluck before the meeting and we seemed to have a lot of interest in that also.
by Carolyn Henderson, with additional photos from Linda Jo Conn
Young girls with boundless curiosity swarmed the Birds and Bees Wildscape Saturday, July 17, to perform public service in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the USA. The El Camino Real chapter of Texas Master Naturalists hosted the event.
Girl Scout finds a monarch butterfly caterpillar
Approximately 40 scouts and their leaders and parents attended the event. It started with talks given by Catherine Johnson, Donna Lewis and Alan Rudd. An additional 15 ECRMN members helped the girls.
Donna Lewis spoke to them about planting milkweed to help promote the continuation of monarch butterflies. Alan Rudd spoke about the control of mosquitos with a totally natural method. Many adults were particularly interested in controlling mosquitos. The scouts then put that information into practice by planting milkweed in several sections of the wildscape.
Scouts plant milkweed
The girls and members were also excited to watch the release of many Bob-white quail into the pasture at the Bird and Bee Farm. The pasture is in the process of being returned to its natural state, and the quail were released to try to repopulate the area with a native bird that once was abundant in the area. They are rarely found east of I-35 now.
A scout shows off the goodies she’s taking home.
The girls also found stray eggs laid by other birds on the farm [guinea fowl], and monarch caterpillars that were already on the Milkweed plants that were to be planted Saturday. It was an informative and entertaining day for everyone and the scouts left with bags full of goodies and some native Texas plants to grow at home.
Two scouts explore and come back with some treasures – a large egg and some feathers.
So much went on! Enjoy more photos, as well as some taken by Linda Jo Conn. What a fun day! Click a photo to see it enlarged.
Scouts and troop leaders plant Milkweed
Alan Rudd talks about “Wigglers” ( early stage mosquitos) to the girls
Girl Scouts, GS leaders and ECRMN members wait for the quail release
Mature quail released into the wild
Girl Scout holds a baby quail. It was not released – too young
Debi, Eric, and Scott look on as Girl Scouts plant milkweed
Catherine Johnson gives her presentation
Donna Lewis shows how monarchs fly to Mexico
Phyllis Shuffield talks as Gene Rek of Bird and Bee Farm looks on
Nature Along the El Camino Real 