It took curiosity, focus, intelligence, energy, cooperation, and tenacity to become this year’s remarkable new Hays County Master Naturalists. How appropriate that they had named themselves The Caracaras!

The 2022 Annual Meeting of Texas Master Naturalist was packed with over 100 concurrent technical sessions on a stunning variety of topics…Expertise, experience, insight…all for the taking! Hays County Chapter members were standouts!

Every year in the late fall, bird enthusiasts and citizen scientists across the country start preparing for the spring nesting season, which in Central Texas begins in early February. We never tire of monitoring bird boxes, nest cams, and natural cavities to get an intimate glimpse into the secret lives of birds.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of people building nest box trails all across the US, bluebirds are making a comeback today. Bluebirds will begin checking out nest sites for their first brood of the season in January. Late fall through December is the ideal time to ready existing nest boxes and to replace old ones.

So I set out on an early October teal hunt of my own. Only I didn’t bring my shotgun, but instead my camera. I was to meet two-time Naturescapes winning photographer Mike Davis for a sunrise photo shoot on the Plum Creek Soil and Water Conservation Lakes in Kyle.

The night was right for fun and fright at Boo! Hole Halloween 2022. Hays County Master Naturalists were there!

An October Pollinator Slideshow and Monarch Gallery

Morning on the Blanco. Let’s walk upstream along a little stretch of River Road just west of Wimberley, Texas. Another late September dawn slowly brightens what little water still pools in wide shallows, riffles over corrugated limestone riverbed, and squeezes through a last narrow channel under the far bank.

Pleasant Valley Spring (PVS) is the largest documented spring in the Hill Country's Trinity Aquifer system.

There’s an old proverb, “Variety is the spice of life.” And what does that have to do with land stewardship? A lot!

At 5:30 p.m. on September 4, about two dozen Mississippi Kites swooped, swirled, dipped, and dived through the street.

After the days of toad “busy-ness,” we sat out on the back porch drinking our morning coffee and watched a lone toad slowly hop toward the front. I’m sure I heard it saying, “My work here is done.”

Near the end of a very hot, dry summer, the Blanco River still looks impressive, even with its diminished flow. The rain in late August was a welcome sight—and a good sign…

Dragonflies were the first winged insect to evolve 300 million years ago. Their four wings are 2-5 inches long now, but back then, they were 2-4 feet long.

They appear every night in the near perfect dark of the valley. They run a chill down your spine.

The new River Recharge Natural Area is San Marcos’ seventh natural area, and plans call for this new trail eventually to tie into a planned circum-city trail system.

See those shoe insoles floating in my bird watering station? This morning, there they were…. So how did they go for a swim? I’ll wait while you think.

The first half of this year was the fifth driest on record, and this summer hasn’t been any better. How exactly do our native plants cope with stress caused by a prolonged period without water? It’s complicated and pretty amazing.

Karst is well known and is often described as a landscape, a geological formation occurring in limestone and carbonate rocks. More importantly, it is an aquifer and often a remarkable groundwater reservoir.

There is no doubt these are dry times that will likely continue through the summer. This is a critical time for wildlife as well. If you can, set out a pan of water for the wildlife. They will show up.