Texas Nature: December 2013

Monday, December 30, 2013

A Look Back.

Well, the year is almost gone and time to take a look back at Texas Nature for 2013. From an online perspective it has not been a great year.

I have not posted nearly enough, and I hope to correct this in 2014.
My Facebook page was one year old on December 29th, but has not had the traffic I had hoped for.
On a positive note, I began work on my Texas Nature Website, which I hope to have online in the next couple of months.

From an real life perspective it has been a good year. At first I started to say that it was not a great year, but when I looked back at all the trips I have made, I realize that I had a fairly active year. Here is a list of all the places I visited in 2013.

Both Pitcher Plant Trail and Sundew Trail of The Big Thicket National Preserve.
Cattail Marsh in Beaumont, Texas
McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge
Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sancturary
Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Park
Tony Houseman State Park/Wildlife Management Area
Pleasure Island, Port Arthur, Texas
Shangri La Botanical Garden and Nature Center
Texas Point National Wildlife Refuge
Sea Rim State Park

And these places I visited for the first time.

Village Creek State Park
J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area
Both the Old River Unit and Nelda Stark Unite of The Lower Neches Wildlife Managemnet Area
Armand Bayou Nature Center
Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge
Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge
Nature trail at San Jacinto Battleground State Park.

I also saw several wild animals for the first time, including -

Turkey Vulture
Crested Caracara
Numerous other bird I still need to positive ID on
Broad-banded Water Snake
Feral Hogs
White-tail Deer
Bobcat which I would have to say was my favorite.

Overall it has been a good year and I have high hopes for 2014.
My plans for the new year.

Blog more consistently.
Update my social media page more.
Finish work on my Texas Nature Website
Possibly merge my Wildflowers of Texas Blog and Texas Nature Blog and move to there own domain.

Goodbye until next year and please vistit my other sites.
Texas Nature on Facebook
Texas Nature on Google +
Wildflowers of Texas

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Cattails and a Cat's Tails

Cattail Marsh in Beaumont, Texas is named after the abundant Cattail plants (Typha sp.) that grow in the marsh. In addition to the Cattails and other plants, it is also home to a wide variety of wildlife, including Alligators and numerous species of birds. On this visit I would discover a resident, that I have never seen before in the wild.
While walking along one of the roads that border the individual cells of the marsh, I notice a gray shape at the edge of the high grass. It looked like it might be an animal but I wasn't sure, so I pointed the camera and zoomed in. I was amazed to see a Bobcat ( Lynx rufus ), laying in the grass, and watching me. When I began to try to move a little closer, it ducked down, trying to be a little less obvious. Eventually I got too close and it ran for cover, but I was thrilled to have seen my first wild Bobcat.