E-Nature for Kids of All Ages
Amphibians Presentation by Lee Ann Linam
This talk was scheduled as part of our Attracting Wildlife series at the Wimberley Village Library on April 8, 2020. Given the COVID-19 shutdown order, the talk was done instead as a ZOOM session. We were new at this so be patient with the first two minutes or so. We got our act together after that. What you missed is Lee Ann’s introduction so here it is.
Lee Ann, a Wimberley resident, recently retired from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department where she served as a wildlife biologist on the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area in Port Arthur, the state’s Endangered Species Program Leader, and coordinator for Texas Nature Trackers, a citizen science program that includes Texas Amphibian Watch. She now teaches science for homeschoolers and is involved in conservation and development activities in Central Zimbabwe.
Emily Ann Theatre Butterfly Festival
Did your class raise butterflies last year for the Emily Ann Butterfly Festival in Wimberley? Were you one of the lucky ones who raised them this year in your home? Do you want to learn more about butterflies and how they are raised for the Emily Ann Butterfly Festival? Here’s a great Master Naturalist video on the annual Butterfly Festival in Wimberley you will enjoy watching. While this year’s event was cancelled, we hope to see you at next year’s festival.
https://www.facebook.com/HaysCountyMasterNaturalistKids/videos/256814468835763/
Creating Bird Friendly Habitat
Hays County Master Naturalist and bird enthusiast, Bonnie Tull, talks about ways you can turn your backyard, or at least a portion of it, into a low maintenance, multilayered habitat rich in a diversity of bird-attracting native plants.
You can also view Bonnie’s slides here.
World of Animal Signs
Hays County Master Naturalist and wildlife enthusiast, David Womer, provides a Nature Watch segment for our training classes. In this video, he explains how to know what animals are near without ever seeing them.
Creepy/Crawlie Anthropods
Here’s another Nature Watch video in which Master Naturalist David Womer talks to one of our training classes about arthropods – tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions, ticks and the like.
Animal Skulls
Have you ever stumbled across an animal skull and wondered what kind of animal it belonged to? In this video, David talks about how to identify the species from evidence found on its skull.
Oak Wilt
Karl Flocke, a Woodland Ecologist with the Texas A&M Forest Service, gives a talk about Oak Wilt and its identification and management for real estate.
Hays County Parks
Katherine Sturdivant, the Education & Outreach Coordinator for the Hays County Parks Department, talks about Hays County Parks, Preserves, and Open Spaces.
Migrating Birds of Prey
This Nature Watch presentation from August of 2019 is on migrating birds of prey. Watch as David Womer provides easy tips for identifying falcons, hawks, eagles and the like based on the shape of their wings and other identifying characteristics.
Links
Virtual Nature Explorations
WVWA Cypress Creek Virtual Float on Cypress Creek
Missing your visits to Jacob’s Well and Blue Hole? Thanks to the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association, you can now take a virtual tour down Cypress Creek. Enjoy the ride!
https://arcgis.earthviews.com/public/cypress-creek#55
Cornell Labs Bird Cams
Love watching birds? Here’s a link to a wide array of bird cams around the world. There’s even one trained on a hummingbird feeder in West Texas!
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/
First Person Birder with Jesse Huth
A fun morning with local birder Jesse Huth, who is out doing a bird survey in the Texas Hill Country. With some luck, he encounters a very cooperative Golden-cheeked Warbler, an endangered bird that only nests right here in Central Texas!
Here are a couple of more videos from Jesse.
Who Is Hanging Out At Blue Hole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qae0KXE-XYU
A Vireo Fine Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJtXRuvFVJk
Family Fun Nature Activities
Making Seedballs
Wildflower Center’s Amy McCullough demonstrates how to make seedballs using components you can easily find. There’s also a .pdf with downloadable instructions. Great project for the whole family!
Family Nature Guides
Our Master Naturalist friends from the Alamo Master Naturalist chapter in San Antonio developed individual standalone Family Nature Guides designed for children 1-8. The guides don’t require additional materials and can be done from home. Topics range from how flowers work to differences in insect anatomy to ways animals eat and beyond!
https://txmn.org/alamo/family-nature-guides/
Ranger Rick
In response to the Coronavirus crisis, the National Wildlife Federation is now providing open-access to it’s online educational curriculum and Ranger Rick activities. Here’s where to go to find lots of fun!
Texas State Parks Junior Activity Journal
You don’t need to visit a state park to start working towards becoming a Junior Ranger. Start now completing this journal. Then when you do visit one of Texas’ magnificent state parks, just present it at the office to receive your Junior Ranger Badge. Get ready for your next Texas state park visit!
Resources For Teachers/Students/Nature Enthusiasts
Your Remarkable Riparian Videos – Digital Riparian Lessons
Want to learn more about how streams work? Here are some great video lessons plus other links provided by the same people whose book, Your Remarkable Riparian, was distributed after the Memorial Day flood of 2015 hit Hays County.
http://www.remarkableriparian.org/education.php – Great videos on how streams work!
Texas Watersheds
Here’s a great guide from Texas Parks and Wildlife for educators and others wanting to further educate themselves and teach others about Texas watersheds.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_k0700_1931_watershed_curriculum.pdf – A great guide for educators!
Texas Aquatic Science
Texas Parks and Wildlife has a great series of Texas Aquatic Science videos for educators and students. And, if you want to teach/learn, more there is additional information including questions for each of the fourteen chapters at https://texasaquaticscience.org/
Stay at Home Nature Science
This new nature science resource was developed to provide mini, youth-oriented science lessons during the COVID pandemic. Current topics include Wildlife Adaptation, Animal Behavior, Bird Beak Adaptations, and Wildlife Classification. Additional topics will be added as they are developed.
https://wildlife.tamu.edu/2020/03/stay-home-science/
Tree Trails – Texas A&M Forest Service Conservation Education
Tree Trails offers a place-based learning experience for students to get outside and interact with trees. In-depth lessons for both elementary and secondary levels are provided.
https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/TreeTrails/Lessons/#One
Journey North – University of Wisconsin – Madison Arboretum
Journey North, one of North America’s premiere citizen science programs for people of all ages, offers various strategies and activities across curriculum for use with Journey North projects, but also useful for anyone involved in teaching children about nature.
https://journeynorth.org/tm/educators_index.html
Nature’s Best Hope
Doug Tallamy is a professor at the University of Delaware who focuses on the relationship between native plants and wildlife. This video is of a talk he gave that was sponsored by the WWF Canada. While some of the plants and wildlife he uses in his examples may be different from those found in Hays County, the concepts he so eloquently describes are universal.
