There are FOUR Welcome Back Warblers Walks scheduled at Warbler Vista: two on April 2 (one starts at 8 a.m. and one starts at 10:30 a.m.), and two on April 5 (one at 8 a.m. and one at 10:30 a.m.). See the full range of events at the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge locations on the Friends of Balcones website.

This event is suitable for all levels of birders. The meeting point will be the Warbler Vista Parking Lot in the refuge (the next parking lot after the Quarry Canyon Trailhead). The entrance to Warbler Vista Trails is on FM 1431, roughly 25 miles east of the intersection of Hwy 281 and FM 1431. Participants are encouraged to wear sunscreen and appropriate shoes, and bring binoculars, water, insect repellent, and hiking poles. Group size on this FREE hike is strictly limited so early registration is strongly recommended.

Almost every Wednesday morning, Emily Grant and her colleagues host a Facebook live stream event that features one or more invited speakers, who talk about birds, birdwatching, and so much more. It’s FREE and no registration is required. You can find links to all of the past Cup Chats here, on YouTube. And here is where you can find their Facebook page to view the live events. They really have some wonderful speakers, and it’s a great way to start “Hump Day!”

George Cates of Native American Seed will give a talk on “Design for Success with Native Seed.” He will explain the complete cycle for a native planting project, from initial planning, site preparation, implementation, to maintenance and management. He will describe how participants can learn and work with the cycles of nature to ensure beautiful diversity and an ecological legacy with every project. Mr. Cates is a restoration specialist with Native American Seed. For full details and information about how to access the online meeting, please visit this NPSOT page.

Registration for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Great Texas Birding Classic (GTBC) opened back in mid-February. Today, April 1, 2025, is the DEADLINE to register for the GTBC. The data collection “window” spans from April 15 - May 15, 2025. Full details about the GBTC, rules, checklists, etc., are available on the GBTC website.

This family-friendly event features a whole host of activities, all in celebration of the blooming of our official state wildflower. Caution: Due to drought conditions, it is hard to know how bountiful the display of bluebonnets will be. General admission tickets cost $20/participant, ages 4 and older. There is a park entry fee of $5/adult for those who merely accompany the event participants. (In other words, if a parent, guardian or grandparent is supervising younger people but not taking part in any of the activities, it will only cost them $5 each to get into the event.) For full details and the link to purchase tickets, visit this page.

SAVE THE DATE! Members of the Highland Lakes Birding and Wildflower Society traditionally have had a booth at the Hill Country Lawn & Garden Show, with informative displays, activities for the family, and even free packets of wildflower seeds for anyone who stops by the booth. More details will be posted here when they become available.

The business portion of this meeting will start at 7 p.m. The featured speaker is Dr. Jane Duke, who will discuss soil ecology. Registration will be required to access the Zoom meeting. Full details will be available here.

This is a FREE, family-friendly community event that celebrates spring migration. [Please note that participants may still need to pay for general admission to the center.] The festival will feature some live birds and animals, games, crafts, 20+ vendors, a native plant sale, a nature book sale, food trucks, nature walks and golf cart tours of the wetlands. Visit the Center’s website for full details about the Migratory Bird Festival.

This FREE meeting features speaker Kelly Tarla, the Burnet County AgriLife extension agent, discussing ways we can all be more “water wise.” This is the first of a four-part water wise series that is open to the public.

The Highland Lakes Birding and Wildflower Society and Highland Lakes chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas are holding a joint field trip to the San Antonio Botanical Garden. Space is strictly limited to 20 participants. Members should have received a Groups.io email with details and how to reserve a space. Plans are for an 8 a.m. departure from Marble Falls, a guided tour by renowned plant expert Michael Eason from approximately 10 a.m. to about noon, and an optional lunch. Some may opt to visit additional destinations after the field trip.

The HLBWS Study Group meets at 11:00 a.m. on the third Monday of each month, from September through June. Topics of discussion and related readings are announced to members in advance of each meeting. Come join in the fun and camaraderie, and gain a greater appreciation of the topic at hand.

The NPSOT and H-E-B collaboration that celebrates Texas Native Plants officially begins March 17, 2025. Over 200 H-E-B stores will be selling NPSOT-recommended native plants at a special “yellow coupon” price – 2 quart-sized plants for $12. The plants will be arriving at the stores in two shipments between March 10 and March 17. These plants tend to sell out very quickly, so be sure to go early to have the best selection! Some stores, including the H-E-B in Marble Falls in Lakeway (RM 620), will have local NPSOT volunteers set up at tables on March 22 (11 a.m. - 3 p.m.) and March 23 (Noon - 4 p.m.), 2025. They will assist with questions you may have about the Texas native plants available for purchase. For more specifics, including the list of plants for sale, please visit this NPSOT page.

This meeting of the Highland Lakes Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas is FREE and open to the public. Featured speaker Jess Divin, an ISA Master Arborist, will be joined by certified arborists Talia Freeman, Kyle White, and William Johnston to present "Improving the Cultural Practices of Tree Care."

Jess will address some of the questions and qualms of the common tree admirer, such as:
- Improving conditions in our harsh climate
- Common tree care faux pas
- Common pests of Central Texas
- How to mitigate tree stressors

Jess is an International Society of Arboriculture Board Certified Master Arborist, Texas ISA Oak Wilt Qualified, and Tree Risk Assessor Qualified. He is currently a District Manager at the East San Antonio Davey Tree, which spans from Rockport to Blanco. Throughout the years, Jess has arboricultural experience from entry level technician to District Manager at Davey Tree. He was also a wildland firefighter in Colorado, the Park Ranger Superintendent and Urban Forester for the city of New Braunfels, TX.

Gentle reminder for all HLBWS members: If you have content that you would like to see in the next edition of the Great Blue Herald, the deadline is on the 15th of each month. Be sure to send in your articles, poems, and photos! Your submissions help to make this one of the best organization newsletters we’ve ever seen.

On the second Monday of each month, the Friends of Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery conducts a bird survey led by a team of experts. All HLBWS members are welcome to help with the survey. Be sure to dress for the weather and bring all that you will need for the morning (water, sunscreen, bug spray, binoculars, etc.). For more information about the bird surveys, please use the “Contact Us” form found here.

The Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) will hold its annual Spring Symposium at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. There is an option to attend the event online. The day-long symposium will feature several speakers and topics of broad interest, including edgelands, grasslands, birding, pollinators, living memorials and more. More information about the in-person event is here, and about the virtual version, here.

On Thursday, March 6, 2025, invited speaker Mike Petrick will talk about Birding the Mountains, Canyons and Desert Grasslands of Southeastern Arizona. The talk draws upon Mike’s experiences in Spring 2023, when he and several birder friends - lovingly referred to as “the Old Buzzards” - spent 9 days there photographing a wide variety of birds.

Within the mountain ranges of the Coronado National Forest, the Chiricahuas “sky island” mountain ranges are home to plants and animals found nowhere else in the U.S., like the Mexican Chickadee and the Red-faced Warbler. Traveling west through grassland, dessert scrub, playa lakes, and farm fields, birders may see Scaled Quail, Bendire’s and Crissal thrashers, and Pyrrhuloxia. Now rarer than Bald Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks are regularly seen around colonies of Botta’s Pocket Gophers, their favorite prey. The canyons of the Huachucas mountains are home to several rare species, like the Flame-colored Tanager, Eared Quetzal, Rufous-capped Warbler, Crescent-Chested Warbler, Aztec Thrush, and Brown-backed Solitaire, as well as one of the most accessible pairs of Mexican Spotted Owls.

Mike grew up hunting, fishing, and camping in the woods around Burnet and Lake Buchanan. He is a 1960 graduate of Burnet High School and a 1968 graduate of Angelo State University.

After retiring from a 38-year career in education, Mike became a Texas Master Naturalist. This led him to become an avid birder and bird photographer. He was able to combine his love of the outdoors, birds, photography, and teaching by volunteering as a trail guide at The Heard Refuge in McKinney and at The Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area near Lewisville. His main volunteering now is at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge near Sherman as a tram tour guide, as well as helping with the weekly bird census there.

Doors to the meeting open at 9:30 a.m. for social time and light refreshments. The business meeting starts at 10:00 a.m., and Mike’s presentation commences immediately after the business meeting. Anyone interested in learning more about the birds and habitat of Southeastern Arizona is welcome to attend.

There will be a pre-meeting bird walk at 8:00 a.m. at Haley Nelson Park in Burnet if the weather permits.

Almost every Wednesday morning, Emily Grant and her colleagues host a Facebook live stream event that features one or more invited speakers, who talk about birds, birdwatching, and so much more. It’s FREE and no registration is required. You can find links to all of the past Cup Chats here, on YouTube. And here is where you can find their Facebook page to view the live events. They really have some wonderful speakers, and it’s a great way to start “Hump Day!”

The Highland Lakes Master Gardeners Association is hosting a plant sale at Burnet Middle School. The sale will feature many native plants that will both enhance your yards and provide natural resources for birds and wildlife. Come EARLY for the best selection!!

Each Sunday (except for any 5th Sunday in a given month), for $10/person, an expert guide leads a bird walk around the various habitats of Mitchell Lake Audubon Center. Participants may see as many as 30-50 different bird species. The bird walk can last up to 4 hours and is best suited for those aged 15 and up. For full information and the link to purchase tickets, please see the list of events on this page.

This family-friendly event is FREE and will take place rain or shine. The Lampasas County Friends of the Night Sky are hosting a night of stargazing, complete with information tables, night sky demonstrations, children’s activities, food vendors, and panel discussions. Experts will be on hand to help participants stargaze with professional telescopes.

With the rapid development of the hill country, it is becoming more difficult to see and enjoy the brilliance of planets and innumerable stars against a dark sky. If you or your children haven’t experienced this kind of stargazing, you won’t want to miss this event! It can leave you with an entirely new perspective on humanity. Full details are available on the Vision Lampasas website.

The business portion of this meeting starts at 7 p.m., and the group will hear Amy Martin talk about the Prairies of North Texas. She is a naturalist and author who has been described as a prominent figure in the North Texas nature writing scene. Registration will be required to access the Zoom meeting; see here for details.

In this FREE online event, participants will learn about cardinals found throughout the Americas. Most of us are familiar with the beloved “red bird,” or Northern Cardinal, but there are several other members in the cardinal family. Examples include the Pyrrhuloxia and the endangered Yellow Cardinal. Find the full details and the link to register here.

Nathan Pieplow, who wrote the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds (with separate volumes for western and eastern North America), will discuss how to differentiate the Common Raven from the Chihuahuan Raven, including “why we might be doing a lousy job of it.” Pieplow says that David Sibley recently proposed that at least half, and maybe up to 90%, of photos submitted to eBird from Colorado as Chihuahuan Ravens might be Common Ravens. “If this is true,” Pieplow adds, “then the conventional wisdom on raven status, distribution and identification needs some serious revision.” Since both Common and Chihuahuan Ravens have been reported in our area, the information might be a valuable way to strengthen the quality of our observations.

Full details and the link to register for this online event can be found here.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) calls the 29th annual Great Texas Birding Classic (GBTC) the “biggest, longest, wildest birdwatching tournament in the U.S.!” The registration deadline is April 1, 2025, and the tournament spans from April 15 - May 15, 2025. HLBWS members have received an email via Groups.io with information about one opportunity to participate in the GTBC. Full details about the tournament, links to registration, rules, etc., can be found on the GTBC website.

The HLBWS Study Group meets at 11:00 a.m. on the third Monday of each month, from September through June. This month’s topic will continue our discussion of insects, including a brief presentation about dragonflies. Come join in the fun and camaraderie, and gain a greater appreciation of the topic at hand.

If you weren’t able to take the Freedom Flight cruise held on January 12, 2025, but still wish to have this experience, here is your second chance to purchase tickets!

Vanishing Texas River Cruises (VTRC) has partnered with Last Chance Forever Bird of Prey Conservancy since the 1990's to release rehabilitated birds of prey back to the wild. These “Freedom Flight” cruises are extremely popular: It is exhilarating to witness the return of now-healthy birds to natural habitat. Cruise participants have opportunities to see birds of prey at close range, and limited seating creates more opportunities for learning about how birds of prey are rehabilitated. Representatives with Last Chance Forever are on board each Freedom Flight cruise to explain each bird’s story prior to its release. Also provided are some exclusive up-close photo opportunities. Tickets cost $75/person, and a portion of each sale goes toward raptor rehabilitation efforts. Be advised that there are strict cancellation policies for these cruises. The cruise is from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., but participants are asked to check in 30 minutes before departure time, that is, by 10:30 a.m.

For full details and to purchase tickets, please visit the Vanishing Texas River Cruise website.

Gentle reminder for all HLBWS members: If you have content that you would like to see in the next edition of the Great Blue Herald, the deadline is on the 15th of each month. Be sure to send in your articles, poems, and photos! Your submissions help to make this one of the best organization newsletters we’ve ever seen.