Nature Blog Network

The largest state in the lower 48, Texas is home to as many habitats and ecosystems as anywhere in North America.  It’s southern border, tucked up against legitimately neotropical Mexico is easily one of the best spots for birding and butterflying in the nation and is as different from the windswept short-grass prairie of the panhandle as two places can be. Both, however, offer unique landscapes and opportunities for nature experiences and those who would write about them

The Lone Star State is truly greater than the sum of it’s parts and adds much to the flora and fauna of this country.  And for all the short-lived talk about the state’s independence, it’s likely naturalists will have plenty of opportunity to explore the plains, deserts, and canyons, and neotropical scrub forests for years to come.  Besides, secession is so 19th Century.

Green Jay.  Photo from Tooi Ake via flickr.  Used with Creative Commons license

The stars are bright, out every night (clap, clap clap clap)

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- Don’t let the recent Circus of the Spineless fool you, the Birder’s Lounge is primarily about our feathered friends, but with so much more to see out there, nothing gets left out.

- From the far northern plains up near Oklahoma comes Rolling Plains Journal, a virtual front porch looking out on the short grass prairie.

- Flora of the Texas Rolling Plains focuses on another aspect of the prairie, the beautiful flowers and grasses, the diversity of which makes this ecosystem one of the world’s most fascinating.

- Kyle from As the Mind Wanders is a fine photographer.  Join him as he turns his lens to the birds and landscapes of ths Houston area.

- Not to be outdone comes DDolan New Birder, another Houston area birder and photographer who has spent some time at High Island these days with some really nice results.

-The Texas Bird Conservation Alliance has a blog these days, and one that keeps the reader attuned to conservation issues in the state and in parts beyond.

- If the name Birding the Bend makes you think of West Texas, you’d be forgiven.  But the bend in this case the the coastal bend in the far east, home to the world’s last wild Whooping Cranes.

- A birder plus a 500 mm lens is a pretty excellent starting point for a blog.  David McDonald Photography doesn’t disappoint from a visual perspective.  Check out that Cerulean Warbler right at the top!

- A Charm of Finches has an intriguing title, and fine content besides.  Penny fears that she’s heading down the road to obsessive birding.  I say follow that road, as far as it goes…

- Poet, photographer, long time nature blogger David Ringer is a bona fide world traveler.  But he’s based in Texas and does most of his birding there.  David makes even the most mundane excursion fascinating at Search and Serendipity.

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The Lone Star State has much to offer in the way of nature, and much to offer in the way of nature bloggers as well.  Enjoy these fine colleagues!