The ever-wonderful Mineola Nature Preserve is next up on the TAS field trip calendar! Join us as we look for spring migrants and nesting species on Saturday, April 12th! We will meet up at 8:00 AM in the parking lot.
The nature preserve is situated atop an enormous rolling hilltop … think The Sound of Music! From there, trails lead in various directions through meadows, woodlands, and down to swamps in the Sabine River floodplain. Alligators inhabit the bottomlands, as do nesting prothonotary warblers! Listen for the sweet “see-see-see” song of this bright yellow and gray bundle of beauty in the flooded bottomlands, where they utilize cavities in snags and stumps to nest. Other summer residents we might see are indigo and painted buntings, blue-gray gnatcatchers, and little blue herons, as well as a variety of migratory and resident warblers and vireos. Birds aren’t the only beautiful songsters of the woods and swamps; frogs and insects may also provide a beautiful soundtrack for our explorations.
Flowers of the lowlands include lovely white Texas spiderlilies and eastern bluestar, and the bouquets of rusty blackhaw shrubs beckon hungry pollinators. Many native Texas wildflowers bloom in the meadows. You’ll find a large pollinator garden by the parking lot, which attracts a variety of butterflies and bees.
Let’s go enjoy nature’s abundant beauty and welcome our summer avian residents back home!
Date: April 12, 2025
Time: 8:00 AM
Location: Mineola Nature Preserve, CR 2724, Mineola, TX
