Texas Nature Trackers - Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept Program

Do we have an over-active imagination, or do you see it too??

Sam Kieschnick from Texas Parks and Wildlife-DFW Urban Wildlife highlighted this in a recent presentation and it broke TNT biologist Wendy's mind! Nature is incredible and full of discoveries!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39562062
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/225194413

Happy Photo Friday and belated World Bee Day!
Today I would like to highlight the tiny ecosystem engineers that are often overlooked and underappreciated, our native Texas Bees! With over 800 species of native bees, Texas is queen bee of bee biodiversity.
Native bees pollinate our native plants, as well as our food crops. They are essential for well-functioning ecosystems and for food supply sustainability. Bees are as diverse in their behavior and life history as they are in appearance. I could talk about bees all day and barely scratch the surface.

Learn more by scrolling through iNaturalist and filtering by bees (Anthophila). Only 413 species have been logged on iNat in Texas, so there is still much to be done!

Read about our native bees and how to manage habitat to help them, with this awesome resource from TPWD.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/nongame/native-pollinators/media/TPWD-Native-Pollinator-Management.pdf

Native Bees from iNaturalist seen in attached photos: Thanks to all the awesome contributors for your dedication and skills. :-)

Sunflower Chimney Bee (, CC_BY_NC)
Oblique Longhorn Bee (, CC_BY_NC)
Striped Sweat Bee (, CC_BY_NC)
Broad-Banded Longhorn Bee (, CC_BY_NC)
Eastern Carpenter Bee (, CC_BU_NC)
Bristle Sweat Bee (, CC_BY_NC)

Happy Photo Friday! With City Nature Challenge complete and the observations pouring in, we often focus on the big numbers, but I wanted to zoom in a bit closer and highlight some individual observations that were made for Texas SGCN's or, Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

An important goal of Texas Nature Trackers is to help gather data for these species, so we can better support their recovery.

Thank you to the below observers for sharing your time, passion and excellent photography skills!

Black-Tailed Prairie Dog: , CC-BY-NC
Black-Capped Vireo: , CC-BY
Texas Tortoises: , CC-BY-NC
Green Heron: , CC-BY-NC
Western Massasauga: , CC-BY-NC

Today is the day! City Nature Challenge is here, and naturalists are already hard at work observing.

Enjoy these observations from some dedicated naturalists burning the midnight oil, blacklighting for nocturnal insects at Palmetto State Park last night.

Great job y'all!

The first 3 users to post on 4/24 in a CNC area:
Curved-Lined Owlet moth by
Grapevine Beetle by
Hypatopa puntiferella (a Blastoblasid moth) by

Get out there and see what you might discover!