Things We Saw and Learned at the TXMN Annual Conference by Julian Yates
So, I packed my bags, jumped into the car, and headed south to attend the TXMN annual conference in McAllen. It’s only 350 miles, so I was there in no time; I just had to pay attention to the numerous Highway Patrol vehicles that proliferated the median south of San Antonio.
There were five attendees from our chapter: Keith and Robin Winfree, Brenda Foss, Sheila Endres, and myself. There were 467 attendees at the conference, and up for grabs were 100 hours of field trips and 136 hours of classes over four days. Presentations covered every aspect of the Texas environment, too numerous to list, but allowed each attendee to follow their passion and learn something new.
There were a few highlights for me:
We went on a guided bird hike at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands and saw 49 bird species, including 11 additions to my lifetime list. The Chachalaca was my favorite.
We spent a whole day at the El Sauz ranch, including watching the annular solar eclipse and seeing the” Ring of Fire” when the clouds parted. We had an Astronomy Professor and a NASA Educator provide us with some fascinating information. The other exciting thing about this ranch is its population of Ocelots; there are more there than anywhere else in the US. The recent PBS Nature series documentary “American Ocelot” was filmed there. We didn’t see any, of course, but we knew they were there.
The other highlight was our chapter member Mika Geiger winning the photography competition in the macro section and the entire competition. Her photo was the best out of 500 entries. Well done, Mika! Here is her fantastic photo:
The good news is that next year’s annual conference will be in San Marcos, a nice, easy drive from the Austin area, so no doubt many of us will make it there.
Then I got back in my car and drove another 350 miles back to Austin, and yes, the Highway Patrol vehicles were still sitting there.