Southwest Louisiana Master Naturalists

06/23/2026

This Louisiana native is a true four-season performer without overwhelming your landscape.

Why we love it:
• Clouds of fragrant, fringe-like white flowers in spring
• Attractive blue-black fruit on female trees that birds love
• Golden-yellow fall color
• Typically grows just 12–20 feet tall and wide, making it a great choice for smaller spaces

🌱 Growing Conditions
• Sun to part shade
• Moist, well-drained soil
• Adaptable to a variety of soil types once established
• Works well as a specimen tree, near patios, or along woodland edges

🦋 Wildlife Value
• Supports native pollinators
• Fruits provide food for birds
• Native trees help support local food webs and biodiversity

🍂 Best Time to Plant in Louisiana
Fall through winter is ideal. Planting from October through February allows roots to establish before the heat of summer arrives.

Small yard. Big impact. Native trees like American Fringe Tree provide beauty, habitat, and seasonal interest for years to come.

06/23/2026

Really good

The diet is written on the face — you just have to read it!
The bill is the tool, and the shape is the job. Take the goldfinch, for instance: its short conical bill acts like a seed mill, so dedicated to seeds that a cowbird chick sneaks into its nest ends up starving on the all-seed menu provided by its parents.

On the other hand, the Carolina wren's thin, slightly curved bill functions like a pair of tweezers, flipping leaves and probing bark for spiders and caterpillars. Same yard, but completely different equipment!

Now, let's talk about the green heron—this bird is a showstopper! It shares a dagger-like bill with the great blue heron but has a unique fishing trick that few animals possess: it uses bait! Whether it's dropping a feather, twig, or live insect into the water, it freezes and waits for a curious fish to swim within reach. This makes it one of the rare tool-using birds on Earth.

The avocet also has a long thin bill that curves upward, allowing it to sweep side to side through shallow water like a scythe, straining out tiny shrimp and water bugs. Meanwhile, the chimney swift sports a nearly non-existent bill that opens into a wide net for scooping insects right out of the air!

Then there's the sapsucker, which chisels neat rows of wells into living bark to drink the sap that bleeds out. And let’s not forget about the great horned owl with its hooked bill capable of tearing apart prey larger than itself—rabbits, skunks, and even other owls!

The robin? Its medium bill does it all: worms in spring and berries in winter.

Eight bill shapes. Eight diets. These birds have already told you what they eat; you just have to read the tools they're carrying! 🐾

06/14/2026

Do you love Foxes? Would you like to participate in a ZOOM educational event?

The LMN-NE is inviting you to an illustrated presentation on Gray Foxes by ULM researcher, Catrina Weiner, who has kindly agreed to share her knowledge including original research with our State group ,

Join this Zoom call Jun 18, 2026 06:00 PM to learn about Grey Foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), about their differing physiology between stubbier Eastern populations and more graceful long-legged Western populations, their life-style, habits, reproduction, denning, and distribution patterns within the Americas and in Louisiana.

Learn about the distribution patterns within habitats shared by their predators such as coyotes, and how they use temporal as well as spatial avoidance to minimize contact with Coyotes, Bobcats and domestic dogs.
Topic: Gray Foxes

Time: Jun 18, 2026 06:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85856444779?pwd=N0e03O55NfAlvlK9PU6MJD0oXyIiuo.1

Meeting chat link
https://us02web.zoom.us/launch/jc/85856444779

Meeting ID: 858 5644 4779
Passcode: 370235

Modernize workflows with Zoom's trusted collaboration tools: including video meetings, Zoom Chat, VoIP phone, webinars, whiteboard, contact center, and events.

06/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/18ftQ4fsnY/?mibextid=wwXIfr

It spent two years underground. It has three weeks.

The firefly that rises from your lawn on a warm June evening — Photinus pyralis, the common eastern firefly — ate nothing as an adult. It has no functional digestive system. Every calorie it will ever spend on flight, courtship, and signaling was accumulated during two years as a larva in the leaf litter and damp soil of your garden, hunting slugs and snails in the dark.

Then it emerges. And it has 21 nights.

Night 1 — it climbs a grass blade and takes its first flight. Tests its light: a bioluminescent reaction more energy-efficient than any bulb humans have manufactured.

Nights 2-10 — it pulses its species-specific flash pattern above the vegetation. Photinus pyralis males make a distinctive J-shaped dipping flight with a half-second flash every 5.5 seconds. The female waits low in the grass and answers with a precise two-second delay. He is looking for that specific response.

Nights 11-15 — he finds her. The next generation is secured.

Nights 16-21 — energy reserves depleting. Slower. Lower. The light dims with each flight. On the last night it simply doesn't rise.

504 hours. No food. No second chance.

How to keep them in your yard:

🌿 Turn off outdoor lights from dusk to dawn during May through July. Artificial light drowns their flash signals — males can't find females and females can't see males through the light pollution. This is the single highest-impact action.

🍂 Leave the leaf litter in your garden beds. Firefly larvae live in moist soil and decomposing leaves for 1 to 2 years before they become the lights you see. A tidy, bare-soil garden has no fireflies.

🚫 Avoid broadcast insecticide applications in your yard — they kill larvae and the slugs larvae feed on underground.

🌙 Don't mow after dark in early summer. Females rest low in the grass. A single pass can eliminate an entire local population.

The magic of your summer nights took two years to build. It has three weeks to shine. 🌟

06/01/2026

June 13
9- noon

05/15/2026

SWLA Master Naturalists celebrate 10 years!

You may have seen us at an event sponsored by:

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, McNeese State University, Creole Nature Trail, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, City of Lake Charles, Scouts, Home School Activities, Garden Clubs, CPSB Louisiana Day, EDS Native Plant Initiative, Sabine Wildlife Refuge, Audubon Bird counts, Cameron Parish Cleanup, Sam Houston State Park, Historic City Hall, Green Gate Garden Center, Good Earth Garden Center, and others I may have missed.
Stop by, say hello, and ask questions! We love to visit,
See you out there!

05/11/2026

SWLA Master Naturalists Celebrate 10 Years
Each year we accept 20 applicants for the certification program.
There are over 120 Certified Master Naturalists in the Lake Charles area who have completed the course requirements. These volunteers are sharing knowledge about maintaining and restoring a healthy ecosystem, whether in your own backyard or across the state.

05/09/2026

05/09/2026

The 2026 iNaturalist.org City Nature Challenge results are in. SWLA made a strong showing with 2,698 observations, 911 species, 302 identifiers, and 101 observers in the region. Check out the project here https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-southwest-louisiana?tab=observations . Full results in the umbrella project can be found here https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026 .

Great job , everyone! Mark your calendars for the last weekend of April in 2027, and we'll do it again!

Join in the 2026 City Nature Challenge! Make observations of wild plants and animals 24-27 April, and take part in the largest community science biodiversity census in the world while helping us better understand – and therefore, take care of – nature that lives in and around urban areas. Not in...