subject: Wildlife In Texas Hill Country [print this page] If you are seeking a unique and beautiful place to vacation, you could not choose better than the Texas Hill Country. Located in just about the geographic center of Texas, bordered on the east by Austin and on the south by San Antonio, Hill Country includes such towns as Llano with its Enchanted Rock, the second largest granite dome to be found in the US, Willie Nelsons musical town of Luckenbach, and the Wildseed Wildflower Farms in Fredericksburg.
If your focus is particularly on wildlife, you could not choose a more diverse location to spend your leisure time. The Hill Country is home to numerous endangered species, which you might want to see before they are all gone. An especially important endangered songbird is the Golden-cheeked Warbler, which is adapted to live exceptionally well in the Hill Country, and which is endangered by development and changing conditions there. This bird nests in no other location in the world except in the oak-juniper woodlands of the Hill Country, where the birds line their nests with strips of the bark of mountain cedar, mixed with spider webs. Another endangered songbird is the Black-capped Vireo, which once nested as far north as Kansas, in specialized nests just a few feet off the ground. Today, threats such as predation and cowbird parasitism have reduced the Black-capped Vireos habitat to the Texas Hill Country.
You might find the Barton Springs Salamander at the outflows of Barton Springs in Austin. This is the only place on earth to find them. This species is endangered partly because of the need for abundant quantities of pure water from the Barton Springs Aquifer, which are becoming increasingly polluted, and also because of increasing urban water use which has lowered the output of the Aquifer. There is also the Texas Blind Salamander, which has evolved to need no vision and is all white in color, except for its blood-red gills, which absorb oxygen from the water. You will find it along the San Marcos Fault and Purgatory Creek in the Hill Country.
Something about the climate of Central Texas is particularly conducive to displays of wildflowers. If you travel to the Hill Country in the springtime, you can witness the outpouring of blossoms there, from the Texas Bluebonnet (the state flower), the Texas Paintbrush and Indian Blanket a month or two later, the yellow Greenthread flowers, the purple Winecup wildflowers and the massive displays of yellow Primrose flowers, making the wildflower displays last almost all summer.
Hiking is a great pastime, providing many opportunities to observe wildlife and plants. Numerous swimming holes in the area give ample time and place to cool off.
