Joann Merritt's Essays

MIDNATS OF THE MONTH: THE MERRITTS
By Frances Williams

“I hear Joann getting excited - we’d better go over where she is quickly!” says someone during a MIDNAT Saturday morning walk. Anything beautiful or unusual in nature gets Joann excited and it’s always worth a few extra steps to see her current discovery. A bank of pink penstemon along a country road , dozens of Crescent butterflies nectaring on a patch of flowering frog fruit, a Verdin entering his winter dormitory, Poorwills calling on a summer evening, a fruit tree in full bloom with both butterflies and blossoms, the first tiny “belly flowers” of spring.

Don, the other half of the Merritt team, has sharp eyes and keen ears and is a great person to have along anytime, but is indispensable when we’re trying to find an elusive, skulking bird. He’s a wizard with a camera who casts spells on fluttering butterflies and produces marvelous photos of them.

The Merritt team has volunteered at the Sibley Environmental Center for years. During September and October, April and May, they spent one or two mornings a week helping the Sibley staff and Midland elementary science teachers introduce sixth graders to the ecology of West Texas. They have also given bird and butterfly programs in the schoolroom. Joann can establish rapport with most youngsters, opening their eyes to the wonders of the natural world. Having Don along to calm the obstreperous ones helps!

The Merritts are enthusiastic participants in many birding activities. In the four years of the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas Project, they censused eight blocks. For a few years they did one of the Breeding Bird Survey routes sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They participate with enthusiasm and expertise in Christmas Bird Counts and Big Day spring migration counts. They always share the “good birds” which come to their home, taking as much time as necessary to notify all the birders, then helping them find the bird. Many are the “lifers” which have been added at the Merritt’s. Because both Don and Joann are native Midlanders and know so many landowners, they have been able to obtain entry for MIDNAT field trips to several great birding spots. This has enabled us to expand our knowledge of Midland County bird life.