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Congratulations, Mary Istre! By Kathy Whaley
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Refuge Manager Kathy Whaley is pleased to announce that Mary Istre (formerly Mary Maddux) has officially been reassigned to the position of Wildlife Refuge Specialist and will serve as Deputy Refuge Manager at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. The position has remained vacant since March 2025 following the resignation of former Deputy Refuge Manager Paul Balkenbush through the federal Deferred Resignation Program.Mary brings extensive experience to her new role. Since 2010, she has served as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region Oil & Gas Specialist, helping protect refuge habitats and natural resources across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona while also recognizing the rights of mineral owners and the operational needs of producers. Before joining the USFWS at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Mary lived in Wyoming, where she attended University of Wyoming and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal & Veterinary Science with a minor in Rangeland Ecology & Watershed Management in 2000. After college, she worked for the Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming, focusing on oil and gas management operations. Although Wildlife Refuge Specialist is the official title, the position is essentially equivalent to Assistant Refuge Manager or “Deputy” Refuge Manager. During her 15 years with the USFWS, and in addition to managing her Oil & Gas duties, Mary has gained broad experience in refuge operations and management while carrying out a wide range of responsibilities including administrative duties, assisting visitors, serving as interim Refuge Manager at Tishomingo NWR for a few months when the position was vacant, and basically doing literally anything needed to help in any way she could. In her new position, Mary will assist with all aspects of daily refuge management operations including helping ensure resource management remains the primary focus, coordinating maintenance projects, supporting the visitor services program, assisting with budget planning, and completing various administrative tasks. Much of this work takes place behind the scenes but is essential to the successful operation of the refuge. Please join us in welcoming Mary to her new role and wishing her continued success! |
Refuge Update: Though refuge lands are open from sunrise until sunset every day of the year, the Visitor Center is open Monday through Saturday 9-4, Sunday 1-5. It's a great time to visit the refuge! The entire Refuge is in bloom! Come see the amazing wildflowers! All hiking trails are clear, all roads are open. Enjoy!
Photo by Nancy Miller |
More Amazing Nature Photos taken at the refuge. Facebook account Required. |
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Upcoming Activities:
The Friends of Hagerman is Hosting 8 Family Friendly Events in June! Donate to help fund programs like these! |
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Second Saturday Presentation Lake Texoma: A 4D view of Lake Ecology with Dr. Tim Patton Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 10:00 AM in the Visitor Center
This presentation will provide a broad overview of lake ecology. We’ll place emphasis on Lake Texoma, but it will be applicable to lakes in general. We’ll start outside of the lake with topics such as watershed and lake basin characteristics. Then we’ll take a deep dive (pun intended) to look at factors such as light, heat (including lake “turnover”), carbon, and oxygen, and how these come together to shape food webs. We’ll also discuss how these factors change in space and time, that is, how they vary depending upon where you are in the lake profile and what time of year, or even what time of day it happens to be. There’s a lot going on down there! Tim Patton is a Professor Emeritus (which is a fancy way of saying retired professor) at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he worked for 26 years. He is a native of Arkansas and completed his Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Wildlife Management at Arkansas Tech University. He went on to obtain a Master’s and then a Ph.D. in Zoology and Physiology from The University of Wyoming, then worked as a research scientist for the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit before becoming a professor at Southeastern in 1998. He was also an adjunct faculty at the University of Oklahoma and taught reservoir ecology at the OU Biological research Station. His career research has focused on various aspects of aquatic ecology and vertebrate ectotherms including fish, amphibians, and reptiles. His most recent and current research has focused alligators in the wetlands of southeastern Oklahoma. Future Second Saturday Programs |
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The Bird Festival was a Tremendous Success! Thank you Lea Watson and Nelda Zamir for these amazing photos! |
Adopt-A-Goose and Adopt-A-Goose Field Exceed Our 2025 Goal – Help Us Launch 2026!
Each winter, thousands of Snow Geese and Ross’s Geese visit Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (HNWR). These geese have migrated thousands of miles from nesting grounds near the Arctic Circle to HNWR. To provide a vital food resource for these exhausted and hungry travelers, HNWR plants fields of winter wheat. The Friends of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (FoH) sponsors the “Adopt-a- Goose” fund raiser to help offset budget constraints of the refuge and purchase the wheat seed needed to plant the fields. Please consider supporting our effort with your generous donation. How can you help? Adopt-a-Goose Donations of any amount are greatly appreciated.
Why did the Friends of Hagerman start Adopt-A-Goose?
What are the benefits?
What is being provided by the Friends of Hagerman?
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This page is updated daily. |
Donation Method You can donate with a credit/debit card by scanning the QR code or using the link: The Friends of Hagerman NWR Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) entity whose mission is to instill reverence, respect and conservation of our wild creatures and habitats through supporting environmental education, recreational activities and programs of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. No goods and services are to be received by donors; therefore, all donations may be tax-deductible. |
Butterfly Garden Walks
Registration is not necessary |
Pipevine Swallowtail (right) by Laurie Sheppard |
The Weekly Bird Census
Left to Right: Wayne Meyer, Nancy Riggs, Jack Chiles, and Mike Petrick Each Tuesday a team of experienced birders, including Master Naturalist Jack Chiles, traverse 35 miles of refuge roads and hiking trails, documenting every bird they encounter. This Bird Census is reported to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology for use in research, and each week we will bring you a link to their actual bird count, and a summary of their adventures. Click to Enlarge Photos
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Prothonotary Warbler with an insect robbed from the spider, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Tree Swallow, and White Ibises It was a nice, fairly calm, day for our weekly census. High lake level still has all the mudflats covered so we only had two species of shorebirds today, Killdeer and Spotted Sandpipers. We had 5 White Ibis today, possibly more but as they move around a lot we did not want to double count. We had 6 Yellow-crowned Night Herons. We saw the White Ibises and Yellow-crowned Night Herons at both Deaver Pond and the low water crossing on Bennett Ln. We counted 272 Canada Geese today, many of which are this year's young. We saw Inca Doves today, which is good, because they have been very scarce. We had 7 Yellow-billed Cuckoos and a Greater Roadrunner. Some good finds were an American Kestrel and a Swainson's Hawk. The female Hooded Merganser is still present at the low water crossing on Bennett Ln. 2 Tricolored Herons were counted. 16 Mississippi Kites were seen. Overall it was a good day with 76 species. See the rest of Jack's notes and the latest Bird Census Results |
The Friends of Hagerman NWR Photo Club Meeting: Workflow - Manage Your Images Saturday, July 18, 2026 at 1:00 in the Visitor Center
A photography workflow is essential for efficiently managing your images from the moment you capture them to the final step of sharing with others. We will look at the specific steps involved in a typical photography workflow as well as demonstrate them. We will also explore some of the features in Lightroom that can help make organizing and sharing your files much easier. A good workflow can allow you to spend less time on file handling and more time taking photos. All are Welcome |
We’ll kick off the day with a guided nature hike, complete with loaner binoculars so every child can explore up close. Next, “The Snake Guy” of Grayson County will introduce his collection of live snakes, followed by a fascinating spider exhibit featuring hundreds of live specimens. Students will create their own terrariums and learn about prairie ecosystems with Texas Master Naturalists. Then it’s off to the Butterfly Garden, where they’ll learn about Monarch Butterflies. With plenty of opportunities to explore, get a little dirty, and learn by doing, this is a day kids won’t forget! Parents are welcome to drop off or stay for the day (a lawn chair is recommended). Either way, your child will head home happy, dirty, tired and with great memories and new knowledge about the natural world! Friends and siblings are welcome! If you would like to register more than one child, please revisit the form to register each child individually. Register For Nature'Ology Today! Hurry! Only 30 children accepted! |
| Puddles' Craft Corner By Cindy Steele, Master Naturalist |
How to Press & Dry Flowers in Three Minutes!
Welcome back to Puddles’ Craft Corner!
It’s that time again! May in our area is a virtual explosion of wildflowers everywhere you look! Just drive out on any road to enjoy all the beautiful roadside beauty! It’s fun to drive the backroads and go on a wildflower safari…even taking pictures of all the beautiful, colorful blooms!
It’s fun to go on a flower safari…looking and taking pictures, but be careful not to walk on private property and please don’t touch or pick flowers at the refuge or on private land.
There are still some Texas Bluebonnets blooming in early May. Look at this beautiful mix of our state flowers with Indian Paintbrush along this quiet backroad.
An even better place to view and photograph lovely native plants and spectacular wildflowers is right here at Hagerman NWR! Take a drive around the refuge to view beautiful patches of wildflowers or park at the visitor center and walk over to the butterfly garden. When it’s in bloom this time of year, it’s bursting with many colors of native flowers. And an added bonus is all the fluttering butterflies flitting about along with many other pollinators “doing their thing”!
You might even have some wildflowers or planted flowers in your yard! It’s a short trip to see gorgeous flowers when they’re right outside your backdoor.
Now, what do all these amazing wildflowers have to do with our topic? Flowers are beautiful, but they don’t last forever…especially if you pick them. You can put them in a glass with water and they will stay pretty for several days, but they will eventually wilt. So, how can we make them last forever…keeping their brilliant colors. We can dry them and press them. How do we do that? There are several ways to dry and press flowers. An easy way is to place them inside a large heavy book and leave them there. But that will take several weeks to a couple of months. Is there a faster way to dry and press flowers? Yes, there is and it’s a very easy way…
Junior Ranger Program: Advanced and Intermediate
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| The Junior Ranger Pledge As a Junior Ranger at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, I pledge to protect outdoor creatures small, big and huge. To keep the water, air and land clean. To make enjoying nature a routine. I will share my new skills with family and friends. When people and nature work together, everybody wins! |
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Sponsors Enable the Friends to…
Join Today! Memberships available for $20 |
Come, Take a Tour on the Wildlife Explorer! Come join us for a ride on the Wildlife Explorer! Our new and beautiful tram is available for ninety-minute tours of Hagerman every Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 PM, weather permitting. Our tours are as varied as our drivers. Each tram driver has her/his approach to the tour: you may learn about wildlife, birds, habitat, refuge history, photography, you name it! To paraphrase, “a Wildlife Explorer tour at Hagerman is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” But you know it’s going to be good! Come see us! Lots of stops for bird-watching and photography.
Register for a Tram Tour Today! |
Sunrise at the Little Sit by Laurie Sheppard | Photo by Cathy Van Bebber |
Meet Jack and the Bird Census Team and learn how to identify the birds of North Texas while enjoying the beautiful sunrise over Lake Texoma! Modeled after Cornell's national "Big Sit" event, a group of dedicated birders invite you to join them at sunrise to conduct a bird count as multiple species fly to the water and the surrounding land to feed. Leaders will bring spotting scopes and will provide tips for identification of the many species you will see. This event lasts a couple of hours, but all are welcome to come and go as they please. Participants are advised to bring a chair, binoculars and water. The First Saturday of every month, beginning 30 minutes before sunrise. |
Location: H Pad, Sadler, Texas 76264 (H Pad is in Sadler, but it is part of the refuge) GPS Coordinates: 33.734961, -96.780582
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Early Bird Walk |
Dr. Wayne Meyer, Ornithologist and Jack Chiles, Master Naturalist will lead our Early Birding event, weather permitting. Bring binoculars or borrow ours. Meet at the Visitor Center and return in time for the Second Saturday program. |
Please Register (Optional) so we may inform you via email of unforseen changes/cancellations.
June 13 is the last bird walk of the season! |
Photo by Bill Powell |
Do You Like to Work Outside? The Refuge Needs You! |
It takes a lot of people to have a beautiful garden! The Wednesday Garden Team Love to work with native plants and meet other gardeners? Come and help us add plants, weed and mulch our beautiful butterfly garden. Garden Team volunteers get first dibs on thinned native plants as well as access to seeds and cuttings for propagation. Gardeners meet on most Wednesdays, but times vary. Contact Us to subscribe to the volunteer garden team weekly email. Provide own tools and gloves. Minimum age 18, or 16 if accompanied by parent/volunteer. |
Mowing and Refuge Beautification: The Work Crew Do you enjoy working outside, mowing, sprucing up hiking trails, trimming and removing brush and general cleanup? Show your love for nature by joining the Outdoor Crew at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Outdoor Crew volunteers meet on the First Tuesday and Fourth Saturday of every month. Contact Us for exact times, dates and other details about joining the volunteer Work Crew. Scouts welcome! |
Visitor Center Volunteers Needed! |
Do you enjoy meeting all kinds of people from all over the world, and like-minded people in our area? If yes, consider joining our team of Visitor Center Volunteers. You will greet refuge guests, distribute maps and other refuge information, and make sales in the gift shop. Shifts available every day of the week: Monday through Saturday 9 AM to 12:30 PM and 12:30 to 4:00 PM, Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 PM. Training is provided. Contact Us if interested. |
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| Thank You To Our Contributors: Jack Chiles, Pat Goodrum, Bill Powell, Cindy Steele, Kathy Whaley Refuge Manager: Kathy Whaley Acting Deputy Refuge Manager: Mary Maddux Visitor Services Manager: Spencer Beard Friends of Hagerman NWR Foundation 6465 Refuge Road, Sherman, TX 75092 Phone: 903-786-2826 Join us on Facebook: |
Search for any word--do not use quotes for phrases |
6465 Refuge Road Sherman, TX 75092
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Kroger: Stop by the customer service desk at Kroger and link your Kroger Card to the Friends of Hagerman: the Friends will get rewards for every dollar you spend, at no cost to you.
Please add info@friendsofhagerman.org to your contacts to ensure delivery of registration confirmations, account information and the Featherless Flyer
See you at the refuge!