It is with sadness that we mark the death of Joan Easton Lentz: author, teacher, naturalist. Joan died at home on July 26, 2023, after a long illness.
Nobody ever rested on a vacation with Joan. There was always a bird to be found, a flower to be identified, a trail to be hiked.
She had always wanted to see a warbler that is found at the top of a 13-mile loop trail in the mountains on the border between Texas and Mexico. Early one morning, we found ourselves in Big Bend National Park at the start of that trail. After a few hours of strenuous hiking, we heard the call of this bird, but that was not good enough for Joan. We continued on toward the crest, where Joan got two or three good views of this Colima warbler. Down the loop, we continued our long hike. Although it was late afternoon, this was not all the birding for the day. Joan had read about a broken windmill that was still drawing water on an abandoned homestead on the flat. On we drove to a bit of greenery in a dry Texas landscape, where she continued to search for birds. Finally, it was getting late and time to go. We wound up in a faded roadhouse in Terlingua, Texas, where we enjoyed a steak and a beer and listened to a surprisingly good country singer.
