The Heard Natural Science Museum

 McKinney, TX

Visiting The Animals of the World, or at least some of them

The Heard

This morning we went to The Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary.  It is a small nature museum, an animal rescue, and a nature preserve all wrapped up into a neat package.  There are a few miles of hiking trails and it has some of the last old native grasslands in the area and attracts birds from all over.  It also has wetlands so there is a good diversity of different habitats for birds. We chose a 2 mile loop that passed through the various habitats and had plenty of shade.  It was a really nice walk and we added 6 new Texas species to our list so we are up to 43.  After the walk we hung out in the airconditioned museum section and saw some fossils, and other wildlife displays.

It was early and we were the first ones through so many of the rescued animals were still out and active

The trails over the wetlands were nice elevated boardwalks

We saw a stashed faun hiding near the boardwalk waiting for its mom to return

We saw a non-venomous water snake

There was an indoor beehive

So many types of bees!

Taxidermy 

I didn't try to touch the globe.  

They had some rocks, minerals, and geodes to look at

And this really nice "stained glass window" made of cut rocks

I even got to stick my head through a thing

The lady working there offered to take our photos and she did a great job showing us and other stuff.  

It was a fun little museum and a nice hike.  I could have hiked around more if it wasn't 101 degrees out.  It's another place we can get into for free with our ASTC pass.  I also wore my special 4th of July outfit!  For the rest of the day we sat in our Airbnb and watched the Teen Titans Go marathon.  Later that evening we had a Zoom meeting with with my sister and brother in law back in Washington.  They are enjoying the cool weather there.  We caught up and started planning our meet up in New Orleans.  We are all looking forward to that in December.

If you missed the post yesterday about Horses and Guinea pigs you can read it here.