09/18/2026
Two Texas icons, one fleeting fence line.
A Northern Mockingbird and a Scissortailed Flycatcher, symbols of Texas wildness, grit, and freedom, perched together on a wire in northwest Fort Worth. But look past them, and the story gets complicated.
In the immediate background stands a tiny pocket of undeveloped land, a quiet holdout completely encircled by rising concrete and new construction. Look a little closer at that untouched ground, and you’ll see it’s blanketed in bright yellow. That’s Bastard Cabbage, an aggressive, non-native, invasive species that thrives on the exact soil disturbance caused by rapid development.
This single frame holds a stark Texas paradox:
The Perch: Native wildlife clinging to the last edges of open space.
The Paradox: Even the “untouched” land is already changed… the ecological ripples of development arrive long before the bulldozers do, replacing native prairies with resilient invasives.
The Permanent: Concrete goes up in months, but once native grassland is paved over, there is no recovering it. It doesn’t come back.
Development moves fast, but loss moves quietly. What kind of landscape are we leaving for wildlife when the final holdouts disappear?
Know the Ground You Stand On.
📸: Mockingbird Collective
