Buzzards’ Roost

  • tulip

April 4…

There were many turkey buzzards perched in the trees behind the house one morning this week. Maybe that’s an ill omen or maybe they just needed a place to roost for the night in their journey from somewhere to somewhere else. Seems they migrate from as far south as South America and as far north as Canada.

Jill and her crew arrived in the middle of Thursday night to celebrate Easter with us. We have had some very nice weather while they were here which gave the youngsters plenty of opportunity to be outside. We even went out to Wildcat Bluff for an afternoon hike.

March has come and gone and left us with lots of weeds to contend with. In spite of the cold March weather, the weeds get a good start and are halfway to world domination by April, when they really take off. The unpleasant weather limits my ability to do much about them during March, partly because it is too cold for the herbicide to be effective and partly because it is too cold to work outside much. In October of 2018 and again in October 2019, we recorded over seven inches of moisture, which is a lot for our area, and resulted in every seed that has collected over the last hundreds years germinating before winter set in. The weeds don’t grow much through the cold weather, but when March rolls around and the soil temperature starts to rise, they really take off. Fortunately we didn’t get a large amount of moisture this past fall so the weeds shouldn’t be as bad this spring. Not that there aren’t plenty, but I’m experimenting with a new tactic that seems promising. In the past when the weather warms enough to allow spraying I’ve relied on herbicide to attack the weeds. I will still do so this spring, but I’m going to first knock them down with the trimmer or mower, then go back and spray them. That will retard their seeding out until I have a chance to spray them, at least that’s what I hope. I made a pretty good start on the trimming this week, getting about two thirds of the lane trimmed. Here’s hoping the weather holds and I can finish trimming and start spraying. The spraying should go faster since there is less foliage to cover and the kill ratio should be higher as well.

The ducks that have visited in the spring for a number of years are back. There had been a mallard pair hanging around the pond earlier in the year but I never thought they were our regulars. They seemed skittish and would fly away if approached. The regular pair don’t do that. They aren’t tame, of course, and maintain a healthy wariness but they don’t fly off if I come into the enclosure.

April 11…

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy, which I’ve been reading, is about using native plants in home gardening. Seems that many insects that feed on native plants can’t feed on non-native species. According to the author, the insects aren’t adapted to digest non-natives or handle their defenses. The result is fewer insects that birds, song birds in particular, feed their young. The adults can eat seeds and such, but little ones can’t. If the parents can’t find enough caterpillars, well, that’s not good and there goes your diversity. Tallamy writes that people have so altered the environment that many species struggle to find food and shelter in what was once their native habitat. His book is a guide to using native plant species and gardening practices conducive to native plants so that everyone a with planter on a patio to a normal residential lot to larger grounds can develop their own “Homegrown National Park” where birds and other critters can thrive. Tallamy lives in Pennsylvania so he deals with a lot of flora found in the east. It will be a challenge to use his concepts here on the High Plains, but I’ll try. In fact, I have been trying here on SA and at Wildcat Bluff Nature Center, with, so far, limited success. Season before last, I started planting a few of the garden beds which are no longer used for produce with wild flowers and that has been successful enough to encourage me to expand to the remaining beds. Kari planted zinnias last spring and attracted a lot of butterflies and other pollinators. I’ll try those here and at the Bluff and see what happens. They aren’t native but they are showy and they attract the butterflies. They still provide nectar but don’t provide much food for caterpillars.

Yesterday Joyce and I cleaned the lily pool. It has only taken me 18 years but I’ve finally worked out a technique that makes that much less of a chore. This was a full-fledged cleaning where we removed the lily planters, drained all the water out, hosed down the sides and refilled. By moving the pump used to drain the water to the various partitions while hosing down the area, we were able suck up the crud. We moved the fish to the first partition we drained after we filled it back up with water so they were out of the way while we worked on the other partitions. Joyce also weeded a couple of nearby flower beds and we had to go lie down after we finished. But, here we are with a clean lily pool before Mother’s Day. Amazing.

April 25…

After a week of up and down weather it was a warm, calm evening Friday when we went to the first live performance of the Amarillo Symphony in over a year. The guest artist was composer, pianist, and arranger Joachim Horsley performing his “Via Havana” piano-driven re-imaginings of great classical works using Afro-Caribbean rhythms. He was aided and abetted by three percussionists, a basest, and of course the Amarillo Symphony orchestra. The performance was shorter than usual so there could be two performances that evening allowing for social distancing, which was nice. We even got to see in the audience the man who looks like John from behind and whom we call “John-head.” It was an entertaining evening and nice to get out for a change. Masks were required but most of us ignored the requirement which made for a more pleasant evening. We enjoy the symphony, all the more because it is so easy to get to and to get home from.

The next day was one of those exceptionally pleasant spring days and we spent part of the day watching Rebecca play tennis. I’m not sure but it seemed to be a competition among city middle school and high school junior varsities. We were told Rebecca would play in five eight-game matches. We were there for the last two, but then there was a sixth match, which we didn’t stay for. Rebecca won the first three matches we didn’t see, then the fourth one we did. That one she won 8-0 and we waited to watch her in the fifth. The girl she played in the fifth is on her team at school, I think, and, while she is Rebecca’s age, she is much bigger and has a serve to match. Rebecca didn’t handle every serve but she hung in there and delivered a few shots of her own. There was some serious velocity on their volleys with both girls making the welkin ring, what welkin there was on the court. The score went back and forth but Rebecca won it 8-6. Turned out there was a sixth game we didn’t stay for. It may have been to determine the overall winner and Rebecca’s opponent was a close friend. I don’t know what the score was, but Rebecca won that match to sweep the day.

April 30…

Feeding the cats one morning this week I noticed movement in one of the nest boxes in the chicken, er, cat house out of the corner of my eye. Thinking to myself “all three cats are here around the chow bowl so what is that?”, I redirected my gaze and came eye-to-eye with a possum. I snapped a pic with my phone but left matters as they were and reported to Joyce who came to investigate. She informed Rebecca and between the two of them they determined there were up to eight young ones besides the mother. I feared complications but they were gone when I fed the cats as usual the next morning.

I continue my battle with weeds but they have me outnumbered. I don’t know if the lack of moisture lately is helping me but it probably is. The weeds are still growing so the herbicide is more effective but maybe the weeds aren’t growing as much as they could be.

The Epoch Times