Friends sat at our kitchen table recently talking about the most serious predicament: Mountain City subjected to presentation of an Interlocal Agreement by City of Kyle, engineered by Hays County, that would rip a massive chunk of Mountain City’s ETJ and give it to Kyle.
A brown-headed cowbird provided comic relief, pecking on the window. Oh, thank you, Mr. Cowbird.
Sometimes, birds peck at their reflection in a window, thinking they see competition for their sweetie’s affections. Our Mr. Cowbird arrived weeks ago. This gorgeous brown-headed fellow with metallic black body hangs around off and on all day every day. It seems he moves between the kitchen window and the office, depending upon where we go.
Brown-headed cowbirds. Now, there’s an interesting species! They evolved to follow herds of buffalo who stirred up insects as they grazed. With no time to raise their own young, they learned to multiply by placing their eggs in the nests of other bird species who stayed in place during nesting season.
The TPWD website says, “The female cowbird finds the nest of another bird, lays a single egg in it, and leaves. The female cowbird may do this an average of up to 40 times per breeding season. In fact, a female in a captive breeding study laid over 70 eggs in a single year. The female cowbird will remove or destroy some or all of the eggs and or nestlings of the host birds.”
Although some moms reject the strange new egg in their nest, many do not. The cowbird eggs hatch sooner and they develop more quickly, often starving out the surrogate mom’s own chicks.
TPWD reports that the removal of one female cowbird enhances the survival of 35 songbirds each year. Although the law protects all native songbirds, in Texas the brown-headed cowbird is an exception because of an imminent threat to the endangered black-capped vireo.
Some ranchers and undeveloped landowners around Mountain City participate in the Texas Parks & Wildlife Cowbird Trapping Program, making a small dent in the local population of cowbirds.
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It’s interesting that Lynn Cobb has seen far fewer fawns in his backyard at the end of Live Oak Drive this season. That’s a good thing for us, next door. One year, we put down beloved, almost blind Starr, when a doe pummeled her with a sharp hoof. When KissMe was younger, the hide on his side was ripped open from backbone to belly. Those deer mommas, they are protective. Those dachshunds, their ancestors developed to hunt badgers.
Just this week, our eyes have feasted on the beauty of one white-tailed doe with twins.
And, we cannot take in enough of the beauty of painted buntings. They, too, are fewer this year.
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Many of you, whose emails I have on hand, received a link to an electronic slide presentation I sent to our city council, “Please Treasure our Little Slice of Paradise. Release no ETJ.”
A public hearing involving the release of a portion of Mountain City’s ETJ is scheduled Monday, June 15, 6:30 p.m. at the Plum Creek Golf Course.
All of you have my email for submitting tidbits, right? ptom5678@gmail.com Thanks! Love, Pauline
