Mountain City Montage
by PAULINE TOM
What’re you doing – putting debris in the mesh bag for our plastic bags?” RonTom fussed a few weeks back. Sure ‘nough debris – leaves and sticks.
“T’wasn’t me. Must’ve been a little bird.”
Bewick’s Wren nestlings fledged a week or so ago. The mother came in and out of the garage to her safe hanging nest through a missing flap-hole in our teenie weenie doggie door.
Do you know how to distinguish the two wren species that nest here? Carolina Wren: buffy breast and a bit chubby; Bewick’s Wren: grayish breast and rather slender. Until my friend, Julie, taught me I thought they looked the same. And, I thought they were a “House Wren.”
The House Wren does not nest here, though you could see it in the winter.
“Look, Pauline! Looks like you finally have a Barn Swallow.”
The porch light barely illuminated a nest built on a ledge I added under the eaves of our back porch. Less than two weeks later, an Eastern Phoebe sits on eggs high above Kiss’Me’s yip-yip-yipping. She says her name when she’s out flitting from perch to perch, “Phoebe. Phoebe.”
Still no Barn Swallow on any of the ledges I’ve provided. They really do eat mosquitoes.
I’d love Purple Martins, even though they do not eat mosquitoes. www.purplemartin.org explains how it is that Purple Martins are the “only bird species widely promoted by misinformation.”
A few overzealous martin house manufacturers have become extremely wealthy by fostering the myth that Purple Martins can eat 2000 mosquitoes per day. Their packaging and sales literature are plastered with this slogan. Such assertions, however, are blatantly untrue. Unfortunately, their propaganda campaigns have been so successful that most martin landlords embrace this falsehood with religious fervor.
The “best” nesting comes last. Eastern Bluebirds selected the Garraway’s nestbox, right around the corner from mine. Frequent trips back and forth to the nestbox brought news week-before-last of the hatching.
RonTom did a double take and put the car in reverse as we sailed past the Negley marquee after church. “Dianne Polk. Substitute Teacher of the Year.” James is the proud husband. Dianne’s is the story of one who wanted to be a school teacher, but with a high school marriage, the educational aspect didn’t work out. Dianne worked herself up in Hays CISD, starting as a teachers’ aide. And, now, just look at her! Congratulations, Dianne! I’m so proud of you.
My pulling weeds by hand project got interrupted in the backyard, for need of a running strip for Wiener Dog Race practice. BoD (revved up) and Kiss’Me’ (couldn’t care less) will join hundreds of others in the famous Buda Wiener Dog Races this weekend.
Next big event: 160th Birthday Party for Mountain City. Time (confirmed): 10 a.m.-noon, May 1. Hear speeches by Beth Smith and Bob Barton. Buy a Mountain City Cookbook, fresh out of the oven. Sell or buy or display at the Farmer’s Market (for Mountain City-grown produce and flowers.) Eat birthday cake. And, of course, activities for the young ones.
And, of course, I need tidbits. Please email to [email protected] or leave a message at 512-268-5678
Thanks! Love, Pauline
