A Bird’s Life

My husband and I eagerly watch the nature around us. We have an abundance of flora and fauna around our home and our lives are full of wildflowers and animals. To name all the animals around our home would take too much space, so I will say that there are very few native species that we have not seen or heard here.

Birds especially intrigue me. Like my Granny Ollie, I’ve always kept bird feeders and a bird bath in the back yard to lure in migrants and to feed the resident birds who entertain us. The visitors vary from year to year and I’m usually rewarded with a new-to-me bird during migrations. I have to admit that wildlife conservation and living near the lake have expanded my sightings immensely. When I was a child we never saw wild turkeys, tree swallows, bluebirds, Canada geese or Sandhill cranes. There were no cormorants here, no eagles, and few osprey and herons. Now, we have an abundance of them. We even have cattle egrets in the rural areas. I fell in love with these wonderful birds in Granbury, Texas, as they followed the cattle to feed on insects. Beautiful birds!

A cattle egret on horseback. Photo by Santiago Lacarta on Unsplash.

A couple of years ago we spent several months observing two different osprey nests between our home and town. Each time we drove by we would note the progress of construction, hatching, growing chicks and, eventually, fledging. If one of us drove to town and back we would give each other an update when we returned home. If we forgot to update we would be questioned, “What are the ospreys up to today?”

The nests were built just days apart and the eggs hatched along the same timeline. One nest was on our road not far from the lake and the other nest was on a street light by the lake in town. The town nest was built on top of an owl decoy that was supposed to deter osprey nesting. It helped hold the nest together. I like to think that owl became a toy companion for the hatchlings.

We enjoyed watching the amazing growth of the chicks and the dedication of the parents. Even through windstorms and torrential rain both nests flourished.

In late Spring the nestlings were as big as the parents and the time came to spread their wings and fly. The fledglings from the nest nearest our home were eager to fly and soon their nest was abandoned. The town nest, however, was not.

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

It’s amazing how the animal world echoes our human lives sometimes. One of the city birds refused to leave the nest. It was like a spoiled teenager who wouldn’t leave his parents’ basement so I dubbed it Entitled Brat (EB). It sat in that nest demanding to be fed for weeks. The parents fed it for quite a while, but they finally left it to fend for itself. It remained. I guess it ventured out and ate what it fished from the lake, but I never saw it fly. Every time I drove by, EB’s silhouette was still visible in the nest.

I guess city officials finally got fed up. One day shortly before the annual Independence Day festivities, I drove by and saw a city bucket truck parked just under the street light that held the osprey’s home. Several workers stood around the truck while one city worker was high in the bucket, tearing away the sticks that held the nest together and uncovering the owl decoy that was supposed to deter nest-building birds. That lingering osprey was fussing and trying to attack the poor fellow. I have to say that EB was flying really well. The nest came down anyway, a stick or two at a time.

For a few days, the now-evicted EB sat on the light pole looking like a sulking vulture. After that, though, I guess it moved to more comfortable quarters. I haven’t seen it there again.

The next year’s brood was more typical. The fledglings willingly left the nest behind for better opportunities elsewhere. I still wonder about Entitled Brat, what happened with the silly bird. Maybe, like many human children, when forced to face reality EB prospered. I hope so.

Texas on my mind

I’ve been thinking a lot about when we lived in Texas the first time, this last week. Don’t know why. I actually think pretty often about Charlie Perkins Barbecue in Cleburne, Texas. Oh, how I miss it.

It was 1980 when we moved to Granbury, Texas, famous (?) for being close to Glen Rose of fossil fame. My husband is an engineer and he job-shopped for awhile. It was great money, we got to see a lot of the country that we probably would not have otherwise, but we moved about every 6 months or sooner .

Matt, our first little one, had been born in January that year and my brother-in-law got married on August 10. We attended the wedding and moved from Tennessee to Texas August 11. We were more durable back then.

We lived with some friends for a little while, until the duplex we rented was ready. It was brand new! Nice. I made curtains for Matt’s room from jungle-themed sheets and checked the back yard every few hours every day. The building site had been a huge field before the duplexes were built, had a great view of Comanche Peak, and snakes, scorpions and tarantulas were everywhere. Fortunately I only found one mouse in the house, no snakes or other creepies. There were also oodles of toads that came out at night. It was a bad year for heat stroke and rattlesnake bites, too. The weather was extra hot, well over 100°F every day, usually over 110°F, and dry. Snakes would shelter in the shade of cars. When people tried to enter the vehicle the snakes would strike. You learned to check under the car every time you got approached one.

Now, I’m a country girl. I grew up on farms and knew all about animals, but these were unfamiliar ones. Spiders that you could see crossing the road at night, large scorpions in the light fixtures, and snakes under cars. I always checked everything before I let Matt on the the floor. I checked his bedding. I checked our bedding. Everything. Especially after I saw a huge hawk swoop down behind the duplex and carry off a snake bigger than itself.

It wasn’t ALL scary, though. Huge dragonflies came flew all around. I’ve always loved them. I guess the nearby river kept them happy. The scissor-tailed flycatchers were gorgeous. I could watch them for hours. We saw cattle egrets everywhere. They are native to Africa, but a flock was blown across the Atlantic at some time by a storm. They made it to Tennessee a few years back, but they have been in Texas a long time. In south Texas they call them rice birds because they follow the harvesting machinery and eat the insects they stir up.

Our friends made the move much easier by finding us the duplex before we got there and introducing us to the best restaurants in the area. The first was Charlie Perkins Barbecue in Cleburne. It was about 28 miles from Granbury, which is practically next door in Texas.

I wish I had taken pictures of this place. Charlie Perkins must have been interesting. I never got to meet him. His restaurant was huge–warehouse-size. He probably employed 30 people. You could find any kind of barbecue you could imagine there. One catch, though–you had to check the Texas A & M football schedule before you went. His son played and he attended every game that he could. And he would close the restaurant. You should be watching the game, not eating barbecue. Oh, my gosh, that food! They really needed the sawdust floor. You couldn’t keep from dropping or slopping a bit while you gobbled it up. I have never had any to match it.

One thing I found fascinating were the huge longhorns in the adjacent field. Their shoulders came to the top of my 6′ husband’s head. I swear, their horns were wider than our car was long. I had been around cattle all my life, but I have never seen any before or since that were this large. I can’t remember if they were steers or not. Probably. They tend to get bigger.

The next restaurant was Japanese. My first. Yumm! But the local ones are just as good. Then, there was The Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. (Insert Homer Simpson sounds here when he dreams of donuts.) Oh, boy! This was not the fancy Cattlemen’s Club in Dallas. This was the original one in Fort Worth. It’s a little more down-to-earth, older and man, what steak! I swear, it melted in my mouth. I have never had better. Not even in Houston or Beaumont.

We moved away from Granbury in October that year, but that area made a big impression on me.

Like I said earlier, I’ve been wondering what happened to Charlie Perkins Barbecue. I found a young cousin while doing genealogy who lives in Cleburne. He’s never heard of it. Of course, this was 40 years ago. But I searched for the restaurant and finally found out what happened.

This is a Bum Steer Award from the January 1983 Texas Monthly:

BUT THANKS TO THE AUTHENTIC SMOKE FLAVOR, THEY BOUGHT FIVE ORDERS TO GO
Citing a city ordinance that prohibits firemen from answering calls outside the city, a truckload of Cleburne fire fighters sat and watched Charlie Perkins’ barbecue restaurant —bordering the city limits three blocks from downtown — burn to the ground while Perkins fought the blaze with a garden hose.”

Happy October Sky

It was a good show at Waldens Ridge Gallery for the October Sky Festival. Not great, but very good. Our group was small, but we’re all friendly and play well together. I’ve found that the better time you have, the more people are willing to buy from you, too. If you never smile and complain about things, potential customers leave. Okay, that’s pretty much my only secret to sales. Be pleasant and kind and not too silly.

I tend to avoid conflict. I actually go to great lengths to avoid conflict. My parents’ favorite activity was arguing. I’m not kidding. They did it for sport. My siblings and I hated it. I rarely run potential customers away because of my attitude unless I’m getting really silly. Sometimes that happens.

I had a great time at October Sky, though, and had pretty good sales. The weather was not cooperating. The forecast all week had been for a gorgeous Fall day, but we got rain and cold. Not torrential rain, thank goodness. The kids did get to paint pumpkins and small canvases under the big tent. After the wagon was refilled the little girls were so cute trying to push a wagon full of big pumpkins.

Punkin’ Paintin’ at Waldens Ridge Gallery in Oliver Springs, TN.

The student art was wonderful. One 10-year-old girl had amazing talent. She stayed and helped out all day and showed off her work at the least prompt–which was good. She deserved praise, and her enthusiasm was contagious. When the clouds finally released a few sprinkles she went out into the parking lot, raised her face to the sky and twirled. And she ate donuts. And she petted a sock toy I had made. It became her First Place Award at the end of the show. She was surprised! I love to surprise people. And now my buck-toothed bunny-type guy went to a good home.