Backyard Musings/A Moment of Zen at LBJ

Mike Watkins - Geography major, University of North Texas                

Backyard Musings

The sun is warm. I and my Basset-Beagle mix, Daisy, soak it up. It’s like being on vacation after the cold days of winter. We’re wreathed by a privacy fence that provides the illusion of isolation. There are a few spots at the bottom of the fence that rabbits frequent. There’s always a rabbit in the yard before the sun comes up and after the sun sets. Daisy and her sister, a German shepherd mix named Claire, are always eager to clear them out of the yard. Everyone loves the chase, including the rabbits, but my dogs would never know what to do with a rabbit if they caught one. I’ve seen them run under Claire’s legs as she gives half-hearted chase. There have been many rabbit holes in the yard over the years but not this year.

There is a patio with curved corners that takes up about half of the yard but it doesn’t detract from the natural feeling. There is a large Silverado sage at one end. It’s normally weighed down with bright purple blooms that contrast beautifully with the grey-green leaves. It’s looking very sparse right now. The winter has been hard on everything. The dead grass is depressing. A large planter next to the fence normally has purple flowers that attract the occasional humming bird but now holds long brown, crispy leaves that hang over the side. A few planters litter the patio. I try to grow vegetables in containers during the growing months but now they’re full of clover. And I wonder why there are so many rabbits.

There are two large hawthorns in the backyard, one in each corner, which provide shelter for various kinds of birds. They squeak and scratch against the pine board fence. There are sparrows that make nests in them but most of the time we have mockingbirds. They really like the red berries. The mockingbirds will try to stand on tiny, extremely flexible branches, flapping their wings to keep their balance but falling all over the place like drunken sailors. Eventually they’ll grasp one of the berries in their beak and swallow it whole. I had a bird feeder next to one of the hawthorns but my dogs kept the birds away. I moved the feeder to the front yard and filled it with oily black sunflower seeds. Since then, I’ve seen sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, cedar waxwings, and mourning doves. Apparently, moving the feeder to the front was a big hit.

                                     

There are two cell towers and a radio tower in the field behind my backyard. When the weather’s warm like it is today, a cacophony of bird songs comes from the towers that sound like the parakeet enclosure at the Fort Worth Zoo. It doesn’t bother me since I like birds. My favorite residents in the towers are the red-tail hawks and the occasional barred owl. I see hawks on a pretty regular basis. They perch on the tower’s support wires and keep our rabbit and snake populations in check. The owls normally appear mid-fall. We’ll occasionally see one but we usually just hear them calling. One day last week was a special surprise. A northern harrier landed on the fence. I’d never seen one here before.

We’ve lived in this house for about ten years. We were the very first house built and we were the first residents in the whole neighborhood. Our friends thought we lived in the sticks. In the past, we have run into coyotes while walking our girls. We’ve come close to hitting bobcats with the car. Now, we occasionally hear coyotes but not nearly as often. We never see bobcats anymore. Thank goodness for the birds and rabbits. I always thought I’d need to visit some isolated wilderness to experience “real wildlife”. Thoughts of Colorado or Alaska always came to mind. I never noticed the diversity right around my own house. I think it’s because we always want to be somewhere else. We’re never live in the present and as a result, we miss it. If I’ve learned anything from sitting in my backyard, I’ve learned to be quiet and listen. If you’re a person who needs to be entertained, just watch rabbits play in your yard or watch a couple of birds fight over a grasshopper. Your experience observing animals should be more extensive than watching cats on YouTube. Now, where’d I put my iPhone…

A Moment of Zen at LBJ Grasslands

I forgot how good the woods smell. Hints of juniper and the earthiness of a damp morning fill my nostrils as I step onto LBJ National Grasslands. If you like birds this place is heaven. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many cardinals in one place. These male and female Northern Cardinals were still chasing each other when I decided to move to a different spot. There were so many songs from other bird songs that I couldn’t make sense of them. I’m a beginning birder anyway so it’s not surprising that I can’t recognize very many songs.

It seems like I see tons of turkey vultures no matter when I’m outside. I saw a lot this time too but there were more on the ground or perched in trees than I usually see. I know most people dismiss them or don’t see them at all but there’s something special about seeing a bird that big in the wild. I saw two sitting in a tree then got really lucky because one decided to extend his head as I snapped the picture.

This particular trailhead was established by a local equestrian group. Naturally, there are lots of horse tracks. There are also coyote and deer tracks. Coyote tracks can typically be distinguished from dog tracks because the two middle toes are close together and the claws are prominent in the track.

As I walked through the tall grass, I found myself focusing on too many things at once. Between the birds and the tracks, I totally missed a huge cotton-tailed rabbit spring out of the brush. I almost wet my pants. I hunted rabbits as a kid and have kicked more out of the brush than I could ever count but I never got used to the surprise. I’m pretty sure I scared him as much as he scared me.

There are lots of game trails here. They looked like they’re used by everything. One particular trail led to what looked like a bedding area. It hadn’t been used recently but you could tell it was still occasionally used, most likely by deer. The deer tracks I found looked to be a few days old but there were a lot of them and they were made by deer of all sizes.

This area is a multi-use area. It’s typical of many areas. There are parts of the area that look like they’re used for cattle grazing. There is a full water tank next to the windmill. Seeing how the equestrians, the cattle, coyotes, and deer all share the same space made this wide-open area seem much smaller. It almost feels claustrophobic. There are fences here and the road entrance to the trailhead is equipped with cattle guard. Still, these attempts at animal control seem to be in vain. Any attempt to control animal behavior is pointless. It would be cheaper in the long run if we learned how to live with animals instead of trying to dominate them. It’s the fundamental flaw with most conservation efforts. If we are going to have any success in wildlife management and conservation, it’s absolutely vital that human beings are factored into management plans as part of the overall ecosystem. In the meantime, I’ll be bird watching.