Flying with Scissors

Running with scissors may not be the best of ideas, but on my commute to work at the Nature center, I get a chance to see that flying with scissors can be a very cool thing.   I travel along a straight road with pastures and fence-line trees on either side and the ubiquitous telephone wires, preferred perching spot for so many birds, today, were featuring those fabulous birds of the southwest, Scissor-tail Flycatchers.

These birds have the most outlandishly long tails, the males tail is almost twice as long as the females.  All the better to dazzle her with, with his mating ritual known as a Sky Dance which has him climbing upwards of 100 feet to hover, then swoop down into a barrel roll making crazy kamikaze sounds as he does it!  Wow!  And they say "texting" while driving is dangerous!  Being wowed by antics such as these will have you in a ditch in no time!  Lucky for me the roads are straight in this section.  I have read that they can do a reverse summersault as they dive which would be cooler than cool to see, but I feel lucky just to have seen this one crazy wild dive.  

These birds are in the Flycatcher family and in the past I have seen them fly off their perch to snatch a bug midair, or hop to the ground to get a grasshopper and even that is cool to watch to see how their tail fans and snaps together to help them swerve mid-flight.

 

  I have read that they have the pugnacity typical of the Flycatcher family. A favorite of mine from Cape Cod was always the Kingbird (Tyrannus, tyrannus) that would chase off any hawk or crow that dared to enter its domain.  I hear the Scissor-tail does the same thing, only, where I am, there aren’t too many hawks about to demonstrate its bravado on.   Chasing vultures might be impressive though, especially as they are always about by the dozens.

Their preference for eating agricultural pests like grasshoppers and crickets makes them a favorite with farmers and, now that hats aren’t festooned with their feathers, they are doing fairly well as a species.  This fall I will have to keep an eye out for the roosts of these birds that are said to number in the 1,000’s as they prepare to migrate to southern Mexico and Central America.  I love this- a group of Scissor-tail’s can be called collectively, a “pinking, a snip or a zipper”!  This fall, then, I hope to see a “zipper” of Scissor-tails.

Oklahoma has not only snapped up this bird as it’s State bird, but has built the Sky Dance Bridge in  Oklahoma City which emulates the bird in its design and is considered one of the top 50 art projects in the country.

 And in case you are wondering, the young don’t come instantly equipped with the long tail, or how would they ever fit in the nest. It comes in gradually over the first year. 

 So, flying with scissors, totally recommended.

The Secret Menu

I am not claiming to be one who is well versed in the ways of dining out.  99% of the time, I am the chef and the menu items are whatever I can cobble together at the last minute when, as if by surprise, another meal is expected to appear.   However, I remember hearing a broadcast on NPR about the rising interest in “Secret Menu’s”.  The idea was that people in the know, knew that there were some things they could order that were not on the menu- people on the inside, hip people. 

Well, clearly, the wildlife that frequents my yard in search of handouts, have their own idea of what is available on the  “Secret Menu”.  And these menus are so secret; even I didn’t know I was offering them.  For instance, I put out plenty of sunflower seed and suet, which is enjoyed by so many birds but especially the Golden Fronted Woodpeckers.  They dine on them regularly, but they also partake of something that is featured on the SM- my deck.  I have not seen evidence of insects in this part of the deck, but clearly something yummy is worth hammering it to smithereens for. 

I used to allow the squirrels to feed on the deck from an open plate of seed, but that finally was just too messy, so I have a platform feeder and even one of those cones that holds the dried corncobs, but that isn’t good enough for them.  They too, chose from column A of the Secret menu- my deck.  A patch of scratches I was blaming on the feral cats, turned out to be the work of squirrels and an entire wooden post has been devoured in one exuberant tooth sharpening exercise.  Clearly, it is every bit as yummy as the corn.

 

I have three hummingbird feeders full of sugar water that is the number one item on the hummingbird menu, but the ants, bees, hornets and once again, the Golden Fronted Woodpecker chose this item over several others.  The woodpecker is pretty comical as he tries to hang upside down, balancing that large body of his precariously and lapping away at the sugar.  When he lets go it’s a free fall tumble for a moment. 

The hornets were a true problem at the feeder last year, keeping the poor hummingbirds at bay.  I remember my mother-in-law kept a hornet blaster near by and blasted anything that came near but I am a little more reticent to be spraying chemicals about.  She also was fearless and had long, spear-like fingernails that could impale an unwary hornet.  I am not that brave, nor are my fingernails long and sharp enough.  I resorted to one of those hanging traps that also have sugar water that draws them in but they can’t get out. Half the time I would feel guilty, walk the trap far from the usual space and let them go.

 However this year, I must have put it out too early for who did I find paddling for their life, but the very honeybees I keep hoping to lure to my fruit trees.  They chose to ignore the true menu and go for this “secret menu”, to their peril.  I have since had to remove it for the guilt of killing them would be too much.

Ants too are gumming up the works.  I have an oriole feeder, oranges and more nectar with nice big holes that clearly the ants like to dive in and them come a cropper when they can’t get out.  I always wonder if in their dying act they release any formic acid for once there are enough ants floating belly up the hummingbirds leave it alone.  And, of course, not a single oriole for which this menu item is intended, has deigned to show up.  The ants have another secret menu item.  Not my deck, but my small pavilion- yum. They step right over the ant baits and plunge into an ever-widening hole that soon will have the columns toppling over. The deck is, naturally, on the termite’s main menu, I just hadn’t meant to offer it.

So what is an Italian to do? Keep offering my daily specials and just accept that these savvy diners will be choosing from their own well-circulated secret menu’s, I suppose.  Mangia, everyone, mangia.

More Questions than Answers

I know I have mentioned several times that I am NOT an entomologist, and having lived in Texas for only 15 months, neither am I a Texan.  Perhaps then, being stumped by this spring’s lack of insect life, that I clearly remember covering the porch, front and back, last spring, isn’t that surprising.  I also remember looking forward to learning “what happened when”, so that I could begin to anticipate a repeat performance this year.

 I should have known better.  First, I always say, “You can’t guarantee nature”.  What you are fortunate enough to see one day, you may never see again.  I always site the year we saw a chipmunk swim across a salt marsh creek.  Chipmunks don’t hang out in salt marshes so one could only wonder and be thrilled to have been at the right place at the right time to see it.

Last winter, I don’t remember seeing a single Pine Siskin.  Yet here I am, months later, still trying to convince the hundred or so that are calling my oaks their home, that for heavens sake, they should be heading North to where actual PINES are and leave the expensive seed to those Lesser Goldfinches who should be nesting here.

But the most stunning change is this lack of arthropods covering the deck.  I remember being wowed by the hundreds of “harvestmen” (daddy longlegs) who were under the blanket that insulated the well when we arrived in January.  That crowd moved to the deck in late winter and made every corner of the covered porch look like it was sporting a beard.  This year, nada, not a one.  I remember being bowled over by the size of walking sticks that also hung out in any corner not covered by harvestmen, but they too are MIA.  So far, no paper wasps building their starter nests, no caterpillars crawling over windows, some of which still have the trails of hairy spines on them from last year.

Some of these I know were here in March, but maybe I am jumping the gun on others.  All the months sort of run together, so maybe I just need to be patient.  I did stick to my “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty” theory, so at least I don’t have any insect “blood” on my hands.  For that matter, I remember priding myself for having left the food chain intact.  Considering the immense number of caterpillars I had, moths did not overwhelm me.  The wasps, the “caterpillar hunter” beetle all must have done a good job. 

So, I have questions: did the wetter spring last year, cause the difference?  Possibly.  They say it was a warmer winter, but I have a hard time convincing my three-time-frosted-and now-about-dead, Crossvines that that is true.  Perhaps that altered the arrival of things.  The Red Admiral butterflies that covered my set out plates of smashed bananas aren’t here yet but I HAVE had constant Pipevine Swallowtails that I think showed up more in the summer time than spring.  Go figure.  As I said, more questions than answers.

Some things had the decency to show up when expected.  Flocks of Cedar Waxwings dip and fly than swoop into the trees like fighter pilots evading the enemy.  Those great Black Bellied Whistling ducks fly over the yard in the early morning going, well, wherever they go and the hummingbirds are back and doing their roller coaster courtship displays for unseen females in the trees.   

 So, I have the occasional joy of going “Aha, I thought you might be coming.”  Of course, this is what makes enjoying nature so much fun, you just never know; even when you THINK you know, you really don’t know. Does that make sense?

I will just have to keep watching, and tucking away new impressions that will all probably be completely altered again NEXT spring.  Job security, a naturalist’s job is never done!  May your spring be as unpredictable and thereby as entertaining, wherever you are!