Mississippi Kites ...

We have two families of the Kites that reside in our neighborhood. I have seen up to six of them, five in one grouping. They are a dove grey bird, smaller of the predator hawk group. They are primary insect eaters, insects like Cicadas but also prey on birds, small animals and lizards (Fritz better watch out).

They are very graceful fliers, while they do soar a bit it is more common to have them flying between trees and over the vacant lots. They like to nest in our Post Oaks; we had one nest across the street from us a couple of years ago.

They are migratory birds and do winter in South America. I am not sure all of them leave us in winter. They have taken to living close to urban areas and seem to enjoy or tolerate us humans (like Fritz does). And like Purple Martins eat their weight in insects - that's a good thing.

In my morning walk there are two locales for them along my route. They like to roost in the tops of trees with bare limbs or even dead trees. You will often see a youngster by himself. The parents come by and stay close but the youngster has to do his own hunting and thus is forced to grow up. I am sure he is building up stamina for that long flight to Uruguay or Paraguay, even Argentina.

They are smaller in size than Red Tailed Hawks grow to be. But they have pointed wing tips and a distinct V shaped tail. So they look very graceful in flight.

Apparently they return to their initial territories every year. Since they are getting more common they have been found as far North as New Hampshire but generally range around the lower Mississippi Valley and West as far as New Mexico.

Since they are migratory birds they are protected. So one can not disturbe their nests or hunt them for instance. They are not rare, but like Ducks are protected so that they will not become extinct. There seems to be no danger of that.

So every morning, I look for them. I seem always to find the two youngsters. Though one day saw a family of five. When the sun gets up a bit and the insects start coming alive, they are off hunting for food. So they do not tarry for long after sun rise.

Nature is always around us . . .

The Nest . . .

Judie was back at the compost pile, heard a noise of something scrambling around. She look about and discovered a hole about two and half inches around and about the same depth. And in the hole were about 7 or so white eggs about three eights of an inch long, and a bit narrow length wise.

We speculated it was either a snake or a lizard that had laid the eggs. A while later, Judie was again in the area and say Frizinna at the nest. So we now know there were lizard eggs.

Judie went back later, and the hole had been filled in. We do not know how long the incubation period is, but perhaps two weeks or so.

We are gonna have a lizard explosion. I do not think we have enough bugs to support that kind of population, but who knows, it may be just right.

I have seen lizards at other locations in the yard. One in the front yard, another resides in the hose roll up cabinet by the mound flower bed in back. Still, again saw one on a wood pile in Curtiss and Terry's back yard area adjacent to us. That could have been Fritzinna but I did not get a good look, heard a noise and look over to see a tail disappearing in the wood pile.

We know the Walker's have not done to much in their back yard and the "girls" directly behind us are notorious for not cutting their grass. So those are good areas for bug hunting and thus lizard population.

I have even seen Fritzinna in the garage. And yes, there are a few crickets in there. Or should I say, there were a few crickets in there. She probably cleaned them out.

We have not seen a lizard on the back patio for a while. Our little wood stack is no longer a lizard residence. I believe she cleaned out all the crickets and moved on. Gotta eat, you know.

She tolerated us and was not near as friendly as last year's Fritz was. He was brazen, sunned himself on the chaise lounge, and on wood pile, and hunted all over the place. Saw him on the sofa looking down for bugs. He was a character but I suspect he moved on too.

General McChrystal . . .

Did he step over the line? Take it from an old warrior, yes General McChrystal did so indeed. But was he right, I think so. It cost him dearly to point out that Barry does not give a damn about the military in general (no pun intended) or any foreign involvement at all. He does not really have a foreign policy except to bash the Israeli's. To Barry, the military is just a nuisance and a toy. He is too regal to admit his limitations. That all begs the responses and side comments in staff meetings. Believe me, I have seen some lulus in my time, but then the boss said, enough, let us get on with what we are about. Criticism does not go out of the room!

Barry's gonna talk some sense into the Iranian's, yeah, right? He has made no such progress and probably never will. Even the Saudi Arabians, who have no love lost on the Iranians, fellow Muslims, are not opposed to the Israelis from flying over them to get at the Iranians. The reason we sold the most modern F-16s ever made to the United Arab Emirants was because they wanted a capability to strike at the heart of the Iranian Empire. Remember, Saudis, UAE, Bahran, Qatar are all Arabs as are Jordanians and Iraqis, but Iranians are not Arabs. They share a common belief in Allah but even there have severe disagreements within their common religion.

We are sitting back and letting Iran develop nuclear weapons. We are luke warm on taking care of business in Afghanistan. Pakistan is about to blow up. And we really do need India on our side; a great market that China will take if we do not do something about it.

Yes, under Barry we have become a paper tiger (note lower case), and have little respect around the world today. Couple that with his socialist agenda, and we have a colossal loser in the White House. He meant well, he thought his was the righteous path. He has turned into a wastrel squandering our wealth on suspect schemes. And he is going to raise our taxes, he promised he wouldn't. But his Democratic Congress said they don't care what he said and are going to raise them anyway.

Hold on to your pocket book. The tax man cometh . . . And his name is Barry.

Hot and . . .

Hot and getting hotter. Over a 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat index makes it even more uncomfortable. Judie talks about renting an apartment in Madison for the summer. That does not thrill me. What would I do in Madison?

Yes, I adore Anne, Will and Jake but that's about it. Nothing for me to do there. Hope she gets over it.

Fritzinna . . .

Fritzinna is back. She showed up on the patio a couple of days ago. Probably ensconced in her wood pile. Judie saw her under the chaise lounge by the wood pile.

I guess this is her home. She just roams around getting enough to eat. Lot of competition out there. The Blue Birds and Mocking Birds are scarfing up all the insects in the yard to feed their youngsters. And dear old Fritz is still out back by the hill also eating his share of the insects.

Since Amy has not been to swift cutting her lot, I am sure Fritzinna and Fritz for that matter, make sojourns over to her lot. Tall grass provides a haven for insects.

Jude saw the deer late yesterday night. They just come in an lay down on the lawn. Nice comfortable grass, green too which makes it edible, and seed from the bird feeders attract them. The compost pile seems to attract the deer, especially the goat and the foxes. We know the foxes also eat the peaches. They work hard for their food. We know some animal is eating up all the old watermelon rinds tossed out to compost.

The foxes are very non-chalant. Any small noise seems to send the deer away, but the foxes simply look back at you and go about their business. Judie thinks the foxes rather like the deer being scared away. Lets them forage like the want we no interference from larger animals.

At any rate animal life goes on.

Baird

Baird, Texas bills itself as the antiques capital of West Texas. The small town, and county seat, is about 15 East of Abeline a bustling metropolis. Baird is about 1,600 or so souls and it looks it. It is a dying town.

Well it ain't an antiques capital at all. Main Street was mostly closed, that is not open for business because we were there to early (about 9:45 or so) or the businesses had failed. We found one place open but the folks were stacking stuff up for auction come Saturday. We looked around but not much. We found three places and a real old time hardware store open, a bank, and eating establishment. We wandered around for about an hour then elected to drive to Abeline and Dyess Air Force Base.

On the way out of Weatherford we at at Cracker Barrel and Judie bought Will a T shirt with a Farmall Tractor on it. But she had to buy a larger size, it was a discontinued line and there were no others to be had close to his size. On the way into Abeline we saw a Cracker Barrel so we doubled back and Judie managed to swap a size down at that outlet.

We pressed on to Dyess, it has an excellent display of aircraft including a B-1 (it is the home of one of the two B-1 wings in the US). There is a new commissary and BX. The BX has a very modern set up, with clothing sales store (where Judie bought me some socks), a large food court and of course a new BX. We found the BX to be well stocked, spacious and obviously new. I ate a piece of pizza and Judie had a sandwich. Saw lots of young people enlisted as well as officers in the food court. It was a very vibrant place.

We then drove off base and through Abeline. Nice size town, maybe 100,000 to 120,000thousand folks. Home to Abeline Chrisian and Hardin Simmons Universities. The big ecomonic engine is petrolium industry and the Air Force base.

On the way home we decided to stop in Eastland and look for antiques. We found one place on the square. Eastland is also a county seat. Nice old homes and appears to be in pretty good shape. Judie got a couple of things there; an LSU placard and an old fashioned hand held fan as found in churches before air conditioning.

Not being much else we got back on the Interstate and headed toward Weatherford. Next stop was Ranger. Ranger is about 15 or so miles East of Eastland and is reputed to be about the size of New Roads. The local attraction is Lake DeLeon. Ranger had one large antique place, probably had as much stuff in that business as all of Baird put together. But Ranger is dying. The oil has played out and the gas drilling as not reached there yet (and may not do so). Several large buildings, like five stories are empty. Bank looks lonely by itself on the main drag. We stopped at the Dairy Queen on the way out to use the restrooms and grab a coke. The restrooms were marginal, the price of the cokes was reasonable - happy hour for them. The place reflected Ranger, while relatively new, it to was dying. I would say in a few years, maybe ten or so years, Ranger will be a ghost town. Mineral Wells will not be far behind. People in Ranger either go to Abeline or Fort Worth for serious services. Even Graham is more vibrant than Ranger.

From there we returned to civilization and a vibrant city - Weatherford. The change was dramatic. The people are moving from towns like Eastland and Ranger to Abeline and Fort Worth (and surrounding communities).

Next tour will be Stephenville and Doublin. Tour Dr Pepper and see if there are any antiques in Stephenville. Stephenville has Tarlton State University to keep it going. We may drive through Lipan to get there. Or we may go West on I-20 to Santo and turn south. Better see those towns before they are gone.

Blue Birds

The Blue birds are hanging tough. The Sparrows have come by and try to out stare the Blue birds but it is a no go. The Blue birds are feeding their new young and fly in and out irregardless of the Sparrows.

We quit using bird feed that had millet in it. Millet is the favorite food of Sparrows and encourages them to stick around the area. But with the absence of the millet, the Sparrows are few and far between. Good ridance.

Judie hung a Wren house in one of the Hackberry trees. We have had them poking around the patio like they did out in Arizona. We watched a Cactus Wren wall up a House Finch house. The House Finches like open nesting facilities, Cactus Wrens like closed houses. This little Wren worked her butt off closing off the extra entrances leaving but one to go in and out on. Having done all that work, she moved off, I guess she was not satisfied with her new abode. Instinct working full bore, gotta build that nest.

I watched the Blue birds fly in, sit a few minutes in the Oak tree or Hackberry tree observing the nesting box. One female did not do that, she flew right to the box and fed the youngsters. They operate as a family, all take care of the young.

We have lots of Blue Jays (peanuts bring them in), Morning Doves, Woodpeckers, Nut Hatches feeding off the peanut feeder (different from whole peanuts that Blue Jays and Squirrels like). They all like the water in the bird baths. If you have water it will bring in the birds.