Gardens and grackles: Hot topics in cold months

It seems as though every year the January thaw, that warm 10 days or two weeks we get at sometime during the month, tricks people who are either wishfully dreaming about spring or have short memories, into thinking that winter is over. It isn’t over friends. We have a ways to go before the real spring gets here. I kind of like it and have been enjoying the cold from safely inside the house.
The cold weather, upper teens and 20’s, did damage to tender plants. Some of the more tropical plants have been severely hammered. We had some nice big gingers in pots that may have bought it even though we covered them and put a light bulb under the cover. Too little, too late. I will cut them back and see what happens.
Usually, anytime between now and the end of February is a good time to trim back woody perennials such as plumbago and lantana that have died back due to freezes.
I trim the perennial garden plants all the way to the ground and they come back better than ever. After trimming is a good time to add fertilizer for blooms on Texas natives because it’s so much easier to walk around and get to the roots without all those canes sticking up.
Add mulch, four to six inches deep, over all the plants for extra protection now and weed control in summer. Pine needles are one of the best types of mulch. They are easy to handle, long-lasting, clean and smell good. Now is a good time to collect pine needles for mulch. In Houston pine needles sell for $10 a bail and we get them for free.

Friends of the shelter fundraiser
Plan to take your honey to the Hearts for Paws fundraiser on Valentine’s Day at Maxine’s on Main. Admission is a bag of dog or cat food, a dog or cat toy or a donation. Meet and greet, see and be seen at Maxine’s and benefit the wonderful work the Friends do for the most vulnerable of our “best friends.” Complimentary appetizers, silent auction, cash bar and live music by the Peterson Brothers Band. This sounds like fun.

Grackles
Some birds are less desirable than others, especially those that congregate in large, messy, noisy flocks. Several species of annoying birds are members of the subfamily Icterinae. Icterids are “medium to large-sized birds with conical, sharply pointed bills and large, strong feet,” (“The Birds of Texas,” John and Gloria Tveten).
Common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula), and great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) are becoming a terrible nuisance around the city of Bastrop. They are especially noticeable in the trees at the HEB parking lot where they roost at night, noisily choosing their spots and irritatingly pooping on cars and the parking lot.
Even more irritating than their presence in parking lots is their penchant for outdoor food courts. It is disgusting to have several grackles cleaning up uneaten sandwiches at the next table. Yuck!
The common grackle is about a foot long with a 17-inch wing span. It has pale yellow eyes with dark pupils. Both male and female appear black but have iridescent feathers in sunshine.
These birds winter in the southern parts of Central Texas and we get to have them for most of the year. In winter they are gregarious and form huge flocks. They seem to prefer cities, maybe because of the concrete heat sinks of large buildings and paved streets and parking lots.
The great-tailed grackle male is iridescent black and is especially showy during the breeding season. His tail is very long and keel-shaped. The female of this species is two or three inches shorter than the male, slender and a dull, muddy brown.
The spring breeding show the males put on is pretty funny sometimes. This consists of courtship displays on grassy area. They strut around with their tails spread and wings drooping to the ground. They point their bills to the sky in a “stargazing” pose. They even vibrate their wings and rattle their feathers while making piercing shrieks and calls. I used to call them “party whistle” birds because I thought they sounded like those whistles that unwind when you blow on the end.
The funny part comes in when the wind is blowing and they can’t keep up the dance because their tails are so long they act as kites and blow them around. Also, the females never seem to pay any attention to this enormous effort on the part of the male but continue scratching around and feeding, totally oblivious. Obviously the males do make an impression and the females respond eventually because there is a huge population of great-tailed grackles.
This huge population of large birds roosting on anything that stands still long enough including power lines, street signs, buildings, trees, sign boards etc. is an aesthetic, a maintenance and a health problem. Many types of deterrents are available such as plastic or metal spikes, nets, recordings of distress calls, bird tazers and other devices I found on a site claiming “Humane Bird Control.”