Wild turkeys are fickle things.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist who was going
to do our land assessment had to reschedule our rescheduled (due to
inclement weather) appointment because the turkeys that were going to be
transplanted arrived early, causing all the TPW biologists to flock to
West Texas for the event. (Apparently this is done in the winter, so the
turkeys are dormant and can’t peck you while you stuff them into the
ground).
We finally got to meet Heidi on a sunshiny afternoon,
and while Julie had been looking at our place through Agricultural
Traditional Farming eyes (and there’s nothing wrong with that), Heidi
was seeing it as Wildlife Habitat that would also support a small family
farm. I found Heidi by doing an Internet search on establishing native
pasture, which steered me to the Texas Upland Game bird Restoration
Program. My completely uneducated guess is that every state has Parks
and Wildlife biologists who will be eager to talk to you regarding
making your homestead a friendly place for wild things to call home.
Starting from the lowest point on our land, we hopped
from marsh mound to marsh mound as she pointed out different types of
ferns and water plants. Heidi explained that as odd as it sounded, the
parks department recommended doing controlled burns on wetlands (?)
because all the mounds that made for such convenient hopping were
actually too old to be very appealing as food for ducks and geese, and
that burning would
encourage new growth and bring in the waterfowl.
Surveying the eroding banks of our creek beds, she
made notations of plants that would work well holding that precious soil
in place - most notably viney things that set down roots every few feet
like trumpet vines and passionflowers. Wow. How pretty would THAT be?
Peering up at the tall trees lining the creek and spring branch, she
said that there were several prime spots for Wood Duck nest boxes and
asked if I’d be interested in having her send us a few. WOULD I? WOOD I?
You betcha, boy howdy! I’ve only caught brief glimpses of these most
beautiful of ducks in the wild, plus the nature documentary showing baby
ducks leaping from their nest dozens of feet above the ground (and in
almost agonizing slow motion), having the time and air space to execute
several acrobatic feats and then land on the leaves and moss once,
twice, sometimes bouncing three times before their little webbed
tootsies stay in contact with the earth for good and they march with
serious intent to the water.
In our future orchard and pond area, Heidi picked up
one of the spikey balls that do an excellent job of protecting the
ground from bare feet (along with the grass stickers) and asked Alec if
he knew what it was. Now, Alec’s mother has TOLD him what those are.
However,
there is a vast, enormous, totally un-spannable difference between your
MOM telling you something, and Heidi the uniformed, blond biologist, who
drives the new pickup with the seal of Texas on it, telling you
something. Alec can now tell you that the spikey ball is the seed of a
Sweet Gum tree, can point out a Sweet Gum seedling, and show you the
adult parent Sweet Gum tree.
Whatever.
