60mph Windstorm

The windstorm last week brought 2 nestling Red-tailed Hawks, a nestling Great Horned Owl, an adult Common Poorwill, which we released already, and a nestling Eastern Bluebird, among many other baby birds.

Here is a picture I took of the two nestling Red-tails.

birds and more birds

We received a donation of bird seed from Home Depot. It had been exposed to moisture so it could not be sold. We wanted to use all (12) twenty pound bags before it went bad so we have been dumping a bag every two days under the mulberry trees. This morning was quite a sight. There were Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Great-tailed Grackles, European Starlings, House Sparrows, White Crowned Sparrows, a pair of Cardinals, Brown-headed Cowbirds, White-winged Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Mourning Doves, Juncos and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. This is my first sighting of the Yellow-headed Blackbird this year. And, what a sighting. There were over two dozen. What a feeding frenzy this morning!

Events

Our first annual Volksmarch and Festival is behind us. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of volunteers, but everything went off without a hitch. Well, everything we could control. We kept hoping it would not rain, but we forgot to ask not to have a norther blow through at 6am the day of the event. I think the cold wind kept many families away. However, those that came seem to have had a great time. I have received a lot of positive feedback from those who participated. We look forward to doing it again next year. In fact, you can mark your calendars. I do not know the date, but the day is the last Saturday of March, 2012! As I stated above, we had tremendous support from volunteers. Steve & Alicia Pruitt were our committee chairs and they went above and beyond with the number of hours and in-kind donations. The event committee also included; Elizabeth Hawley, Chris Peterson, Frank Iacovitti, Tony Zupkas, Lila Arnold, Marjorie Hardin, and Marty Maxwell. This group had a combined total of 875 hours. WBR volunteers gave us 162 additional hours. Our Volunteer Coordinator, Christina Peterson, spent the majority of her time seeking, scheduling and coordianting volunteers from outside sources. We had help from Sigma Lambda Alpha, Zundy Jr. High, Kirby Jr. High and the Rolling Plains Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist. These groups assisted with clean up, assisting on the walk, selling food & beverages, working in our gift shop and more areas I know I haven't mentioned for a total of 195 hours. If you haven't added all that up yet, it comes to 1,232 hours! Sometimes it is difficult to express how much you appreciate the help you receive. Please accept thank you. We will see you next year!