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rac·on·teur [rak-uhn-tur; Fr. ra-kawn-tœr]a person who is skilled in relating stories and anecdotes interestingly. Origin: 1820–30; < F, equiv. to racont(er) to tell (OF r(e)- re- + aconter to tell, account ) + -eur -eur Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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When meadowlarks ruled Call Field

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Contributed by: Jim Miller on 6/19/2007

It was the year an unknown group of British rockers calling themselves The Beatles recorded "My Bonnie", their first single, for Polydor Records, and Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home. Mona Lisa finally came to call on the United States, while John Glenn slipped the surly bonds of earth to become the first American to orbit the planet. John Kennedy stood toe-to-toe with Nikita Khrushchev, Niki blinked first, and CBS closed the final curtain on the Golden Age of Radio. It was the year we moved from Yale Street to Gossett, a cross-town relocation that saved me from a fate worse than dance lessons. By the grace of God and economic factors beyond my understanding, I would be a Barwise Bobcat rather than a Reagan Redbird.

Empty fields were never far away in those days before big box stores. Just beyond my own back door lay several acres of grasses, red ants, horned toads, yellow jackets, mockingbirds, scissor-tails and meadowlarks. Just up the street, where Gossett met Call Field Road, was the home of Whites Stores, Inc, but beyond that was mesquite savanna virtually undeveloped all the way to Seymour Highway. A leisurely five-minute walk and you were totally out of "the city" for all practical purposes.

Those of us who have been around for the past 40 years or more know all too well how this city has changed. Not to suggest all that change was for the worse, yet with that change has come loss. Native grasslands are shrinking daily. Texas' official state reptile, the Texas horned lizard, is officially a threatened species on its home range, and the population of the eastern meadowlark has declined some 72 percent.

Nor is the meadowlark in a state by itself, according to a recent report from the National Audubon Society. Audubon has listed 20 species of common American birds whose populations have declined up to 80 percent in the last four decades. Over half of the species listed were once abundant on the Rolling Plains of Northern Texas and Southern Oklahoma. They include, in addition to meadowlarks, Northern bobwhites, Northern pintails, common terns, loggerhead shrikes, field sparrows, grasshopper sparrows, lark sparrows, common grackles, American bitterns, and horned larks. Individual species declines ranged from 82 percent (bobwhites) to 56 percent (horned larks).

Evidence of these losses were discovered by combining data from Audubon's annual Christmas Count bird surveys with data collected by annual breeding bird surveys conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. Both surveys are carried out by hundreds of volunteers across the country; folks like Penny Miller, a Texas Master Naturalist and active with Wild Bird Rescue locally, who get up and out before the crack of dawn in search of birds for what they have to tell us.

Greg Butcher, author of the National Audubon Society study, said suburban sprawl, climate shift, and pressure from invasive species are the most likely reasons for such widespread losses. One thing nearly all of the species listed share in common is dependence on grassland habitat, habitat that is increasingly being eaten up by human development, from sprawl to industrialized agriculture, to the alternative-fuels-based boom in growing a single crop, namely corn.

Are these birds in danger of extinction? Probably not, although numbers for some of them have dropped from millions to hundreds of thousands. Populations below 500,000 are no longer considered "common" birds by Audubon.

"We are concerned," Carol Browner, Audubon Board Chairman and former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said. "Is it an emergency? No, but concerns can quickly become an emergency. (The decline is) a warning signal."

While meadowlarks have all but abandoned the Falls, their numbers remain fairly strong in the rural surroundings, Penny recently told me as we were on our way out to Archer County for an informal survey for horned lizards. "They (meadowlarks) are probably the most common birds we see on the breeding bird surveys. I can't be sure of that without checking back over the data," Penny added, "but just off the top of my head, it seems that way."

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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments

Submitted By: Mark Clopton

posted on 6/23/2007 @ 11:06:47 AM

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I never had a covey 'flush' from under my feet that sounded like a whisper, but was more like a feathered explosion. It is very startling.

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Submitted By: Mark Clopton

posted on 6/23/2007 @ 11:05:02 AM

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What is really cool about the ole Bob White, is that there can be a whole covey, two feet away from you and you won't see them. A big 'covey' of quail will usually be around a maximum number of 20 or so birds, though when I was a kid, we'd sometimes see the number go up to 30 on occasion.

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Submitted By: Mark Clopton

posted on 6/21/2007 @ 6:52:38 PM

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The common Bob White will hold until you step on them. It is amazing really. They are rare birds among our avian neighbors. I've never seen another ground bird species which will do the same. Bob Whites really are 'remarkable' for this behavior. I love those danged birds. They even seem to defy all 'flight or fight' genetic defenses. They will hold until they have no choice.

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Submitted By: Jim Miller

posted on 6/21/2007 @ 1:30:31 PM

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Pamela, typically a covey of quail will "freeze" in a clump of grass or similar cover when they sense the presence of anything that might be a predator. It is their main means of defense and a tactic used by several species of birds that live on grasslands. You can walk right by a covey in the grass and never know they are there. So, yes, step into or on their hiding place and all of a sudden you are surrounded by fluttering, whispering banshees!

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Submitted By: Mark Clopton

posted on 6/21/2007 @ 8:52:29 AM

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Jim, thanks for this one. I can hardly blame a meadow lard for not wanting to live in the city. Yeup, there is nothing quite like being startled out of your wits when a huge covey of quail explodes from under your feet. Those Bob Whites have nerves of steel.

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Submitted By: Pamela Dixon

posted on 6/20/2007 @ 8:48:18 PM

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i found this article very informative. on your comments about a covey of quail -- so you walk up on them accidentaly? Does this species lay low so to speak for safety purposes?

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Submitted By: Jim Miller

posted on 6/20/2007 @ 6:05:17 PM

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I hear that, Gene! Been there, stepped in 'em, an' got the cardiac scars to prove it!

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Submitted By: Gene Griffin

posted on 6/20/2007 @ 10:53:21 AM

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Yeah, field larks, pronounced "feedle arks" by the Griffin boys. But like the old rattlesnake adage, when a covey of quail explodes from under your feet, and you get your heart going again, you KNOW they were quail!

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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments

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Jim Miller

Wichita Falls , TX

Jim Miller has posted 71 blog entries and 141 comments since joining on 9/26/2006. Jim Miller 's average blog rating is 4.74.

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