needrain said:Well, birdseed is blooming 
. I usually let a patch of the seed that falls just grow as it will and then try to let them mature. I know now what millet looks like as a plant. I don't ever remember to read what seeds are included and I buy different mixes so there's a variety. I have wheat and Triticale (I'm pretty sure it's Triticale but it's probably just called wheat on the seed info) that now have mature seed heads the birds are eating. There are several unidentified grasses whose heads haven't matured. Just now getting warm enough to see a couple of corn and milo stalks. Lots of sunflowers up now. And I think this is Coreopsis tinctoria. I have a couple of native Coreopsis that grow in the pasture, but they are different. That may change now because this is doing really well.
And since I'm physically impaired - temporarily, I hope - and can't mow my pasture of a yard and it keeps raining and pushing the native vegetation into overdrive, this is what happens. I have to work hard to appreciate some of these, but in the end I have to concede. Some bugs photo bombed in a few photos.
And just outside the yard is the real pasture.
And one of a grasshopper. They have been hatching in great numbers for a while, but when it stays as wet as it has, they are vulnerable to their natural predators and that's keeping those numbers in check. I have a very fat skunk hanging around eating them in the wet foliage. I have to keep reminding the dog to LEAVE IT ALONE! But he's not fond of it when he crosses the fence line into the yard. At some point it's inevitable both he and yard will be fragrant. Which means he won't get to ride in the pickup with me for a while. He'd rather ride that eat.
I like that!
Birds have been my passion for a lot of years.
I go through a ton of bird feed every year. Actually a ton-and-a-half.
I've got 13 bird feeders around my house (not counting 5 hummingbird feeders) and I go through about 300 Lbs/month of birdseed.
I usually buy the cheap stuff (there's actually no such thing) rather than the "fancy gourmet" bird feed at TSC. I can't believe the price on some of that stuff.
However, I can't let the seeds that "escape" the birds grow, because it turns into a "jungle" really quick.
I usually mix 40 Lbs of the black sunflower seed with 200 Lbs of the "cheap stuff". And the birds love it. I haven't had squirrels here so far, and we don't have the HUGE numbers of the invasive European House Sparrows (rats with wings), that you see in EVERY major city in North America by the millions.
When I lived in Ft Worth, I found a supplier of Safflower Seed in Decatur, and I used that "exclusively". Squirrels and European House Sparrows won't eat it. So consequently, I had the "desirable" birds at my feeders.
Here's a couple of the feeder stations I have set-up, here.
As far as mowing my pasture, I don't until mid to late August. That's when the quail have mostly finished nesting. We went for sooooo many years with a HUGE decline in quail (all over TX) and they're "trying to make a comeback". Anything I can do to help, they got it.
When my wife was here, she always had several horses and they kept the pastures "groomed " satisfactorily. However, now with only my "pet" Fivel, he can't graze it all.
My pastures look like the same stuff you showed in your pics. I don't know the names. But the weeds are waste high right now. Kinda concerned about the rattle snakes, so I only go into it on the 4-Wheeler or in the truck.
BTW: For Skunks.....Wash your dog with dawn (The Blue kind) and a couple tables spoons of hydrogen peroxide, in a feed bucket of water. Leave him outside until he/she dries off, then repeat. NO SKUNK Perfume left.
It works, my dogs sleep under the covers with me.
Regards,
Moondog
