Wildlife Management

When we first bought our property, most of it was fenced off as hay pastures. The live oaks were covered in sticker vines and poison ivy. We have taken down all but the back fence, and have converted the land from open space agricultural use to wildlife management. This requires us to file a written management plan with the Fayette County Appraisal District. In it, we identify the wildlife species we are targeting, as well as which of the seven management activity categories we have in place and the specific practices we are using.

Our current plan targets the following species: eastern bluebirds, purple martins, mourning doves, rabbits, field sparrows, local/migratory songbirds, butterflies and hummingbirds.

Among the management activities/practices we have in place are:

Activity: Habitat Control
Practice: Range Enhancement

We have reseeded about 1/2 acre in the front of the property with native prairie grasses. The most successful variety has been the Switchgrass.

Activity: Provide Supplemental Water
Practice: Water Stream

When we moved the old house, we installed a water stream in front of the cottage garden. This provides shallow drinking/bathing water for birds and butterflies. During last year's drought, we would see deer in the middle of the day drinking.

Activity: Provide Supplemental Food
Practice: Butterfly Food Plants

We plant lots of dill for the swallowtail butterflies caterpillars.

Munch munch :-)

Activities: Provide Shelters, Census Records and Predator Control
Practice: Eastern Bluebird Nesting Boxes

We have seven bluebird nest boxes on the property. Each breeding pair requires about a two-acre range.

We keep census records to document the nesting activity, and have (hopefully) made the boxes predator-proof by setting them on posts with stovepipe (to discourage racoons from climbing up) and metal screening (to discourage snakes from slithering up). Click here to see our latest census records.
The mother bluebird will usually lay a clutch of five eggs. They're about the size of jellybeans.
The bluebird parents are very calm ... it's not too unusual to open the nest box and see mom on the nest.
Like just about all birds, newly-hatched bluebirds are frail little clumps of fuzz with a big yellow mouth!
The young birds grow quickly. In about 3 weeks they have their blue flight feathers and are ready to go explore the outside world.

As soon as the young have left, we have to remove the old nest. Bluebirds will not reuse an old nest.

A Light Unto My Path
2195 FM 1457 Round Top, Texas 78954
979-249-5620
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