by Terri Brickey
A few weeks ago I showed up at the Milam Wildscape and worked up a sweat pulling weeds and cleaning up the garden beds along with other TMNs. While there, I talked with Ann Collins about the Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary nearby. I had only been there once before and loved the peaceful feel of the area with the fresh running water bird bath and sturdy benches to sit at and admire the many visiting birds. I asked Ann if she needed help with it. Turned out it was both our lucky days. She asked if I could take it on to visit and work on the site regularly and I said yes! Quite a few folks have worked hard to create and then keep the space up since its origin in 2024. I read the past blog posts and heard several events have been hosted there. Gene Rek especially has created so much there and keeps the feeders full and water running. I hoped to take on more responsibility to help manage the space.
Last Thursday morning my husband, Vern and I loaded the van with tools and headed over. He worked the weed whacker, trying to tame a path from the road into the area so that you can easily park and walk to the seating.
I took my tool to the garden beds to remove some grasses and weeds. The Black Eyed Susans were plentiful and we left them intact.
I also saw Lantana and beautiful bunches of sunflowers getting ready to blossom. I filled the seed bird feeders and hung the hummingbird feeders with fresh sugar water.
Besides general maintenance, I hope to add a few improvements. That’s where all you come in. Anyone have any bird feeders to donate? Want to create some bird houses to hang? How about a few Five gallon buckets of small and medium rock to put on the ground around the water bath to help contain the mud area.
And of course I will appreciate help with decisions and work on adding a bunch of seeds to the beds now so that we get a great turn out of flowering plants next spring. I am working with Linda Burgess to collect seed packets to use.
If you have donations or want to help, reach out to me at tmbrickey@aol.com.
You guys are amazing!
Nature Along the El Camino Real 