From the trenches this week, some non-expert observations: Soaking in a tub with a handful of baking soda added to the water does a lot toward relieving the ferocious itchiness of chigger and mosquito welts. Mosquito bites are more fiery soon after the gals (and only the gals) drill into the skin. Immersing the affected limb in ice water is more effective than caladryl or cortisone cream. Toothpaste works surprisingly well, but only for about half a minute.

Chigger welts emerge more slowly as the tiny bugs dig deep into the flesh causing a localized allergic reaction. (They're actually pretty fascinating critters, if you're not currently suffering from them). While there have been plenty of mosquitoes, the overall insect population is still awry around here. I have seen a beautiful huge blue and black swallowtail or two, one tree roach, a handful of crickets, and some very tiny ants.

I've seen one honey bee in the ligustrum and crepe myrtle. I have seen an occasional unusual bumble bee, and one gigantic wasp. In central Louisiana last month, a swarm of very active black, bee-like insects were swarming around holes in the outside of the garage, but I'd never seen them before. I have some poor quality pictures I hope to dig up.

Funguses are essential for the decomposition of matter such as leaves and roadkill and animal scat. Funguses are in part what makes the difference between sterile dust and rich crumbly loam that many gardeners crave.

Funguses also feed many insects. Some funguses grow on insects and eventually cause their demise.

(I wonder if burying mushrooms in one's garden in the fall would enhance the soil by spring? Compost from food scraps would probably have a lot to offer.)

I saw a female, or perhaps juvenile, grackle this week carrying what looked like a large spherical seed. The bird dunked it in a small puddle of dirty water at the curb, and then, it carried it to a lawn and I believe buried it in the ground.

I never saw or heard of grackles until I arrived in Texas in the late 1970s. They were plentiful at Zilker Park. I was impressed by the range of their noisy calls, their size, their glossy black feathers. I'd never even heard or read the word grackle before, not even in old novels. I don't know if that's just my ignorance, or if they weren't common in the past. They are now one of the most abundant birds in Austin.

The white-winged doves are relative newcomers. They slowly made their way north to the Austin area in the 1990s. I never saw a white-winged dove until after 1990. There were mourning doves and inca doves here before them. The white-winged doves then became abundant and dominant. They and the grackles seem to be survivors, able to adjust their housing, diets, and sleeping habits to whatever's happening in the city.

The two times I've watched woodpeckers building nests in a tree (golden-fronted around 2002 and red-bellied this spring), starlings stared them out of the nests just as the woodpeckers were finishing, and the starlings moved in. The woodpecker pairs protested loudly for a couple of days to no avail.

Pigeons, tending toward dark gray, have evolved to impressive sizes here, almost as big as chickens. I have a photo of a pigeon next to a house sparrow that looks comical. There are still house sparrows in large numbers. Male cardinals I've seen look more dusty orange than red.

If you saw a bird in Austin this week, it would likely be a grackle, a white-winged dove, a house sparrow, a pigeon or a starling. Though the drought is still on, these birds are adaptive troopers.

You might see a blue jay, or a mockingbird. There are purple martins and cliff swallows.

A great blue heron swooped over my head this week and above the Shoal Creek bed - that was wonderful.