Valley Nature: Mayor Othal Brand, Grackle Slayer
In the early 1990s, one day I happened to pick up The Wall Street Journal. It had the old-school layout back then. The only one like it in America at the time. Every story on the front page was laid out in one long vertical column with a one-column headline. Only exception was a two-column piece — What’s News?
My favorite part of the front page was what was called the middle column. That article was full of colorful stories, not your standard news fare, but more like a profile piece. A colorful profile piece. So one day, probably 1991, if I had to guess, I picked up the WSJ, and my eyes turned to the center column, and what do I see but a profile piece on McAllen’s longtime mayor, the one, the only, Othal Brand, Sr.
The story was typical Othal, an eccentric in many ways. The Wall Street Journal reporter must have been driving around McAllen to get enough info for her story, which centered on the mayor, of course, his autocratic style of leadership. The reporter started off the front-page piece with this anecdote — Othal is behind the wheel of his Caddie when he spots a dastardly great-tailed grackle.
He’s driving near his home on Main, corner of Esperanza. Houses all around. Othal hops the curb with his Caddie, slams the gear into park and jumps from the car, The Wall Street Journal reporter in hot pursuit, as he reaches for his pellet gun. The city’s mayor then peppers the tree with several pellet rounds that finally drops the grackle at the feet of the stunned reporter. Nasty birds, explains Othal to the WSJ reporter, or words to that affect, trying to explain his hunting prowess.
The Ag Threat
The mayor then goes into a long lesson about how much damage the great-tailed grackles do to Valley citrus crops – in ’87 alone, the grackles did $2.2 million to Valley grapefruit, according to the USDA. Because of that, says Othal, to the WSJ reporter, it’s been his Valley mission to kill as many grackles as possible. Have pellet gun, will travel.
Of course, I’m thinking of the neighbors near the heart of McAllen. Did they actually see Othal’s white Caddie jump the curb and watch him scrambling from the car with a pellet rifle in his hand? What did that sight look like?
The great-tailed grackle, like its cousin, the boat-tailed grackle, which usually doesn’t come this far down the Texas coast from his/her central home near the central Gulf coast, is indeed a fiend when it comes to citrus. What the birds do is peck at the fruit, grapefruits, oranges, which leaves either holes on the fruit or external blemishes. For a citrus grower trying to make a buck, they’re a hazard. Hence Othal’s mission to fire at will.
They’re also a sight to behold. Especially the males with their glistening black/purple feathers and long scooped tail. The females are smaller and come in shades of brown and black. The male is the king. During breeding season he carefully guards his harem and their young, reacting with feathers flying when a perceived interloper arrives on the scene.
Its fancy name is Quiscalus mexicanus, which is why they’re sometimes called the mexican grackle, since that’s their country of origin. About 18 inches long and a wingspan that can stretch 22 inches, its diet consists mainly of bugs, beer, berries, seeds, the occasional unlucky fish and some Valley grains. Okay, the grackle may not drink cerveza, but he/she has been known to scrounge around empty beer cans.
The bird’s point of origin is Mexico. In recent decades, however, it’s expanded its reach to include eastern Oregon and Peru.
My favorite sight of a grackle is when he lands next to a female or a competitive male. He puffs up his shiny black wings and starts strutting around like he owns the place. As far as the other birds are concerned, he probably does.