Shavings are actually beneficial when manure is being composted. For those with room,turing worms loose in a few cu yds,keeping it damp and covered with old carpet yield's more worms and a soil admendment second to none.

Your question got my curiosity up and I'm not even from the DFW area! LOL Anyway if someone here doesn't know the answer try the bird watching forum and then if they know come back and tell us. I'm not a 'birder', but all I can think of is cedar wax wings which are the only birds I happen to notice in large flocks, but that's when they are migrating. But of course seeing a large group of birds doesn't necessarily mean they are migrating. Sometimes after the young are raised 'birds of a feather flock together' just for the fun of it. But I don't know what species of small birds might engage in that behavior. Here is a link that might be useful: Bird Watching Forum

I'm in Texarkana, but I've got a eucalyptus that has been in the ground for 3 years. It doesn't get any special attention, not even water, and it does fine. My mom has one too, and it is on the south side of her house. It's over 2 stories tall. Absolutely beautiful. There are a couple of them that I see in Texarkana that other people have, some are obviously very old because they have big trunks. But some of those are very short and have obviously been bitten back by freezes a few times over the years. If I had it to do over again, I would plant mine on the south side of my house (Actually, that's what I told my husband to do, but he planted on the south side of the porch so the plant gets no protection from the north wind). The one on the south side of my mother's house gets bitten back from time to time. That's the reason it's only 2 stories tall. After a bad winter you can see the outline of the house in the tree from where it froze! I don't know which variety I have, probably Silver Dollar, since that's the only variety I see at the stores around here.

You know what? If you put your question on one of those old threads the people that posted on it will receive it and maybe will reply with some updates. Unfortunately, these forums are not as active as they used to be so not sure the people with experience have seen your query. Here's one of them: Any luck with goldenball leadtree in north Texas?