First Signs of Spring - Going Fast

My year has started out wrong and I don’t know what to do to fix it.  I spend the winter in anticipation of spring.  There are certain signs I look for that indicate spring is not far away and I feel energized each time one occurs.  My problem is that so many of my signs of spring have already been realized.  Salamander Breeding is always the first, but that happened back in December before winter really got started.  Next comes the Woodcock mating display, which is normally a February event.  I’ve had a Woodcock displaying since November and there are currently at least two males calling and spiraling in the field behind the house.  Now the turkeys have jumped ahead of the Spring Peepers and claimed the number three slot for signs of spring 2012.

Wild Turkey displays are typically an early March event.  I heard my first turkey gobble come from the woods on New Years Day.  They’ve been heard a few times since then and now they’ve come into the yard to show me that they weren’t just letting loose with a few stray gobbles.  The Toms are displaying with full vigor.  They’re going to be some mighty tired birds by the time the breeding season ends.

This looks like the scene of a sit-com.  The gents, dressed in their finest suits with matching red bowties, are falling over each other in their attempts to impress the lady.  “Hey Baby.  Hey Baby.”  She doesn’t look at all impressed.

Between displays, the Toms forage along with the hens.

But they’re all alert to the possibility that a hen might be receptive to renewed courtship activities.  If the Peepers start calling, I’ll just have to concede that spring has truly arrived.  Maybe I should start planting my garden.

Wrapping up the Mowing

The weather has been perfect for winter mowing activities.  I managed to finish all of those areas that I thought were critical for this year.  Odd cloud formations often signal a change in the weather.  The clouds and the official weather forecasts were telling me that this was probably my last good mowing day for a while.

The field doesn’t look quite as cheerful beneath gray rain clouds.  This section was mowed last year for the purpose of killing the invading Black Walnuts.  Black Walnuts sprout late in the spring and then grow very rapidly.  There’s only a short time in which to safely spray the walnuts before they get too tall.  During the optimum spraying time last year, it rained every day I was at home, so the spraying didn’t get done.  I mowed around some of the tallest sprouts so I didn’t dull JR’s blade.  It’s amazing how much growth the stump sprouts can produce in a single growing season.

The valley at the trail head was once filled with Smooth Sumac and other brush.  I’m still working to get rid of some Multiflora Roses and a few miscellaneous other species. 

I’m coming close to eliminating the invasives from this area.  A few years ago, the red flags marking invasive plants were too numerous to count.  Now they’re hard to spot.

Years ago, I put a priority on management work near the walking trails.  My goal was to make it possible to take a short walk without seeing all of the work I still had ahead of me.  The problem is my habit of adding new goals to the bottom of my management list more rapidly than I remove them from the top.  I sometimes have to remind myself that this was once a scene of Multiflora Rose, Autumn Olive and Bush Honeysuckle.  At least now, except for the bright green fescue, I’m looking at a landscape of native species.

The trail was established when the primary cover was fescue.  Over the years, Indian Grass has made its way down hill from the east.  The six foot wide trail has proven to be an effective barrier to the advance of the Indian Grass.  In open fields, Indian Grass advances rapidly along the lines of the prevailing winds.  At Blue Jay Barrens that means that Indian Grass is quite effective at colonizing areas to the east by way of wind blown seed.  Movement to the west is more sedate and a mowed trail can be a formidable barrier.

The Indian Grass managed to jump the gap in the section where the trail narrows to four feet.  The crossing occurred ten years ago, but movement to the west has only averaged about one foot per year.

This is the area of missing Monardas.  Scattered plants managed to flower higher on the hillside, but the die out was complete in the level valley floor.  I don’t expect any blooms this year, but I hope to see the plants starting to come back. 

I marked a few young roses for elimination.  They only had one or two canes each, so they can’t really be referred to as bushes.  I think they are sprouts from very small roses that got mowed off last year.  I think I can say that the invasive shrubs are now under control. 

Perimeter Patrol

I use descriptive titles for my management work that usually suggest a more complex activity than is perceived by the casual observer.  The typical passerby will identify my actions as mowing along the fence.  They don’t see me inspecting the fence for physical damage, clipping invasive trees and shrubs, picking up trash, searching for signs of invasive species infestations, or doing any of the other management activities that I attach to the job of mowing the fence line.  I like to call this my Perimeter Patrol.

DR Brush is the machine of choice for working up close to obstacles.  The DR is lighter and more easily maneuvered than JR.  It will finesse its way around fence posts and caress fence wire without doing the least bit of damage.  DR Brush has no trouble clipping off shrubs like these raspberries that grow almost directly below the fence wire.  The DR is also slightly narrower than JR and can slip through some of the tight places between trees and fence. 

I make two passes along the fence.  One pass would be sufficient, but the easiest way back to the barn is the way I came out, so that gives me the two passes.  It’s just the road fence that gets this extra attention.  The road is a prime source of unwanted things entering the property and I want to make sure that anything threatening the field is identified before it can do too much damage.

There’s always at least one fallen tree resting on the fence.  The trees between the fence and the road aren’t large enough to do any real damage.  They’re just a chore to deal with.

The area between fence and road contains the trees that fell in past years.  The remains of the original field fence run right along the edge of the road.  I’ve removed most of it so it wouldn’t be a hazard to passing vehicles.  I didn’t think that was a very good location, so I built a new fence farther into the field.  There’s really no reason for anything or anyone to be traveling in the area between road and fence, so I think that’s a very good place for old trees to rest while decomposing.

I keep most trees away from the fence so the growing tree doesn’t swallow the wire, but I have left several young oaks.  It’ll be many years before the trunk diameter increases enough to touch the fence.  Assuming I’m around when that happens, I’ll slip a board between the fence and the tree.  As the tree grows, it will push against the board and force the fence wires away.  Future fence managers won’t have to worry about these oaks having fence wire trapped within their trunks.

I found an especially heavy load of litter along the fence this year.  I usually gather it up and take it along with me as I mow, but my litter bag filled too quickly, so I had to leave the trash to be picked up later.  Besides what was actually up against the fence, I could see a lot more closer to the road.  I’ll have to come back soon with one of my big bags.

More Field Mowed

Conditions have been pretty much perfect for mowing.  The Indian Grass is dry and is still standing in a nearly vertical orientation.  I’m getting an even cut that makes it easy to see any undesirable plants in my path.  In the distance, just past the large Eastern Red Cedars, is the last bit of field I mowed and beyond that is the former Multiflora Rose thicket.

There were no rose bushes or other exotic invasive plants growing with the Indian Grass.  The only threat to the integrity of the prairie was the cedar infestation.  It’s impressive to have an area grow untouched for eight years without having any major management issues.

Soils in this field have formed over shale bedrock and have a pH below neutral.  The Deerberry shrubs growing here don’t show any of the signs of die back exhibited by the members of their species growing on the high pH limestone based soils.

The short grass portion of the field showed a similar lack of invasive species.  The red flag marks a lone rose found growing here.

Several small Blackjack Oaks were found hidden by the tall grass.  Fortunately, I spotted their leaves soon enough to avoid mowing them over.  The oaks will be encouraged to grow while the row of trees behind is thinned.  The goal is to allow more interaction between the two isolated fields. 

These cedars are producing too much shade and have effectively stopped the advance of the prairie grasses.  Removal of a few trees and pruning the lower branches of a few others should improve the light conditions.  Sunlight may appear plentiful beneath the trees right now, but winter sunlight is of no benefit to the warm weather grasses.  By next summer, the angle of sunlight will be from the right of the picture and the line of trees will produce a shadow that will be almost continuous through the day.

The time of long shadows comes quickly in January.  By the time the mowing is finished, I’ve managed to work up a sweat.  It looks sunny, but in fifteen minutes that will all be gone.  I’ll be thoroughly chilled by the time I get JR back to the barn.

After looking over what I’ve just finished, I like to take a quick look at what’s to come.  One more section will complete my mowing work in this field.

The moon, looking extremely man faced, escorts me back to the barn.  I’ll keep working on mowing projects for as long as the weather allows.  Winter is my most active time of hands-on management at Blue Jay Barrens and weather usually dictates what form the management activities will take.

Preparing to Mow

I’ve moved on up to mow the next section of field away from the rose thicket area.  Mowing the fields is not about making things short.  I’m not trying to make the fields look manicured.  Mowing is a means of searching every square foot of field area and eliminating those elements that are detrimental to the continuation of a healthy native ecosystem.  The cut area identifies the portion of the field that has been searched.  A patch of tall Indian Grass would be impossible to search for invasive plants by any means other than mowing.

Invasives in short grass areas are easier to see.  I normally don’t mow the short grass areas, but this is such a small area within the Indian Grass stand that it’s easier to include it than mow around.  It’s also possible that my OCD is strongly enough developed that I can’t mow just part of a unit.

There are several three foot tall Eastern Red Cedars growing along with the Indian Grass.  A cedar of this size is just beginning to create a shade induced dead zone around its base. Cedars were last cleared from this field in March 2003, so this guy has had at least 9 years to reach this stage.

Growth rings in the stump show at least eight years.  This was probably a seedling at the time I was cutting its larger relatives.

If the cedars have reached the size where they are capable of shading out surrounding vegetation, I’ll gather them up and place them on the brush pile.  In situations where I’m preparing to mow, I’ll even pile the small cedars to keep them from being a distraction while I’m searching for invasives.

For clipping little cedars, I’ll use my Little Loppers.  I bought this long handled pruner in 1986 with just this purpose in mind.  They are strong, light weight and will easily cut anything up to a one inch diameter cedar. 

They’ve worn a bit over the years.  The cutting edge has developed a notch from cutting many thousands of cedars.  The notch seems to help grip the larger cedars and make them easier to cut.  Based on the rate of wear, I’d say Little Loppers has at least another 40 years of useful life left.

Cut cedars sometimes remain upright after being severed.  To avoid the possibility of mistaking them for a still growing tree, I’ll flip them on their side as they are cut.  Many young cedars will die naturally during their first few years of life.  At an age of three or four years, the cedar will develop a bushy, multi-branched top.  From that point on it will put on a lot of annual growth.  I cut everything that looks to have reached this stage.  My decision to cut younger cedars is usually based on how many tiny cedars I find and how much time I have available to devote to the project.

I found this spider egg sack suspended from one of the low branches of a little cedar.  The entire sack has been encased by a covering of dried mud.  The hole in the top of the sack is supposed to be the exit hole made by ichneumon wasps that parasitized the eggs.

Inside the structure, I found a silken mass with a few empty casings that could be from wasp pupae.  My fingers aren’t the most delicate of instruments when it comes to dissecting tiny insect structures.

I didn’t have a handy flag with which to mark this small oak, so I used my handkerchief.  It kind of looks like I’ve put a blanket on a faithful pet.  I was fortunate to have a spare hanky for this purpose.  I’ve been know to tear strips from my shirt to use as markers.  Tearing pieces from my shirt doesn’t bother my wife, but she does get annoyed when I continue to wear the shirt.

Stalking Roses

Running out in divergent courses from the former Multiflora Rose thicket are a fence row and a small creek.  Both of these are grown up in trees and are favorite travel corridors for the local songbirds.  Over the years, birds feeding on rose fruit in the thicket have dropped rose seed the length of both lines of trees.  Now I’ve taken on the task of locating and eliminating these roses.

I’m beginning my assault from the edges of the triangular field contained within the bounds of the tree corridors.  When attacking a rose bush, it’s always a good idea to have a clear line of retreat.

JR is the perfect tool for taking down single rose bushes.  In open situations the rose canes are pushed away from the machine operator before being cut.  This greatly reduces the number of scratches I suffer.  If there’s room to keep moving forward, the bush is chopped enough to lay flat to the ground for rapid decomposition.

In situations where your access is limited to one side of the bush, JR pushes the cut canes forward into a mass.  This mass of roses represents the accumulated growth of seven separate bushes that were consolidated and moved aside.  The flags in the foreground indicate the locations of the rose stumps.  There will be no problem reaching the sprouts when I come back next spring to treat them with glyphosate.  The cut canes dry quickly and will easily crumble to the ground next winter.

Roses that grow in the shade often produce long canes with widely spaced buds.  It’s best to cut these high enough to leave several buds for producing sprouts in the spring.  This insures enough leafy growth to absorb glyphosate and kill the plant.

Many of the roses growing beneath the trees are showing fresh green growth.  This is what I normally expect to find in late March.  I’m sure we’ll have some freezes yet this winter that will put an end to these little sprouts.  I just hope the cycle isn’t so badly messed up that I don’t have a good cluster of sprouts to spray in April.

Salamander Eggs

The pond is now full of salamander egg clusters.  Jefferson Salamanders are always the first to breed at Blue Jay Barrens, so the eggs probably belong to that species.

I’m assuming the salamanders moved into the pond on December 27.  Rain began on the evening of December 26 and continued well into the next morning.  This would have been perfect for salamander migration.  It wasn’t until January 1 that water conditions were clear enough to see the eggs.  High winds kept the water choppy, so it was hard to get a picture.

All of the egg clusters are attached to the rush stubble that I left while preparing the pond for salamander breeding.  This puts all of the eggs in the deepest water, so they are not likely to be affected by fluctuating water levels.

Reflections in the water make it hard to get a good count of the number of egg clusters.  In a couple more months the angle of the sun will move to a position that eliminates the reflections and allows easy late day viewing of the pond bottom.

Night shots with the flashlight better show the egg clusters.

This is the normal winter pool level.  Unless we suffer a severe drought, the eggs will be well covered with water and there should be a good crop of salamanders.