This is the first post in almost six months...time flies, as have the waterfowl who have mostly made their way through in their fall migrations.

On Saturday, December 3rd, about a dozen members of The Prairie Enthusiasts helped cut and apply herbicide to some sandbar willows along the Dike Duck Ponds, spread some prairie seed in the "sandwich prairie" (the land by Findlay Road sandwiched between the two farmettes) and helped create a larger no leaf fly zone for Abe, the baby burr oak pictured at left by chainsawing cherries and other trees in the sunsight of its branches.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

The next update will be a recap on 2016 and a look forward to 2017 on February 2nd (World Wetlands Day).  Stay tuned, and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you in the interim.

Great invasive pulling conditions on Sunday following the early AM rains.  Cleared the upland prairie area of the flowering wild parsnip and some of the thistles.  Even the five footers came out with roots relatively easily.  For Odonata lovers, there are lots of twelve-spotted skimmer dragonflies around.

Been a while since the last post.  This slideshow includes a picture of the Upland Prairie walk (thanks to neighbor Rich Rozelle), the new signage, photos of the osprey and prothonotary warbler nesting boxes and a few birds, animals and plants.  Enjoy!

Moving into May, the quantity of waterfowl is down but there are still some interesting finds.  Four Trumpeters were in the northeast pond today and a whooping crane has been seen by a few people as well.

A special thanks to members of the Glacial Prairie chapter of the Prairie Enthusiasts (Walter, Dale, Zach, Michelle & Elvira) for helping spray Canada Thistle and Sweet Clover this past Saturday. We uncovered some interesting things, including a clutch of 22 eggs in a pheasants nest below.
Trail cam appears to have snagged an otter in one of a few large holes near the woods.
Birding news...neighbors Rich and Brenda saw 9 yellow-headed blackbirds at their feeder last week.  Zach and I uncovered a pair of chatty bobolinks.  Thanks also to Dan Schneider for the prothonotary warbler boxes.  Three rest along the dyke path by the Bark River.  Osprey nest should be up in a few weeks.

 The 2nd annual Crane Count Campout on 4/15/16 offered excellent weather, a chorus of coyotes and a green meteorite after dusk along with a dozen sandhills and five nests the morning after.  A trail cam on one nest with two eggs provided over 2,300 spectacular pictures.   Every ~45 minutes, the eggs would be rotated and relief came with a second crane only once a day.  Unfortunately, six days in and with the water level having dropped materially, a raccoon raided this nest and destroyed both eggs...probably less than a week away from hatching.  Very sad.

The variety of waterfowl at the ABC is getting better.   A few shots are below...more have been posted to the Fauna page (link up on top)

Starting to see some  Green-Winged Teals and Northern Shovelers in addition to the Sandhills and bountiful  Mallards and Canadian Geese.  Or so I think...may well be wrong given my poor birding abilities.

Spring can't come soon enough for this hungry deer.   Last month's trail cam caught ample deer (in packs of up to four but mostly in twos), lots of coons, a black lab, pheasants, squirrels and a few shots of a hawk (?) - one of which is below.