"I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." ~Wendell Berry
Purple Martin Season 2025 has begun here on Gobbler's Knob! For the first time ever in my 19 years of being a purple martin landlord, 1 adult male and 2 adult female purple martins arrived at the same time on Feb. 28, 2025.
As of today, March 7, 2025, there are now 8 purple martins here and the first tree swallow of the season is flitting around and singing with glee as he has 14 nest boxes from which he can currently choose!
Here's a short video that I captured on the 28th of the purple martins' arrival.
Time for Missourians to get your racks / housing up!
I should probably start by explaining why I used "Cryin'" in my blog titles. I have always been very hardcore about NOT cutting any trees down. Even to the point of the detriment of my own goals - that of creating better habitat. The whole idea of climate change does bother me and I have heard the persistent, loud, constant drumbeat about it for years. So, I was really against cutting ANY trees down when we first moved here to our 23 acres.
But, as Bob consoled and educated (don't tell him I said that!!) / convinced me that we needed to remove some trees so the others could be more healthy and actually contribute more to our environment, I began to research and agree with him more & more. After the first round of removals many years ago - when my heart said, "STOP", our tree stand was still over-crowded and many trees were still only growing branches on one side. Others, trying to reach the sun, were putting on way too much height compared to trunk thickness, exposing themselves to potential wind breakage.
Thicket of cedar trees, multi-flora rose, Japanese honeysuckle, Winter Creeper needing to be cleared.
In late January of this year, I agreed to a staged approach - first, let's cut down all the small sumac sprouts, multi-flora rose, etc. and then take inventory of the native, healthy, larger trees and see if there were any new varieties of 'volunteer' trees we should make room for.
Good grief - the birds can plant so many cedar trees and multi-flora rose!! We first had to clear this mess. We needed chainsaws, loppers, and protective gear to clear the
small stuff out to get a better view of the tree stand. After lots of
Ibuprofen, heating pads and ice for sore muscles and nursing our backs and bloodied faces & arms (multi-flora rose does NOT go down without a fight!), we spent 2 weeks talking and talking.
The large cedars in the background to the east were also over-crowded and providing cover for Japanese honeysuckle and multi-flora rose. Bob had been wanting to get rid of them for years, so we reached an agreement. The cedars along the outer edge of the property could remain and these could be removed.
After posting a picture of our cleaned out tree stand on a Native Habitat Facebook group, one knowledgeable member pointed out that our "basal area" of trees was still too high. So, off I go to learn more about calculating, 'basal area'. Ok, fine.... I suppose I could always plant MORE trees. You can read an older blogpost here (Tell it to the Trees), which describes all the problems of an over-crowded stand and benefits (even MORE carbon sequestration) of younger trees.
The view from my office window after we cleared out all the other junk.
Finally, with 'acceptance' settling in, I made a post on Facebook, asking if anyone locally needed firewood. My friend Doug, private messaged me and, after a walk-through with his fellow wood-cutters, they decided they could use the oak & large cedars in their wood shop - not for firewood, but for artistic creations! Even better than using it for firewood!
Doug and his 2 friends arrived, geared up and marched into the woods with chainsaws revving and running. My heart was hurting and I could hear the blood was rushing through the veins around my head. The first cut is the deepest....Rod Stewart was right. After the first tree fell, I decided I had to let go now...it was too late to try to stop them. They were on a mission and I was very impressed with their skill in sending the trees in the right directions to prevent damaging to other trees.
The first large oak to fall.
I decided to not take anymore pictures....it was too hard on my heart, so I waited until I saw the results. It was then that I realized the new potential for this area. Our quail, turkey and deer are going to be so happy! And Gary...our resident groundhog - once he gets over being pissed off about the new landscape and finds his new home, he'll be okay too.
Bob thinks we should have removed even more, but I'm happy with this.
This area - the 3 large cedars removed, some small branches cleanup - let the sun shine in!!
With the debris cleaned up - and 4 very large brush piles created, I turned my attention to the new guys in town. New shingle oaks, hickories, short-leaf pines and a hackberry now freed up and with plenty of room to grow.
The New Carbon Collectors arise!
No longer shaded & crowded, a young shingle oak now has room & sunshine to help it grow.
I girdled the tree in back for the woodpeckers, and the young hickory is now free.
A very young short-leaf pine was found after one of the large cedars was removed.
Another short-leaf pine growing under a large cedar is now free.
And ANOTHER short-leaf pine is now free!
A young hickory, maple and oak tree, are very happy they don't have close neighbors.
This hickory tree below was freed up after removal of a very large Eastern Red cedar tree causing it to lean from over-crowding. Hopefully, it will straighten up, or Mr. Freeze will either have to cut it down or take meds.
Young hickory tree - better straighten up buttercup, or Mr. Freeze will have to take meds!
This very, very young hackberry did not escape completely unscathed during the tree-removal operation. But, I convinced Mr. Freeze to let it stay until we see if it leafs out this spring.
A young hackberry covered up by a large cedar - a little damage, but hopefully, it survives.
A very nice, young, straight Post oak freed up.
The tree below is Mr. Freeze's prized shingle oak that we found. Due to over-crowding, it grew really, really tall to try to reach the sun. But, it's also really, really skinny. Hopefully, it will cowboy-up and survive the spring winds and be a beautiful tree.
Shingle oak - Mr. Freeze's prized tree.
This group of 6 trees now have plenty of room to stretch & grow. Eastern Gamma grass already planted here.
Oh my..... my heart is healing and I'm seeing the possibilities now!
And here, for historical documentation is a video of the final results (click on the YouTube link to embiggen - HA!):
Four of these very large brush piles were created, using the tops of the cedar trees (that couldn't be used for lumber, etc.) and the larger branches, etc. These will greatly benefit the wildlife seeking cover for the next 2-3 years, and Gary will have 3 of these from which to choose.
A large brushpile created using the tops of the cedar trees and large branches from the other trees removed. A small short-leaf pine will grow quickly now after being exposed to the sun!
Now, we need to spend the next year eradicating the non-native, invasive stuff that is likely to re-sprout: Callery pears, Japanese honeysuckle, multi-flora rose, winter creeper and any other crap that won't contribute to the new, healthier ecosystem we've created. I'm SOOOOOOO excited and impatient...but the walks to identify the native 'volunteers' through this area will be so much fun this summer!
"Yeah, Baby, you were right about getting this done"! Now, how often do I get to bask in the warm, bright rays of the "you're right" confession? I think I was absolutely glowing.
That's what Bob said to me as "TD", from Midwest Forestry Mulching and Land Clearing made his way through our ravine / riparian area. TD was tearing down and mulching his way through all the Japanese honeysuckle vines, multi-flora rose, sprouts, small trees (including cedar!), etc. so that we can more easily manage this area.
After spending weeks trying to clear this area by hand - chainsaws, loppers, tractor and much blood and backpain, I had had enough fun.We finally had a "meet Jesus" discussion as we both realized that it was going to take a very long time for us to manually cut our way north with that approach. We had lots of obstacles facing us; a) where would be put all the stuff we cut out of here; b) it would probably be grown in behind us before we finished the whole thing; and c) we're not getting any younger and would love to see native plants growing in this area in the very near future.
This was all we had been able to clear in the last few months:
It looked great - but we had only made it about 150 feet northward - if that.
And, the brush pile from just that area looked like the picture below. Even with 23 acres, eventually, you run out of room with these size piles.
It was like trying to walk through wet concrete. The vast majority of the rest of it northward (for about 600-700 feet long x 75 feet wide), was not even navigable.
I found out about "forestry mulching" on the Native Habitat Manager's group on Facebook. After watching some videos online, I was surprised to find out that's really a thing! So, a Google search and a message to this company (and he responded on a SUNDAY!), several reschedules due to problematic weather, and it was on for Thursday, January 23rd!
I can't find the words to convey how happy I am about this...check out the pictures.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
More "after" pictures:
Yowza! Next steps - instead of spending the next 2-3 years clearing all this, we can now focus on killing the invasive crap growing in here, then plant some native forbs & grasses seed.
Well, it's more nuanced than that. After finally having some frost, we've reached the perfect weather window in Missouri where I can start cleaning out my purple martin gourds and storing them.
Since
we live in Missouri, where we often get snow & ice in February
& March each year (right at the time the purple martins are arriving), I cannot
wait until then to clean my gourds. So, I do it every Fall, after the
first frost. This year, I thought of my past militant attitude towards cleaning out my gourds - **sparkling clean and NO spots!**, and decided that I wanted to share some thoughts on how I now clean my gourds and clarify some nuancedthoughts on *why* I clean them.
My required gourd-cleaning protection (click on picture for an enlarged view)
For the last 2 years, I'm finding that I'm not quite as concerned as I used to be about getting my gourds sparkling clean. I AM focused, however, on killing the mites, fleas, etc. and their eggs. But, it's not ONLY for the benefit of the health of the purple martins that will nest there next year. It's also a concern for where I store the gourds. I store them in our shop where I have other things that I would like to keep mite-free. Things like our side-by-side and my native wildflower seed storage bins. A bout of warm weather would result in those eggs hatching and not be a good thing for me (or Mr. Freeze) to encounter.
A couple of years ago, I bought this 100-gallon livestock tank (100-gallon livestock tank - True Value) and I love it! I can soak 14 to 16 gourds at a time
in it at a time. Put them in to soak one day, then wash them out the next -
and I don't have to kill myself trying to clean all 84 gourds in one
day.
100-gallon Livestock Tank from True Value. 16 gourds in the tank
Many people just pull out the old nest material and rinse & dry their gourds / housing. And if you store your gourds in a place where you don't care if there are future outbreaks of such insects, you probably don't need to worry about the Bleach soak. But if you do care, then here is what I do:
Remove all the old nesting material.
Rinse out the remaining loose material.
Add water and bleach (enough bleach to make a 10% bleach-to-water solution).
Shove all the gourds into the tank and ensure all the air bubbles are removed.
The longer the gourds soak, the easier they'll be to clean out.
I'm finally done for this season, just in time for the freezing winter weather. I do have a few repairs to make this winter to some of my gourds (broken tunnels, torn treads, etc.), but I can take my time with those.
As I perused my pictures and past blog posts this morning, I had to laugh at myself for all the "project" names I've created. It's Mr. Freeze's fault. I have to use unique names for our project areas to avoid any circular discussions with Mr. Freeze, otherwise, I find him just aimlessly driving the tractor around trying to find me. HA! But, I've found that using statements such as, "you know - meet me at THAT area where the multi-flora rose and autumn olive were taking over", just does not pinpoint anything, because we have so many problem areas with this stuff.
I am absolutely terrible at getting 'before' and sometimes 'after' pictures of our projects. But, last week, Bob decided to bush-hog a path through Persimmon Island, so we could see what was growing and finish eradicating any remaining non-native plants, if needed. After he cut a path, I was stunned when I walked through to get an idea of the effort.
WOW!
Flowers, flowers, flowers - lots of yellow flars everywhere! Removing all the non-native plants has allowed the native flowers to spread into the partial shade areas.
Native Indian Grass, Tickseed Sunflower (aka Bearded Beggarticks / bidens), goldenrod and New England Asters in bloom.
I was hit in the head repeatedly by the thousands of Pennsylvania Leatherwings flying through...for some reason they really love these flowers. The bumblebees are much better at avoiding my forehead.
A bumblebee on one of 11 varieties of sunflowers / bidens in Missouri
Today, I walked through to start a more targeted eradication. With all the flowers and native plants & trees in here, it is no longer an option to do broad swaths of herbicide application. So, I got out my treatment bucket, my gloves and my cutters. I started with the hundreds of new cherry tree sprouts. While the cherry trees are native, I have other goals for this particular grove: Silky dogwoods, spice bush, river oats, etc., so the cherry trees here have to go.
I cut all the sprouts and treated the cut stumps with a small paint brush and a highly concentrated mix of glyphosate. Using Tordon in this area is no longer an option, since the roots of everything in this small area are likely intertwined together and I don't want to kill the fragrant sumac, persimmons, plums, nor the hackberries that we worked so hard to liberate from the mess!
A small bucket with my herbicide, a paintbrush as an applicator and my chainsaw oil. This prevents me from turning over my main container and accidentally spilling any on the ground.
I practice very careful treatment with the paint brush when there are undesired trees growing up right next to stuff I want to keep like the fragrant sumac.
A rogue cherry tree growing up in the middle of the fragrant sumac. It had to go.
I was disappointed to find some winter creeper had re-sprouted, so I did have to bring in my sprayer and treat it. This stuff is a nuisance and almost as bad as Japanese honeysuckle. It hides on the earthen floor of shaded forest areas until there's such a large colony of it, and then it takes a lot of effort to get rid of it.
Winter creeper - a non-native climbing vine.
I also managed to do a few small sprays on some of the very small twigs of Autumn Olive that had re-sprouted after Bob's mow.
Autumn Olive - a non-native shrub.
After carefully re-treating the non-native crap, I was able to get my camera out and enjoy all the flowers and the bugs that were landing on them.
Pennsylvania Leatherwing and a bumblebee share a flower.
View from the south - before:
View from the south - after:
Goldenrod, New England aster and Indian Grass have now spread into the area we have removed multi-flora rose, Autumn olive, winter creeper, and Eastern red cedar trees.
View from the north - before:
Removed several large Autumn olive bushes in this area, along with multi-flora rose.
View from the north - after:
The bidens and goldenrod are starting to march into their new growing space!
There were a few people that didn't agree with our approach of removing the Eastern Red cedar trees, but we needed to clear them so that we could have better access to the earthen floor. That's the only way to remove ALL the invasive plants and to have more scattered sunlight for the stuff we'll be planting next fall.
View from the West - before:
View from the West - after (not exactly the same angle as I didn't remember the last photo I had taken from the West):
A large bank of bidens.
There were also some very pleasant surprises in the grove.
It looks like "Gary" - our resident groundhog - has decided to move in now. Not sure if he's still living here, but he certainly enjoyed the area for a time. And we name all our groundhogs, "Gary", so yeah, we're sure it's "Gary" who moved in.
Gary the Groundhog's home.
I also found a couple of new native plant volunteers - White Vervain, that has started growing since we cleared here! Yay!
After finding winter creeper and Autumn olive still growing in here, we probably need to wait another season before re-planting with native shrubs. I really want to get everything in this fall, but that would be too risky. Patience grasshopper...patience!
For tracking my progress, I've added links to my videos we've taken of this area as we've progressed.
