Another Vision Becomes Reality

The *NEW* newest, savanna extension is almost ready for planting. For years, every time Bob and I walked past this grove of trees, we had the inevitable discussion; 'we should clear this area out and plant something better in there'. But we just never got around to it.  This year, we have been on a tear around Gobbler's Knob. Maybe it's because I haven't had to travel this year...or maybe it's because we want to focus on something else besides all the recent bullshit over which we have no control, outside our digs here on Gobbler's Knob. 

So, I donned my bib overalls, my favorite 14-year old Wolverine boots, charged up my chainsaw battery (what Bob calls, his "best purchase ever"!), and dove in to clearing out the non-beneficial and establishing the beneficial.

My little battery-powered chainsaw came in very handy to help defeat all the cedar trees. Bob took on the bigger persimmon sprouts, large limbs that were hanging too low and other hardwoods that needed to be thinned out. There are 6 large dogwood trees in here that we saved. We found the oldest multi-flora rose in the middle of it all that we've ever found here. It was so old & woody that we had to use a chainsaw on it.

It used to hurt my heart when we cleared areas like this, but after seeing how much more the wildlife uses these restored areas after we plant it, and how much better the uncrowded trees perform, I'm a believer. Have I mentioned how much I hate cedar trees?  Ha! We did leave a row of them on the north side of this clearing - for many reasons.

Before the clearing (facing north)

After the clearing (facing north). After some dragging around to fill in holes, this will be filled with River Oats & Wild hydrangea!

 Before the clearing (from the Viburnum / black haw grove side)

After the clearing (from the Viburnum / black haw grove side). The spread of the Viburnum was a little stalled on the north side due to all the rogue cedar trees in its way. Can't wait until it wakes up this spring - I'm expecting to hear, "YEEHAWWWW"!

(to avoid damaging any viburnum, I just crawled in and cut that cedar tree off to stop its growth and didn't drag it out). It cracks Bob up when I do stupid things like that, but I know he really appreciates me doing it, so he doesn't have to.

This is the new wildlife brush pile made with all the cedars and sprouts that came out of the area. My little chainsaw has earned a couple of days off.

The first 10 of the 30 Wild Hydrangeas that we purchased are in their permanent spots! I learned today that about 10 per day is all I'm going to be able to plant in this accursed Missouri soil. As I was bent over the last plant to mulch it, a Sharpie flew through the trees chasing a small woodpecker. I told Bob I think I recognized the 'beeping' the woodpecker was doing as it rushed into the nearby brush pile. HA!

    Sleep well, my beauties! (The tall Indian Grass in the background provides a lot of cover for the deer, quail and our resident coyote that hang out on the Northern Range of Gobbler's Knob)

Gobbler's Knob: Our Very Grateful Beneficiaries

“If you are not filled with overflowing love, compassion and goodwill for all creatures living wild in nature, You will never know true happiness.”
― Paul Oxton

I get great satisfaction from watching all the critters in the Fall as they zip around the fields and forest to gather seeds from all the native wildflower & grass plantings we've done here on Gobbler's Knob. Everyone's so eager to fatten up and/or gather their stores that they (mostly) ignore me as I run around with my video camera, excitedly documenting The Gatherers. 

Gazillions of seeds are consumed and gathered so quickly that I must sprint from plant to plant with scissors and a bucket if I expect to harvest any to spread in other areas during the winter. 

The goldfinches are absolute Jedi masters at extracting coneflower seeds from these prickly heads. If I didn't collect seeds each year and spread them on the ground myself, the coneflower plants would not spread very much since the goldfinches only leave one or two seeds on each head. 

I have managed to collect enough seeds this time that I have a nice jar filled with them (more in my next post about native wildflower plantings).

 

On the other hand, some of The Gatherers do leave some 'deposits' here too - some adventurous bird found some Rough Blazing Star seeds (Liatris aspera) and planted them in my field in the last couple of years. After removing the seeds from this stem I was so impressed with how pretty the base of the flowers were - resembling flowers themselves that I kept them. This is definitely one native wildflower that I want to see more of!

 

 

The Goldfinches also seem to know just the right time to raid the New England Asters. When I'm harvesting these seeds, I take the seed heads from every other plant, leaving plenty for the Goldfinches, since they treat the NE Asters like they're cake.

This year, the winter flock of goldfinches only leave the NE Asters momentarily, when I open the front door. See the video below.

After removing over 70 feral cats from our property over the last 13 years, at long last, we have finally spotted a new resident here. We named him Charlie and he's a hoot. He now resides in the ravine / plum orchard area and we think he may be dating a female we just found in the North woods.

Meet Charlie the Chipmunk

Bob's covey of quail have been more visible lately too as they wander near the house, looking for food. Earlier this year there were 24 in one covey. Not sure if they split up or some have been lost to predators, but we counted 14 in this covey when it wandered across the yard last week. It's a wonder that these birds aren't extinct as they do not seem to be very smart and are not very predator-savvy. There was a Red Tail hawk stalking & hunting the field about 100 yards south of where they emerged here in my backyard. I've actually had them walk down the driveway in front of me - out in the wide open gravel, just toodling along as if not a care in the world. Silly birds. 

This particular covey appears to have a special taste for Dallas grass seeds.

Speaking of Red Tail hawks, it appears that this one was going after some kind of prey and found itself so hung up in my neighbor's barbed wire fence that it could not free itself. I almost didn't post this video, because it is heart breaking for me to film it, render it, upload it to YouTube, then put it in this post which results in me having to watch it over & over again. But, if it helps to inform people to at least be on the lookout for such events and potentially save a hawk or owl, then it is worth it to share it. 

I understand the need for this fencing - in this case, to keep the neighbor's cattle from tromping around my native prairie, but I wish the strands were more bird-friendly. It was a very sad sight and my heart sank to see this beautiful bird and realize it had died here - probably a slow death from starvation. If there's any good news to this story, it's that this is the only hawk I've seen entangled on this fence since we moved here in 2007. The bad news is there are a lot more Red Tails hunting here than I've ever seen before. I'm not sure whether I should leave it there - to let the predators have it / or pull it off and bury it. Knowing it is there beside the trail now makes my heart break over & over as I pass it by.

On to the living. Another grateful beneficiary of all the prey here is a Barred Owl that seems to appear here very late in the Fall, sometimes sometimes staying through winter. The first time we noticed this Barred owl was in 2018, when we saw her perched on a nestbox pole, then got a closeup when Nikki flushed her out of the underbrush one day.  (see story here:  https://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2018/02/all-hail-predators-of-winter.html). 

Yesterday, as Bob and I walked our trail we heard the crows harassing the owl. They were loud & persistent and as we watched, they flushed the barred owl out of hiding and down the ravine, where there are lots of Eastern red cedar trees where she can hide. We traipsed back & forth with my video camera trying to get a glimpse and after 15 minutes, I finally spotted the poor, harassed bird trying to hide. I laughed when I was able to better view this video on my computer - my view finder was blurry, but I didn't dare take the camera off the owl to try to refocus the screen so I could see better. The owl seemed more concerned about Bob and I than she did the 15 or so crows that were harassing her. If we ever want to know where the owls are hanging out during the day, we only need go outside & listen for a moment.

Watch "The Chase" in the video below (ignore the date stamp on the first part of video - it was from the GoPro - and we haven't fixed it yet).