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)

Wild Kingdom Right Here on Gobbler's Knob

As a child, every Sunday, my brother, sisters and I eagerly gathered around our tv to watch "Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins telling us of some exotic, fierce animal in a far away land and what they did to survive.  Sometimes, it was brutal and it was always exciting.  Well that wild kingdom is no longer in a faraway land for me.  It's in my own backyard.  We have worked for 8.5 years to make our little piece of heaven a safe haven for wildlife by building brush piles and planting native plants that provide food, habitat and cover for them. 

Rabbits are drawn to the sweet crimson clover that blossoms during the spring and they sometimes forget how exposed they are while munching on the beautiful flowers.

Quail, turkey, a wide variety of other birds, reptiles (snakes, turtles, etc.), skunks, rabbits, squirrels, and possums, just to name a few, enjoy life here with us on Gobbler's Knob.  That variety of wildlife also brings in the inevitable predators - owls, hawks, coyotes and foxes - that prey upon them and I love them as much as I love the wildlife. 

A leucistic Northern Harrier snags a mole for his lunch.

The sheer rawness of wild animals hunting, stalking, chasing, creeping about and finally pouncing upon their prey is exhilarating, breathtaking and exciting to me.  But we don't make it easy for the predators.  We have given the prey ample opportunity for escape and avoidance.  They have plenty of brush piles to escape into, lots of natural cover in which they can camouflage themselves and their survival is totally dependent on how or whether they learn to use those tools to their advantage.  It's not just survival of the fittest, it's also survival of the smartest.

A Red-Shouldered Hawk waits patiently as it scans the field for signs of movement indicating a tasty morsel is about to make a fatal error.

Five weeks ago, I decided to deploy my game cameras around the property so I could catch a glimpse into their nightly activities.  The results have been more rewarding than what I could have hoped for.
These stealthy, beautiful creatures of the night help control our voles, moles, snakes, mice, free-roaming cats, ground hogs (which can quickly become a nuisance and very destructive to pond banks in Missouri), and many other animals here.  Yes, they eat the quail, turkey and our other desirables too, but I can accept a native predator doing its thing in order to survive. 
I always get excited when I see the late night and early morning timestamps on the cards, because I know I'm about to see a visitor that I would have never known about, without the use of these cameras. 

I find it very interesting that some of our 4-legged predators like to travel the same paths around our property which we have carved with our 4-wheelers.  In the first video below, a coyote walks across the trail, moving away from one of the brush piles that has a deep hole burrowed out beneath it.  I would love to know what is or what was living under there at one time and if the coyote caught whatever it was.

Interestingly, on the same night within 15 minutes, on the north trail, a fox can be seen sniffing around.  Ironically, I have another video of Nikki and Bob walking this same trail the next day and Nikki's hackles on her back are standing up.  She knew that he / she had been there the night before - she always seems to know.

And what looks to be the same fox comes through again the next night.

Today, it is 18 degrees with snow flurries and it is supposed to get colder this week.  I've cleared the cards and made sure the batteries are good on the game cameras.  I'll check them again in a few days to see what our friends have been up to.  Yeah, we're digging life here on Gobbler's Knob, bringing the Wild Kingdom right up to our back door steps.