more garden work

So I got started on the trellis today. Im only putting one in for now to see how to works out. Plus I had forgotten about the randomly placed rhubarb plants in the area so I didnt want to encroach on them.

It was a great day to be outside. It hit 70! it makes me want to put plants in the ground! the only thing is that its been very windy. Wind isnt my favorite thing in the world.

So what happend with the Turkeys in Shoreview?

Well, the city caught 5 and then gave up. Since the snow melted and mating season is in full swing the turkeys have moved on. Good work Shoreview, wasting money. I am still displeased with the Minnesota DNR. They now have gone from saying they wont relocate the turkeys because they don't need turkeys anywhere else to, they cant relocate the turkeys because they are too acclimated to humans and are unsure the genetic history of the birds. They are unsure where the birds came from, and because of that are afraid that if they were not from wild stock it could affect wild stock if placed someplace else. Which i think is a bunch of bull, cause the birds are still free to wander and therefore mix in with the so called obvious wild turkeys.Ive basically paraphrased what was said in the StarTrib article here:

http://www.startribune.com/local/north/88785717.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiacyKUUr

It seems like the city is planning on continuing the project next year, which I am not excited about at all, unless like 300+ birds pop up over there, then maybe, just maybe they might need to be thinned out.

I unfortunately haven't seen any signs of turkeys in my yard. I'm guessing since the vegetation and cover that provided them with a nice safe home to raise 8 babies last year was torn out and not replanted, the area isn't very hospitable this year.

The garden

Well I am nearly done with the new garden addition. All I need it to do is rain sufficiently to give me an idea where any drainage and runoff problems are. I cant wait to plant this area.





Here is the big hole in the compost. Im going to back fill it with all the leaves so i can get to the compost underneath.


This is the next area I will be focusing on. The plan is to once again remove all the hay and other crap. Then I plan to put in 4 trellises for Loofah Gourds, cucumbers, zucchini and i guess pole beans (those climb right?).

Garden

Today i dug down into our massive leaf pile. We have piled leaves in this location of our yard since we moved into this house in 1992. I had to move about 3ft of leaf matter to get down to the compost. Then i dug out about a 4ft long hole about 2ft deep and started filling in the terraces. Its hard but worthwhile work. I had a robin watching me for a good portion of the afternoon. I tried to entice it by throwing big juicy worms its way but it didnt pick up any.




Heres a picture of the seedlings i started a bit too early. Ill be surprised if they make it much longer since some mold started growing on the surface. I kept them a little too wet last week i guess.


And yesterday this hawk let me take its picture. It was sitting in a branch right above my new garden addition. I think its a broad-winged hawk.

Garden work

So I got started on terracing the back garden. I decided to terrace it because it was an odd slope, i figured this would look nicer and hopefully cut down on erosion. Lucky for me the layers of hay my parents have covered the area with over the past few years did a great job of keeping the ground from freezing. I only found a few spots where the ground was frozen.




I just hope when it rains all the dirt doesn't get washed out... but ill find out when that happens.

All i got to do now is level out the beds and add compost and then ill probably put hay down to cut down on weeds when i plant it.

St. Patties Day

Well its St. Patrick's Day and normally I would be a lot more excited for this holiday but unfortunately I have been sick since Saturday. So please understand if there are more spelling errors than normal my brain isn't working.

In other news, the backyard is 100% snow free. hooray

Here's some pictures I took.
This is a picture of a male Pileated Woodpecker taken either friday or saturday

And here is the female Pileated Woodpecker taken the same day at the same time.

Im not sure where they are nesting but im certainly going to keep a look out for some pileated babies.

The chipmunks have crawled out of their hole/home under the front of our house. I gave them some peanuts.



Yesterday (the 16th) the birds of prey were very active. Around 11 am i had stepped outside to get some fresh air and to look around the garden to get an idea what i need to get going on when I saw one of the bald eagles fly very low over my house. It was awesome to see but I didnt have my camera.
Then later in the afternoon I saw this hawk roosting in a tree. Not sure if it is a Red-tailed hawk or a red-shoulder hawk or something else.




Then I saw this hawk flying around the same area and being chased off by crows. Its much lighter than the other hawk, and I'm assuming its a broad-winged hawk, but i have no idea. Its probably the same hawk.


Im finding it damn near impossible to correctly identify the hawks.


And today I saw a Red-tailed hawk, which I can confirm only because I saw its red-tail. but I didnt get a picture.


Today I cleaned out the wren house. Here is a picture of what i found inside. Im confused by the presence of an egg. I haven't seen any wrens so Im sure it isn't an egg that was recently laid, at least I hope not.


Here are some pictures of the back of the garden. I am going to go to town on this area. Back when i was a kid we used this portion to grow squash and pumpkins and stuff that needed alot of sun and space. Now that the city ripped out a bunch of trees and made it a full sun portion of the yard again I am going to make use of it once again. Im going to fix the fencing and rake up all the hay and tear up all the black plastic and bricks that have been forgotten underneath it all.


Im not sure if I want to put in raised beds or try to terrace it a bit to keep down on the run off. Im going to try my best to keep a photo journal of my work.

And this shows the mess the City of Shoreview left last fall when it "trimmed" back trees that were in the way of the power lines.


I especially love the random piles of chopped wood the left. (the pile in the background is my neighbors)


And I really enjoy their poor attempt at "hiding" the pile of wood in the reeds of the marsh. Big thumbs up there.




And just a few more pictures of the hill/marsh behind my house

March Melt

Well the snow is finally melting. Everyday there is more and more grass visible and it makes me excited for the summer. I cant wait to start planting and working on building up the garden.

Its been rainy and foggy as well.



I also finally came across some owl pellets! The first one i found wasent very big but had a few bones in it. But just today I came across a good sized owl pellet. Im going to try and lit is dry out a bit before dissecting.

Great Horned Owls

The great horned owls are out and about again in the neighborhood. They are making quite a lot of noise hooting. There are definitely 2 of them in the area behind my house, and both maybe now be in my backyard. I was just outside and say 1 fly to a branch at the very back of my yard. Then it seemed it flew down to one of the neighbors yards. But now that I am back inside i am surprised to hear both calling quite clearly and almost just as loud as when i was outside which makes me think they have both moved to perches in my yard. I love to hear their calls. I just wish i had the capability of recording their calls and getting pictures of them.

I cant determine if its a male and a female or two males or two females. I dont have enough experience with them to differentiate their calls between the sexes.

If it is a male and female then i guess they might be just pair calling. Otherwise i cant imagine how any of the owls can hunt successfully while hooting, wouldn't any prey hear it and take cover?

Wild Turkeys in Shoreview

This picture was taken at the 4300 block of Highland Drive.


Well as I posted last night, the city is going ahead with the plan to net and kill up to 75 wild turkeys. I am disappointed at the lack of information on how the nets work and where they are being set up. I assume they will focus on the area of Highland Woods on Highland drive and Brigadoon Dr. but I cant be certain about this.


Today I went for a walk around the area and I did see turkeys. Id say I saw maybe 20 or so birds in a 1/2 mile area. I saw 4 at the location of Highland Dr. at the entrance to the Highland Woods. The majority of the birds I saw were in the Victoria Orchard. The apple orchards property is right next to Highland Drive and Brigadoon Drive. The orchard provides food and light cover for the birds, thats obviously why they are focused on that area. Also Highland drive provides a quiet street for the birds to move from the orchard to areas of dense woods and access towards the lake. So yeah the birds are going to be very common at that exact spot.



I think 75 is a extremely high number for what they wish to remove. I understand that since they only have until April 1st to net the birds its unlikely they will get 75 birds. But I also think that the number of birds has never exceeded 50 and if somehow Canada Goose Management, Inc is very successful in capturing birds they could in fact remove all of them.

I am ashamed that the city went forward so quickly with this plan without more thought about why the birds are where they are.


I was hoping to catch sight of the nets/bait that Canada Goose Management, Inc has set up but I have no idea what I am to look for and also I didn't want to go tromping through peoples private property.

Here is a link to the rundown of the meeting.
http://shoreviewpost.com/2010/03/shoreview-city-council-votes-to-remove-wild-turkeys/


Anyway on my walk I saw a group of deer, probably around 7 of them total. Only got a picture of one since it was a pretty woody area.






And i also saw a nice looking red bellied woodpecker at the end of Reiland right next to the Certified Wildlife Habitat.



Oh and i love how there is a sign at the open space site that states "no motorized vehicles" and yet the trail is obviously used by snow mobiles.

Wild Turkeys continued

Well the city of Shoreview has disappointed me today. They passed the motion to start netting the birds and killing them. What ticks me off is that the nets had already been placed prior to today, and no matter how many times they could say that it never meant they were going to go through with the plan regardless of the meeting tonight, it freaking looks like it.


So instead of passing something that would encourage people not to feed the wildlife for fear of i dont know BEING FINED, the city decided that killing the birds because they only have 1 month left to do so is the best course of action.


thats all i can say on the subject right now. If i continue i will go on a serious rant.