Prairie Burn #17

And what a burn it was. Even thought the wind was stronger than we ever burned with before, we decided to go ahead and try. There were only four of us but we were all experienced prairie burners, had our flappers, and thought we should at least try a small section first.

And so we burned the western-most area with ease, using the wedding circle as our fire break. The wind was not that strong, the grasses were dry and burned nicely, although there did seem to be more smoke than usual.

Since the wind was strong the backfire was managed with care as we started to burn the rest of the prairie. The backfire slowly burned against the wind. Once a significant area was burned the fire was set with the wind and within a matter of minutes the fire swept across the tall grasses, met up with the backfire and extinguished itself. The roar and smoke and leaping flames were gone. All that remained was black ground and the bones of a deer long since dead.

This was the best burn yet!

Garden Blitz

A takeaway from our time spent attending the recent Garden Blitz at the Missouri Botanical Garden was that if you want to have bluebirds, you have to have caterpillars, although perhaps not quite like this one (above) at the entrance to the Butterfly House. Bluebirds can take over 300 caterpillars a day while feeding their young! The day was well spent learning more about native plants, birds, pollinators and sustainable gardening. The keynote address by Doug Tallamy alone was worth the drive. He had beautiful photos of many many caterpillars and insects that need native plants and which are then eaten by our native birds. Do read his book "Bringing Nature Home" if you have not done so.

Another takeaway: reduce the amount of yard you mow and plant more oaks. Oaks are the #1 plant species when it comes to supporting Lepidoptera. They support 534 species.

The talk given by Mike Arduser, a research assistant specializing in solitary bees at the University of Missouri, was very good. There are over 3,500 bee species in North America most of which are native and seasonal, unlike the honey bee Apis mellifers, which is what most people think of when one mentions bees. Mike also explained how to build nesting boxes for some of the native bees and had nesting boxes for us to physically take away!

Below is one of MANY photos taken that day of the beautifully displayed orchids at the Missouri Botanical Garden Orchid Show occurring simultaneously at the garden.

On the way home, a dinner stop at Firefly in Effingham was a great way to end the Blitz.

A Sign

Habitat Home now has an offical sign.
Thanks to our wonderful hunter, friend and artist, Cory. 
He is a man of many talents.

Cory made this sign and also these lovely flowers now blooming at Habitat Home.

Thank you Cory for making Habitat Home a home for some art too.
NOTE..the log in the first photo was artfully carved by one of the beavers at Habitat Home.

Hoarfrost

Hoarfrost is basically very small pieces of white ice that cover plants and outside objects. It develops like dew, when there is more moisture in the air than the air can carry. Today's conditions have allowed the frost to last all morning and into the afternoon. Hoarfrost has given a stunning look to the grasses and seed heads standing in the prairie at Habitat  Home. Another good reason to leave seed heads and grasses standing during the winter months.

Bluebird houses

On Monday, January 30, our neighbor and bird expert Jim came over and set up three new bluebird houses at Habitat Home.  The houses are located in the savanna area along the northern path. Savanna areas are excellent habitat for other birds as well such as Blue Jays, Hawks, and Orioles to name a few.  These houses will have to be monitored to remove any house sparrow nests.  House sparrows will attack and kill both young and adult bluebirds and destroy their eggs. Another pest of the bluebirds are raccoons, snakes and opossums.  The white tubing should  prevent any of them from climbing the pole and getting into the boxes.  Yet another pest of bluebirds living in boxes is the blowfly.  Their larva will suck the blood of nestlings at night.  But a natural control of blowflies are parasitic wasps which will over winter in the boxes.  So it is a good idea to leave old nesting material in the boxes until just before the new breeding season begins.  Also bluebirds often roost in nest boxes in winter and the nesting material will add insulation.
We have not seen any bluebirds on these warm winter days but soon we will. Hopefully there will be nesting pairs in each of the boxes our expert bird neighbor installed here. Thanks Jim!

Blackout

Today (January 18 only), Habitat Home's header is blacked out in sympathy with the internet protests of the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation in Congress. While not normally political in nature, Habitat Home is engaged in information exchange. We worry that any legislation which allows the creation of a federal framework for regulation and control (the real intent of this legislation, stated copyright/piracy feel-good intentions notwithstanding) with vague directives and likely no real oversight, is too dangerous for the future of unfettered information exchange in particular and digital innovation in general. Is it too paranoid to say that the futures of Habitat Home and its parent Blogger are at stake? It's less paranoid, and not unreasonable, to imagine that this legislation is designed to allow the federal government to create new winners and losers, seemingly its big business these days.

Learn about what's going on, and write your Congressional representatives.

Tractors

If you live in the country you need a tractor.  Here at Habitat Home it mows the savanna area every year, maintains the driveway, transports rocks, and enables us to be neighborly country folks.  Tractors are just the thing for towing city folk who end up in the ditch on their drive out to see beauty in a snowy countryside.