Sandhill Cranes back!

While at school Saturday/noon, I heard the distinctive sound of sandhill cranes circling overhead.  About forty were circling getting organized, gaining altitude and deciding which direction to take.  Finally after about five minutes they headed northeast toward Barren River Lake.  I could hear them longer than I could see them!

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id

Usually, we don't see them return until around Valentine's Day ... second week in February.  Hard to tell what they were thinking ... hopefully a hint of Spring.

Wildflower Update: Seed in the fridge ... I meet with our conservation office tomorrow to finalize the contracts for our new seven acre wildflower conservation field.  It is a fifteen year set aside program ... planting this spring and should look great next year!

Pollination and Wildlife: During this warmup (60 degrees F) we have seen several flickers looking for grubs in our yard and the in field behind our house.  Lots of birds!  I saw a Cooper's Hawk raid one of our feeders this morning ... birds were scattering everywhere in a hurry.


Work on the Farm:  Checking beehives today.

We support:
Round House, Jeans and Workware, Made in the USA for 112 years.
http://www.round-house.com/
Red Pig Tools, Garden tools, Made in the USA.
http://www.redpigtools.com/servlet/StoreFront
FEDCO, Co-op Garden Supplies, Seeds, Trees and Bulbs
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
Johnny's Selected Seeds and Garden Tools
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Roundstone Native Seed ... A Kentucky Company!
https://www.roundstoneseed.com/
Prairie Nursery, Native Seeds and Plants
http://www.prairienursery.com/
Kelley's Beeskeeping ... A Kentucky Company! ... at least for now.
http://www.kelleybees.com/
and these organizations ...
Xerces Society
Journey North
Monarch Watch
Sierra Club

Wildflower Seed arriving

We had some of our wildflower seed arrive this week (all from Prairie Nursery, (http://www.prairienursery.com/  but, should have used prairie moon nursery instead)  ... milkweeds (3), Silphium (3), Echinacea (2) and many more.  I put several in our fridge for cold stratification.  We will plant them later in flats and grow in the greenhouse.

Our seed for our conservation planting has not arrived and has been ordered from Roundstone Seed (a Kentucky Company) ... we are using mix 3 for pollinators ...


https://www.roundstoneseed.com/

Walking Ferns, Christmas Ferns and Lichens

Wildflower Update:  Winter observations are limited to ferns, mosses and lichens.  Since this farm was used had free-range livestock for many years, these distrubed forested areas have an abundance of Christmas ferns. We have walking ferns (above, Asplenium rhizophyllum), on limestone outcroppings. Lichens are abundant.  My study of these plants and mutualistic organisms continues ...

Pollination and Wildlife:  On the last evening of 2014, I took a walk down toward Long Creek.  During my walk I saw several deer, two coyotes, lots of squirrels (mostly grey) and a barred owl.  Days will getting longer so there will be more daylight for walks and some cleanup jobs. 

Work on the Farm:  To finish up the 2014, we bought the seed for our our pollinator conservation plot later this year.  We will be using Mix 3 ... lots of wildflowers, including partridge peas, milkweed and purple coneflowers.  Most of the seed is from seed we collected, Roundstone Seeds and Prairie Nursery. We have put seven acres into this conservation program and will drill in the seed during May.

I put some sugar and peppermint sticks (from Christmas) in our hives on a warm day last week.  It was about 60 degrees and sunny.  Our bees were busy and several were outside the hives.  I plan to make some candy to put in the hives later in January.

We support:

Round House, Jeans and Workware, Made in the USA for 112 years.

http://www.round-house.com/

Red Pig Tools, Garden tools, Made in the USA.

http://www.redpigtools.com/servlet/StoreFront

FEDCO, Co-op Garden Supplies, Seeds, Trees and Bulbs

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/

Johnny's Selected Seeds and Garden Tools

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/

Roundstone Native Seed ... A Kentucky Company!

https://www.roundstoneseed.com/

Prairie Nursery, Native Seeds and Plants

http://www.prairienursery.com/

Kelley's Beeskeeping ... A Kentucky Company! ... at least for now.

http://www.kelleybees.com/

and these organizations ...

Xerces Society

Journey North

Monarch Watch

Sierra Club