Week 8

Bald Eagle

On Monday, Rylee (one of the YCC) and I went to all of the pools on the refuge to check water levels. We also noted beaver activity and cattail mat encroachment. Some pools are checked more often than others and some I had never actually been to, so it was an adventure finding them all. I really appreciated Rylee's help as my navigator! 

Lupine Seeds

This week I also did some work on our forb garden. We have various wildflowers planted in eight boxes by the old schoolhouse. I made identification cards for the flowers so that visitors would know what we had growing. 

I also transported the seeds that have been collected by our volunteers to storage. Lupine seeds are stored in a tent, as seen above. This is because lupine seeds are in a pod, which pops open to release the seed, which can be kind of messy! 

Speaking of flowers, more pictures! 

Sunflowers

 Purple Vetch

I took the YCC to Crane Meadows NWR on Wednesday to help out on some projects they had. Crane Meadows and Sherburne are in a complex, along with Rice Lake and Mille Lacs. We painted a porch, stained a deck, and helped to dig up their forb garden so it could be replanted. I think I wound up with more paint on my clothes than the porch. It was fun! 

Purple Martin Chicks

Crane Meadows has a couple of pretty cool bird houses dedicated to birds whose numbers are declining due to habitat loss. There is a Purple Martin condo, a box of which is shown above, as well as a chimney swift tower.  Chimney Swifts are on the decline because they traditionally nest in chimneys, which are on the fall due to more energy efficient heating. 

And then we set the refuge on fire. 

Well not me, because I'm not red-carded. But most of the other staff of Sherburne (and a couple of folks from Crane Meadows) performed a prescribed burn on a 60-acre patch of land next to Blue Hill Trail on Thursday. It was amazing to see. The smoke cloud was ridiculous. It also went way faster than I expected, and was a pretty successful burn.  

We walked the burned area after the fire, and found some pretty cool bones left behind.

There was also this dragonfly eating another dragonfly. How rude.