Recreating a native habitat has been a dream of mine since I was about 18. It only took me 20 years, but I finally have two acres of land in the country with which to work (and play). My goal is to document the improvements I make to the property: restoring habitat & attracting birds and butterflies in addition to other wildlife.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
New Year's Day
Not a bad start for the new year. I didn't plan it. Although it was overcast, today was in the 40s, so I went out to walk the property.
My plan (and my attempt) to create a native meadow has started and stalled many times over the past few years...but that is another story. One section had some locust trees seed in and begin to take over. There were more than I realized...and by the looks of them, they had been growing for a few years.
Over the summer, I noticed the largest ones...and decided they had to go...but I didn't want to do it when there was a possibility that birds might be nesting in them. Today, I finally took a chainsaw to them.
This spring, I inadvertently attracted house wrens while trying to attract a second pair of nesting bluebirds. I put up a new nestbox in the far corner of our yard. Instead, house wrens moved in...and ended up killing the newly hatched bluebirds. I am determined not to let that happen again.
Not only will I be removing all except the original nestboxes, I plan to make the meadow go back to early stages of succession, so it is less attractive to the house wrens. Removing these invading locust trees is the first step. (We do have several full grown locust on the property, so this will likely be a recurring battle in the coming years.
For now, I am smother the stumps, to prevent regrowth.
I took the (thorny) locust into our "woodland" and created another brush pile--combining it with the Amur honeysuckle bushes that I cut down in the spring (from the neighbor's property--with their permission).
My plan (and my attempt) to create a native meadow has started and stalled many times over the past few years...but that is another story. One section had some locust trees seed in and begin to take over. There were more than I realized...and by the looks of them, they had been growing for a few years.
Over the summer, I noticed the largest ones...and decided they had to go...but I didn't want to do it when there was a possibility that birds might be nesting in them. Today, I finally took a chainsaw to them.
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| Before |
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| After |
This spring, I inadvertently attracted house wrens while trying to attract a second pair of nesting bluebirds. I put up a new nestbox in the far corner of our yard. Instead, house wrens moved in...and ended up killing the newly hatched bluebirds. I am determined not to let that happen again.
Not only will I be removing all except the original nestboxes, I plan to make the meadow go back to early stages of succession, so it is less attractive to the house wrens. Removing these invading locust trees is the first step. (We do have several full grown locust on the property, so this will likely be a recurring battle in the coming years.
For now, I am smother the stumps, to prevent regrowth.
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