Today it was beautiful. High of 60, sunny with a light breeze. The snow is almost completely melted after a week of temps well above freezing. I was on a mission today to see where exactly the sun was going to set at Aefintyr on this day of equal day and equal night (due West). I was traveling into the early hours of the night last night and slept in this morning missing my opportunity to see the sun rise in Rochester. I am working on observing the sun more closely throughout the seasons this year and the equinoxes and solstices are important days. I decided that I would use the fence post on the South property line facing the property line "West" as my reference spot. I plan to come back to this point several times in the future to compare.
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| Facing West along property line from the highest elevation fence post |
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| Facing West on Olmsted County Road 9, just after crossing the county border, notice the sun lines up with the road |
I put down some grass seed at the Quercus, Carya and Ostraya camps. It is a "no mow" native that looks great and creates a nice thick mat. The Celtis camp is the only one where the grass really took off. It was planted the earliest last year. Planting earlier and putting down more seed this year. My goal is to cover up some of the mud in the guest areas with something that will require minimal maintenance so better for the environment and less time to care for.
Plants and Trees
The snow has melted exposing all of the plant leftovers from last year and many tiny green plants coming up. The Oaks (particularly White Oak) and Ironwood still have dry leaves from last year. The gooseberries are starting to break bud. I inspected several Round Lobed Hepatica and found one with buds on it, in the process of blooming. This was on the East side near the bottom of the hill road. I checked some that were on the north side of the top of the bluff at the Ostraya camp and they were not as developed. I checked my usual spots for spring wildflowers. Looking forward to the Bloodroot, Anemone and Large Flowered Bellwort that will be coming soon.
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| Hepatic buds forming |
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| Hepatica Buds |
Fungi
I found 2 different types of mushrooms. A shelf mushroom and a small single mushroom with a cap. I also noticed mycelium underneath the leaves when I was investigating the Hepatica.
Animals
I saw several whitetail deer near the south wash that goes down by the bathhouse, a rabbit and several squirrels. I startled a turkey and it flew away as I was walking down the hill road. There were lots of deer on the trail camera, moving East and West and a Pileated Woodpecker. I heard many birds, wood peckers and the Barred Owls several times. The owls were further away to the North than they usually are. All of the snow tracks are gone challenging me to look more closely at the ground for evidence of what has been through the area.
I was moving some rocks around on the hill road and noticed some bright blue markings on some rocks. One of the markings had some rodent feces by it. I would really like to know what caused the blue staining... berries or some type of plant? In the same area I observed several Mullein rosettes that had been been chewed up. I don't remember the Mullein flowering last year and didn't see any dried flower stalks or lots of leaf waste from the previous year. Thinking this is the second year for these plants when they will flower if I don't get around to pulling them.
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| Chewed Mullein rosettes |
Found another owl pellet, noticeably larger than I usually find. It was down by where the water runs from the culvert, near the new "middle" firepit.
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