Prairie Consult and Cool Insect Photo

I had a visit this week from Jason Jones of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. Pheasants Forever  This was arranged at the recommendation of Gavin Nupp, the Service Forester for my area.  Gavin said that Jason would be the best person to advise me on my prairie plot (warm season grass plot).

We toured a little and looked at various species found around the farm. On Tour

This stand of Eastern Gamma Grass caught Jason's eye (I think that's what it was).

Here he was showing me the seeds.

Walking into to look at that bunch of grass, Jason eyed this drama in progress.  If you look closely at the photo you will see that a praying mantis has snagged a butterfly for a meal.

He pointed out this weed which he said was highly preferred and beneficial as a deer forage.  I already forgot what he said it was.  I just tried to look it up and came up with beggar's lice but I thought he said something like triticale.  Anybody knows what it really is?

This one was a variety of milkweed that I have already forgotten.  He also pointed out an invasive that I have been seeing more of lately.  I didn't take a photo.  I believe that it was sericea lepidosa.

Anyway, I learned a lot and look forward to receiving an email with some ideas and recommendation.  I guess that Pheasants and Quail Forever sort of partner with NCRS and provide this free consulting service to advance their conservation missions via private lands.  If your interested, here's Jason's contact info.

I spent the rest of the day catching up on some bush-hogging.  Some of my food plots were being taken over by weeds that were threatening to go to seed.  Since it was so nice and cool I went ahead and gave them a "haircut".

I didn't mow all of them.  The ones in the best shape just got the perimeter done and any obnoxious stands of weeds got cut. Backing into a camera 

I saw several box turtles in the process and avoided them.  I did find this shell which had obviously been hit but there was no evidence of a current resident.

My Macintosh apple tree seems to be sending up a sprout.  This tree was probably 8 years old but had been damaged previously by a buck rubbing antlers on it.  It looked healthy but the trunk was compromised and it blew over in the last storm.  It would be neat if it came back but it could just be a root stock from grafting.

Here's some unusual photos this week - duking it out.

I have no idea on this one.  An owl or a moth?

Just above the atv trail is a large wingspan bird of some sort swooping into the woods.

Not sure what kind of bird this is but thought the photo was kind of interesting.

Yikes on this one - makes me think of Alfred Hitchcock.

It was so nice that I decided to walk the camera tour.

Some turkeys.

Lots of coyotes this week.

It's been quite a while since I've seen a bobcat but one showed up.

The bucks are still in velvet and willing to hang out in bachelor groups.

Here's a video. Spike 

Lots of fawns.

How about some fawn videos? Fawn Fawn2 Fawn3 Fawn4

Twins.

The lightening was cool in this video. Lightening

I thought that this was a nice pose.

Mixing it up with the turkeys.

They don't mind the electric fence.

Strutting action.

Some video action. Turkeys 

Look at the size of these poults. Then look at them in this video. Little Poults

Feeling frisky.

Turkey Fights, Amazon Cheapo Camera, Storm Clean Up

When I pulled into the farm this week, there was a flock of turkeys by the swing-set. This was taken from the car.

I pulled in the barn and walked out to watch these two jakes who seemed to be locked in mortal combat.

I walked to within 20' of them and they were so occupied with the fight that they paid no attention to me.  I finally yelled at them and they moved 25 yards and resumed the fight.

Here's some video of the action.  YouTube says one of my videos violates community standards so I didn't post it. Action From the Car  More Action  Walking Up To Them  Resuming the Fight

The weather is so hot (mid 90 highs) that I went out first thing in the morning to try to clear some trails.  This is what I found.  A large cherry tree went over hitting other tress and making a mess on a trail. See the Ranger back there?

I worked on it for quite some time.

And eventually got it to where I could drive by,

And them I encountered a couple more obstacles just on the one loop.  By 11:00am I was soaked with sweat and exhausted.

One of the random YouTube channels that I occasionally drop in on is this one Wilson Forrest Lands  He does a lot of chainsaw work and other practical woods stuff.  He also has a corny "Dad joke" way about him that I just enjoy.  Anyway, he had some pretty neat trailcam videos and I decided to check out the cameras that he uses. This is it Amazon Trailcam Link

$49 with rechargeable batteries and a solar cell - micro SD card included.  It's Chinese of course and tiny.  I decided to try a couple.

I mounted one on a hunting stand looking out on a foodplot of clover.  This is daytime photo quality. And here's the daytime video. Daytime Video

It is a little different setup where you download an app.  The camera talks to your phone via bluetooth/wifi.  I was downloading all the images and videos while sitting there in the Ranger.  You can also just take out the micro SD card and use a reader if you want to.  This is an example of the night time video quality. Nighttime Video

First impression is pretty good although I was a little nervous enabling all the phone access that  it requires.  Hopefully Apple's "walled garden" won't let anything too nasty happen.

We had 1.5" of rain this week.  Things are still very green for as hot as it's been.  And the butterflies seem happy.

This shot appears to be some sort of hawk in a dive-bomb.

Dove season coming soon.

Pileated woodpecker.

A turkey in flight.

They seem to be pretty active now.

At least some of them must be evading the coyotes.

Same for the fawns - lots of them seem to be surviving.

The bucks have about 6 weeks until they shed velvet.  It seems like most of the frame is pretty set by now.

Spraying last week when it was cooler. We're waiting for a part to get the brush-hog back in service.  Some of the plots desperately need mowed to set back the weeds.

Maybe next week.