Nature & Wildlife Thread

j.w

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JBtheExplorer

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Temps were somewhat warm today and the snow is melting fast, so I went out for a hike. I saw some interesting things, too!

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While checking out the vernal stream, I found a big beak in the water! I'm pretty sure this is a great horned owl beak. It was pretty cool, but also pretty gross. I added some heavy blurring to censor out the worst parts in case you all don't want to see that. :ROFLMAO: The whole roof of its mouth and everything was there. Makes you wonder why it died, especially with the bird flu currently killing a lot of birds in my area. Whether it died from an illness or was killed, something ate it.
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A short while later I saw this large nest. It's either an owl or hawk nest. There was no activity while I was there.
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Out in the prairie I saw a red-tailed hawk circling around.
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Eventually it landed in a tree across the prairie.
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And then walking back through the woods I found turkey tracks. I love that they look exactly like dinosaur tracks.
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Opossum tracks
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JBtheExplorer

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I learned today that one of the parks in my area (the place where I saw the ducks yesterday) apparently has 6.2 acres of "native seed area". They have a maintenance plan that includes mowing, with prescribed burns being TBD. I'm kind of surprised because I haven't seen any areas in the park that looked like prairie restorations (usually they'd be blocked off so people don't trample them).

I remember there being pesticide signs in the park last summer (pesticide is a catch-all term that also applies to herbicide), and I couldn't figure out why they were spraying invasive plants in mowed grass. If it's a young prairie restoration, it suddenly makes sense.

I posted this photo last year and said that areas like this would be perfect prairie strips. I even mentioned that the areas were weedy and it made me think there were future plans. Is it possible that it was a year-one restoration in progress all along and I didn't even know? 🤔 I'll update whenever I figure out the answer.
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JBtheExplorer

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I almost didn't hike this morning but forced myself to and I couldn't be happier. Super fun day.

Firstly, I identified where the "native seed area" is from my previous post. I couldn't find 6.2 acres but it is in many of the spots I expected. Hard to tell here, but this stake is the corner of this section.
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Wood duck
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Common goldeneye
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Ring-necked ducks
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Hooded merganser and ring-necked ducks
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Mallard ducks
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Canada geese
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Muskrat
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One of three sandhill cranes. Likely the same ones I saw earlier this week.
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Cooper's hawk
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j.w

I Love my Goldies
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