Greening of Spring April 7, 2010

Well Spring is here. Karen and I went out for a walk over the weekend and began to see some signs of greening. Big old oak trees like these will not start leafing until nearly the first of May. but fringes of grass are starting to green up nicely. Back when I was in College, in the dark ages, I took a class on woody plant materials. We were to learn how to identify a couple of hundred trees and shrubs that are common in the Midwest. We were also to pick three plants that we walked by every day on the way to class and keep a journal account of changes starting in January through to the end of the term. I picked a lilac a forsythia and an oak as I recall. I was surprised at how early the forsythia and Lilac started to show swollen buds. It was the first of February and these two were beginning to open. I think the oak stayed put almost the whole semester.

Here is a marsh area that has some of the swamp grasses starting to push up through the standing water a bit.

Of course winter wheat fields are really getting started now. They stay green almost all winter and really pop when the first warmth hits.

Over on the IPFW campus we have been visited by a young pair of American Bald Eagles. they have built a nest just across the St. Joe river about 300 feet from the heart of campus, and about 100 feet from one of our completion soccer fields beyond the nest across the river. Since Eagle sites are protected by US Fish and Wildlife I have been the liaison with them on how we are going to cope with these eagles and not get fined for disturbing the nesting site. There are all kinds of regulations/guidelines that have to be followed. I have been working with a young man from USFW and have learned quite a bit about eagles. We have to set up a perimeter of 660' around the nesting site and try to keep people away. On the river side the distances are 330'. Apparently eagles see a river as a safe boundary.

The eagles that are here are probably building their first nest. They are perhaps five years old. It is possible that they will continue to nest here for the next 10 years. One of the the things that causes eagles to select a particular site to nest is a plentiful food source. If you look carefully at the picture below you can see the eagle in the tree left of center watching the cafeteria line in front of him fly down the river. Eagles like ducks, geese, great blue heron, pigeons, rabbits, squirrels, etc. We have perhaps 200 geese that like to hang around campus. for the past couple of months we have had less geese.

The current status of the eagles is that they have appeared to have left the nest. Apparently this is fairly common among young eagles. They build a nest hang around for a while and move on. It is likely that they will be back next year, repair and improve the nest and may lay eggs. Once the eggs are in the nest it takes 5 weeks until they hatch, then another 3-4 weeks until the chicks can thermal regulate their own body temperature. This means that one of the two parents will need to be in the nest providing warmth for almost 8 weeks. It's another 8-9 weeks until they can fly. So next year we may have an 18 week time in which we will have to manage a nesting site.