I'm just jotting a brief note to mention some unusual sightings made by myself and others recently. Aside from the fact that people have been seeing a Cooper's hawk this winter, there's also been a peregrine falcon around, both of which have been more than a bit disturbed by the presence of a great horned owl. Along with the crows, they've been pretty vocal about it. So keep your eyes and ears open for them if you visit Jarvis this winter.

At our workday last Saturday (Jan 28th) we noticed that snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) were up already and in bud, and scilla AKA Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) leaves were also appearing. Both of these species are common ornamentals and very early bloomers, but are really "pretty weeds" in a natural area like the Sanctuary. What is unusual is that this is at least a month before we usually see them appear.

I didn't think about it at the time, because we were mostly working in a different area, but there is one native plant that isn't far behind these two in making it's first appearance each spring and that's skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).

The seed we ordered through the CPD has arrived, so it's time to start preparing and seeding Barry Burton's Grove and the new fenced off area at the northwest corner. At the Saturday March 12th workday, assuming we're relatively snow-free, we'll start by preparing these areas. While the west side doesn't need much prep work, that's not the case with the Grove. The turf grass there was herbicided last fall. The thatch that remains needs to be removed so that the seed we sow can come in contact with the soil.

As I just took my tests for renewing my applicator licenses yesterday, I thought I'd write a few notes that might be useful to any readers who might be planning to take herbicide license tests at the Illinois Department of Agriculture on Bethany Road. They say DeKalb, but Google says Sycamore. No matter, it's not hard to find either way. There is a sign on Bethany Road just east of Route 23 pointing you to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and a sign in the parking lot.

This year's Herbicide Training and Testing Workshop, held as usual at the Brookfield Zoo's Discovery Center, will be held early this year. In fact the deadline for registering is Monday, October 25th. So If you'd like to get a license, the details are contained in this notice from the VSN:

We met the truck from Spence Restoration Nursery at Jarvis today and unloaded over 1700 plants. Most of them are destined for the marsh, a few for the ponds, and a few others for other locations. A Peoples Energy grant through the Nature Conservancy paid for most of them, with the Chicago Park District picking up the tab for the rest. So bring your trowels and tall rubber boots (or even waders) if you have them, and let's get these guys planted. This is the beginning of a whole new marsh...

We had a meeting today about future work at Barry Burton's Grove. As you may or may not know, this area, between the north fence and Addison Drive is now being managed as part of the nature area. Charlotte, Cathey and I met with Zhanna Yermikov (Natural Areas Manager) and Becky Schillo (Volunteer Coordinator) of the CPD along with David Wachtel and Jason from Aramark.

The early spring migrants are here, the bloodroot and hepatica are blooming, and it's time to think about different tasks. The garlic mustard will be tall enough to pull in a few weeks, but not this coming Saturday. We still need to remove some logs that were too big for us to handle during the last few workdays, but they may not be cut up by CPD's Forestry crews before this Saturday because of all the rain we've had. So that may have to wait another 2 weeks also.

For the last ten years, the work we've done on any day has often been decided on that particular day, or sometimes a few days in advance when we knew what people or groups were coming, or based what supplies we had. While that certainly won't change completely, there are other considerations to when we do what work.

Here's the announcement I recently received about this year's VSN sponsored herbicide training and testing. Any and all volunteers who are interested in getting licensed are encouraged to take advantage of this free workshop, and we can certainly use more licensed volunteers!

We have CPD contractor Aramark's help for one more day this season, and we hope to really finish off cutting all the Iris pseudacorus this time. The weather is not as cooperative this time as last; I originally thought Tuesday might work, but currently the forecasts have rain every day through Thursday Nov. 19th. So now we've confirmed this coming Friday, Nov 20th as the day. We'll work from early morning through the afternoon, or until all the iris is cut. We're hopiing this will be well before dusk!