AUGUST 2010
August 12 – Stonelake Garden Club came for a tour of the habitat. There were 33 women from the garden club and they enjoyed learning about forbs and grasses. The tall bluestem grass is over 6 feet tall and it is like walking through a tunnel in some areas where the rain drenched earth produced tall stands in the wettest part of the sandy prairie.
The week of August 9 – 14 so very hot that we didn’t work in the habitat. The temperature is supposed to cool next week. Looking forward to placing the sculpture art in the habitat.
August 18 – The sculpture art is still not in. It has been raining quite steadily for at least two weeks now. I don’t mind. Matter of fact, I do a Nibi Wabo Water Ceremony to bless the tears of the sky. The habitat is happy with singing crickets. I believe I heard a frog out there this early evening as I walked through area two.
I was happy to see monarch caterpillars on several milkweeds throughout the habitat today. I feel we have an incubator this year because the adult females have found that the habitat is for them. I love to see the waving and pollinating grasses dressed in dripping gold and yellows dangling from the flower heads waving in the breeze. There is nothing quite like it as I pause to gaze at ground covering purple Prairie dropseed, what might be a little bluestem and one beauty I still haven’t identified.
The plant ID plaques are nearly all in place. The hand-made large standing bird house is looking good in area three. Brennan Harrington placed a wooded stand under it so it now stands a little taller than the split rail fence.
August 23 – I agree with Corey Bradshaw, Conservation Biologist in Australia. Limited monitoring of species does not give the big picture to show any pattern of species biodiversity, one needs to look at the long and broad view. Please read his article at http://conservationbytes.com/2010/08/24/long-deep-broad/
None the less, we are making minute monitoring observations at least. I felt it was important to document what we are seeing as an environmental education organization. I wanted to show and tell what is happening to biodiversity of animals and plant species in the Restored Remnant Tallgrass Prairie which is a Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake, Wisconsin, USA.
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