Native grasses

The deer have been really active for the past couple of weeks. These three were some of the nine different deer I saw on this day.

This is a picture of Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) a native prairie grass in Michigan. This picture is behind #17 green. You can see the weather station in the background.

This is another native grass called Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) It is also known as  "Turkeyfoot" due to the resemblance of the seedhead to a three-toed turkeys foot.

Here is a better picture of the seed-head.

More Indiangrass. (Near #14 tee)

A mixed stand of Big Bluestem and Indiangrass.

A picture from farther away of the stand of native grasses near #14 tee. 

These plant were seeded here after burning this section of rough in the spring. It is part of our efforts to re-establish native Michigan plants in our non-golfing areas. Some other native grasses that we have seeded are Switchgrass (Pancium virgatum) and Canada Rye (Elymus canadensis).

More Hawk Pictures

One of our golfers (Amos Wells)  snapped this shot up on 14 tee with his cell phone.

Raptor-mania

This guy was hanging out at the clubhouse at Leslie Park this past weekend.

Wildlife Sightings

Today, a couple of guys on the crew were excited to tell me about these two deer near the pumphouse at Leslie Park. They were only about 20 feet from the road and would just watch you ride by in a cart.

This heron was looking for an easy meal due to the high level of Traver Creek.

Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Progress

We just got the letter from Audubon International telling us that Leslie Park has received certification in 4 of the 6 categories required for full program certification. The categories we have achieved are Water Conservation, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Quality Management and Environmental Planning. We have to complete Wildlife and Habitat Management and Outreach and Education in order to become a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Thanks to Scott Hummel and Scot Rhodes for pointing out this hawk hanging out near the clubhouse this morning.

Out with the old......

In with the new. 

With the high winds we have had this week, some of the old cherry trees in the orchard between #6 and #8 blew over.

In the foreground, you can see one of the cherry trees that have "survived" while in the background you can see one that fell over. You can also see some of the 15 cherry trees we have planted over the last two years. It is our hope that we can rejuvenate the orchard back to the state it was when the golf course was built. To this end, we have planted the aforementioned cherries as well as nearly 40 apple and pear trees. We estimate that just to fill in the gaps of trees that have not survived, it will take another 30-40 trees. Once we have the gaps filled in, we will start to make decisions on existing trees.

Here you can see the rotted wood in the center of the trunk.