Our landscape has changed to shades of brown and the skies have been very gray.   Looking through this month’s photos I was surprised to see so many with sun and blue skies.  I guess I prefer taking pictures on days with at least a little sun.

Sunset over Western Prairie

 

Buffalo Ridge Prairie

 

Sunrise over Buffalo Ridge

 

Up until this week it’s been warm enough to work outside, so we continued our clearing project on Hidden Oaks Point.  We thought we’d clear another strip up the hill – about the same size as the one we did in October.

This shows a typical piece of the hillside before we’ve done any cutting – with honeysuckle, prickly ash, buckthorn and many fallen logs.

 

This is what it looks like as we’re working.  We drag the cut brush into piles, then Mike drives in with the bucket on the tractor, grabs the piles, and carries them away to a giant pile at the bottom of the hill.

 

As we worked, we kept seeing more buckthorn and more honeysuckles….so we got carried away.  We ended up clearing a strip that’s about twice as wide as the one we did last month.  This slider shows the whole project – from the beginning in early October through late November when it finally got too cold to work.

 

Here’s a ‘tiny Mike’ picture.  Usually I get to our work place first, and Mike follows in the tractor.  But once in a while I’m delayed and he gets there first so I get a chance to photograph him on the hill.  He’s very tiny – in the middle of several brush piles about half way down the hill.

 

Hidden Oaks Point, just above the hillside clearing project.  It’s a steep enough slope that we have to walk right to the edge of the prairie to see our work.  The dried seed pods are Whorled Milkweed.

 

Hidden Oaks Savanna – just above and to the north of our hillside clearing project

 

Hidden Oaks Savanna – looking north

 

We did one other small project this month.  One of the old Bur Oaks in Twisted Oak Savanna broke and fell over.  The trunks of those big oaks are too big to move, but I wanted to get the brushy upper branches moved out so the savanna plants underneath could grow.

Here’s the broken tree, with all its branches down the hill on the right.

 

Here it is after we’d cut and cleared away the branches.

 

The crows are back flying their daily commute – north over our northern ridge in the evening; back south in the early morning.   We almost never see crows during the summer, but starting at the beginning of October we see groups of them starting to commute.  At first the groups are small, but they get bigger as winter gets closer.

 

The Glen is much quieter at this time of year – most of the birds have flown south for the winter.  It’s still nice to sit on the birding bench to watch and listen.  We see and hear woodpeckers tapping on the trees, flocks of crows overhead, and squirrels chewing on walnuts.

 

For just a few days, as the stream freezes, we can watch the bubbles move under the ice.  Once the air is cold enough the water freezes all the way through and the bubbles stop moving.  Here’s Mike’s video of the moving bubbles – if you turn up the sound you can hear the faint ticking noises they make.

 

We had some hazy days – we think the haze may have been dust from corn and soybean harvesting.

Haze from the Knife Edge

 

Haze in Center Valley

 

And we had a few misty days

The Sugar Maple grove on Maple Ridge

 

Wetland mist

 

This is the edge of the road where the highway department cleared a few years ago – the mist makes it look like the Pacific Northwest.

 

A few more prairie scenes….

The Narrows Prairie

 

Bramble Corner at the north end of the Knife Edge Point

 

Afternoon sun on Pine Point

 

Big View Prairie, Pine Point and Willow Bend

 

There have been a few mornings with snow on the ground but so far it’s disappeared later in the day.

 

Sunrise over Buffalo Ridge