Finally, the daytime temperatures are reaching into the 50’s and 60’s, Spring officially arrived over the last weekend, and we have seen the last of the late winter snows (hopefully!). Now it’s time to get outside and tackle a few springtime chores.
Robins are bouncing around the yard searching for worms. Bluebirds have been showing themselves for a while now, and you should (carefully) check their nesting boxes if they have not yet been cleaned out. This task should have already been done a few weeks ago. Still, if a nesting pair of bluebirds has not visited them, it is worth opening them carefully to see if any leftover debris needs to be removed. You might even discover a pesky field mouse has taken over the box, and a thorough cleaning will allow a bluebird to use it again.
Do a quick survey of any seedlings that you have planted in the last few years. If they are still in tree tubes, slide the tube up to examine the base of the seedling for any rodent damage over the winter. A young seedling might survive a small amount of damage to the trunk, but if it is completely chewed all the way around the stem, it will not survive, and a new seedling will need to be planted. To prevent any future such damage, you should keep any grasses or weeds from growing in an area 3 feet away from the seedling in all directions. Either apply an herbicide, such as glyphosate, to the grasses and weeds around the tree, or lay down plastic or rubber sheeting to cover the area.
Have a saw and pruning shears with you as you examine the seedlings and small trees. This is the ideal time to trim out any dead or broken limbs and remove any sucker growth (those young branches that shoot straight up from the trunk that never produce any fruit). Applying a 10-10-10 fertilizer or chicken manure along the tree’s dripline would be beneficial now as well.
Make brush piles. As you rake up limbs and debris that accumulate on the lawn area over the winter months, place them in piles in a nearby woods edge. Small songbirds will use them as nesting areas. If some of your property is a wooded area, lay down several logs parallel to each other and then make the brush pile on top of the logs. Rabbits will often use these brush piles to rear their young or escape from some predators, and songbirds will use them as well.
Before trees and bushes begin to leaf out and limit visibility in the woods, check for any standing dead trees that you might want to cut for firewood. Dropping them now might be a bit safer than after all the nearby trees have leafed out, and you cannot see the safest direction to drop the tree.
Look for gypsy moth egg masses. Fortunately, some areas were not hit very hard by the gypsy moth caterpillar infestation last year. Still, there may be some locations where mature trees were completely defoliated. One year of complete defoliation will not usually kill a tree, unless other negative conditions are present, such as a long, dry spell. But, if allowed to occur for multiple years, such defoliation will kill a mature tree. While the caterpillars prefer oak trees, they will attack any hardwood tree and will even consume the needles of pine trees, as well as other vegetation. In hard-hit areas, you can spot the light tan egg masses (about the size of a nickel or quarter) on the trunks and undersides of lower main branches. Aerial spraying by helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft is the only effective way to control caterpillars once they have emerged.
It’s time to get back into shape. After months of leading a more sedentary life as Mother Nature gripped the outside world, we can now turn our focus to losing a few pounds, reducing the waistline by an inch or two, and getting ready for upcoming outdoor adventures. Long walks and hiking are highly effective in toning your leg muscles, regaining aerobic fitness, and maintaining good mental health. Lay out a mile or two path along a logging road in one of your favorite hunting spots and plan to make the trek every few days until you have reached your goals of weight loss and fitness. It won’t be long until you will be exploring mountain trout streams or climbing the hills in search of spring gobblers!
