Dike Maintenance: Grading for a Much Smoother Ride

A make-shift dike grading apparatus

More consistent temperatures in the 60s and 70s (and fewer and fewer nights in the 30s and 40s) have prompted us to think dike maintenance and grass seeding. Just like in your back yard, spring and fall are the easiest time to establish and grow new grass. So we took this window of relative dry and forecast for continued spring-like weather to have several thousand feet of dike disked.

A neighboring farmer did the heavy lifting, but Roy and Julie did the finish grading with the MULE and some heavy-duty steel bar grating. The impetus for all of this work comes from the fact that it has been years (maybe decades?) since the tops of many of our dikes have been mechanically leveled. This made for some slow-going, bumpy driving tours. With the soil now moist and workable, the 3-4 passes with the disk could knock down the high spots and fill in the low spots. Roy then passed over the entire area another 3-4 times with the grating to break up any remaining clods and prep the soil for seed.

I'll be happy when I can report a much smoother ride!

We sometimes opt to use a towable spreader, but this effort was localized enough that a hand-crank was even more precise. Once the seed is down, we run over the entire area one or two more times with the grating to help ensure good seed to soil contact (you want contact without burying the seed). Then we cross our fingers for some light to moderate rain followed by lots of sun. If we can keep from being too cold or too wet, we should have seed popping within 10-14 days and a drivable dike by sometime in June.

Same Brilliance 1,000 Miles Apart: The Black-crowned Night Heron

The piercing gaze of the black-crowned night heron

I had to smile when I checked my messages from Roy this evening. We've gotten into a new routine since the purchase of the new camera. If I can't be in the marsh in person (or sometimes even if I can be), I can look forward to a quick photo recap of the day's events in my inbox.

Today's first subject, pictured above, was a bird that I saw in person with my wife and kids this morning. The funny thing about it is we're about 1,000 miles south of Erie County, Ohio in northern Florida. While we were wowed by alligators and crocs at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park (a touristy but pretty neat place, I must admit), my eyes were often distracted by the black-crowned night herons, little blue herons, roseate spoonbills, and cattle egrets nesting in an extremely busy, on-site rookery.

My son and I got an especially close look at a BCNH very similar to the one pictured above. Anderson commented on the brilliance of the bird's red eye. I pointed out that while much of Florida and the Gulf Coast is part of their home range, they are pretty common inhabitants at the marsh as well. No sooner do I say that then he points out a range map literally right below our noses. The southern range is highlighted, as is the western shoreline of Lake Erie. Pretty cool.

I look forward to showing him these photos tomorrow morning when he wakes up.

Add just a few leaves and a few more degrees and this could very well have been the scene we took in this morning in Florida. But these herons were simultaneously enjoying the cool breezes off of Lake Erie.