Trout Creek Warden’s Report , May 10, 2012

Laurie Rockwell reports:
Today I was in the ER for 2.40 hours,plus 30 minutes hiking in and out.

• the weather was a cool a 6C with a wind that got up to about 20 kph at times. The sun felt quite warm when not hidden by clouds.
• I saw/heard 15 species of birds,including the 2nd earliest blue-listed Gray Flycatcher. I did not find any expected Red Crossbills,but did find some migrating White-crowned Sparrows.
• I found about 15 plants in leaf or flower. I dug up abut a dozen small knapweed rosettes;they seem to surface during wet springs like we have had so far. I anticipate that bio-control agents will look after the few that I miss as they have been extremely effective over 20 years. I found only one Sulphur Cinqefoil plants,so my digging them up is an effective control.I forgot to look for the emerging red-listed Dalles milk-Vetch,but will do so during my annual Meadowlark Festival hike on May 19th.
• I saw no deer,bear or coyotes, not even a squirrel.
  

  Laurie Rockwell, Ecological Reserve warden for Trout Creek.

• I saw no sign of human activity in the ER,but I did see where what looked like a dirt bike had tried to climb the very steep slope on the outside of the E-W fence,close to the fence,but it appeared that it powered out with the slope and the deep soil that it tore up.
• Fence repairs are still outstanding. While the major section at the talus slope is not as critical to fix as other smaller sections of the fence, in the past I have found horse tracks along the game trail that the fence covered,when the top wire was  down. It would be an easy access for a trail bike as it now stands,er, lies! Fence posts are starting to rot out as some posts are now 35 years old. This has caused small sections to list heavily. A small repair needs to be done near the 12 green of the golf course as the top of the fence wire has broken where it was stapled to a post.