I also want to Welcome Amy and Wally! We are glad you have joined our project, and appreciate some youthful energy.
Our battle against fig buttercups continues, and it sounds like we need to start earlier next year. Click here for more info: https://www.lfwa.org/updates/tips-controlling-lesser-celandine?rq=lesser%20celandine
We are expecting! See below for a photo of mama. They have chosen the perfect location for a nest because it is outside of the boardwalk railing near the gazebo, babies and passers-by will both be safe that way. The next photo is of False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum). This one is at the WFS, but there are some beautiful clumps of it along the Fox River Trail west of the river and south of Batavia. You can tell it from Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) because Rue Anemone has 6 petals and the leaves are single and shaped like a duck's foot. False Rue Anemone has 5 petals and compound leaves. Full disclosure: that is a photo from the internet. I don't know of any Rue Anemone blooming around here.
Our next work day will be Friday, April 23 starting at 9:00. We will be spreading quartz sand between the rocks on the stepping stone paths, pulling fig buttercups and dead-heading near the dam and in the savannah surrounded by the boardwalk. If you have them, please bring gardening gloves, drinking water, eye protection, weed diggers, clippers, a bucket for toting and/or a broom. We will still need masks when close together, but not when spread out to work.
Hope to see you then!
Sarah Kimber
