The following are excerpts from the Spring 2015 edition of Innsbrook property owners Kathleen Kremer and Richard McFall’s newsletter on living in harmony with nature and wildlife at Innsbrook.

Spring Nature Journal
The book “Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You” by Clare Leslie and Charles Roth has helped us to see a totally different Innsbrook right outside our door. Here’s what we noted in our journal this past month of many firsts: first bluebird spotted atop their new home (3/6); squirrels cavorting in the forest canopy (3/10); first geese pairing up on Lake Konstanz (3/11); first bat spotted of the year (3/12); first wasps and flies come out (3/13); first bluebird nest appears (3/15); spring peeper frogs heard singing (3/16); daffodils pass 2 inches tall (3/17); worms crossing roads overnight after the first day above 80 degrees (3/18); first crocus flowers emerge (3/22); daffodils in full bloom, coinciding with the last snow and freeze of the season (3/27); frogs crossing roads overnight in the rain (3/31); first wild dogwoods bloom in the forest (3/31); and first mayflowers emerge on the forest floor (4/4).

Photo by Pat Martin

Some of the entries from this year are running a week ahead of last year, which had an unusually harsh winter.

Wild Neighbors: We Choose to Live in Their World
If they’re cute, we call wild animals charming “critters” and spend hours watching them as they go about their business and raise their young. Otherwise, they get called “pests” and then some people call the exterminator. We encourage you to remember that the deer, raccoons, groundhogs, lizards, foxes, squirrels, opossum, coyotes, snakes, frogs, turtles, rabbits, owls, geese, beavers and other critters we have at Innsbrook are the native residents and that many property owners moved out here to be close to them for better or for worse. That huge black snake may be scary the first time you spot it, but at least you won’t have mice living in your barbecue grill. The hawk that rips at your turf may be chasing moles out. We personally try hard to live and let live with only a few relapses that we confess to having over our years at Innsbrook. For more information on cohabiting with your wild neighbors, visit the Humane Society at www.humanesociety.org/animals/wild_neighbors.

Photo by Greg Miller

Groundhogs Phil and Phyllis
This year a pair of groundhogs, a.k.a. woodchucks, have chosen our rock landscaping wall as their very own resort rental, and we have vowed to let them be. We call them Phil and Phyllis. Here are nine things we discovered from National Geographic about groundhogs (with a few that may test our vow of living in harmony with nature). Check back this summer to see how we are doing!

Photo by Anita Gould

Alien Invasion: Bush Honeysuckle
A plant that is definitely not native or harmonious to Missouri, bush honeysuckle is easy to spot, as it is one of the first to start greening in the spring. While vine honeysuckle is native, the bus variety species was brought from Asia in the mid-1800s for landscaping and erosion control. Infestations of honeysuckle crowd the forest understory, blocking sunlight for other native plants and competing for soil moisture. The tubular white flowers attract pollinators away from the natives, while the berries produced are carbohydrate-rich and do not provide migrating birds with the high-fat food that they need for long flights.

If left unchecked, bush honeysuckle can quickly overrun a property or entire forest, as shown in this video: http://stophoneysuckle.org/. Try pulling it out by hand for small plants and for larger ones, cut it off at the stump. We occasionally hike with clippers! Visit MO Dept of Conservation – Control Bush Honeysuckle for more information on keeping this bush off your Innsbrook property.

Closing Nature Quote
“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment,” by the British novelist Ellis Peters

Feel free to send us your Innsbrook wildlife sightings, discussion questions and topics for future issues or meetings by emailing rwmcfall@earthlink.net.

-Innsbrook property owners Richard McFall and Kathleen Kremer