Reed Canyon Blog

I've been browsing through the pages of the Botany and Plant Pathology department at Purdue, and it looks like they're doing some really interesting work on weed science. Here's one thing I noticed on the page of Dr. Carole Lembi: "One of her most current interests is the study of the 'bale of hay' method of algae control. Farmers have known for a long time that if they throw a 'bale of hay' into a body of water, the algae problems will clear up. What is the scientific basis for this control? How much hay has to be thrown in? What types of hay are most efficacious? What kinds of algae are controlled? These are all questions currently under investigation."

Farmers may have known it for a long time, but it's news to me. Maybe we should give this a shot next summer.
- posted by Niels @ 10:11 PM

From the back page of this week's Quest:

90th Annual Canyon Day!!!

T-SHIRT CONTEST

Showcase your talent. Create a design that celebrates canyon pride at Reed.

(Design should mention the 90th anniversary)

Submit a design to Box 484 at Reed by 10/27.

- posted by Niels @ 3:49 PM

I stopped by the canyon with a digital camera today and got some more mushroom pictures. You can see them on the fungi page. It looks like I got there just a little too late. Most of the new growth that appeared after the rains last week was already starting to fade. But there were still a few nice shots.

By the way, I thought it went without saying, but please don't pick the mushrooms. The canyon is a very limited space and there's only room for a small number of mushrooms to grow. If one person picks them then the rest of the Reed community misses out (and it also makes it less likely that they'll reproduce and come back). The canyon is in the middle of a major restoration project and Reed is trying to encourage all the native organisms to grow and flourish. So please - do your mushroom picking up in the Mt. Hood National Forest and let the canyon fungi grow in peace. Thanks!
- posted by Niels @ 4:50 PM

The arrival of the fall rains means that mushroom season has begun here in the Pacific northwest. With lots of moisture and plenty of decaying wood, our own canyon is a perfect place to find a variety of Oregon 'shrooms, so keep your eyes open as you wander around. If you spot anything particularly colorful or unusual, please drop me a note so I can get a photo of it for our Canyon Fungi page.

While we're on the subject, next Sunday is the annual Wild Mushroom Show at the World Forestry Center. You can see an impressive collection of mushrooms gathered from the forests around Portland and there will be a table of experts to identify whatever fungi you bring along.
- posted by Niels @ 9:04 PM

More people continue to report seeing the juvenile sharp-shinned hawk in the community garden. Youth is all about discovery, and our bird is in the process of discovering that even predators have their limits. Yesterday evening, the ten-inch-long hawk apparently decided that a nearby hummingbird might make a tasty meal and accordingly launched into the air for an attack. Witnesses described what followed as "a dogfight between a 747 and an F-15."

After the brief, unequal chase, our slightly-older and slightly-wiser hawk decided to return to the bean trellis and the peaceful life of catching field mice. The hummingbird returned to catching insects.
- posted by Niels @ 10:15 AM

Most mornings this fall there's been a hawk hanging out in the community garden on the northwest side of the canyon. We've had a bad mouse infestation this year and that makes the garden a good habitat for predators. The hawk sits on a trellis each morning, waiting for mice to move around, and then it swoops down to get a warm breakfast. It never has to wait long.

The bird is a juvenile, which makes it hard to identify, but it has a light front, a dark back, and a rectangular tail with dark and light bands. My guess is that it's a sharp-shinned hawk. Any birdwatchers out there who can confirm that ID?
- posted by Niels @ 11:26 AM