Time to Nest

The last few weeks we have seed some old friends. The Mountain Bluebirds and the Western Bluebirds are back from there migration. Over the next few weeks these beautiful birds will be making there nests for the summer in the bird houses that we have scattered over the golf course. In the past we've had great success with our bird houses with numerous eggs and eventually baby birds. Last year every one of our houses had new born chicks. The Blue birds usually lay there eggs in May and June and some times I have seen eggs even later. We typically monitor the nests in the early summer to check on the health of the birds and the nests. Once the nesting season is over we remove the used nests and get ready for next years birds.

Female Western Bluebird

Building her nest. Only the females build the nests.

Go Deep

The deep tine aerator we used on the greens this year is a very welcome addition to our equipment inventory. With this piece of equipment we can pull a hollow core up to 10 inches deep or penetrate the soil with a solid tine up to 12 inches deep. This aerator differs from our normal aerators in two ways. One is the depth and the other is the fracturing of the soil. The main reason for a deep tine is obviously compaction relief but one other reason is to break through the compacted layer of soil left from years of conventional aerators that only go 4 to 6 inches deep. This depth is all dependent on the size of the tine and the quality of your soil. The deep tine will actual lift the soil up to a 1/2 inch breaking up the soil structure and promoting air and water infiltration.