The story continues...
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The new school year brings new habitants to our arboretum. Last spring we saw several families of birds nest in the bird houses and boxes that were built and donated by students.
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Along with birds, we saw snakes, and rabbits. We also saw more butterflies attracted by our butterfly garden. Once again we set the butterfly traps. This year we placed trap #1 by the butterfly garden and trap #2 in the far southeast corner near a small orchard. The butterfly icon will direct your visit to the data and pictures of this activity.
View our Butterfly Project...
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The most exciting visitor was a Red Tail Hawk that appears to have taken up residency in our little acreage. Mr. Ghere and Mrs. Brachbill first saw him on 9/18/2006 on the way to check butterfly traps. He was sitting on a Wood Duck Box eating prey.
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On 9/22/2006, we had a visit from the Coles County Soil and Water Conservation District. They took core soil samples from the top levels of the arboretum, and from the bottoms. In the lower level samples, we could see the original "A Horizon" before the glaciers arrived in Illinois. That was exciting, and we learned a lot about our geology!
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That same morning, the Fifth Grade Students of Riddle Elementary School were treated to a close visit by our new resident, the Red Tail Hawk. How thrilling it was to see him feel so "at home"!
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On 1/11/07, we took time one sunny morning to check GPS coordinates of some of our newer trees.
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On 2/19/07 we woke up to see our little world covered in ice. It was an awesome scene, but we wondered how Mother Nature would take care of our trees.
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On 5/4/07 our first Painted Lady emerged, and later that month, we were excited to release our adopted butterflies into the arboretum.
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In May we were also very involved in our "Nesting Project". We had identified several nests around the schoolyard, including the arboretum, and watched as they were filled, first with eggs, then hatchlings, and finally watched as several grew and gained their independence.
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On 5/16/07 we planted trees. Mr. Higgins donated a green ash to every fifth grade student, and we were able to plant several in our arboretum. We also planted a persimmon trees, and an Ohio Buckeye that was transplanted from Ryan Ghere's property south of Mattoon.
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That same day we turned the ground over to extend our butterfly garden in preparation for the prairie plants we were expecting later in the spring.
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We received prairie plants in spring 2007 through a project supported by the Illinois Wildlife Preservation Fund of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The project was developed by Janice M. Coons, Ph. D. and Nancy E. Coutant, both from the Department of Biological Sciences at Eastern Illinois University. All of our plant species were originally found in Illinois prairies.
On June 4, 2007, three prairie plots were planted. More information can be obtained by visiting the link to that page by clicking on the icon. 
View our Prairie Plots...
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Come back in the fall to visit and see how "our garden grew"!
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