Coyote Update

No sooner did I post my last report on coyotes, Jorge called me on the radio to report another burial in the bunker. It's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to find!

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Course Conditions

It sounds like a broken record but what else can you say about the weather in the Northwest? It's raining again! This weekend was pretty much a wash. The course is saturated and is about as wet as it can get. Saturday we receive about 1.38" and we will probably get that and then some more through Sunday.

  The weather didn't keep the crew from being productive though. The rain held off long enough to mow the tees on Thursday and the greens on Friday. 

In addition to pruning the small firs around the course Steve has also been nurturing many of the volunteer Doug firs that you see in some of the out-of-the-way places. He has been transplanting many of these in areas around the course where they will grow and flourish. Steve also puts them in areas where we want to eliminate cart traffic like the hill between the 16th tee and the 13th tee and near areas where we have lost trees due to stress. Our goal is to be able to sustain our coniferous woods by reallocating these young trees that we have on site. Here is a small patch of young Dougs that are coming along nicely.(above)  

This week the guys worked on the shortcut between the 18th tee box and the 10th green. For years it has been a well used trail and it had finally become so well used that it was bare dirt and mud. We simply placed a thick layer of gravel which should make it a much nicer path and a little more pleasing to look at.

Wildlife

Monday we had an unexpected guest on the course. We don't normally get a chance to get so close, but it gave us a rare opportunity to see how pretty coyotes really are. We regularly see coyotes around the golf course and often see them mousing in the fields across the highway. This time he didn't make the crossing safely and was struck by a car. We called APHIS Wildlife control and they helped us with the situation. 

It is reported that coyote sightings have become an all to familiar event in the Oregon City area. Urban coyotes have developed streetwise ways. The wildlife manager from APHIS told me that coyote sightings are about 80 percent of his calls. When I called him he was just on a controlled hunt where they were attacking a local flock of sheep.  

Click here to view a great little slide show of urban coyotes on NPR.org.

A funny side note on coyotes: A few weeks ago Jorge found mound of sand in one of the bunkers on fifteen. He knew what it was from a previous encounter but wanted to show Travis what it was. He uncovered it for him and it was a chicken that had been stolen from a neighbor. A year or so earlier he saw a coyote running across Stoneridge Drive with two chickens in his mouth heading to the course. Later that morning he found the one that he didn't eat in a similar situation. You never know what you may run into out here, it's never a dull moment.

Once in a while I like to promote a good product that we have found to be successful in our operation. Geese are a common pest among many golf courses around the country and there are many products that are sold to discourage them form sticking around. We have tried many of them and so far there isn't one alone that will work by itself. In the past we have used life-sized  coyote silhouettes and decoys, string fencing around the pond edges, amphibious/airborne RC devices, spray on products and finally my standard poodles. All seem to be effective as long as you are consistently taking time to administer the deterrent.  

I think we have found a combination of products that takes very little of our time and has seemed to have an effect. The first is a flashing beacon that is solar charged and only works at night. The beacon disrupts the sleep cycle of the geese which makes it uncomfortable for them to roost at night. We have had them now for a couple years and have gradually seen the overnight population decrease to just a small flock once in awhile. The one I show here on the right was struck by a golf ball and we are replacing it. You can also see that the float has been eaten by the muskrats and had been reduced in size by one half. The good new is the company that manufactures these devices has already made the necessary changes on the new model (left) and seemed to have solved the problem. The beacon is from a company called Away With Geese and can be purchased from their website or through the local Par Aide distributor. They won't work over night but as far as what we have seen they have had a significant impact on our population this winter.

  

The other device is a green laser pointer which we use only when the geese are present. A simple wave of the laser over the flock and they are gone. Something about it simply freaks them out. The laser is easily kept in your pocket and can be given to any of your staff. I found ours on Amazon for less than $12 each!  And yes these are the ones that can cause damage to the eye so extreme caution is taken.

Scribble Maps

I just became familiar with this new tool a couple weeks ago through Scott Morrison at Turfhugger and have already found some pretty good uses for it. Below is the map of the golf course with little green paddles pointing to specific trees that are in need of pruning. I am going to use this map as a work order and to collaborate with my arborist on how I want the job handled. If you click on the small square in the top right corner the map it will expand to the size of your monitor. From there you can click and drag the map around to where ever you want. When you  click on a paddle, a photograph of the tree will pop up and you will be able to see first hand on what needs to be done. I hope by doing this it will save time and hopefully money by enabling my arborist to make cost estimates remotely.


This tool can also help us delineate areas of the property as well. If we need to determine the area of a certain feature like a fairway, green or even our lakes, we can draw a polygon around it and it will tell us the dimensions. There are all kinds of icons that are available to insert into the map. Scott is working with the developer and has already had some golf specific icons placed in the menu.

This program will be very useful in developing an environmental plan for a facility, especially if a course is working on their Audubon certification. By drawing lines you can locate your direction of drainage, show catch basins and drain pipe discharge locations. Some courses have hundreds of bird boxes and this can be used to catalog each one of them.

As far as a communication tool goes, this has unlimited possibilities. I simply made the map and copied the embedded code into the blog. You can also send by email directly from the site as well. Thank you Scott for bringing this tool to light, it will definitely be used frequently.  Give it a try, the price is right...it's FREE!