Taking full advantage of the warm temperatures we have had of late, we were able to conduct the annual mow of our meadows at Waterloo Mills Preserve. 

An early spring mow knocks down the previous year's thatch and hastens its decomposition.  This allows valuable nutrients to be recycled back into the soil and utilized by this season's plants.  Mowing a meadow during the early spring also removes any woody growth that may have established during the previous growing season.  We typically see invasive shrubs such as mutltiflora rose, autumn olive, and wineberry take hold in the meadow each year, as well as native trees such as sweet gum.  

While most hayfields are mowed twice during the growing season, we only mow our meadows once per year and leave the vegetation standing at the end of the season.  This vegetative cover provides a valuable source of both food (seed heads) and habitat for birds and other small mammals throughout the winter.  

While mowing the meadow at Waterloo Mills this week, we observed an American Kestrel hunting the freshly mowed swaths for any mouse or shrew species running from the mower.  A Red Fox also visited the meadow and made a quick meal of two small mammals.

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