Chimney Swifts in Washtenaw County

In February, I met with Barbara Lucas, the producer of "In the Green Room" on WEMU (89.1 FM) to talk about the chimney swift tower that was built in the fall at Leslie Park Golf Course. This morning, that segment aired on the radio and is now podcast on the WEMU website. My part is brief and the interview was conducted during the walk up to the tower through the snow. Looking back at my records, the low temperature that day was -10 degrees.

You can listen to the whole segment HERE

You can read more about the Chimney Swift Tower by reading my blog post about it or by going to ChimneySwifts.org.

The Chimney Swift Tower at Leslie Park Golf Course



Going Slow

It may seem like we are way behind where we have been in previous springs, but looking at the opening dates for the golf courses over the last seven years, you can see that we are not yet behind schedule. The average opening day for Huron Hills (front 7) is March 16th. The average first day at Leslie Park is March 28th. The official first day of spring is March 20th. While the snow may keep delay us until after the usual dates, we are still three weeks away from the average Leslie opening day. Think spring and have warm thoughts.

Cherry trees between #5 and 6 in the Spring of 2013



Blooming Redbud next to #7 Spring 2012

Blue Flag Iris from the native garden along #12

February 2014 Monthly Weather Summary

Checking the greens requires specialized equipment.

February 2014 was cold. Twenty of the 28 days did not get above freezing. Every single day in the month had a low temperature below 32 degrees. We saw four days with a low temperature below zero, with the lowest temperature for the month of -10.2 degrees (Feb 28.) The high temperature for the month was 46.6 (19th), the middle of a four day stretch which saw highs reach the 40's.  The average temperature for the month was 19.2 degrees.

The month did not see any rain, but the weather station recorded 0.85 inches of water on the 20th, most likely due to melting snow in the collector.

The average windspeed was 4.2 mph. The highest sustained windspeed was 37 mph (Feb21st.)