Hooded mergansers

This is the first time that I have seen the Hooded Mergansers at the golf course.  Their relatives, the Common Mergansers, are however quite common in the golf course waterways.  The male has a distinctive crest that rises when he is aroused, let's just leave it at that...

These ducks are infrequently encountered in Alberta and are sought after by most bird-watchers.

Common Goldeneye

Another early season visitor to the golf course is the Common Goldeneye.  Apparently they are called whistlers as the wind whistles through their wings as they fly, I can attest to that.

 

 

There are more golf course pictures on the Skydrive https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=a323ef5c3cec7c2d&id=A323EF5C3CEC7C2D%21664&action=Share

 

Dig a hole and fill it in...

It's always an exciting day when a hydro vac truck arrives at the golf course in the spring.  Some might ask why you would bring a large truck onto the course in the spring when the ground is naturally soft and it had been snowing all day.  

The simple answer is that we had no choice about it.  A valve that controls the water to a bathroom had malfunctioned and a stem needed to be replaced.

The truck operators did an excellent job digging the 5'x5'x10' deep hole, but the weight of the material made it difficult to get the truck off the course, and well, we have some ruts to repair.

A great job done by John Mac and Brent to engineer the project.

Fungicide trials

Every winter we do some fungicide trials out on the course to compare the treated areas with those that have no protection going into winter.  This last winter was one of the longest and it produced some great results.

 

There is a look at the treated area on the 10th fairway.  The fungicide that was used here was Instrata at the label rate.

 

 

The treated area on the 12th apron produced the same results.

 

 

Early season aeration

Before the course opens for the 2013 season we decided to sneak in a hollow tine aeration on the tees, collars and aprons.  These areas are very difficult to aerate when the course is open and we don't have the luxury of closing a nine or a maintenance morning. 

 

We set the ProCore aerator to a depth of just 1.5 inches in order to bring up some thatch along with a small amount of soil. 

 

 

We go over the plugs several times with an old drag mat and then blow the thatch off, leaving the soil on the tees.

 

 

With regular aeration, topdressing programs and good cultural practices, the 20 year old tees have very little thatch.

 

 

The other benefits to an early aeration are a quicker recovery from any winter damage and a lack of poa seeds that can be moved into the rootzone by the aerator tines.

 

 

 

 

 

Mergansers

The Common Mergansers returned to the area this past week.  They were spotted in the pond between the 17th and 18th holes that has an air diffuser system that prevents the water from freezing over in the winter.  This is a great spot for some early season bird-watching.

 

The male is predominantly white with a green head and can be seen from quite a distance.

 

 

The female has rust colored plumage on her head with a grey body.  Both photos were taken with my new Canon SX50 at full zoom.

 

 

 

The back 9

Preparations for the upcoming golf season continued on the back 9 following the weekly staff meeting that was catered by Amit Arora and some awesome pizza.  I think the pizza gave us a little spring to our step and we were able to get the covers off in just 3.5 hours (0.43 acres per hour).

In this picture Mike, Brent, Colin and Terry are rolling up a cover that will be stored away until next October.  Don Cox is in the background and was favouring his ankle after a slip on some ice, but still hung in there until we got the covers off.

A look at the 11th green that has some excellent spring color and it will be ready for play on April 10.

Opening day preparations

The outdoor portion of the 2013 golf season preparations began today with the removal of the covers on the front 9 greens and the practice green.

The greens at Woodside GC are primarily creeping bentgrass and that is part of the reason that they made it through a very long winter that started in mid-October.

Terry Pachal, in his shiny new blue jacket, is back at it this spring after doing some ski instructing at C.O.P. over the winter.  John MacKeeman and Colin Hillson are in the background hauling the cover to the trailer. 

A look at the 3rd green right after the cover was removed.  The turf has over-wintered extremely well.