June is "Dickcissel Month"...Just Say'n

 

 

(color pencil drawing - ©Bruce A. Morrison)

I got an idea last summer, reveling in all the Dickcissels living along our road and pastures. Nothing deep or serious mind you...and selfishly - something just for my own fun. I have to keep reminding myself - if you aren't having fun, then knock off what your doing and get to it...life is too short! 

 

I don't exactly recall why or how I came to this idea? Maybe it was all the perseverance these birds were being educated to each day - forming and raising families...staking their territorial claims and announcing that every day...all day long. Its really quite something to see and hear throughout the summer months.

 

I decided to just have fun and dedicate this artwork to them...all the graduates of Prairie Hill Farm - Class of '22. They wouldn't all pose for their class pictures but I got a few of them...mostly the guys of course, but a couple girls showed up as well.

 

Making this reminiscent of an old country school class composite did present some issues for me.  Color pencil is not a good tool for lettering nor graphics...I almost gave up the silly idea half way through, even before getting to the birds. I should've farmed that part off to someone who is actually "Good" at lettering and calligraphy...like our Daughter-in-Law Amy, she's a "Natural" at design and lettering - just look around our house!

 

The birds were fun - as was the central image representing their "school grounds"...putting everyone in a oval was "not" fun...not an easy shape constraint for my tired eyes and hands.

 

But here's to the "Prairie Hill Farm Summer Academy - Dickcissel Class of '22" - of whom many graduates returned this year and every year, to school their young and bring them up to be proud little Dickie Birds (as someone once called them)!!!

 

(color pencil drawing - ©Bruce A. Morrison)

 

I decided to declare June as "Dickcissel Month", in honor of these little birds and the memory they leave behind after they head south at summer's end.   I still have a glimmer of a seed to sprout a more serious Dickcissel piece someday...maybe a painting, who knows?

 

But I still remind myself not to take things too seriously, and have fun in the moment!

 

Be good to one another out there - hope to see you on the Tallgrass!

 

 

Things come on fast once the weather turns hot and even more so if the rain actually starts.  We aren't out of the drought "woods" yet but it has improved from the past 3 years...very grateful for that!

The Dickcissels are back this June and are a happy lot once again - I swear we have one every 50 feet down the road and several in the pastures as well...its great!  They are even nesting in the pasture here - very fun!

 

And the Bobolinks did show up in the pasture across the road...occasionally they'll chase one another across the road to our place so we can get some enjoyment out of their company!  It was a special time when they nested on our place and when we'd see them up the county blacktops and highway pastures as well, but, again...I am grateful for what we still have.

 

The spring prairie flowers are happy with our rain too, and the heat is moving them along faster than I can keep up...every time I find something new blooming, its finished before I know it...help!!!

 

 

One evening I was down in the SE corner of the north pasture shooting the While Wild Indigos and just as I started walking away a beautiful female Ruby-throated Hummingbird was suddenly right in front of me - feeding on the White Wild Indigos!   The light was subsiding as it was mid evening, but I had the camera on the tripod already and managed some nice photos of her - really fun!

 

 

 We are always fortunate to have Meadowlarks in our neighborhood.  I do have difficulty telling "Eastern" from "Western" - UNLESS they sing...Western Meadowlarks are so much more vocal and melodious than Eastern's are...and we get Westerns here quite often each summer.  

 

One day a week or so back I was in the studio working and heard a beautiful Western Meadowlark belting it out, and it sounded so loud I thought it must be on the barn roof.  I stepped out the door and it was right in front of me on the grass across the driveway...maybe 20 feet away!  We've never had a "Lawn" Lark before!!!  Crazy neat!  I stepped back in and grabbed the camera only to see a Robin dive bomb it...maybe it was stealing his thunder?  But it flit just another 20 feet or more toward the crib so I walked over by the barn's corner and took a few pictures of it in the fresh mowed grass.  I watched it pull a worm up and it commenced to beating it into submission...maybe that's why the Robin didn't want it around - encroaching on its food supply?!

 

It sang in the yard for another day or two but is now back to it's normal perches around the pasture and down along the road.

 

 

Another fun change this year has been the Eastern Kingbirds.  We always see them down along the road...flitting from fence wire to fence post to electrical wire and back.  This year they have taken up residence in the yard!  During noon time Georgie and I would be sitting at the kitchen table having lunch and we watch the Kingbirds flycathing right outside the kitchen windows!  We noticed the favored perches the birds would use to dart out and catch bugs on the wing.  One spot was an old Common Mullein stalk from last year...made a great perch for them.

 

I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to get some closer shots of these guys...I set up the tripod out side and set the camera on it with a electric remote transmitter/trigger.  While I sat eating lunch that day I was holding the trigger in one hand and eating with the other...click, click, click - "Wow that was a good one!"  

 

Went through quite a few shots and missed quite a few too, but very happy with the results...fun birds!

The days are moving quickly now, even though there's more daylight time - it's still packed with chores and work...inside and out.

I hope you have a good summer ahead yourselves...be good to one another and I hope to see you on the Tallgrass!

 

Having A Walk About (and barking dogs?)

Mid June forbs at the native pasture here -
(from the left - clockwise)
Echinacea angustifolia (Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower),
Silphium lancinatum (Compass Plant)
and Ratibida columnifera (Prairie Coneflower)
Photos © Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)

I've tried to keep track of what is going on in our native pasture here, doing some thistle eradication and clearing some brome seed heads before they mature...I know that's like chasing your tail but its mental therapy for me.  

I followed up on an idea I had a year or two back and bought a battery powered hedge trimmer to cut seed  heads.  I originally thought of it for the brome but last summer got it specifically for the Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida) seed heads.  The S. rigida has gone rampant down the gravel esker hillside in our north pasture...this hillside was predominantly Western Wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithi) when we first arrived and ever since we've been encouraging the forbs, certain bad players are becoming dominant - in this case the S. rigida.  I'd say 35-40% of the NE slope is now dominated by it...I hate seeing the Western Wheatgrass get choked out, plus there are a couple very nice clumps of Prairie Muhly (Muhlenbergia cuspidata) there as well and I definitely want it to keep a healthy foothold.  

The only thing I accomplished with the trimmer was cutting off the S. rigida flower heads after their blossoms transitioned - before going to seed.  I still have a formidable issue with removing/thinning the S. rigida "plants" that are there now.  I usually sit down in a spot and just pull after a good rain.  What I need is a "bunch" of people to help but I'm "it" I guess.

 Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Milkweed)

Photo © Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)

The pasture is still incredibly ahead of itself.  All the plants illustrated above are in full bloom now and they shouldn't be for at least 3 more weeks.  But it's great to see any time...I won't bicker about it!

This has also been a banner year for Dickcissels everywhere I go.  There was a reference made about them on the Iowa bird list serv recently and it made me laugh; it was a colorful reference to the Dickcissel numbers that others in the state are finding.  One birder referred to the Dickcissel's calling as "like barking dogs"; I suppose if you fixate on their constant calling they could drive a person crazy! 

I had to laugh because I see and understand the reference!  I still love hearing and seeing them each day, but we do have 2-3 times the numbers here than I usually record.  We have at least 3 nesting pairs in our east ditch alone!

I'm sure most everyone who is into prairies is familiar with Dickcissels, but if you're not you can watch the very short (just under a minute) video below as a reference to "call" and "plumage".  This male was singing from a fence post on our east ditch just a few days ago.  (If you subscribe to this blog via email, you can access the video directly from today's blog page.)

 (Dickcissel male in song - video)

I really enjoy the sounds on the prairie and have been trying, over the past 3 years, to record an Upland Sandpiper's "wolf whistle call"...at least that is one person's description of it.  I was on a state preserve 3 years back and was serenaded for over an hour by one.  Now I'd heard the call before but never at such close range and clarity, nor for so long!  I loved it!  Kind of like many people return from the northwoods with the cry of the Common Loon in their heads!

I've returned to the preserve each summer since but have yet to get the same performance.  I did get an awful lot of "Dickcissel" calling!  Or "barking dogs" as that birder put it :)  But the Upland Sandpiper only did its "flutter call" (my description) over head...the long trilling (wolf whistle) call was always a quarter to a half mile away.

 (Music of the Prairie audio file)

I'm going to post an audio file here for you of my latest attempt...you'll start out listening to the Upland Sandpiper's "flutter" call as it flutters 75 to 100 feet overhead, then you'll hear Sedge Wrens, Dickcissels...then Bobolinks, but the file is always resonant with the Dickcissels in and out of the background (those barking dogs again!).  An ocassional distant rooster pheasant will crow, and if you listen carefully, you may hear one or two "flutters" and then "wolf whistles" of the Upland Sandpiper a quarter of a mile away.  Enjoy it :)

Hope to see you on the Tallgrass this summer!

Tallgrass Summer

"Dawn in the Valley"

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

I've been spending these days exploring new remnants, but still along the little creek that flows past our home in the valley.  The tallgrass is entering summer now and there is no holding it back!

One pleasant personal observation this year has been the larger than remembered vocal presence of Dickcissels.  They are even calling from the fences bordering our own yard!  Now this is likely a good opportunity to get more photos of this grassland favorite...but Murphy's Law steps in with cases like this.  If you go out and dig thistle or mow, or pull brome - they sing praises to you!  If you even carry something "looking like" a camera - they leave for the neighbor's pasture!  Little buggers!  But it's nice to hear and see so many here this summer; would be nice if they were actually rebounding a little.  

I'm embedding a very short video here of a male Dickcissel singing from a pasture fence post...many people don't realize what a pretty little bird this is (or don't even recognize what kind of bird it is!)...although the video isn't a "close-up" of the bird, it will give you an idea of how it looks. For a better look at a Dickcissel, you can view a closer shot in a past post in my Prairie Hill farm blog - Here.  If you subscribe to this blog via e-mail the link for the video feed is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwuepAhj36E.  (That link would also allow full screen viewing.)

See ya on the tallgrass...enjoy the birds on the prairie this summer!

Winter Prairie Musing

This is somewhat of a double posting from the studio, but not completely cut and pasted per-se.  It really hasn't seemed like a "long" winter here at Prairie Hill Farm.  Georgie and I have been extremely busy and that helps, doesn't it?  But the Tallgrass has been on my mind nearly every moment, I just can't, nor want to shake it.  

My seed from last year's harvest is waiting patiently to stoke up the road ditch this spring.  I wanted to get it in last fall but the weather was very uncooperative!  I hope this spring planting works as well as the last...sometimes I find the fall seeding to come out the best.

Most of my time has been spent painting or drawing the prairie, and doing studio business.  This summer I have a solo exhibit over in Spencer at Arts on Grand, I'll send out more info on that down the road.  It has put me under the gun to produce this winter; the exhibit title is "From the Tallgrass" and I'm working with the prairie as I have the past several years.

"Tallgrass Songster"

8X18" color pencil rendering

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

I finally finished a piece that is about the third attempt to an idea I first got 6-7 years ago.  The "star" of this drawing is a male Dickcissel belting out it's name, in song form, among the Tallgrass Prairie in bloom.  The bird is taken from a study I did, which is now in the permanent "drawing collection" of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin.  I have been trying to find a "home" for my study and this is my first "finished" attempt to see if I have!  The foreground is a mix of forbs in a prairie remnant near us that Georgie and I often explore.  The Echinacea (purple coneflowers) are of our county's true native population - Echinacea angustifolia, or "Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower".  The male Dickcissel is proudly belting out it's name, the call from which the bird was named (virtually sounds like Dick, Dick, cissel).  This is a larger piece for me with color pencil...I find the medium can be exasperating at times and generally stick with small studies instead...but I persevered and finished it this week.

"The Ritter Elevator"

11X19" oil painting

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Another work finished earlier, was an oil painting that was "kind of" different for me; it was a commissioned work done for a client commemorating (if-you-will) her trips to the grain elevator with her father, back when she was a child.  The elevator is one I'm very familiar with, have driven past and around it for 30+ years.  What I didn't know were some of the history and stories behind the "Ritter Elevator" - was fun to research and depict the elevator during the early 1950's!  The red IH box truck was my client's father's truck.  I took the rest of the vehicles from the area and other sources...the red tractor is my neighbor's father's Farmall "M" and their flarebox wagon (did repaint that a different color though).  I do like doing work depicting the agricultural environment/landscape and felt this was actually a good fit.  I've said it before and will likely again - the Tallgrass Prairie made this state what it is today and without that natural heritage, we would not have that "black gold" the prairie gave us - the soil.  After handing the painting over to it's new owner, I asked her if I could have permission to share it with you here - she was very happy to!

My first "Morrison's Studio Newsletter" (Vol.1, No.1) went out this week!  If you'd like to sign up for it, there's a link to the form right along the sidebar to this blog...if you get this blog via e-mail you can go directly to the form by way of this link -

http://www.morrisons-studio.com/Newsletter%20page.htm

The Tallgrass up here is still under snow and ice!  I'll just keep working on it here in the studio...makes the time I can be outside all day come quicker!   Hope yours is thawing and growing soon! 

See ya on the Tallgrass!