Musings

 Sharp-shinned Hawk (adult)

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

It's been quite a spell since my last posting here, and not from a lack of things to throw out there or events to share. No moss has been forming around here, and that's a good thing.  But when that happens, it usually means there is less time for me to spend out on the prairie.  The studio work has been keeping me busy.

Had our first winter storm yesterday...well it's not really winter yet, we've got a few weeks before the solstice arrives.  Had high winds and around 4-5 inches of snow.

The neighborhood song birds really come in to the feeders at this time of the year, and become regular guests until spring.  Other birds come "visiting" for the guests, which really can make for some shorts bursts of excitement.  This morning a Sharp-shinned Hawk was chasing the Goldfinches and Juncos around the front yard. The bird landed in the Silver Maple out front and I grabbed the small camera and took a couple shots of it before it launched off into a chase after finches over and past the corn crib, the last we saw of it for now.

"Sharpies" are real cool little hawks, they're the smallest member of the accipiter family in North America.  They are more commonly known as birds of woodlands but come through the prairie during migration...taking advantage of opportunities - like our bird feeders.  I'm sure they have always made their way through the tallgrass region during fall and spring migrations...I surmise that they likely held to the river valleys for the timber and bird prey they are accustomed to, but who knows?!  (Accipiters feed primarily on birds.) The tallgrass is a much different environment than woodland, but their edges harbor many of the same species.

This is the time of year we're usually getting ready for possible fall or spring burns, and collect seed.  I have been able to do a minimal amount of preparations in the pasture, but it doesn't look like fall burning will be very likely now.  Even though the soil was still fairly warm when the snow came yesterday, the snow did come heavily enough to cover the majority of the pasture.  I don't typically go too much for fall burns, but did have some plans for a limited one.  Our ditches could use one; having a lot of trash growing in them this summer has created some issues and keeping the ditches clear of vegetation does help the road out front here when the snow gets deep.

The spring planting I did for the ditches went surprisingly well, but the extremely wet summer still caused many erosion trouble spots.  Maybe leaving the many troublesome weeds there during the winter will aid in abating some spring thaw run off.

The majority of our seed collection time was restricted to our own site.  I wish we could have gone out and done some area collecting...maybe next year?  There's still plenty to work on here and I don't need to worry about being idle when the window of opportunity presents itself.

In the meantime, stay warm and enjoy the days on the tallgrass when you can!

Last Summer Posting??!!

 Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) on Stiff Goldenrod

(click on image for a larger view)

OK...where'd it go???  The summer I mean!  Geeze I hate that...losing time so easily I mean.  Although not gone, it is only days till the equinox, but that's not all bad either I guess.  Soon the black flies and mosquitoes will get the axe from old Jack Frost and it'll be pleasant sailing on the tallgrass for a few more weeks!  Except the Asian Lady Bird Beetles...have you noticed how impervious they seem to be to a hard frost?  Must have anti freeze in their little cells!

This is the time of asters and goldenrod here on the tallgrass and there are a few invertebrates I enjoy this time of year.  As I've said in past postings, invertebrates are such an important key in the entire web that holds a prairie environment together...it's not just plants...which of course are the most obvious to the observer's eye!

I see lots of different types of Wasps on the prairie once the goldenrods come on.  Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida) seems to be the most common and prolific here, although we do have quite of bit of the S. canadensis or Canada Goldenrod too.  Earlier in the mid summer I can also find various wasps taking advantage of the Whorled milkweed  (Asclepias verticillata) here.  Why I seem to find more activity on the A. verticillata, than the other milkweeds I'm note sure, but it's something I've observed here for several years and kind of think it's displaying a "preference". 

The one wasp I look forward to watching each year is the Great Golden Digger. This is a curious and fairly friendly wasp with a neat habit of digging nests or burrows with the tenacity of a badger!  I'm still awaiting my first photographic opportunity to photograph this wasp digging.  I watched one in amazement once several years ago here and regretted not having my camera with me at the moment!  I know most people aren't real keen on stinging insects...especially larger ones...any wasp will sting if bothered and some may not be as tolerant as others, but we're fortunate to not have that issue here...the wasps on our prairie remnant are actually amazingly tolerant...but I'll admit I'm very careful around them any way!
  

We've been enjoying the sounds of the season here very much.  Each night has been bringing the late summer insect serenades, the neighborhood Great Horned Owl has been hooting from the yard by the house around 3-4 a.m. each morning and the Coyotes in the valley have "sung" numerous times for us this month!

I'm going to share our Great Horned Owl, serenading insects and one lone (distant) Coyote calling for it's friends, with you.  I posted this audio snippet with friends on Face Book and my Prairie Hill Farm Studio Blog as well, and I'll share it here on the "A Tallgrass Journal" blog too.

"Night Noise" audio video © Bruce A. Morrison

Since Google's blogspot doesn't have a really easy way to post simple audio files, I'll share it as a video file.  The image used on the video is a small "detail" of the image posted below...one I shared about 3 years back on this journal.  It is of the pasture across the road from us, depicted at night in late summer - a moon lit landscape with a Great Horned Owl passing through in flight...maybe (?) on it's way up to Prairie Hill Farm to spook a rabbit or skunk out of cover for it's dinner!

 "Night Pasture - Great Horned Owl"

8X24" color pencil rendering - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for larger view)

This artwork original sold at the Artisans Road Trip back in 2008 but I do have signed open edition prints of this work for sale at the 2010 A.R.T. event this year.  I also have many new works (photographs, drawings and paintings) this year and would love to share them with you at the 2010 Artisans Road Trip coming up in just 2 weeks!  We'll share a lot of mouth watering treats from Georgie's kitchen as well!

Why not go on a early autumn road trip the 1st, 2nd or 3rd of October and stop by the studio here at Prairie Hill Farm?!!!  Even take a walk through the late Tallgrass Prairie here too and enjoy some of those invertebrates we've admired from short distances all summer!

Enjoy the "Night Sounds" audio video and stop in for some day time memories if you're in the neighborhood!!!

See you on the tallgrass!

Fall Migration!

 Monarch Butterflies roosting in the west grove here just before sunset

I haven't meant to be delinquent with the blog!  I've actually been snowed under in related endeavors here at Prairie Hill Farm.  But sometimes things come up that require you to "sneak in" some time regardless.

It's the fall migration...or roosting that happens each year here at this time...not necessarily birds in this instance...although we've had many warblers passing through as well as Flycatchers and other songbirds the past 2-3 weeks.  It's the Monarchs!

Monarchs settle in for the night here after sunset

Each year we've been here we've had some roosting in the fall.  A couple years back was our largest roosting of upwards of a thousand butterflies...possibly slightly less, they're hard to count when they fill branches from 15-25 feet up!  This year we're seeing around 300-400 "countable" butterflies.  One thing I've found is when you go out in the morning to investigate - you often find more because they flutter their wings exposing the bright upper side when the sun begins to warm them.  This morning was no exception, I found many more roost covered branches than the evening before!

I send reports of sightings and roosts each year to the Journey North site; they have a Monarch migration tracking project that is followed by school  children all over the country.  It may sound small or unimportant but I feel kids are no longer in touch with their "natural" world like they were decades back.  Our natural heritage is more important than we can understand and to expose our kids of all ages to facets of this is extremely important!

The sun stirs the Monarchs to flutter as the sun warms them,

then they'll leave for the neighboring prairie pasture here to nectar through the day.

It was a bad winter for Monarchs this past year.  Their mountain winter roosts have significantly decreased and what roosting areas they still cling to are in bad shape.  This past winter in Mexico there were heavy rains which turned to freezing rain, causing high mortalities for the North American Monarch population.  

The Monarchs we have here now are that one unique part of the puzzle - they will be the ones to make the journey back to Mexico, winter over, and start the journey back next March!  Amazing!  They are the last generation for this year!

Get out and watch this amazing event if you can!

Night Noise...A Bird of the Tallgrass

Sedge Wren singing (during day time!)

from Maximilian Sunflower 

(Helianthus maximlianii) perch

I've been recording the night's here...audio recording the night noise, it's mesmerizing.  Painting and photographing the natural world is my avocation...appreciating it is my "hobby" I guess you could say.  A personal interest only for the fun and enjoyment of it.

One thing I've not been totally successful in recording is the Sedge Wren here at Prairie Hill Farm.  They've been elusive to photograph as well, but one special characteristic with the Sedge Wren is one of it's calling habits - it sings nearly all night long!  Well, "singing" is a kind way to describe it.

Sedge Wrens do sing during daylight hours too, but I can't get over how they don't burn themselves out?!  When do they ever sleep?!  I "can" tell you when they don't!  Wake up around here at 1, 2, or 3 a.m. and I'll almost guarantee a Sedge Wren down in the pasture or out back, singing away.

I've been trying to record the nights here this summer...I've done bits and pieces in past years too, but the Sedge Wren's voice doesn't carry loudly enough to record well from the house.  I usually stick a microphone out the upstairs window and then go to bed!  That's the lazy way of recording nature!  I have given thought to taking the equipment out and recording outside...I've done it many times but found out the hard way...you don't let electronics run long outdoors here in the summer at night.  

Our dewpoints have been tropical here this summer...in the 70's to around 80 degrees.  I fried my parabolic microphone a few years back when I left it outside recording nature sounds.  I got up and went out to turn the tape over in my deck (to record the other side), only to find out the entire set up was covered in a heavy dew...fried everything that was running...a sad state of affairs for a "hobbiest" audio guy, and it took only an hour to do it.  :(

It's wet out there!!!

"Sedge Wren Sunrise"

(oil painting by Bruce A. Morrison)

 Sedge Wrens are one of our grassland birds...they prefer tall grass and pasture or prairie or wetland edge...it's their cup of tea.  I did a painting of one from a early sunrise encounter one year...the bird singing it's heart out like it was trying to get a few last notes in before the sun over took the landscape.  

Sedge Wrens are great examples of what you can have with biological diversity in a landscape.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have plant diversity and not a monoculture, you introduce living space for invertebrates.  Not only do varieties of plant species create food for birds, but they also create food for insects - which again, creates food for more species of birds...this creates food for mammals...and reptiles, amphibians, and...well, you get the picture.

I'm going to double post this blog onto the "Prairie Hill Farm Studio" blog also...it's suitable for both purposes, I'll just tweak it a bit, so if you follow the "Prairie Hill Farm Studio" you'll see the little guy there as well.

Stay up late and give these little guys a listen...one of these days I'll possibly be able to post some audio of them for you...good night from the Studio!

Bio Blitz

 Prairie Larkspur

(Delphinium virescens)

Ever been to a Bio Blitz?  I witnessed my first one last summer at the Lost Island Prairie Wetland Nature Center north of Ruthven, Iowa.  It was a blast!  Various professionals in different fields headed groups of volunteers out into the marshes, woodlands, and prairies in the Lost Island Lake area.  Each group was focused on a specific plant, animal or invertebrate, and would explore the area's habitat for those species and tally what they found.  I had volunteered last year to just float from group to group as they inventoried their finds and found it fascinating what everyone was finding.  

Lost Island Naturalist Miriam Patton is carrying out another Bio Blitz this summer and asked me if I would help with the "prairie plant" part of this year's effort.  If running around and identifying prairie plants interests you - why not come over and join us!?  Besides - I "really" could use the help!  More eyes and heads are often better than one.  Any way, it'll be fun!  If plants aren't your thing, you can also volunteer to assist in finding Butterflies and Moths, Birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, aquatic specific species, and so on!  What could be more fun than that?  :) 

I'll paste an agenda here for more information -

Those interested in participating should make reservations by calling the Nature Center at 712-837-4866.  Let us know which session(s) you will be attending.  There is no charge for this event.

The schedule is as follows:

Saturday, August 7

12:00 -1:00  Registration at Nature Center

1:00 Welcome and logistics

1:30-5:00  Field Session

5:00-5:45  Sack Supper

5:45-7:45  Field Session

8:00 Lake Management Update

9:30 Moth Field Session

Sunday, August 8

6:00-8:00 Bird Field Session

9:00-12:00  Field Session

12:00 Sack Lunch

1:00 Final Report

Bring a sack lunch/supper, wear sturdy shoes that can get wet or muddy (no flip flops or open toed sandals), sunscreen, bug repellent, water bottle to re-fill, and binoculars.

 Wood Lily

(Lilium philadelphicum)

One thing I find interesting about identifying forbs during mid to late summer is identifying the late spring and early summer plants with their seed capsules in place instead of their flowers.  I often wish I'd find the time to photograph forbs in seed...would you recognize the Prairie Larkspur gone to seed?  I think it's amazingly similar to the shape of columbine when it's gone to seed...except larger and paler, maybe even somewhat more "papery" (if that's really a word!?).

If you're familiar with lilies in your garden, then you'll likely recognize the Wood Lily gone to fruit...these are perhaps some forbs we'll be able to find at the "Bioblitz:  A 24 Hour Nature Scavenger Hunt" at Lost Island on August 7th and 8th.  If you're free, and game for a real "hunt", come on over and give me a hand!  :)

Pondering Leafy Spurge

July morning in the Waterman Prairie Complex
(click on image for a larger view)

Spent a morning recently on a photo field trip to a section of the Waterman Prairie complex just south of us.  Was curious about the Leafy Spurge situation on a favorite gravel esker; I hadn't been there in "season" in some time.

I found some very nice stands of Echinacea (E. angustifolia), 4 species of Asclepias (milkweeds - Green, Sullivant's, Butterfly, and Common), Compass plants (Silphium lancinatum), Toothed Evening primrose (Calylophus serrulatus), amd many other forbs, with plenty of native grasses such as Hairy grama (Bouteloua hirsuta), Prairie muhly (Muhlenbergia ?), Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and Side oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) - all beginning to flower already.  Things seem to be ahead of past years due to our region's record rainfall and warm weather.

 Leafy Spurge

(Euphorbia esula)

The Leafy Spurge situation in this particular locale has not improved, it has nearly engulfed the disturbed slope leading up the esker and is now making some inroads onto the crest of the knob.  A few years ago a grad student from Michigan University would show up for a few weeks and spend a great deal of time documenting the incursion and it's affects on the neighboring plant communities.  I had some secret hope that he'd have some recommendations or an epiphany or something that'd help the situation!  But that was a few years ago now and nothing has changed there.

I can't fault the county or DNR on this predicament...I see it all over.  I do believe that if it were a legislated issue, we could get it under control.  That's a real can of worms though and don't really care to get into where that conversation would lead!  But if land owners over the county and state took this plant seriously, the rest of the areas still fighting it off would make real progress.

I don't know if Iowa has started a flea beetle program or not?  Some neighboring and regional states have and give out the flea beetles to land owners to disperse and I'm reading some encouraging results.  But it's a complicated situation and often requires several control approaches, not just one (flea beetles).

Apparently Leafy Spurge is toxic to cattle so any pasture ground effected by it becomes pasture lost for grazing.  However, sheep and goats can and will graze on Leafy Spurge, and studies have been done the past several years on grazing sheep or goats as part of a multi control approach.  Goats will apparently graze spurge completely down but it will return after they are rotated off a site.  Some success has been found combining flea beetles with goats or sheep though.  Maybe fencing small portions of an affected site and moving the enclosure periodically could be a helpful approach?

I was reading a paper from the Colorado State Extension, it mentioned that there are 4 types of flea beetles they use, as not all are suitable for "all" locations.  Interesting - I thought a Leafy Spurge Flea Beetle was just one insect, but there are several types and that's been part of the studies done the past several years.  Their habitat requirements vary, and although they don't entirely understand, they have identified which beetles prefer which type of habitat - you'd tailor your situation to suit a particular beetle for the best results.

For people that are unaware of invasive/exotic plants, none of this may seem the least bit important.  But if you witness this phenomenon first hand in a habitat you personally care about, it is most disheartening.  It is something like watching a loved one slowly succumb to a disease from which they apparently will never recover.

Our natural heritage is harder to secure as each year passes.  It is not wise to squander what your grand children deserve to experience and enjoy!  Look for answers and make inquiries...volunteer to help the environment in your area...do whatever you can, it's worth the effort.

July...A Window Into The Whole

Canada Anemone

(Anemone canadensis)

click images for larger view

This amazes me to no end, always has, always will...how does time pass so quickly?!  It's already July!  

When I was young...very young, time was a chain that prevented the enjoyment of the natural world...glued to the window during class in school I griped about the day wasting away "out there", while trapped inside - not wanting to learn what I was told I must!

Now, it (time) is so fleeting and the natural world progresses, through the many processions of blooms and bust.  Even with the native pasture here, it is difficult to not miss things, and when you miss something, you usually must wait till next year!  (But at this rate - that doesn't seem to take very long anymore!)

I walked a favorite prairie close to home one evening this past week. The Porcupine grass was standing tall and mostly naked; nearly all their quills had been given up to the ground.  The Canada anemone blooms, which were quite prevalent in this same space only 2 weeks ago, were becoming rare...their seed now forming.  

The air was full of sounds of insects.  This is a sweet sound to me now...may not have been in earlier naive years.  I once found myself a quarter of a mile from the road in a boggy area of SE Iowa, photographing Bur Marigolds (Bidens aristosa) in a mass bloom I've not seen anything like since.  I was photographing with my old Crown Graphic 4X5 camera and heavy old tripod.  When I finally set up for a shot I realized a now nearly deafening drone of bees.  I looked around and almost immediately had to suppress a feeling of panic.  I had to have nearly a hundred solid acres of bees busily working all around me!  I was an island in the middle of these insects. The slogging walk back to the car, in my chest high waders, was made much harder by now trying to avoid upsetting any of the "quadrillion" (my mentally disabled estimate!) bees in a feeding frenzy!  I knew then, and know now, that I had nothing to worry about as long as I stayed upright - these insects had the same distraction I had (the flowers!) and were unconcerned or aware of my incidental presence!

I have always been interested in insects (invertebrates) and I suppose if I'd had my 35mm camera with me at the time I might have spent the next hour trying to get back to the car, photographing bees pollinating these forbs!  

I've become more interested in invertebrates in recent years here at our acreage and native pasture.  I've mentioned many times in past "A Tallgrass Journal" entries, about trying to balance the maintenance of the small remnant and the reconstructed areas with fire and mowing "and" leaving it alone...for the good of the insects.  This subject has become, perhaps one of the most important and discussed parts of prairie biodiversity (health).

With prairie remnants so dissected, fragmented - and small, the total picture is seldom still intact.  The prairie, as a real habitat, is in more danger of no longer existing as it once did than nearly any other type of habitat in our region of the country.  It all works together, as so eloquently put in "The Emerald Horizon, the History of Nature in Iowa", by Connie Mutel (see "A TAllgrass Journal" Vol.7 No.1)

Invertebrates are so key to the tallgrass diversity, as are the plants...but the ecosystem will not hold together integrally without the invertebrates.

I've noticed the pollinators among them (invertebrates) over the years and find it fascinating.  I never gave pollination much thought years back, until we became more familiar with some economic impacts of them...such as bees with world food crops.  In our region, much of our most common grain crops (corn and soy beans) are wind pollinated so the importance of pollinator health is nearly unappreciated.  This is unfortunate and many say "short sighted", as pollinator health is a key to world food production we should not disregard!

 Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) with ant

(you'll have to click on the image to see the ant!)

One thing I've noticed out on our native pasture in recent days is the variety of pollinators one usually does not consider as such. I often see ants on various forbs...many time they'll be with aphids of course but often pollinating, gathering nectar and/or pollen and becoming important to specific plants.  The asclepias (milkweed) is one forb I often see ants working.

 Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) with Mosquitoes

(click on image for larger view)

One insect that I've seen participating in this process, that surprised me are mosquitoes (!).  I remember hearing that mosquitoes also feed on nectar, but figured it must be the males, because we all know what the females feed on!  (ouch!)  But I've noticed many, many examples the past week of female mosquitoes inadvertently pollinating plants...especially the milkweeds.  Do they feed on others?  Well I'm guessing so, it's likely the opportunity that presents itself (?).  Wouldn't it be nice if female mosquitoes would prefer nectar to us!!!

 Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata)with Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus)

Another insect I see feeding on nectar are wasps.  Or perhaps it's the pollen they are after, or both?  I'll have to study this more.  But one wasp I really like here is the Great Golden Digger Wasp.  They seem to feed on whatever is in bloom, which at the moment are the milkweeds.  The Great Golden Digger Wasp seem to really be attracted to the Whorled Milkweeds here, and then when they're done - the Goldenrods.

Interesting what's out there and what niche they partake. Well, they not only make fine music but as a group (the invertebrates) are part of the glue that holds the tallgrass prairie together...some may be not so pretty to others, but the natural world is shaped by them and our food throughout the world hinges on their health.