The Prairie Ecologist

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I was in north central Nebraska over the weekend because Kim was running the Cowboy 100 ultramarathon. She ran 100 miles in about 23 hours, getting third place among women and sixth place overall – a great race for her!

While she was running, I ended up finding an opportunity to photograph more monarch butterflies than the miles Kim ran. I stumbled upon a big roost just north of the town of Bassett, Nebraska. I was driving slowly down a dirt road and flushed a few butterflies from the tree line to my right. They flew up and then circled back to the tree they’d come from. Intriguing. When I stopped and looked more closely, I saw that there were hundreds of them in scattered groups along about 1/4 mile of trees. Most were high up in the branches, and the overcast skies made photography difficult, but I found a few groups I could capture images of during some brief periods of slightly brighter skies.

Monarchs fluttering their wings as one of their compatriots flew past.

I was particularly glad to find this roost because it’s more evidence of the value of this part of the world to monarchs. I feel like the Midwest and eastern U.S. gets most of the attention when it comes to monarch conservation efforts and funding. We should certainly spend money in that part of the country to improve habitat. However, further west in the Great Plains, there are tons of monarchs as well, both during breeding and migratory seasons. The numbers are underreported, largely because the human population is low and most of the landscape is privately-owned and not well-explored by people who count butterflies.

I made sure to report this roost and get another data point out there. As I shared the sighting with some local friends, I was told they were also seeing lots of monarchs coming through, both in their yards and on the ranches they work on. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the 12 million acres of Sandhills prairies (and the other 8 million acres of grassland in Nebraska) provide a lot of monarch butterfly habitat, but it’s apparently a story we need to keep telling people. So, here I am telling it.

A slightly wider view of that same group shown above.

An even wider view of the same group. I count 54 monarchs in this photo.

Apart from the monarch roost, I didn’t find many other photo opportunities during the day. It was dark and dreary and just breezy enough that things didn’t line up well for photography. Plus, of course, I had race obligations – I had to stay ahead of Kim and meet her at the various aid stations where I could fill her up on water and encouragement. I did stop and watch a little family of milkweed bugs feeding on some milkweed pods, though. I also wandered around and enjoyed seeing the sights without trying to photograph everything I saw.

As the sun went down Saturday night, a large full (or close) moon rose from the opposite horizon. As it emerged, large and pink, I was helping Kim get back on the trail, but once she was on her way, I drove out of town and found a spot where I could take a few quick photos before it got too high.

Full moon, cottonwood tree, and a country road.

My next photo opportunity came at about 4 in the morning. I managed an hour or two of sleep (car camping) but kept waking up to check on Kim’s progress (online tracking tool). When it was clear I wasn’t going to sleep anymore, I stopped fighting it and drove up to a high point above the Niobrara River, where the full moon and rolling clouds of fog created some magical conditions for photography.

Ponderosa pines at the top of a ridge that dropped down to the Niobrara River (which was concealed by fog). The only light source was the moon.

I spent time photographing ponderosa pines silhouetted against the moonlit fog and, periodically, glimpses of the stars above. I also went out into the dew-covered prairie and silhouetted some grasses against the sky as well. Despite being sleep deprived, I was no longer feeling tired. I was totally consumed by beauty all around me and tried my best to capture some of it.

A few stars are visible above these pines but the fog closed that gap soon after I took the photo.

After Kim finished her race at about 7am, I had one more brief window of photography time and focused mostly on the thousands of dew-covered spiders and webs that were scattered along the Cowboy Trail.

A different species of orb weaver (Neoscona pratensis).

Then it was time to head home so both Kim and I could catch up on sleep. I drove and Kim tried to doze while icing her ankle and trying to get her stomach to settle enough to eat some food. Ultramarathoners do this for fun…

A runner coming through the fog on Sunday morning, heading toward the distant finish line.

I’m mostly caught up on sleep now and Kim is already dreaming about future races. Fine with me! I’m happy to hand out dry socks, nutrition, and encouraging words now and then if I also get time to kick around some beautiful places with my camera. It’s also fun to see Kim do something she’s really good at, even if I think it stretches the definition of “fun” a little.

If you want to see a little video of the race Kim ran, check out this link. It’s a local news story featuring the Cowboy 200/100 ultramarathon. There’s video of Kim crossing the finish line right at the beginning of the clip and brief interviews of a few of the top runners trying to explain why they do what they do.

Tuesday of this week was a cloudy day but the clouds thinned a little in the afternoon and made it worth carrying my camera around at the Platte River Prairies. Here are a bunch of photos from Tuesday afternoon, squeezed in amongst other work projects that day.

The first series all come from one particularly nice-looking New England aster in a restored prairie we planted in 2016. New England aster is on the western end of its range here, but does well were we’ve planted it in some of our lowland floodplain prairies. We’re glad to have it, and so are the myriad pollinator insects drawn to its flowers. I camped out on this aster for 15 or 20 minutes and just photographed everything I could that came to it.

Orange sulphur butterfly on New England aster

Yellow-shouldered drone fly on New England aster

Celery looper moth (migratory species) on New England aster

The checkered white below was on a different New England aster that was growing near the first.

Checkered white butterfly on New England aster

There are lots of other flowers blooming right now besides New England aster, of course. Tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum) is also attracting a lot of pollinator attention, especially from butterflies and bumble bees.

Painted lady butterfly on tall thistle (*Cirsium altissimum*)

Pitcher sage is also still blooming, though many plants are quickly winding down their flowering. Monarchs and bumble bees are big fans of these blue flowers, but so are lots of other species, including numerous bees and moths.

Prairie gentian, aka lisianthus or Texas bluebell, normally blooms much earlier in the season than now, but I found one blossom that was still open late this year. A female katydid who had lost an antenna found the same flower.

Katydid on prairie gentian (*Eustoma grandiflorum*)

Apparently, if you dry the leaves of sneezeweed and snort them up your nose, it’ll make you sneeze. I don’t doubt that, but I bet there are a lot of other plants that would give you a similar result if you jammed them into your nasal cavity. I’m not saying sneezeweed doesn’t have special characteristics re: sneezing. I’m just saying that, in a pinch, I bet there are substitutes available. If one pinch doesn’t do it, try another.

I’m kidding. Please don’t stuff plant leaves up your nose without first consulting a doctor. And then only if the doctor says yes.

Common sneezeweed (*Helenium autumnale*)

A few years ago, I wrote about the various species of invertebrate that can be found living inside a goldenrod stem gall. Depending on circumstances, there may be a fly, a wasp, or a beetle, and potentially all three of them could be present. The big question is – which one will emerge at the end of the winter?

Stem gall on Canada goldenrod (*Solidago canadensis*)

Most common milkweed plants have made seed by this time of year, and many are starting to release them into the air. Regardless, there are still some milkweed specialists feeding on the plants. One little patch of milkweed near our shop at the Platte River Prairies had both a monarch caterpillar and a cluster of large milkweed bug kids and adults.

Large milkweed bug nymph (earlier instar)

Central Platte River flows are typically low by the end of summer, as Rocky Mountain snowmelt has largely run its course. This year, a dearth of snow in the mountains meant even less water coming down the river. And, of course, there are lots of other factors that determine how much water is in the river at any particular time, including reservoirs, withdrawals for irrigation and drinking water, hydropower releases, and habitat-focused water management.

The river is still flowing though, which doesn’t happen every year. Low flows provide a terrific opportunity to see the gorgeous patterns created by a braided river channel. In the first photo below, you can also see the results of some sandbar disking (bottom right) to remove vegetation before next spring’s big migration of cranes, ducks, geese, and shorebirds – most of whom prefer to roost in broad open channels. To the right of the river, you can see some of the grasslands included in The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies.

I find it mesmerizing to watch water flow past me. Even more mesmerizing, though, is a slow pan of the river from above, where you can see the braided channels as they intertwine and intersect. Here’s a video taken from my drone that shows just that. If the video doesn’t play when you click on it, open this post online by clicking on the title at the top. That should activate the video link.

Autumn is here! (In the northern hemisphere, anyway.) It’s a terrific time to get out and look for migratory birds and insects, to catch the last suite of late season wildflowers in bloom, and to admire the many seed dispersal strategies of the plants who have already wrapped up their flowering season. Enjoy!

The Prairie Ecologist

Essays, photos, and discussion about prairie ecology, restoration, and management

Photos of the Week – September 30, 2026

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