Monthly Archives: February 2014

Photo of the Week – February 27, 2014

Posted on by
20

For a nature photographer like me, Nebraska winters can get pretty long.  Especially winters like this one with very little snow.  How many photos of brown grass and dried flowers can I take, after all?  I don’t have the equipment or patience to photograph wildlife very well, so I’m kind of stuck with landscapes and close-up photos.

Well, a guy’s gotta photograph something…  While I was visiting my in-laws in Sarpy County, Nebraska (south of Omaha) last weekend, I decided to challenge myself to find something interesting to photograph within the small restored prairies on their property.  I guess you’ll have to judge whether or not I was successful.

Indiangrass. Weiss Acres - Sarpy County, Nebraska.

Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans).  Weiss Acres – Sarpy County, Nebraska.

.

A false sunflower seed head is backlit by the setting sun.

A false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) seed head is backlit by the setting sun.

.

The double helix pattern of an open partridge pea seed pod.

The double helix pattern of an open partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculate) seed pod.

.

Another false sunflower seed head.

Another false sunflower seed head…

.

Another (yawn) sunflower seed head. This time it's Maximilian sunflower. The light was kind of interesting, though.

Another (yawn) sunflower seed head. This time it’s Maximilian sunflower. What can I say?  The light was kind of interesting.

So, there you go.  Now, how about a little snow?  Or some nice hoar frost?  Ice storm??

Spring is coming soon, right?

Sigh.

Hubbard Fellowship Blog – Mystery Tracks in the Snow

Posted on by
17

This is a guest blog by Eliza Perry, one of our Hubbard Fellows.  All photos are by Eliza.

Last week I needed to check the fences around one of our properties. I only needed to walk a quarter of it to see that we had a lot of work to do.

During my travels, I found two mysterious tracks that I hope you all can help me identify. I stumped even Chris! (YES)

DSCN0753

See those weird claw-like marks? There were only these three sets of them, and they
were next to a bunch of small, amorphous tracks.  The tracks were bigger than cat tracks and smaller than dog tracks.

DSCN0754

Here’s a closer shot.

DSCN0732

The next mystery was this long trail. Chris suggested it was a collapsed vole tunnel,
but it is linear and vole tunnels seem to fork into many different smaller
tunnels. To me, it looked like something was dragging its belly, like a snake.

DSCN0735

Here’s it is a little closer, at a point that does look like a collapsed tunnel. But the rest of it was just an indentation on the snow.

Do you have any ideas?