I’m one month into the 2024 version of my square meter prairie photography project. I can’t fully describe how much I’m enjoying it so far. Kim can attest to how often I’ve skipped across town to lie on the ground next to the little plot. She can also tell you how often I think about it when I’m not there.

Because of the burn this spring (April 19), there is a lot of bare ground in the plot. There were quite a few seedlings that germinated in that bare ground, though not all of them have survived as their existing neighbors start to form canopies above them. A few seedlings of perennials, including Maximilian sunflower and pitcher sage, have appeared, along with a couple annuals that I can’t yet identify.

As I did with my 2018 project, I’m trying to photograph as many prairie species as I can within the boundaries of the square meter. I’m also looking for beauty, though, making the project very different than a strict scientific study. I admire and photograph lead plant leaves with water droplets on them, for example, and look for color, light, and patterns.

The species inventory part of the project has gone astoundingly well so far. In 2018, I finished the year-long project with photographs of 113 plant and animal species. That felt pretty good, though I knew I’d missed a lot that had jumped, flown, or crawled away before I managed a sharp photo of them. As the project went along, I developed a better eye for finding small creatures and also realized how much diversity there was among groups like flies. By fall, I felt like I’d bypassed a lot of opportunities simply because I hadn’t spent enough time examining and trying to photograph a lot of the smaller creatures I’d seen.

This time around, I’m being careful to photograph just about tiny fly and other miniscule creature I spot. Much of the time, they turn out to be a different species than the little specks I’d photographed on previous visits. Because I’m paying better attention, my species count has rocketed up at a startling rate. I’ve only been working for a month and I’m already at about 80 different species!

Much of my success is due to experience and an intention to pay better attention to the really small creatures I see. The prescribed fire, though, is surely a big factor as well.. The bare ground provides both habitat for and opportunities to see creatures that I didn’t see in the thatchy habitat I watched in 2018. New camera gear is also helping. I can get good photos with less light than before and my Laowa 2x macro lens gives me better magnification for capturing minute leafhoppers and flies.

I think I’ve seen between 8 and 12 different leafhopper species, though I have very little idea what to look for as distinguishing features. I’m up to about 14 fly species, as well, though I have the same issues in telling species apart. If anyone out there is good with identification of leafhoppers or flies (or, really, any invertebrates) and wants to volunteer their help, I’d be very grateful!

I’ve already seen what I think are five different spider species. My grand total for all of 2018 was seven species. Because of the fire and early part of the season, the vegetation has been pretty sparse, which makes it both easier to spot and track the spiders as they move. I’ve watched several of them travel through the plot. One of them worked systematically up and down nearly every plant along its path as passed through. I don’t know if it was hunting or just exploring. Others have ballooned from plant to plant, either to travel through or, I think, because they were either starting a web or evaluating the possibilities of doing so.

In 2018, I was really surprised at how few grasshoppers and katydids I saw. I know bare ground and sun exposure can be important for at least many grasshopper species, so I figured the lack of fire might have helped explain their scarcity that year. This year has supported that hypothesis because I’ve seen quite a few little grasshopper nymphs (of two species, I think?) and have already gotten my first katydid photo.

Every single time I’ve visited the plot so far, I’ve come back with at least a handful of new species. Some I recognize, some I don’t. For the most part, I’m getting good at figuring out general categories to put things in – damsel bugs, weevils, moths – but I’ll still be relying on others to help me figure out species names. Or, if not species names, I hope people can at least help me determine how many species I have! I know this gets really tricky with species that go through incomplete metamorphosis (grasshoppers, for example) because the nymphs at different stages (instars) can look really different from each other, and it’s sometimes tough to know whether two insects are different species or just different instars of the same species.

All this has happened in the absence of any blooming wildflowers. The only flowers so far have been on the two sedge species (Carex brevior and Carex gravida). Kentucky bluegrass looks like it was set back enough by the fire that it won’t bloom this year. Other grasses and wildflowers either haven’t hit their blooming season yet or are also delayed by the fire. Those flowers will come, and lots of flower-visiting insects will come with them, but I’m really not missing them yet. That’s another big lesson I learned from 2018 – just because nothing is blooming doesn’t mean nothing’s happening!

Stay tuned! Part 2 of my May photos from this plot will include some fun stories, both about the species and my experiences watching and photographing them.

Can you tell I’m excited?

I can’t recommend this kind of project enough. Whether you’re a photographer or not, if you have a little area your home you can visit frequently, I strongly encourage you to consider doing that. Just sitting down and looking closely at the same spot for a few minutes will reveal hidden treasures. Visiting that same spot multiple times will reveal patterns and stories. I hope you find as much joy in your little plot as I find in mine.