Category Archives: Prairie Photography

Photo of the Week – July 30, 2015

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During our trip to the Grassland Restoration Network workshop in Minnesota last week, several of us got up early enough to catch sunrise at The Nature Conservancy’s Bluestem Prairie on two beautiful mornings.  I shared a few photos from those outings last week, but thought I’d post a few more today.  I’ve got lots more…it wasn’t hard to find subject matter to photograph!

Leadplant and wildflowers. TNC Bluestem Prairie, Minnesota.

Leadplant (Amorpha canescens) and other wildflowers abound on The Nature Conservancy’s Bluestem Prairie near Glyndon, Minnesota.

Woundwort (Stachys palustris).

Marsh hedge nettle, aka woundwort (Stachys palustris).

The cool dewy morning allowed me to get pretty close to this resting monarch butterfly...

The cool dewy morning allowed me to get pretty close to this roosting monarch butterfly…

Beetle on Flodman's thistle. TNC Bluestem Prairie, Minnesota.

This beetle was feeding its way across the top of this Flodman’s thistle (Cirsium flodmanii) – at least I think that’s what I think the thistle species was… it’s always dangerous to guess when I’m far from home.

Common milkweed. The Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie - Minnesota.

Common milkweed flower buds can be just as attractive as the open flowers…

Bee on milkweed. TNC Bluestem Prairie, Minnesota.

This bee spent the night on a milkweed leaf and wasn’t quite warm and dry enough to fly off when I spotted it.  If you look carefully, you can see pollinia stuck on two (maybe three?) of its feet.  If you’re not familiar with the fascinating (and unlikely) story of how milkweed is pollinated, you can learn more here.

Purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia). The Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie - Minnesota.

Purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia).  This is a species we don’t find very often in the Platte River Prairies (though it’s fairly common nearby) so I always enjoy seeing and photographing it when I can.  As with other “composite” flowers, coneflowers are actually collections (composites) of two kinds of flowers – the ray flowers that look like petals and the disk flowers in the center.  Occasionally, as in this case, a genetic signal gets crossed and ray flower pops up where a disk flower should be.

If you find yourself traveling to or through northwestern Minnesota (just east of Fargo, ND), I encourage you to make the time to visit Bluestem Prairie Scientific and Natural Area.  You can find directions and more information on the site here.  The Nature Conservancy owns about 6,000 acres of prairie there, and their ownership is bolstered by several other tracts of conservation land right next door.  The prairie hosts nesting prairie chickens and beautiful tracts of northern tallgrass prairie.  It’s worth the trip to see it.

Photo of the Week – July 23, 2015

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As I mentioned in my last post, we spent much of this week up in beautiful northwestern Minnesota, at the annual Grassland Restoration Network workshop.  In fact, I’m writing this as we travel back home to Nebraska (no, I’m not driving as I write).

This morning, a small group of us got up early to take photographs at sunrise.  It was a beautiful morning, but there was enough breeze to make insect and flower photography pretty tricky.  Did we give up?  No!  We are Prairie Ecologists!  (Plus, we had dared each other to meet in the hotel lobby at 5:15 am and no one wanted to back down from that).

Despite the wind, we managed to enjoy the morning,  and even got a few nice photographs out of it.  Here are two of mine:

Spider on web before sunrise. The Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie - Minnesota.

I took approximately 500,0o0 shots of this spider as it and its web bounced around in the pre-sunrise breeze.  Two of them came out relatively sharp.  This is one of those two.  The Nature Conservancy’s Bluestem Prairie – Minnesota.

Stiff sunflower (Helanthus pauciflorus) at sunrise. The Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie - Minnesota.

The peaceful appearance of this stiff sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus) silhouetted against the rising sun is merely an illusion.  In reality, the sunflower was waving back and forth like a maniacal metronome while I tried desperately to push the shutter release just at the moment it came into focus.  I actually managed to catch it several times, and this was my favorite of the batch.

P.S. For you kids out there, a metronome is an old fashioned device that had a kind of upside down clock pendulum that rocked back and forth while it ticked.  Music teachers used to use them in vain attempts to get their students to keep a steady rhythm while playing “The Entertainer” on the piano.  Now there are smartphone apps that do the same thing.  …I hope kids still have to learn that song – they deserve it.

P.P.S. A clock pendulum is what used to help clocks keep time before…oh, nevermind, go ask your grandmother.