Category Archives: Prairie Photography

Photo of the Week – September 9, 2011

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This week our Platte River Prairies are in full autumn regalia.  Everywhere you look, big yellow composite flowers, especially sunflowers and goldenrods, dominate the visual landscape.  At least 15 different species of yellow flowers are blooming right now.  They are set against the golds and purples of the warm-season grasses, which are also in full bloom. 

Maximilian sunflowers have just started to bloom, joining a crowded field of five other sunflower species in our prairies. (Click on the photo to see it full-screen)

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A grasshopper sits on one of the last remaining blossoms of stiff sunflower, an early blooming perennial sunflower - most common in the sandier soils of our prairies.

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Our seed harvest crew is swimming through the tall grasses and late yellow flowers to find ripe seeds from shorter plants that bloomed earlier this year. In this photo, Mardell Jasnowski (left) and Nanette Whitten (right) look for black-eyed Susan seeds in the burned/grazed portion of a prairie. A light stocking rate and an unexpectedly wet season has left even this grazed area with plenty of tall growth.

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The abundance of yellow makes flowers of any other color really stand out. In this photo, Mardell is harvesting seed near a particularly showy dotted gayfeather plant.

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This cluster of Maximilian sunflower blossoms was arrayed nicely for a photo...

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A tree cricket feeds on pollen from a stiff sunflower, while two grasshoppers do the same on another flower in the background. Tree crickets are omnivorous - feeding on both small insects and plant material.

In another week or so, some of the yellow flowers will start to fade, and the rest will be joined by the whites and lavenders of late season asters.  In the meantime, yellow is definitely the color of the week. 

Enjoy the autumn!

Frogs in the Grass

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When I think about frogs in the prairie, I usually think of leopard frogs – aka “grass frogs”.  It’s not unusual to see one leaping ahead of me as I walk through our Platte River Prairies, even when I’m not particularly near water.  But during the last couple of years, I’ve been seeing chorus frogs quite a ways from tadpole-rearing sites as well.  A couple weeks ago, I caught one in our yard (middle of town).  After taking a quick trip to school with my son, she’s back in the yard somewhere.  I hope she can find a nice pond by next spring…

Early last summer, I was hiking in Griffith Prairie (Prairie Plains Resource Institute) north of town and came across a chorus frog near the top of a high dry hill.  The closest pond was a few hills away – a long way for a tiny frog to travel through the tall grass.  I had my camera along, so I spent some time photographing the frog, which put up with me very nicely.  Eventually, it jumped and got hung up – temporarily – in some grass, where it kindly stayed long enough for me to get a photo.

A chorus frog on a hilltop at Griffith Prairie (Prairie Plains Resource Institute). My 10-year-old son, who researched chorus frogs after we found the one in our yard, tells me this is a female because there's no dark patch on the throat.

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It's hard not to project human thoughts onto the frog in this photo, isn't it? ("How did I get myself into this mess??")

As far as I know, chorus frogs spend their winter nestled down under grass thatch and/or logs and probably freeze solid when the temperature drops sufficiently.  I’ve had a hard time confirming this, so would love to hear from anyone who has good information.