I’m taking some vacation time this week, but took a quick trip out to our family prairie this afternoon to do a little photography. A big snow storm moved through Nebraska over the weekend, dumping quite a bit of snow to the west and north of us. We mainly got a lot of rain and wind, followed by a little bit of snow and a lot more wind. The wind was still roaring today, but the clouds thinned enough to help dry out roads and I decided to take advantage of the relatively nice weather and ventured outside.

I wandered through the snow and prairie, examining tracks and trying to see what had been moving around. I found lots of coyote, mouse, and bird tracks, spotted a vole scooting along the ground, spooked a great blue heron from the little bit of open water on the wetland, and watched red-tailed hawks soaring above me.

While it was really windy, I didn’t feel particularly cold, though I was wearing quite a few layers to block out the wind. The best part of the day was watching clouds whip across the sky, pushed along by that wind. I couldn’t really capture that motion with still photos, so I spent about 20 minutes taking numerous photos and later stitched them into the following timelapse video.

I hope all of you are enjoying some time off this holiday season. If you are, I hope you’re able to get some prairie time of your own!

Here is the second half of my collection of favorite images from 2019. If you missed the first half and want to see them, you can find them here. Have a safe and happy end of 2019 and beginning of 2020!