Photo of the Week – January 29, 2015

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Ok, I admit it – I’m a sucker for crab spiders.

A crab spider on Flodman's thistle (Cirsium flodmanii) at the Helzer family prairie.

A crab spider on Flodman’s thistle (Cirsium flodmanii) at the Helzer family prairie.  July 2014.

As much as I enjoy looking at prairie flowers, I enjoy them even more when there’s a crab spider lying in wait among their petals.  I must have more than a hundred photos of crab spiders on flowers, but when the lighting is good and I see those long hairy legs and cute little face… I just can’t help myself!

Do you suppose I need some kind of intervention?

“Hi, my name is Chris Helzer and I really like crab spiders.”  (Hi Chris…)

“It’s been three weeks since I last photographed a crab spider…”  (Applause)

A Travel Week Plant Quiz

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I’m writing this from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where I am preparing to speak at and attend the 2015 Native Prairie Restoration and Reclamation Workshop hosted by Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan.  It’s my first trip to Saskatchewan, and I’m excited to meet a lot of new people and learn about a prairie landscape I’m not very familiar with.

The view from my airplane window as we approached Saskatoon from the west today. A beautiful landscape with lots of wetlands scattered across it.

The view from my airplane window as we approached Saskatoon from the west today. It’s a beautiful landscape with lots of wetlands scattered across it.

Because of my travel schedule this week, I didn’t have time to write a pithy or entertaining blog post.  Instead, I’m just posting a photo of a prairie wildflower that is common in the sandhills of Nebraska (and other sandy habitats in central North America – including Saskatchewan) to see if you can identify it.  Since I know some of you will get it pretty easily, I’ll put the name of the plant in the comments section below and you can check your answer against it.

Can you name this wildflower? The Nature Conservancy's Platte River Prairies, Nebraska.

Can you name this wildflower? The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies, Nebraska.

Finally, to compensate you for such a short (and odd) blog post, here is a link to one of my favorite posts from way back in January 2011.  Many of you were not following the blog back then, and I think it’s a story worth reading.  I hope you enjoy it.