Tag Archives: patch-burn grazing

Sunflowers: Staring Me Right in the Face

Posted on by
5

It’s awfully frustrating when I fail to solve a puzzle – especially when all the information I need is right in front of me.  As an ecologist, I’m supposed to be good at this sort of thing.  Ecologists, after all, study the interactions between plants, animals, and their environments.  Why it’s taken me so long to figure out why annual sunflowers are so abundant in some places/years and not in others is beyond me.

But I think I’ve got it now.

Annual sunflower, aka garden sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a very large plant with conspicuous blooms. While they’re considered to be weeds by most farmers, they are native wildflowers and important food sources for insect and wildlife species.

Continue reading →

Photo of the Week – January 20, 2012

Posted on by
6

What’s more impressive in a prairie than a bull bison?  Standing over 6 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighing up to 2000 lbs or more, they can inspire awe, fear, and hope all at once.  While truly massive, bison are also surprisingly nimble and fast – they can run at speeds up to 40 miles per hour.

Bison bulls at The Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Valley Preserve in the sandhills of Nebraska.

These three bulls were grazing in a recently-burned portion of sandhills prairie when I came upon them while hiking last May.  I kept my distance and tried to get a few photographs of them as they slowly sauntered away – not exactly running away, but not hanging around either.  The bulls had been feeding in a recently burned portion of the prairie, and while they moved out of it to get away from me, I’m sure they returned to that lush new growth after I left them alone.