Photo of the Week – February 5, 2015

Snow!  The long range forecast last fall called for a wet winter, but we’ve had very little snow so far.  This week, we finally got a couple good snow storms (and two days of cancelled school).  However, the high temperatures is rising into the 50’s (F) tomorrow and it will be warm all weekend, so the snow will be short-lived.

I took my camera for a short walk after each of the snows this week, and managed to get a few photos (mostly close-ups, of course).  Here are three of them:

Frost on prairie grasses.  Leadership Center Prairie.  Aurora, Nebraska.

Frost  and snow on prairie grasses. Leadership Center Prairie. Aurora, Nebraska.

Ice on the seed head of switchgrass.  Leadership Center Prairie.  Aurora, Nebraska.

Ice on the seed head of switchgrass. Leadership Center Prairie. Aurora, Nebraska.

A small aster (or relative) flower poking out of the snow at sunset.  Springer Basin Waterfowl Production Area, west of Aurora, Nebraska.

A small aster (or close relative) flower peeking out of the snow at sunset. Springer Basin Waterfowl Production Area, west of Aurora, Nebraska.

 

Photo of the Week – January 29, 2015

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)