Tag Archives: prairie

Photo of the Week – December 8, 2011

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Tuesday morning was on the chilly side.  When I woke up, it was clear, calm, and minus five degrees Fahrenheit.  In short, a perfect day to head out for some prairie photography!

A frosty seed head of Canada wild rye at a restored prairie on the campus of The Leadership Center - Aurora, Nebraska.

As the sun rose, I was tramping through the snow in a small restored prairie on the east side of Aurora.  I shared the prairie with a small flock of tree sparrows moving around the prairie and feeding on seeds from tall wildflowers and grasses.  There were also a few tracks of mice through the snow, and a great horned owl flushed from the wooded edge of the prairie as I walked in.  Otherwise, it was just me and a lot of frosty prairie plants.

I didn’t set out to photograph any particular thing, but I ended up focusing mainly on frozen flowers.  Below are a few of the images I came home with.  (Click on any photo to see a larger, sharper version of it.)

Entire-leaf rosinweed

New England aster

Tall boneset (Eupatorium altissimum)

Common evening primrose

Annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Canada wild rye

First Snow

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We got our first snow of the season this weekend.  Last night, I spent a couple hours walking with my camera at our family prairie south of town.  The warm and dry November weather was really nice, but it was good to be out in the snow again. 

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Late afternoon sunshine made the tall grasses glow, and set them off nicely against the backdrop of snow.

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Ragweed plants caught snow in their branches, making them look like little dancing ladies.

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Wind and birds had knocked grass seeds, including this indiangrass seed, from the stems. This early in the winter, seeds are still abundant and tracks of birds and small mammals showed that many of them were being harvested from the snow.

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It was nearly dark when I finished my walk. There was just enough light from the last glow of sunlight on the horizon to silhouette this false gromwell plant (Onosmodium molle) against the drifted snow.

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