The Prairie Ecologist

Essays, photos, and discussion about prairie ecology, restoration, and management

Photo of the Week – February 27, 2015

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Chris Helzer

Here are two photos that are completely unrelated to each other.

Why? Because I feel like it.

So there.

An old truck in a snowy prairie. Leadership Center Prairie – Aurora, Nebraska. February 2015.

Long-horned bee (Melissodes sp) on stiff sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus). The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies. August, 2014.

Ok, I guess both photos were taken in a Nebraska prairie. That’s makes them kind of related, right?

5 points to anyone who can come up with other good (or at least funny) suggestions of relationships between the two images.

Have a good weekend.

Photo of the Week – February 5, 2015

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Chris Helzer

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.

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.