I spent a couple days at the Niobrara Valley Preserve this week. I’ll be back again next week for our plant identification/habitat workshop on Tuesday May 19 (9am-2:30pm). If you’re interested in joining us for that (it’s free!), it’s not too late to sign up. Just email Kate (kate.samuelson@tnc.org) to RSVP. There might even be some housing available on the preserve if you act fast!
Sandhills prairie
The prairie is just waking up in the Sandhills. The dry spring hasn’t helped much, but things are starting to bloom here and there. This week’s warm temperatures are speeding up growth and the weekend shows at least some chances of rain, which would really help. Still, there was plenty to see, even if we had to search a little to find flowers.
Hairy puccoon (Lithospermum carolinense)Puccoon up closeWooly locoweed (Oxytropis lambertii)Great Plains bladder-pod (Physaria ludoviciana)Bladder-pod up close
Some of the early prairie sedges were already done blooming. These are some of the most abundant plants in the mixed-grass prairie, but often overlooked. They’re easiest to see and identify when they have flowers or, better yet, seed heads.
Spikerush sedge (Carex eleocharis)Sun sedge (Carex inops)Sandhills prairiePuffball fungusInsect galls on prairie wild rose (Rosa arkansana)Sandhills prairie all the way to the horizon in the east bison pasture (10,000 acres)Sandhills prairie with the river bluffs in the background
As the sun was setting Monday night, I climbed a hill to watch the sun and clouds over the river. I was not disappointed. I found a western wallflower in bloom and was able to frame it in front of both the sun and the river by lying down and putting my camera right on the ground. (I wonder what percentage of my life I’ve spent lying on the ground in a prairie? Not enough, I’d argue, but surely much more than most people.)
Sunset over the Niobrara RiverWestern wallflower at sunsetWestern wallflower and sunsetSunset glow on the riverPussytoes (Antennaria sp.)Pussytoes up closePussytoes with a bug
Many shrub species are in full bloom at the Preserve right now, including chokecherry and currant, and skunkbush sumac is about ready to open.
Tuesday morning started with a nice and peaceful a sunrise as one could hope for. Once that sun got up, the wind started showing off a little, which was a little less pleasant, but it’s hard to complain too much when you’re exploring a place like this.
Sunrise over the riverSunriseThe Niobrara Valley Preserve headquarters
It’ll be fun to see how much changes between this week and next. We’re getting to the time of year where there are new flowers blooming each day, new birds migrating in, new bees emerging from the ground, etc. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll take my camera with me next week, too…
A bison bull at the Niobrara Valley Preserve this week
Today, I want to share a bunch of announcements, a wonderful surprise I received last night, some photos from this week’s trip to the Niobrara Valley Preserve, and some spring/summer prairie bingo cards. Thanks for your patience with this omnibus post.
I’ll start with an invitation to volunteer at The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies or Niobrara Valley Preserve. If you’ve always wanted to come visit one of these sites and also enjoy contributing to conservation efforts, here’s your chance! (If you just want to come visit and NOT work, you’re also welcome to do that, and both sites have public hiking trails just waiting for you.)
At the Platte River Prairies, we host volunteer workdays twice a month throughout most of the year. You can find more information on those workdays here. At the Niobrara Valley Preserve, Kate Samuelson, our outreach coordinator is going to start hosting volunteer days this summer. She created a flyer (below) with the information you need to know. Possible NVP volunteer days include June 6th and 10th and July 18th and 29th. At both sites, we may be able to provide overnight housing for people traveling from far away.
In addition to volunteering and hiking our public trails, another opportunity to visit and learn will come on July 11, 2026, which is the date of our next public field day at the Platte River Prairies. I’ll share more information later, but please save the date if you’re interested. It’ll be a terrific opportunity to meet our staff, explore both restored and remnant (unplowed) prairies, and learn prairie ecology, research, and land stewardship.
We will also be hosting four habitat workshops this summer, aimed at land owners and land managers. At those workshops, we share what we’ve been learning about fire, grazing, restoration, and other stewardship practices, as well as a good dose of plant identification practice. If you’re interested in attending one of these free workshops, please contact Kate for more information (see her contact info in the above flyer for the NVP volunteer days). Habitat workshop days will be June 9 and August 18 at the Platte River Prairies and May 19 and August 11 at the Niobrara Valley Preserve.
If you’re looking for something to entice you out on a hike in the prairie, either at one of our sites or in any other prairie, I’ve created some bingo cards for the spring and summer seasons. I had a surprising number of people thank me for the last batch I made, so I hope these will be similarly helpful. There are three bingo cards at the end of this post, each with the same items to find, but in different locations on the card, in case you have multiple people and it’s helpful to non-identical cards. Look, don’t let me tell you how to have a good time in prairies – I’m just giving you options!
Lastly, before I just dump a bunch of recent photos on you, here’s the terrific surprise I received last night. Many of you will know about Wild Green Memes For Ecological Fiends. If you’re on social media and you’re not aware of that group, I’m not sure why you’re on social media. Wild Green Media also has other platforms, including their Wild Green Streams podcast, on which I appeared last year.
Well, anyway, Rhett Barker, founder of the Wild Green Memes for Ecological Fiends, executive director of Wild Green Future, and the person who interviewed me on their podcast, sent me an email last night. Apparently, after hearing about my square meter photography project, he was inspired to try his own (12-hour) version. The resulting 10-minute YouTube video is fantastic and I wanted to share it here. If the video link below doesn’t open for you, please click on the title of this post above to open it online and that will make the link active.
Ok, on to photos… Here is a batch of images from the Niobrara Valley Preserve this week:
Bison and cowbirds in Sandhills prairieA young bison calf giving me the sideeyeMom and calfA calf young enough you can still see the remnant of its umbilical cordBison fur along one of the many creeks the animals visit for water (along with other water sources we provide for them)A paper birch log along a spring-fed streamA riparian oak woodland recently cleared of (most) eastern red cedar trees to improve habitat conditionsGrasslands on the north side of the Niobrara River – Dakota mixed-grass prairieThe last pasque flower (Pulsatilla patens) I saw in bloom on the north side of the river.Most pasque flowers have produced fruits/seeds now.A close-up of a pasque flower seed headOne of many crab spiders hanging out in pasque flower seed headsA different spider on a different pasque flowerSun sedge (Carex inops) with fruits. This sedge is one of the most abundant plants at the Niobrara Valley Preserve.Sand cherry (Prunus pumila)A juvenile female black widow spider on her web in an abandoned prairie dog burrow.A pair of bald eagles sitting together at sunrise
Finally, as promised, here are some bingo cards you can print out or otherwise utilize to add a little extra fun to your prairie explorations this summer. Each card has the same squares/items, but in different orders/locations. Enjoy!
The Prairie Ecologist 