Five on Friday - Cattle Country

I often share pictures of plants and animals found on the tallgrass prairies of southwest Missouri, but, rarely, if ever, have I shared the more domesticated side of life here in cattle country. 🐮

When we first came here, all there was in every pasture was black angus cattle as far as the eye could see...or, at least, being from the Kansas City suburbs, that's how it seemed to us anyway...and, while, black angus still seem to be the predominate bovine on the agrarian landscape, here lately, we've noticed that they're not the only breed of cattle around.

Two Black Angus Calves

More recently we've noticed some white cattle, a few black and white ones, a few that are brown, and even a red and white one, although I have no idea what breeds most of them are. 🐄

Red and White Cow

This week, I've decided to try my hand at a post that features pictures of cattle that has caught my eye when I've just happened to have a camera handy. 

1) This first photo is one of my favorite spots in the country. Here, the gravel road that I travel when coming or going to work the back way, crosses a prairie stream that's a little wider than most, and it's a popular hangout for local wildlife. I've seen great blue herons, turtles, raccoons, and all kinds of other animals here over the years, but, as you can see, on this particular day, the cattle that live in the pasture that the creek passes through were gathered together at, what I'm sure, is their favorite watering-hole. I couldn't resist stopping and getting a picture of these cute and curious creatures...especially the little calves.

Cows and Calves Gathered At A Favorite Watering-Hole

2) The black angus calves in the photo at the top of this post and the one below are three of many in a pasture just south of our home here on the edge of town. These little guys are super curious and often line up at the edge of the fence to watch my husband as we stroll by on our evening walk. We always talk to them and, sometimes, they cautiously follow us a bit before getting bored and returning to whatever it is that they were doing before they noticed us.

A Curious Calf

3) This brown cow was one of three that was in a pasture that my daughter and I passed when cutting through the country on our way home from visiting family in Mindenmines on Wednesday. Me, being me, stopped, of course, to get a picture of this curious, friendly, and pretty cow. I love how she posed and the lick of her lips in the picture below just made my day! 😋

How Now Brown Cow

4) This picture was taken in March of last year. It is of a calf that had escaped its own pasture and was running loose in the field across from our home. He (or she) never made it to our side of the street before the owner caught it, but he (or she) was curious and watching us, so I snapped a picture while I could. I loved the white face, white socks, and white underbelly!  🖤🐄🤍

Black Calf With A White Face, Socks, and Underbelly

5) Our youngest daughter-in-law and I made a special trip out to the country to get this picture of the only white cattle in the area that I know of. It's not the best photo, I know. It was taken from quite a distance away and it was raining, but at least I got one. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that they're White Charolias. As a child, I remember riding past a farm that specialized in White Charolais cattle on the way to and from my grandma and grandpa's place. I remember being mesmerized by that field-full of white cows and some of the biggest bulls I had ever seen. They were the only white cattle I had seen until these cattle right here and they look just like them.

White Charolais

How about you? Do you live in an area where cattle dots the landscape? If so, what breeds are popular where you live? And do you have a favorite?

Until next time...

~Rebecca

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Literary and Musical Fun With Tumblebugs (a.k.a. Dung Beetles)

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Literary and Musical Fun With Tumblebugs (a.k.a. Dung Beetles)

Have you ever heard of a tumblebug? How about a dung beetle? (Tumblebug...dung beetle...they're both one and the same.) Do you know how the tumblebug or dung beetle got its name? Have you ever been fortunate enough to see one?

Here is a picture of the very first dung beetle I ever saw...

Dung Beetle (a.k.a Tumblebug)

I was THRILLED to have been fortunate enough to see one!

Today I'm going to share an excerpt with you from Springtime on the Plains by Hal Borland, just one of many short stories found in a book that I recently finished called The Great North American Prairie - A Literary Field Guide edited by Sara St. Antoine. 

Here is the part of the story where Mr. Borland mentions dung beetles (he calls them tumblebugs)...

"...I dismounted to watch an ant hill, and I saw two tumblebugs pushing each other around in the grass. They butted and rolled and nipped and got to their feet and butted each other again, until one of them drove the other off. The victor pursued a little way, then came back and began rolling the ball of dung over which they probably had been fighting. They were strange creatures with the mark of antiquity on them, though I didn't know then that they were close cousins of the ancient Egyptian scarabs. All I knew was that these big, dark, timeless looking beetles fashioned balls of cow manure three-quarters of an inch in diameter and rolled them from place to place, walking backward and rolling the balls with their hind legs. They laid eggs in the balls and the eggs hatched into grubs which ate their way out and eventually turned into beetles which laid their own eggs in other dung balls. It seemed to me that the way the birds did it, laying eggs in nests, eggs with shells on them and food inside, was much simpler." 

Dung Beetles Doing What They Do Best...Rolling Dung
(Photo Credit)

"I watched the tumblebug maneuver his ball to the edge of the bare space around the ant hill, and I watched the ants gather to repel the invader, who paid almost no attention to them. The tumblebug rolled his ball across the little clearing and into the grass beyond, the ants rubbed feelers in a conference as though telling each other that they had driven off a major threat to the colony, and everybody went back to work...

I think Mr. Borland did a fine job of explaining the life (and life cycle) of a dung beetle in just a short couple of paragraphs, don't you?

And, if you liked that, now you're in for a real treat!!!

While you're here, take time to enjoy this song that my friend, Annie Wilson, of Tallgrass Express String Band wrote about Dung Beetle Bill...

How much fun was THAT??? 😄

I absolutely love Tallgrass Express String Band's music and own two of their CD's! To learn more about them, their music, or to see their concert schedule click HERE.

To learn more about dung beetles in general (a.k.a. tumblebugs) be sure and visit the Missouri Department of Conservation by clicking HERE.

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Birds of the Tallgrass Prairie - The Dickcissel

Birds of the Tallgrass Prairie - The Dickcissel

In her book Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions the "dickie-bird", or dickcissel, as it is more properly called, more than once.

A Dickcissel Atop a Fencepost

"Meadow larks were springing straight up from the billows of grass into the high, clear sky, singing as they went. Small pearly clouds drifted in the intense blueness overhead. In all the weed-tops tiny birds were swinging and singing in tiny voices. Pa said they were dickcissels.

“Dickie, dickie!” Laura called back to them. “Dickie-bird!”

(Quote taken from Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder)

The Same Dickcissel Singing His Little Heart Out

Dickcissels are small, compact birds with a thick bill and short tail. They are about the same size as a house sparrow.

Adult males are grayish on the head with a yellow face and chest, crossed with a bold black V. The back is brown and gray, with warm reddish-brown shoulders. Females have a similar but more subdued pattern, but they lack the black V on the throat. Immatures are browner, without the cool gray or bright yellow tones.

The dickcissel's call in flight is described as an "electric" buzz; their song described as a sharp dick dick followed by a buzzed cissel. 

A Dickcissel Sitting on a Wire Fence

Here, in their Midwest summer breeding grounds, it seems that male dickcissels can be found singing their name from every fence-post, wire, and plant-stalk in tall grasslands, which includes prairies, farmlands, and roadsides. In autumn, the birds migrate in large flocks to southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, where they

overwinter.

Dickcissels forage in flocks and eat mostly insects and seeds.

To see a dickcissel up close or to hear what a dickcissel sounds like, click HERE.

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Around The Border and Along The Edges

Bison On Parade @ Prairie State Park - Mindenmines, Missouri

Around The Border and Along The Edges

I decided to take a little trip around the border and along the edges of our backyard this afternoon to see what I might find there. Here are a few of the things that I discovered and observed...

New England Asters Growing Along the Back Fencerow

Late Boneset Growing Along the Edge of the Grapevines

An Empty Snail Shell

A Lovely Shelf Fungus Growing on a Dead Branch

More Fungi and Lichen Growing on Another Branch

A Pecan

A Large Fungus Growing Out of an Old Stump

A Wooly-Worm Making His Way Along the Edge of the North Shed

A Live Snail Inching His Way Along Not Too Far Behind the Wooly-worm

Tiny Brown Mushrooms Growing Behind the North Shed

These are just a few of the things that I discovered and observed on my walk around the border and along the edges of our backyard today. What can be found around and along yours?

Until next time...

~Rebecca

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Sunday Morning Musings

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Sunday Morning Musings

It's early Sunday morning. In fact, it's still dark. I woke up on my own a full two hours before the alarm was set to go off. 

It's a heavenly 56 degrees right now and all the windows are full open. I have a cup of hot tea, ready to enjoy, and am wishing that I had a can of pumpkin to turn into muffins for breakfast, but I don't, so that will have to wait until another day. Either way, I'm content. It's autumn! 🍁

My mind is trying it's best to jump ahead and think of all the things that need to be done this week. It's going to be a busy one, for sure, but, as I keep telling myself, there's plenty of time for all that later. Right now, I just want to relish these first early morning hours of the first Sunday in a new season. 

As I type this, male crickets chirp merrily among the marigolds along the front edge of the porch and a few early-rising birds begin their morning twitter as they awake to a brand new day.

I open the curtain on my west-facing office window. As the minutes pass, the sky changes from black-of-night to early-morning-gray. Objects that, just moments ago, were hidden in a shroud of darkness come into focus as the sun's first rays are cast from somewhere far away on the eastern horizon. Suddenly a shaft of rosy light shoots forth directly and the very top of the neighbor's utility pole is bathed in first morning light. It shines, briefly, then is swallowed up again in subdued gray. The western sky is streaked with light and clouds and a mourning dove coos in the distance. 

As I continue to type, the sun continues to rise in the eastern sky. Here in the valley we remain in morning shadow, but, suddenly, the neighbor's place just to our west is bathed in first-morning-light. Sunlight spills across the fields beyond and I hear the distinct hum of hummingbird wings as they begin their daily back-and-forth pilgrimage to the feeder on our front porch. 

As the sun climbs higher in the eastern sky, it spills more and more of its brilliant light across the fields across the way. I hear a woodpecker drilling into a distant tree trunk in search of breakfast and the first train of the morning rumbles down the track towards town. It blows it's whistle as it approaches. I look at my watch and find that it's time to start getting ready for church. 

What a beautiful morning this first Sunday morning of autumn is turning out to be here in southwest Missouri! Thank you for allowing me to spend a bit of it with you.

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Early Morning on the Tallgrass Prairie

As summer fades into fall, there's nothing quite like an early morning excursion out on the tallgrass prairie. In fact, it's a completely different world.

As warm days give way to cool nights a misty veil of morning fog hangs over the whole of the prairie landscape.

As morning sunlight spills over the tall grasses they sparkle and shine as though some overly-industrious fairy had come in the night, sprinkling the whole of the prairie with glittering diamond dust... 

...and every cobweb looks as though it has been strung, laced, and outlined with beautiful, glittering diamonds.

When visiting the tallgrass prairie early in the morning...especially at this time of year...it's easy to see just how many spiders there really are living in North America's tall grasses (an estimated 2 1/2 million individuals per acre) and their glistening gossamer webs are spectacular! 🕸

As the sun rises a little higher in the morning sky, the fog quickly fades and the dewy cobwebs begin to dry.

Soon the late-summer sun is out in full force. The temperature rises and the morning magic is over. The wildflowers, who just moments ago were taking a backseat to the sparkle and shine of diamond dust, are left standing, straight and tall, to endure another happy day on a sun-soaked tallgrass prairie landscape.

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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