A Tallgrass Prairie Morning

It was a beautiful morning on the tallgrass prairie this morning. The sun was just coming up as I was leaving for work. I left super early and took the long way around. Here are some of the sights that I enjoyed along the way...

Morning Sunrise Over Our Little Town

Sunshine Breaking Forth Over Tallgrass Prairie

Morning Sun and Tall Grasses

(Big Bluestem)

Roadside Wildflowers and Tall Grasses

Bur Marigold and Big Bluestem
(Bidens aristosa and Andropogon gerardii)

Bur Marigold

(a.k.a Tickseed Sunflower or Beggar's Tick)

White-tailed Doe

A Nursing Doe

It was a beautiful morning to be sure! What are late summer mornings like where you're at?

Until next time...

~Rebecca

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Saturday On the Tallgrass Prairie - February 19, 2022

Saturday was a beautiful day in southwest Missouri! The sun fairly gleamed as it's light spilled out over the frozen prairie landscape.

The creek sang merrily as it made its way across the low-water bridge, moving along to bigger things downstream.

There was evidence of beavers hard at work along it's edges. The following two photographs were actually taken the Monday before...

I had bison on the way in to work Saturday morning and bison on the way home that night. I even had bison in the middle between opening and closing!

There were bison on the west side of the park on my way in to work that morning...

"Betcha can't see me now!"

...bison came past the nature center around 10:30 a.m...

Looking Through the Diorama and Out the East 

Window of the Nature Center

...and, then, I saw bison on the south end of the park on my way home...

It was great!!! It's been twenty-six years since first discovering the bison at Prairie State Park, going on eight years of working with them, and I never ever get tired of seeing them!

Until next time...

~Rebecca

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 It was quite foggy this morning. 

I started my day just a bit early in hopes of discovering a few frost flowers on my way to work, but, alas, there were none. 

I think it might have been a tad too warm and way too wet...although...a friend that lives 40-some-miles south of us was posting pics of frost flowers found on her property this morning. Maybe she didn't get as much rain as we did over the weekend? I don't know. 

There were plenty of deer though. I saw at least ten on my way in to work. Most of them were hanging around the campground and picnic area.

I also observed a northern harrier hawk hunting just east of the nature center where I work. I watched it through the big, plate-glass window as it performed it's mesmerizing, acrobatic ritual of gliding down...almost touching its wingtip to the earth...then rising back up in search of prey. 

Photo Credit

This is one of my favorite sights during cold weather months on the tallgrass prairie. I will share more on northern harrier hawks at a later date.

What are some of your favorite sights during cold weather months where you live?

Until next time...

~Rebecca

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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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