nitrogen Fixer

Dalea purpurea

Purple prairie clover, butterfly favorite, fixer of nitrogen in the prairie soil, tough as nails because of a deep taproot. Laughs at drought, but is happily enjoying the moisture we've had.

in the Park

It was Pronghorn Day in Custer State Park 7/13/13! Big ones, little ones, curious ones, hungry ones and disdainful ones! The buck just stood like a statue for several moments, like we were supposed to pay homage and admire his elegance.

While I was taking pictures of the doe and the fawns, I was using a road sign as a kind of monopod for the camera with the telephoto.  Apparently, this youthful mountain bluebird thought I was part of the sign. He landed, chirruped for a few minutes, looked down, realized I was not road sign, screeched in alarm and fled. I got just one shot of him just as he discovered I was there.

an Invite

Shell-leaf penstemon  44N 103W

Welcome, Bees! Here is a convenient airport for you, refreshments will be served.

spring on the short grass Prairie

Early morning with the meadowlarks! 

West River Migration Count

Pennington County, SD

on the way home from School...

other kids were on their way home, too. Pronghorns are very wary of Subarus and camera lenses, they were not going to let me get very close. What a neat thing to see along the roadside on the edge of town. Bighorns to the west side, pronghorns on the east side.

prairie Spring

Lanceleaf bluebell

Southern shootingstar

Buffalo grass

Western wallflower

Pussytoes

 
A walk on a bit of short grass prairie just before an approaching thundershower. There aren't as many wildflowers this year due to the dryness of the early spring, but I did find these hardy souls this afternoon, and packed a few interesting stones into my pockets.

across the wide Missouri

At 43* N 99* W, you cross the Missouri River on the journey east across South Dakota. This is taken of the River from a bluff high on the east bank, at the rest area where there is a neat display commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 2004. The Corps of Discovery would have had a similar view of the river when they camped here September 16-18, 1804.
They might have been grateful for this sign along a hiking trail, but I suspect they already knew about the rattlesnakes by the time they reached here. They reported seeing "buffaloe, deer, elk, buck goats(pronghorn), large wolves and villages of 'barking-squirrels' (prairie dogs)", when they camped here for 3 days.
This is the view looking downstream and over the abandoned railroad bridge that spans the Big Muddy. Just a bit further downstream, the White River, which is the creator of the Badlands flows into the Missouri as a tributary. The Corps of Discovery notes this as "Plum Camp" in their journals, mentioning vast numbers of wild plums growing along the river bluffs.