Restoring Bottomland Prairie: May 2015, Part 3

Field Buffer, planted in 2008
Previous & current year's grasses shown,
with shrub.  

We planted the Creek Field in 2013, using a forbs-first strategy.  That was to counter the effect discovered by prairie restorationists elsewhere--that over time, grasses push out the forbs, causing a loss of biodiversity.   Hoping to avoid that result, we gave the forbs a head start!  

However, there is a source of native grass seed  all around the Creek Field in the field buffers, planted in 2008.

The field buffers were planted with a regular CRP native-plant mix, including grasses and native shrubs.  

The photo above shows the field buffer, looking west.

Hedge Parsley, May 2015,
(Torilis arvensis)
Looking like a Monoculture.
Non-native annual.  Volunteer.

 At the beginning of May 2015 some parts of the Creek Field looked like a monoculture of Hedge Parsley, a weedy, non-native annual.  

Monoculture was not what was going on, however, as perennials were breaking through the parsley blanket.   

A lovely sedge was one of the first to appear.

Woodland Sedge, Carex blanda,. a native perennial, 
appears in the midst of the parsley.
Male & female flowers depicted here.
Carex blanda is a volunteer.

Eastern Gama Grass (Tripsacum dactyloides), foreground.
Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa), mid-ground.
Native perennials.  In 2013 seed mix.

Eastern Gama Grass (which one of our prairie gurus persuaded us to include, despite our "forbs-first" strategy) became noticeable this year, as depicted in the foreground of this photo.  Bee balm, highlighted here by the setting sun, was present from the very first growing season and came on strong again in May 2015.  

The dead stalks in the photo are from last year's Hedge Parsley, as well as other annual weeds.  

Note the new growth of Hedge Parsley around the base of these perennials.  

Foxglove Penstemon
 (Penstemon digitalis)
Native perennial.  In 2013 seed mix.

Foxglove Penstemon's
gorgeous flowers!

 Also acting as if the Hedge Parsley weren't even there, Foxglove Penstemon made its debut on the Creek Field stage.

How excited I was to see for the first time dozens of Penstemons dotting the field! 

One practitioner tells me there is a Foxglove Penstemon "phase" to prairie restorations.  

If so, I hope it lasts a long time!  

Not having to brush Hedge Parsley aside, because they went for bare spots along the edges of the buffers and the Creek Field, were the hardy Drummond's Asters.   Thanks to Jeff Hansen for helping me to identify the new leaves!  

New leaves of Drummon'd Aster
(Symphyotrichum drummondii)
Native Perennial
Volunteer.

The winged petiole (leaf stalk)
helps to identify Drummond's Aster.
Thank you, Jeff Hansen!

It will be interesting to see if the burn of the Creek Field on March 17, 2016 will set back the Hedge Parsley!

Restoring Bottomland Prairie, March 2016: Coyote after Burn

The Creek Field burned on March 17, 2016, and for days afterward the field was surrounded by hawks, of many different species.  My efforts to photograph them yielded only blurs. 

More willing to be photographed was this coyote who was after the same smorgasbord of newly exposed mice, voles, shrews, cotton rats, pocket gophers, & bunnies.   

After the first long-distance shots, I drove as close as I could get to the Creek Field, with Deci in the bed of the truck.   

Note how Deci is quiet at first.  She starts barking only when Coyote grabs a wriggling something and starts to chomp it down.   Coyote keeps eating, tolerating the barking.  But he freezes when I tell Deci to hush.   Barking and talking?  That's too much!

As always, I am stunned by the power of fire.  Slow changes suddenly speed up, become transformations too rapid & too many to see, hear, count, or comprehend.  

Restoring Bottomground Prairie: Burning the Bottomground, March 17, 2016

Al & Jeff keep the fire from the buffer strip.  

 March 17, 2016 was a big day!   
After burning the Front 3, with the expert help of our new friends Dee Aduddell & Cody Aduddell, we went on to burn the Creek Field & the Road Field.  

Jeff surveys the burn.

For that burn, it was old friends to the rescue!  Al Alspach & Jeff Morris, together with their friend Jay, conducted a textbook-perfect burn.   There were sudden wind changes & a few nail-biting moments, but in the end the restorative fire swept through those two fields & nothing more.

Thank you, Dee, Cody, Al, Jeff, & Jay!

We're getting by with a lot of help from our friends! 

Photos are by Jeff Morris.

Restoring Bottomground Prairie: Burning the Front 3, March 17, 2016

Dee Aduddell (foreground) & Cody Aduddell guide the fire
through the Front 3.

A huge thank you to Dee Aduddell & Cody Aduddell for their expert help in burning the Front 3, on March 17, 2016!

We burned the Front 3 in the early afternoon and the Creek Field & the Road Field in the late afternoon.    

Dee & Cody make it look easy!
Thanks to them, the fire stayed just where it was supposed to stay.

Celebrating Jan Garton & Betsy Knabe Roe: The Gals Transforming

Here is the latest transformation of "Revival,"  the installation by prairie artist Betsy Knabe Roe honoring the life of Kansas conservationist Jan Garton, 1949-2009.   Jan's ashes were scattered here at Bird Runner.  The installation is on the 3-acre prairie restoration just downslope from our Guest House.

We burned that Front 3 this past Thursday, March 17, 2016.   

"The gals," as Betsy called the haunting statues made of dogwood branches which she created in 2010, presided over 2 further installations, also created by Roe--"Etain" and "Passage."  

For a complete description of all 3 installations, see "The Bird Runner Art of Betsy Roe" at  http://www.prairieheritage.org/betsy_roe.cfm

"The gals" over time abandoned their erect posture.   For the past several years, they have been slumping & lounging about on the Front 3.    When we burned those three acres, the gals burst into flame.     

I know Jan is pleased.   They're with her now, at the very heart of transformation.

Snowberry Clearwings: Handsome Pollinators!

Clearwing Moths are visiting the ornamental honeysuckle by our front door.  Otherwise, the shrub is buzzing with bees.  The Clearwings, like the bees, appear to be in a manic frenzy, dashing here, dashing there, as if nectar were an upper, or a disappearing resource they're going to miss out on if they don't move fast, now!    Perhaps they zip back and forth so a predator can't get a fix on them. 

This photo was taken on June 17, 2014.  The Snowberry
Clearwing is nectaring on a milkweed blossom.

  Compare the moths above with this fine fellow--a Snowberry Clearwing, Hemaris diffinis.  He is in the family Sphingidae.  Note that his thorax is more uniformly yellow than that of the moths above.   In fact, left to my own devices, I was trying to put the video guys in a different family altogether, the Sesiidae.  

However, Dr. Dick Beeman informs me that the "difference in thoracic coloration is probably just part of intraspecies variation."   In addition, Dr. Beeman's suggested identification of the video guys as Snowberry Clearwings, too, has been definitively confirmed by bugguide.net.    So we can confidently call our movie stars Hemaris diffinis, too.    Thank you, Dr. Beeman!   Thank you, bugguide.net!


And thank you, Snowberry Clearwing!  I just have to say--your tail hairs are amazing. 

A Spring Azure in the Apricots!

"A true harbinger of spring" is what the Heitzmans call the Spring Azure (Celastrina argiolus ladon) in their book, Butterflies and Moths of Missouri.    "It is our earliest native butterfly to emerge from overwintering pupae, often flying before the wild plum buds have opened," they say.  

But it is right in sync with our apricot trees, which is where I found the Spring Azure shown here.

Seeing this tiny butterfly soothed the pain I always feel at seeing our apricot trees bloom so early.   So what if we get a frost next week?   Right now these gorgeous blossoms are feeding pollinators!   

Notice how well the Spring Azure blends in.    The black markings on the pale underwings look just like the dark anthers of the blossom against the white petals.    

The video offers a glimpse every now & then of the gorgeous blue on the upperwings.   Spring Azure belongs to a group of tiny butterflies called, not surprisingly, "Blues."

Right at the end of the video, a bee appears.   I did a freeze-frame because otherwise he's just a blur.

He's not so clear under any circumstances, but does anyone have a guess as to what family of bee he belongs to....with all that red hair?!?   And is he flying toward us or away from us?  Is that black blob his face or his abdomen?