My Art and Music

On the Nature Trail

Walt and I have actually been traveling a little as the trees are turning locally, and the views are fabulous.

 

One of our latest trips was to the Pontotoc Ridge Preserve of the Nature Conservancy in Southern Oklahoma.  This is a fascinating area as it is a mix of tallgrass prairie, crosstimber, some bottomland forests, and even springs and a fascinating cave that has a spring fed creek. 

It was a beautiful day - a little windy, but hey this is Oklahoma - we know wind!

As always, I love the flowers and although we saw some wildlife, it was the flowers that held my interest.
I have a fondness for prairie flowers.....they are exceedingly beautiful..

....and unbelievably delicate.

They have limited amount of resources, to make the maximum show and make their seeds...

....and to attract pollinators.

This year has been particularly trying as the record-setting heat and dry spell, challenged most flowering plants.

But with a little rain (which we had last week), the prairie comes alive with color and flowers.

If that wasn't enough, the Pontotoc has these delicate orchids, that if you're not careful you can step on.

And it is autumn with all the seasonal color.

The color is everywhere but it's hard to pass it up and no enjoy the natural splendor.

Here's out group trekking on Interstate 40 (the I-40 of the Pontotoc Preserve that is!)

The Upwardly Mobile Cranes

I was going to make a great joke about how the cranes wouldn't accept our invitation to coffee and became upwardly mobile (flew away), but they're so beautiful, no jokes needed.

As most of our days start - "Where do you want to go today?"  "Oh let's go to the Lamar Valley!"  "Oh that's great!"  That's where we go everyday BTW, and there's always a new drama in the Lamar Valley or at least on the way to the Lamar Valley

Today it was the upwardly mobile cranes!  A friend had told us there were some about, and we knew that they had a nest in the Floating Island pond, and sure enough, there they were!

Walt spotted them from the road, and I don't know how cause they are perfectly camouflaged in this grass...probably why they were there.

They are such elegant birds.  Walt took this succession of shots just as they were taking off, and I'm sure you know this but his lens is like a magnifying glass so we were not this close to the birds!

Sandhill Cranes can come in two adult colors, some are "stained" due to preening with muddy bills. Cranes may stain their feathers of upper back, lower neck and breast with ferrous solution in the mud.

It may take a couple of flaps to get started....

but once they do, they are beautiful in flight.

Just Relaxin'

Where we are, it's just fun to look out the back window.

And as tranquil as this may be, there's high drama going on under our very noses....

Sitting on a tree right to the east of our little site, is an osprey, just studying that river as hard as you can.

And suddenly he swoops down..

Looking like he's gliding just having fun...

...but with that eye still on the river.

Then in he goes....

...and out he comes....

...with another successful catch.  They almost never seem to fail!

 

 

Wolf Day

Today was spent with the wolves of Yellowstone.

We knew about a bison carcass (from natural causes probably during their rutting season), over on the east side of Lamar Valley, so we hit it early this morning.

After 3 hours there, we were wondering about how wise our decision is.  Usually bison carcassses last about 3 days at Yellowstone, and yet nothing was on this carcass...a bear and a wolfe had come by, but nothing really was working on the carcass, and with bears and wolves in the neighborhood, something had to be up -

Well it was.....

Apparently the Agate Wolf Pack had come a little close to the Lamar Canyon Pack and made a run at them, scattering the Lamar Canyon Pack leaving the pups scattered to the wind, and the parents nervous wrecks.  As if that wasn't enough the Alpha Female of the LCP is the sister of the Alpha Female of the AWP and while they were watching their packmates fight, neither one of them entered into the fight as they recognized each other as sisters and won't fight each other, but can not prevent the others in the pack from fighting each other.

As the pups scattered and were scared to death, the parents started running toward their pups, but unfortunately the pups usually in this situation don't recognize the parents and run from them, so they usually go back to the den, where the mother can find them and bring them back to the pack, but this is still very stressful for the whole pack - regathering and recovering from the stress of the Agate Wolf Pack run at the Lamar Canyon Pack.

Through all of this action - watching the pack travel across the Lamar Valley, the Alpha Female recollection her pups and getting them back to the pack, while the pups and mother were busy howling at each other all day, which was beautiful and sad at the same time to hear.

Here is the Alpha Female of the Lamar Canyon Pack who is known as 06 as this was the year she was born.  She's considered the prize wolf in Yellowstone and I refer to her as the GDY...Grande Dame of Yellowstone!  She isn't collared, and is the top female wolf in one of the most recently successful wolf packs in Yellowstone.  She's obviously a great mom and takes very good care of her pups and is a huge reason the LCP is doing so well.

Walt took this picture about a mile away as the pack was so stressed today that the rangers worked very hard to make sure that they had a huge berth from the visitors to the park so that the pack could put itself back together again.  This was about as close as she came all day.

The day ended well, the wolves got some free food from the bison carcass, no bears today, and fortunately no Agates of Lamar Canyons killed and the Lamar Canyon Pack got most of themselves back together and the mother was reunited with her pups.  We left at 2 this afternoon with all of them in the shade resting and fairly close to the carcass so that they could feed later on that afternoon.

Grass

I've always been raised around country where the grass was beautiful and a rich part of the lives of everyone around me.  Maybe that's why I find it so fascinating and elegantly beautiful in a very simple and classic way.

Yellowstone has experienced a longer and wetter than normal winter, so the grass has been slower to turn brown, causing more wildlife to stay around longer in the lower altitudes (this may be reason so many bear sightings and attacks have been higher than normal years).

Especially when they are back lit they show so much detail.  This always reminds me of how Mesoamericans manipulated grass into a very useful grain - corn or maize.  This became a staple for one of hte major civilizations of world history.

Each of the beginning civilizations had their own food source - all of them grain...Mayan/Aztec was grain;  Oriental/Chinese was soy from the bean; and Egyptian was bread from grain. 

But grass not only fed us, it provided other uses.  Grass is usually the first type of plant to take hold of an area...like after a fire, it's grass that first comes back.

Grass is also a major source of food for animals.

Some grass has long stiff projectiles called beards that protect it from being eaten by animals.

Grass holds the soil together to prevent it from blowing or eroding away.  This enables other vegetation to eventually take hold...bushes, shrubs, then trees if the climate allows.

Although this looks like amber waves of grain, or a piece of it in the purple mountains majesty, it's still elegantly classic as those amber waves of grain.  Artist love this simplicity in design.

And then there's not telling what you'll find next!

One of our Favs in Yellowstone

The coyote is traditionally known as the trickster in Native American folklore, and you can sure see why when you stop and observe one.

We were on the Blacktail Plateau the other day and one just came up to us, then went out and got some quarry of his own and buried it - first time we had seen that!  Then just as snappy as you please walked over the rise, and wasn't seen again!  Now understand he had a group of us following him and he probably thought he just didn't want to share it just then!  That's just fine with us, we weren't really interested in raw rodent anyway!

But yesterday on the road from Mammoth to Norris, we found this cute guy, and such beautiful color.

Honestly the color on this particular coyote was just fabulous for fall...he had his new fall colors on!

 

Osprey Learns to Fly

We're back in Yellowstone...and just in time...this is the week Ospreys learn to fly and Walt caught one hesitant, but finally leaving the nest.

There's a lot of squawking going on here...this fledgling is NOT wanting to leave the nest - just cause everyone else has.....

.

Aaaah - Mom has been to the grocery store for some fresh fish (the Yellowstone River just happens to back up to the Osprey family's back porch!!!)  Mom has already eaten the head and taking the rest back to "junior" at the nest!

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Just a snack before the first flight.  Amazingly enough, most naturalists who film birds of prey say that they discharge their waste before they fly, making themselves lighter.  Obviously this is something this fledgling hasn't learned yet.

.

OK - time for a little "help" from the parent...time to fly....

.

OK first attempt (to be honest, there were a lot of first attempts...)

...second attempt....

...sorta....

...the big leap...and.....

....ta da!!!  Flying!!!

This is a cinch!  Wonder what was holding him up before?

Uh - possibly landing?....yep after flying you have to land - this probably isn't the best landing...

...hey how about harassing big bro?....

....isn't it just like a little sis to come and mess up big bro's landing spot, after he's just gotten settled and all...

Oh well, another day of drama in Yellowstone!

 

 

Wolves of Yellowstone

Walt is up in Yellowstone photographing everything, because every day in Yellowstone is filled with drama and yesterday was no exception - his first full day there...

Start with a pack of wolves who had located a elk carcass.....

There were 2 black and 3 brindle wolves, pacing back and forth on the edge of this ravine.

Lickin' their chops over a meal just so close and yet.....

 

.

.....so far away...uh-oh....this elk carcass is very busy place.

Time for a little plotting....

This bear seems to be very intent on staying

 

More plotting....

Discussion as to who will start the chase to "encourage" the bear to leave.

Oh-no - the bear is now getting more comfy.

This calls for drastic measures....

As the saga continues, the wolves tried to chase the bear off, but the bear was having none of it and stayed.

A quickie trip....

Well, you see we got this new Casita thingie....

It's really darling, and we were wanting to take it out for a test drive - overnight, to just test everything out.

So we decided to trek over to the Illinois River and visit the Nickel (it's a Nature Conservancy Preserve in Eastern OK)

And it worked great - but we also got some excellent photos - of course from Walt

There is a beautiful wetlands (yes there is a wet spot in OK!), area and it was abundant with flowers and pollinating bees...here's one and here's another....

But we mainly went over to see the elk.  We had heard that there was some elk birthin' going on and thought that would be something worth seeing...we didn't see any birthin' but just as we were rounding the corner around the wetlands area, right behind us no more than 25' to 30' feet away were two bucks and a cow chomping away - as a matter of fact it was the chomping that alerted us that there was something else in the area.

These are two excellent shots Walt got of the elk that morning.

The rest of the morning was filled with gobs of butterflies (if they aren't doing a count here, they're in the wrong place).....

a fleeing bluebird (with a swallowtail right on top of him)

a Baltimore oriole eating his lunch.....

And unbelievable plethora of lily pads on the pond.  We figure there was also an abundance of bass as they love feeding on this.

And a sunset as we have to move on and trek back home.

But never fear, cause Walt takes off in August for Yellowstone, with Claire to follow!  Stay tuned for more!

Prairie Chickens

If you're from Oklahoma you know about these birds.  They "dance" "boom" or other wise show off for the hens to win the girls' hearts!

Kind of a blah bird....

OK - maybe a little color here and there...but come spring that all changes

Wow - these birds know how to put on a show!

A few things have changed since I was a kid in the Osage, and one is the prescribed burning which is a regular event.  This provides a number of benefits, when they do a purposeful burn, they have a much better chance of controlling the fire, they take away a lot of fuel that may cause devastating fires, and in the spring, these burns mean that fresh new, highly nutritious grass will grow in it's place.

Combining all these, makes burning a must.  Last weekend was perfect time as the winds were down, and there was lots of smoke going on...you can see that when you do a prescribed burning, that the fire burns    quickly and it burns very light allowing the critters to go underground and survive.  As well the roots that run very deep for the tallgrass, takes no time to sprout little green shoots, just  the favorite food for the bison on the prairie.

One morning we went out to check the prairie chickens, there was a fire burning in the distance.  I've always wanted to get a picture of this, but in my day this was a devastating site.  That has now changed, and learning the process of managed fire makes these pictures of just another tool in the ranchers' and preservationists' portfolio for excellent land management.

See our full gallery here, where we had a lot of fun.