Exploring tallgrass prairie in the heart of its region

 Readers will already know of my interest and fascination with tallgrass prairie. I was first exposed to its beauty in the mid 1970s, and the interest has been growing ever since. Going to so many North American Prairie Conferences has definitely helped, as I traveled to many parts of the mid-west where tallgrass prairie is one of the main natural areas. But those conferences were always in about mid summer, and I hadn't seen what they looked like in an earlier growing season when they look so much different. Therefore in 2007, 2008 and 2009, I decided to make exploration of some of the best ones in southwestern Missouri, a priority, and targeted the May/June time frame. On each occasion I went for about a two week period. In 2007 I went by myself, but both Marie and Kristin joined me in the two following years.

This first photo is of the Diamond Grove prairie, very close to George Washington Carver National Monument in southwestern Missouri. The Painted Cup is impressive and is one of my favourite early season species. The colour is so distinctive and intense.

Another May wildflower is Rose Vervain. This is at Golden Prairie, a National Natural Landmark.

Another one is Eastern Shooting Star, and can be either vivid pink or white.

One of the reasons I focused on Missouri, is because at several of the prairie conferences I attended, the Missouri Prairie Foundation (MPF) had a display table, and I was impressed with the organization and what they were doing in that state. It even energized me to focus on getting Tallgrass Ontario established in Ontario in the 1990s.

One of the things that was really helpful in planning a trip to Missouri was a publication that the MPF produced. It featured so many significant sites, either owned by the MPF or the state Conservation Dept. There are more than 75 accessible prairie sites listed, with a map of how to get there and some of the special features each site had. I never got to all 75+ sites in Missouri over the years, but have visited well over 100 prairie sites across the mid-west at various times of the year. But Missouri really had my interest, and in the past decade or so they have added several equally impressing prairie sites, many of which have never been plowed, so they are about as original as they can be.

In the first year I went, on my own, I visited Prairie State Park, a bit northwest of Springfield. There were free-ranging bison there, so one had to drive over a cattle guard to enter the park. This first photo shows bison roaming around way in the background. 

There were a few trails, and I asked at the visitor centre about the safety of exploring the trails with the bison in the area. I was advised to stay clear of groups of them for about 100 metres distance or more. So I headed out along what looked like an enticing trail, and there were no bison in sight. However that would soon change.....

I was finding plants to photograph, and while I was well away from my vehicle, I was hunkered down on my hands and knees, with my camera and macro lens photographing this colourful one, known as Violet Oxalis, which was only about 10 cm high.

I had gotten a few shots, and then something 'warned' me, causing me to look up and back along the trail. And there were two huge bison bulls walking the same trail in their steady gate, and were rapidly approaching me and less than 50 metres away! I did a quick grab of my equipment and dashed out onto the prairie for a safe distance, well safe as long as they stayed on the trail. I did get a photo of them on the trail I was on, and they didn't appear to give me a second glance. This next photo shows the bison being at the spot where I had just come from.

 

I found out later that when you see a group of bison, it usually is a mix of the females and their offspring of the year and it is easy to stay clear of them. The bulls, which are noticeably larger, stay apart most of the time, and don't really spend much time with the rest of the group until the autumn breeding season. I don't know what would have happened if I had not left the trail when I did. I can only surmise that it was God warning me that it was time to move!
 

Bison are impressive animals, and visitors are warned regularly to remain in vehicles especially if there are some close to a road. These next two photos were taken from the safety of my vehicle.

At any rate, after this encounter, I tried to be extra vigilant on the lookout for any animals as I returned to my vehicle as safely as possible.

The other prairie sites I visited did not have bison roaming, so was able to enjoy so many plants and vistas without the risk of encountering them.

One of the main places I stayed at was in the town of Lamar, and it was fairly central to some of the sites I really wanted to visit. A short distance from Lamar was Treaty Line prairie. This first photo was taken in May, and it wasn't showing a lot of colour at that time.

 When I visited it another time, in June, it had a more colourful view. Pale Purple Coneflower is well represented on many of the prairies and always a joy to see.

 

The display of these coneflowers was quite impressive at Golden Prairie.

Butterflies are often attracted by these coneflowers, not surprisingly. One of the rarest ones, and typically only resident in high quality prairie is the Regal Fritillary, shown first.

A somewhat similar but much more common one is Great Spangled Fritillary.

There are other forms of wildlife to keep an eye out for. Dickcissels are fairly typical.

If you are watching where you are hiking, you will likely encounter some dung from a creature such as a coyote. And a closer look shows another form of wildlife making use of it. There were several Dung Beetles 'feasting' on what was available to them.

An Ornate Box Turtle was roaming around....

...while a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was on a wire. This species was fairly widespread, and of course very noticeable due to its distinctive form. I also saw Northern Bobwhite and Loggerhead Shrike, both of which are species at risk in Ontario.

 There were so, so many different wildflowers to photograph. Here are a few others of the dozens and dozens of species I saw.

Fringed Poppymallow

Prairie Phlox

Next is Butterfly Milkweed, a species many readers will be familiar with here in Ontario, mixed with Pale Purple Coneflower. Note also the last photo in this post.

The wind is often a factor on the open prairie, so I decided to show these little sunflower types blowing in the wind.

More coneflowers and others at Skye Prairie.

  

 

Obedient Plant

There were lots more plants I could have included as well as vistas of many of the sites I visited, as these prairies are so rich with impressive flora. It was quite memorable to search through the many files I accumulated, but will leave it as is. 

There were other things going on. It was great to have Marie and Kristin along, even though their passion for prairie wasn't quite the same as mine. But the bonding was wonderful. And on one occasion, just shortly after we arrived at Lamar, there were tornado warnings, not all that atypical for that part of the country. There was a lot of heavy rain and wind where we were, and apparently a tornado touched down somewhere southwest of the city. But with so much rain, some of the rivers were quite full. Here Kristin looks over a meandering and flooded river.

One of the highlights of our 2009 trip was to visit Carol Davit, her husband Mike, and son Jamie. Kristin took this photo of Carol, Marie and I on our visit.

 

Carol is the executive director of the MPF, and the chief editor of the Missouri Prairie Journal, a very well done magazine. I had met Carol at some of the various prairie conferences I had attended, and kept in contact with her when I said we were coming to visit Missouri. I had been a member of the MPF for several years, and after my visits, I sent several CDs full of photos, giving permission to use them for the MPJ. A number of the photos showed up in the magazine over the years, including this cover photo.

During our visit, she conducted an interview of me, and used it as the basis for a MPF Member Profile in a future issue of the MPJ. She was intrigued that a Canadian member would spend so much time exploring the Missouri prairies.

Exploring God's fabulous creation is just so joyful and rewarding. And it reminds me of a fairly recent song I've been hearing on the local Christian radio station, called Let It Be A Hallelujah. It was written, and is sung by Lauren Daigle. She has been on the Christian music scene for a few years, and I must admit when she first started out, I wasn't overly impressed. But that has changed over the years, and I can say that this one is right on and by far the best one yet. It is a prayer that we should all be saying daily! Here is the link to this song.
 

It is interesting that a program on this station is called Twenty The Countdown Magazine, where they play the top twenty songs in Christian music. It comes on once a week and each time the host features a couple of new songs for listeners to vote for, and sometimes the more popular one will eventually become popular enough to make the top 20. In the case of this song, the host could tell it was going to be popular, so didn't even give listeners a chance to vote. And the following week, it debuted at #18, and the week after it had moved to #16. I would not be surprised if it makes it to #1 very soon!

 

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