Late Spring on the Prairie

Porcupine Grass (Hesperosita spartea) - photo ©Bruce A. Morrison

  

When most think "prairies" they think "grass" for the most part. That's kind of stereotypical of course because there is so much more there. But the native cool and warm season grasses are pretty iconic and cool at the same time...one of our early (cool season) grasses that I really like is the Porcupine Grass (Hesperostipa spartea). The visual presentation and form of this grass always catches my eye with the long awns bowing over the grasses in their arch-like form until their release, when the grass becomes pretty much invisible to passersby...

 

I have a favorite thing I like to do with this grass - when the seed/awn is mature I pick them off and throw them around like darts. I like to pick areas we have that are erosion prone, like the county ditch along our fence line. I toss them like a dart and they almost always faithfully stick into the exposed soils, where they soon twist themselves into the ground and there ya go - more erosion control with just a bit of fun effort!

 

I have a "Prairie Moment" video for Porcupine Grass if you want to spend a minute with the grasses and bird songs at the following link -  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZI0oWmAmFE

 

In the meantime, above is a close-up of the long awns in the late spring morning dew.

 

Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) - photo ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

Many things are showing up in our two native pastures here in SE O'Brien County - I haven't been able to follow up with the camera...maybe I'll get a chance soon? Been very busy working with our south pasture, doing support work with the winter seeding, plus some Leafy Spurge follow up work in the north pasture and several other things.

 

But as you approach the pastures here, or as you drive by, most obvious are the Golden Alexanders...some parts are blanketed with it , while other parts are spotted with that characteristic yellow. There's a lot more blooming there and I hope I can share those in the days and weeks ahead.

 

In the meantime I'm trying not to let Spring slip by - lots to do!

 

Thank you for visiting my Blog - I do hope you're enjoying Spring!  

 

Be good to one another! 

 

From the Studio Easel

Haven't posted in some time, I have some catching up to do. I'll start with an oil painting I just finished on the easel here in the studio.

"The Squirrel Hunter - Red-tailed Hawk" - oil painting - ©Bruce A. Morrison

As I posted a year or so back, I have a friend who is a licensed Falconer and he had a Red-tailed Hawk he named “Whiskey”. After hunting with the bird out here and nearby for the winter of 2024-25, he released it back into the wild out here a year ago this month. 

It was great fun running around with Whiskey out at our acreage and I got lots of photos...fun poses anyway - they lent a lot of ideas for future paintings or drawings. 

I just completed one of those inspired ideas on the studio easel recently...it was amazing watching this male Red-tail dashing it's way through the upper branches of the trees out here!  

I had seen the famous "Pale Male" of Central Park years back.  If you're unaware of this bird, it was a pale colored Red-tailed Hawk in New York City's Central Park.  This hawk was well documented and quite the celebrity!  I remember watching in awe as this Red-tailed Hawk dove through branches of trees in Central Park, catching squirrels and even pigeons!  

"Pale Male", was a one hour documentary made for WNET on Public Television's "Nature" series back in 2004.  Another documentary was made of this bird in 2009 and at least three children's books were written about him as well.  Again - quite the celebrity!

Having outlived 8 documented female mates, this extraordinary Red-tailed Hawk lived to be 33 years old, passing away on May 16, 2023.  

Anyway, seeing Whiskey darting around through the thick treetop branches, and having witnessed an actual successful Fox Squirrel hunt by a Red-tailed Hawk when I was a teenager in the woods above the Des Moines River near my childhood home in Ft Dodge, Iowa; the scenario of a painting idea struck me...so there's the long version of how "The Squirrel Hunter, Red-tailed Hawk" came about!

 

”Whiskey” here on the acreage a year ago this month, after being released back into the wild! - photograph - ©Bruce A. Morrison

Red-tails are very good at chasing mammals around...usually rabbits and even smaller fare like mice, voles, etc...but if I were a squirrel, this vision of a Red-tailed Hawk, dashing through the branches, would have given me the willies!

In honor of “Whiskey” the Red-tail male - “The Squirrel Hunter - Red-tailed Hawk” - oil painting on mounted canvas - 12X24” - ©Bruce A. Morrison.

Thanks for stopping by! Please be good to one another - we’re all in this together.

(Artwork and Photography from Morrison’s Studio on Prairie Hill Farm - morrisons-studio.com)

 

Old Memories Retreived - Easel Tripping

"Summer Morning, Approaching Jemmerson" - oil painting - ©Bruce A. Morrison

I often wring memories out of that brain I claim ownership to; I believe its those that have remained closest to the surface that spill out at the easel. These paintings have seen daylight most recently, and both are of times and places that I think we all identify and seek sometimes. That piece of solitude…a refuge perhaps.

I’ve begun a quest to pry these away from that “I really should someday” quagmire I’ve saddled this host with for decades. I’m keeping them small. They are a more intimate part of me after all. The earth didn’t shake, but it felt like it was cradling me…like I was there before in another time - it was familiar and gave a sense of calm and joy at the same moment.

The above painting "Summer Morning, Approaching Jemmerson" depicts Jemmerson Slough in Dickinson County, Iowa just west of Spirit Lake.  Its a beautiful wetland complex made up of several potholes and marshes.

I used to spend many weekend mornings at Jemmerson when I was younger and full of myself and energy...I had thoughts of someday living on a marsh and wading around in my home-made floating blind...taking photographs of the many birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, going about their daily lives there.  It was a great dream.  And it was a priviledge to have experienced what I did there.  I can still smell the decaying earth under the marshy waters as I crawled along in my blind - stirring up the muck from the bottom...it was like an elixir!  The sounds there were raucous, and then even sublime.  Some years later I took up recording the sounds of nature...I wish I had done so from that marsh blind!

"Waterman, Below the Slides" - oil painting - ©Bruce A.Morrison

I've actually been working on the painting above, "Waterman, Below the Slides", a while...maybe 20+ years!? I first visited the Litka Wildlife Area after we moved here to SE O'Brien County, Iowa 23 years back. I took a little trip down there (just 2 miles as the Crow flies), and was really taken with it...a great descent to the creek - which I had made my way down and saw the extreme bank drop off! It reminded me of the "Slides" I knew, growing up along the Des Moines River in Ft Dodge, Iowa.

Waterman Creek makes a quick turn south here and the bank had sluffed off steeply over the years. I'd just be guessing the height of the drop off at some point, but maybe 75+ feet would be close?

Anyway, it was an ideal day there nestled in the bottom of the ravine, just the birds and I...a beautiful flowing pool of reflections eventualy passing into a small rock filled rapids, as the stream turned the corner.

Sadly...at least my thoughts, Waterman flooded not long after that and carved a new channel behind the trees in the background of the painting...and as far as I was concerned - not as nearly serene and peacefull as it once was - at least in my memory.

I wanted to remember it at I saw and felt it...this is an attempt to do so.

I found the elements of the landscape very interesting and symbolic here.  The decline and destruction taking place on the right side, and the serene woodland embrace on the opposite side of the creek.  The pleasant calm-like pool of water in the foreground, with the more chaotic, and yet-to-be-seen of what lies ahead downstream, as the creek dissapears around the bend.

Isn't that so succinctly describing this moment we are living through right now as a nation?  Even as a world?

I hope you can take a moment to refresh or recharge from that pressure we all feel throughout our busy, or maybe even troubling lives. Take a moment to look and listen, where the quiet presides. Keep that memory. But whatever we do, embrace the “good” - its something we all need.

Thanks for stopping by! Please be good to one another - we’re all in this together.