Phenology...of sorts

"False Gromwell Slope" Color Pencil
(Prints Available Here)

I've practiced phenology over the years and really didn't realize it until recently. Today it was brought back to mind when I said something about going down to Waterman Prairie to check on the Pasque Flowers. Georgie thought I was getting ahead of myself...that it was wishful thinking - "It's been too cold this week." was her thought on the first bloomers there.

I checked back in this blog to April 7th of last year, and there they were! Hmmm...April 7th is a bit later yet, sure hate to wait that long!

I also keep track of other things as they happen, and refer back to them when looking for photo or viewing opportunities. I do this in my journals (they go back to the 1980's), on calendars I file away, and in my "A Tallgrass Journal" (in publication since 2002), but this blog is another way to keep track. The artwork above is a good example...if I wanted to get back to the False Gromwell Slope (my name) and photograph the plants in peak bloom, I could check my notes or even the slide mounts for dates (ya it was a long time ago!). Now-a-days I could also check my digital files for the date of creation.

Phenology is defined in the gardener's dictionary as "The scientific study of periodic biological phenomena, such as the flowering of plants, in relation to climatic conditions." I suppose it could also relate to other non-plant events like the Monarch migration, or bird migration, or even when climactic events themselves happen (?).

Today (as I write - March 23rd) the ice on the famed Walden's Pond went out. It also went out on this date in 1853...you see, Henry David Thoreau kept records of the natural occurrences around him too...sure its just a thing of curiosity but can be much more. The next year in 1854, Walden's ice didn't go out until April 7th...do you see method to my madness yet? I figure if Walden's ice can go out on this date one year but April 7th another year, then I'd better check on the Pasque Flowers at Waterman Prairie pretty quick here!!! They may be up! Ha!

As you can see I use the science of phenology very loosely; more for my own reference to when to check on things I'm interested in. But these records can actually mean something is going on if looked at over a period of many years. Walden's Pond has been recorded for some time. During Thoreau's time the dates of ice-out averaged around April 2nd...during the recorded periods in the 20th and 21st century it averaged around "Today" March 23rd! Global warming? Climate change? Aw, I have no idea! But it's the trends that can indicate things scientifically.

But one thing I do know - I'd better get down there and check on those Pasque Flowers!

Cloud Chasing

The Vernal Equinox is only about 36 hours away as I write...and I'm looking forward to it! A lot of work seems to crop up for me at this time of year, so I have to be thankful for the opportunities as they arise, but it makes getting in some painting time almost impossible. It is also a wonderful time for photography in the tallgrass environment...I love it, but it's mostly just getting out that I enjoy so much, especially after a winter of contemplating just that.

When I'm out doing freelance work for different projects, I try and take advantage of what's going on in the prairies and prairie potholes of our region. One thing that is always enjoyable for Georgie and I is "cloud chasing". No matter what time of the year it is we can always manage to find interesting skies in the tallgrass. I've always thought of the prairie as a sky dominated landscape, it usually is. The sky is to the prairie like the mountains are to the american west. The prairie has the advantage of an everchanging sky however, the landscape can change quickly and constantly with your tripod still firmly achored to the same spot all day long.

We've had days when the chase begins early in the day and we move with the sky...kind of like storm chasing but not with that kind of earnest flight...more with the light and the shapes and the vantage point. The image above is a good example of one of these days...this started at an event of a friend's spouse. As the event ended we saw the sky and spent the rest of the day following "it"! The cloud chase ended shortly before sunset when this thunderhead began to collapse, yet still leaving an "image worthy" offering to us before the light was gone.

Here's to a great Spring and some good chases to come!

They're On Their Way!

They're on their way! Whoot, whoot! Monarchs were passing through Mission Texas a few days ago on their way out of Mexico!

I've been watching the winter roosting, the "stirring", and now the beginning of the Monarch migration back to Prairie Hill Farm and beyond, on the "Journey North" site at Learner.org for most of the winter. I'm always interested in what my friends are up to when they're away from home...well, their summer home anyway, and I like to keep in touch with what's going on down south of the border. If you go to this link you can see mapped sighting of the Monarchs moving out of Mexico and California, and movement in Florida...also there's a map showing Asclepias sightings.


Asclepias is the milkweed family that Monarchs depend on for feeding - particularly in their larval stage...they lay their eggs on milkweed plants and after the caterpillar hatches, it feeds on the host plant.

It's important how the migration is timed. If the migration starts too soon, the milkweeds will not be up in large enough numbers to support the egg laying...one link broken in this fragile chain and it's all over for the species. Milkweeds are also an important nectar source for adult Monarchs but they don't need milkweed as much as adults since they feed on any source of nectar (flower). You won't find too many milkweeds in bloom early in the season, but the plant itself is what's the most important for the species early on their trip back north.

I like to photograph Monarchs in both stages of their life cycle but must admit the adult butterfly stage is the most mesmerizing; such large beautiful creatures!

I wanted to incorporate a Monarch in a painting I did for an area orchestra fund raiser a couple years back...I put it on the "front" of a violin (I'll show the "back" at another time), the painting was done on mounted canvas, on the violin itself, and the medium was Casein.

The scene was taken from Prairie Hill Farm itself and one of our very own "friends" enjoying some time on Heliopsis helianthoides (False Sunflower), a very common native here and one of several favorites for butterflies of all knds.

We may very well get lucky and see one or two other types of early butterflies here in the next 2-3 weeks if the weather cooperates, but our Monarch friends will be a bit later; maybe we'll get lucky in early May?! One can only hope!

They're on their way!!

The Big Thaw

The specter of Spring is looming ever closer, yet we have the "Big Thaw" to work through first - and it is in progress as we speak!

Now, by "Big Thaw" I'm not just thinking of the ice breaking loose on Waterman Creek down in our valley...that's taken place twice already in the past 3 weeks. It's also the great migration process "starting", it's the long absence of some "neighbors" now showing up during the day and night, it's the lawn actually showing up and giving the newly arrived Robins a place to dine through, and maybe it's finally the last throws of white stuff???

We had another blanket of snow yesterday...it came after a couple hours of freezing rain and sleet, but by mid afternoon half of it was gone already. In the midst of the afternoon a neighbor paid us a visit...Mudd, our original farm cat sat outside watching the "neighbor" from a safe distance ignoring calls for her to come in the house. Once Georgie saw Mudd's reason for not venturing toward the house, she alerted me and I decided to give a friendly greeting to the visitor.

I try to be nice to "touchy" neighbors and watch from behind trees!

By "friendly visit", I just mean "careful"! I took my small camera with me and thought I'd get a picture or two. Using the big camera and lenses would require a big tripod and I thought I needed to remain more "mobile" in case someone was in a cranky mood.

The Skunk was the first we'd had in the yard in some time and the first in the neighborhood this winter that wasn't roadkill. It was what I presumed to be a small female...this is the time of year we see skunks moving about unconcerned in the daylight...usually seeking mates and denning sites for future broods. Our visitor was under the fenceline bird feeder station enjoying some black oil sunflower seeds.

Opossums don't usually act that smart but this one wasn't taking chances!

Later our visitor came back and the traffic got a tad busier, one of our haybarn 'possums came for supper too. We watched this from inside because it could have been messy (smelly). The skunk raised her tail as the Opossum approached but she didn't turn her business end, she just kept the "guns" cocked. Eventually the 'possum noticed what was "up" and turned 90 degrees toward it's favorite tree.

The Opossums (Grinners as Georgie likes to call them) are our favorite yard critter...they don't bother Mudd at all, in fact she's only slightly curious about them and they walk right past one another all the time and barely exchange a "hello". What concerned us was the skunk letting one of our friends have it - right in front of the house with the wind coming our way to boot! Once the yard or house gets nailed, it's heck to live with the smell for a week or so! We were thankful for the lack of an itchy trigger finger!

During the day we'd had two or three Bald Eagle flyovers...we're just under the east crest of a hill on the west side of the valley. When an eagle flys over it passes over us at or slightly below tree top level and it is a great sight! The yard's also filling with newly arrived flocks of Red-wing Blackbirds...it can get real noisy when five hundred to a couple thousand (seriously!) birds land in the trees around the building here! In past years we've witnessed deer get up out of the back grove and walk down through the yard in broad daylight just to get away from the noise!

Once nightfall hit last night the 'yotes cut loose in the valley out front. I'm always trying to record the audio of these events but they seem to stop as soon as I step outside. Georgie cracked a window in the living room to see if that'd help but Mudd set to growling...she's one wised-up kitty and has been around the section enough times in her life to know what that noise could mean to her! (She also growls at Bald Eagles when they pass through the yard!)

(This isn't the night raider I mention below, but I didn't get a shot of it, these were "guests" from a few years ago!)

As I was checking out the night scene in the yard after the Coyote commotion, I noticed a big blob on the fence bird feeder tray. I knew what that meant...put a big flashlight on it an there was our first winter Coon since last year...the "Big Thaw" was truly in progress. This is when the bird seed costs begin to spiral too...wait until the Orioles and Catbirds arrive and we put out the grape jelly! Old mister Raccoon will really be in hog heaven...

But I like the Big Thaw...don't you?!

DT's

Last night I closed up shop to come in and see that lovely lady I commiserate with whenever I'm not working or distracted with "maybe?" important things in the studio, and a Bald Eagle flew right through the yard below tree top level...it was pretty cool. But the neatest thing was this morning when the yard filled with Robins...dozen of Robins flicking through the newly unfrozen leaf litter and picking the frozen dried up berries off of the viburnums. Neat because this really felt like spring! This really brought back memories to me and a sense of time and place felt over and over for well more than half a century now...Whoa!

OK lets forget the time span thingy and hang onto the dawn chorus prelude we've got going here...it's great! Tonight is threatening to put another short kabaush (sp?) on this beautiful picture...we're supposed to wake up to another blanket of snow. It's starting to give me the DT's...I can't stand it!

I've grown very fond of warmer weather...maybe it's because it's been some time since I've experienced it? Maybe it also has to do with that ...thingy I mentioned too... But I've been dwelling on a mid summer night...on crickets and katydids lulling my self into a sweet, soft ride through the evening. I know, God willing, it'll come again, but I've grown impatient, so I'm posting the Lighting Bugs video again...I'm just going to stick it on a loop here and pipe in the crickets and katydids on my tape deck and bring myself back to an even keel!

This was from last summer out here on Prairie Hill Farm.........there that's better.

Wm Penn Road Trip

Spent a great deal of time on the road yesterday delivering work to Wm Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa for a 4 week exhibit in their gallery. I don't think I've ever been to Oskaloosa...been in the general region a few times over the years, but not there. I do know one thing now about Oskaloosa (well maybe more than just one) and that is - if they ever lose Ed's Bar BQ on the south side of the city square, they've lost a treasure! Oh my word what wonderful Brisque! (Thanks Ed, I said I'd get out the word for you!)

Georgie and I, and artist friend Barb McGee, drove on down to pick up Barb's artwork and hang mine. It's quite a trip from up in the NW corner of Iowa down to Oskaloosa, but we had no loss of something to talk about and the time really passed quickly. We also came across more Bald Eagles north of Oskaloosa than you could shake a stick at! At one point Georgie spotted a "bunch" in a field on the east side of the highway and we pulled over and got out to see what was up...there were over 2 "dozen" Bald Eagles in and about the field...many flying around with each other and many just sitting in the sun. It was pretty cool to watch...I think that has to be the most I've ever seen in one spot at once.

Wm Penn looked like a typical college campus with some nice older architecture mixed with the new and our contact was Victoria Peterson Laird, Director of Visual Arts there. Victoria is a very pleasant, down to earth person and got Barb's work down and packed into the car and my work up; then without a lot of ceremony we all headed back to NW Iowa.

If you're in the vicinity of SE Iowa over the next 4 weeks, stop in Oskaloosa for the best Bar BQ you'll find and take in the exhibit in the gallery at the Wilcox Library on the Wm Penn University campus!

Spring for Some!

Great Horned Owl, pencil rendering

Purchase a print

The past couple days brings doubt to the Groundhog's ability to predict spring but I still definitely wouldn't bank on winter's effects being through for the year. However, it is now truly spring for some in the neighborhood here at Prairie Hill Farm!

An old favorite from many years ago is now raising their spring family in the neighborhood. Seems crazy but the Great Horned Owls start nesting as early as late January! Georgie and I have been seeing and hearing the GHO's in the yard and along the valley the past 2-3 weeks; they're becoming more vocal and active around here and whether or not that corresponds to their nesting habits I don't know but we've now entered the egg laying and hatching time for these great birds.

I've been stuck on Great Horned Owls since I can barely remember and they've been a favored subject in my artwork off and on for a long time, as I've mentioned in past blogs. But this idealistic view is not shared by many and I do understand others point of view.

Great Horned Owls are big and brazen critters. They've been known to harass Bald Eagles and to kill other birds of prey, such as other owls and even hawks. Our favorite little Screech Owl is always in danger of the GHO's. A bird of this size, and with a rough demeanor can bring a tough night's sleep for many larger birds!

But these are really cool looking birds aren't they! I think so. And the sound of a Great Horned or a pair of them is sweet music to listen to at night or just prior to dawn. Its primordial. There's a sense of wildness in those voices but I'm also glad I'm not another bird trying to get some shut eye...wondering if I've been spotted and if that GHO is in a bad mood or not!

The Great Horned Owls are optimistic birds, why else would they be setting up house and raising kids already!? I'm trying to be optimistic too! Can spring be just around the corner??!!