This has been the wettest Spring in recent memory, and predictably the area was green and lush. There were flowers everywhere, on the grasses as well as most other plants. Lots of impromptu lakes and puddles, we even saw a couple of small streams flowing through washes.
The area was teeming with insects: flies, bees, locusts, grasshoppers, ants, and plenty of others I undoubtedly failed to notice. We saw lots of antelope, many quite close to the road, and at one point we topped a hill and happened onto a coyote chasing a lone female. Our appearance seemed to end the chase, at least for the moment.
We also saw lots of cattle, in a couple sections of the rangeland the herds were spread across the road. Grazing possibilities certainly seem to be abundant this year.
And last but not least: the birds. There were birds everywhere we looked, and their cheeping and singing filled the air. We saw many doves, meadowlarks and lark buntings all along the drive, as well as plenty of more exotic birds we couldn't identify.
The weather was perfect, clear and fairly hot, but with a gentle breeze blowing that kept the heat and some of the bugs from being too oppressive. We brought binoculars and a camera, and made numerous stops to use both. We stopped for a picnic lunch, eaten in the car so we were shielded a bit from the intense sunshine and the bugs. As we ate, we watched doves and lark buntings flying in to visit a small pool of standing water nearby, and enjoyed the clear, melodious song of a very bright yellow-breasted male meadowlark perched on a not-too-distant fencepost.
One thing we saw few of: other human beings. We encountered a handful of other vehicles during our drive (small gravel county roads), but for the most part we had the prairie to ourselves.
Welcome to the Pawnee National Grasslands!
Joe surveying the horizon
prickly pear cactus were in bloom almost everywhere we went
their waxy-looking flowers are beautiful
we also saw a lot of what I believe are red mallow, shown here growing among the prickly pears
we saw lots and lots of purple aster
also plenty of Rocky Mountain Bee Plants
I believe these are goldweed flowers, another type of flower we saw in abundance
I have no idea what type of flowers these are, the stalks were maybe 6 inches tall and way too easy to overlook among the many taller and showier flowers growing nearby
Don't know what these flowers are either, but whatever they are, they are so abundant in some areas we drove through that they look like carpets of snow from a distance.
we saw lots and lots of spectacular thistle plants in the area
beautiful thistle bud
we saw a few Canadian thistles, mostly along the roadside, but they were vastly outnumbered by pink/white thistles like this one. Amazingly beautiful!
another thistle bud
I was mesmerized and took a lot of thistle pictures today!
view of some silos along the side of one of the county roads we took home
We are hoping to return to Pawnee grasslands very soon, hopefully earlier in the day when the photography is a little easier.
