There I was, driving down a blacktop road on the way home to the farm — and driving too fast, too.  The sun had sunk low in the sky, and in the glare I nearly missed seeing them.  My brain first registered ‘Canada Geese’, which is a reasonable quick assumption because that’s the type of big wild [...]

Gulls aren’t what usually comes to mind when I think of Missouri birds.  We have lots this time of year though.  I took a half hour off for birdwatching earlier this week on a return trip from a family visit near Truman Lake, and I found a flock of gulls just waiting to entertain me.  [...]

This morning I found this brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) in the corn barrel in the feed room. It stared at me, but didn’t move. My father says that’s typical thrasher behavior. ‘They’re weird birds,’ he said. It even waited for me to jog to the house, grab a camera and jog back. Or maybe it [...]

The common violet is one of my favorite spring flowers. It’s fragrant, pretty, tough and prolific. What’s not to love? This particularly sturdy violet pushed its way through a layer of sand deposited a couple weeks ago when the creek overran its banks and flooded the crossing we use to access [...]

We’ve had quite a lot of rain lately, which created much more run-off than our little creek usually carries. A lot of debris washed down from the woods, and a couple trees that have been leaning over the embankment fell right in. Branches caught on fallen logs, new and old, and the mess piled up [...]

Some days it’s nice to stay inside and watch the birds from the comfort of a warm house.

Me and the titmouse are still working on the goals and plans for 2008. We’ll let you know when the list has been whittled down from grandiose to what can reasonably get done in 2008 even if all goes precisely according to plan.

Tickseed sunflower
(Bidens aritosa)
This daisy-like flower appears in late August and blooms well into the fall. I suppose they can grow about anywhere, but I see them mostly in the lower ends of pastures and prairies where the soils tend to be a bit more moist. I saw great sweeps of tickseed yellow in the prairie [...]

I’d feared that the late spring freeze had wiped out this year’s crop of wild grapes, but I spotted these beauties among the leaves of a pecan tree at the edge of the back pasture. They’re unusually large for wild grapes, too. I suspect that’s partly due to the location. This vine has its roots [...]

Wild bergamot aka horsemint, bee balm
Monarda fistulosa

I didn’t see so much of it during the drought the last two years, but a wet spring seems to have rejuvenated the prairie flowers. I’ve found a few small patches on my land, and several large patches down the road at the edge of a cornfield and [...]