Camera Critters II

All week I have posted photos from the Nebraska Sandhills. For my Camera Critters post, I couldn't decide whether to post farm animals or insects, so I decided to do two posts. The insects are in the post immediately below this post.

Ranches dominate the Sandhills, so of course there are plenty of farm animals


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Camera Critters I

I couldn't decide whether to do insects or farm animals for the Camera Critters, so I decided to do two posts.

There is a road on the north side of the Niobrara River. It has many photographic opportunities. These photos were taken when I visited in September. The first three photos were taken within about ten feet of each other.

This is a male American Rubyspot

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A female American Rubyspot

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This Woolly Bear Caterpillar showed the evidence of the short rain shower we had earlier in the morning.


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Further down the road there was a patch of flowers where I found these guys

A Feather-legged Fly

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Then there's this guy that I never did nail an id on.

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And last, but not least, is a colorful guy that really moved fast. Never was able to id him either.

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Skywatch Friday

Thunder storms are common in the Nebraska Sandhills. The thunder clouds in these two photos resulted in pretty good storms.


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Watery Wednesday

One of the big tourism draws to the Nebraska Sandhills is the Niobrara River. It is designated as a National Scenic River. From the National Park Service site:

The Niobrara River drains over 12,000 square miles of the Sandhills, one of the largest stabilized dunefields in the world. Take a leisurely float on this outstanding Great Plains river in north-central Nebraska. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see pine-clad hills and prairie, numerous waterfalls, tall sandstone cliffs and wildlife like deer, bison, elk, beaver, mink, herons and kingfishers.

Near the entrance to Ft. Niobrara NWR


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Down river a bit is Berry Falls


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Further down river, looking west from the Norden Bridge


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Looking east from the Norden Bridge


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There are places to rent canoes, kayaks and these inner tubey things both on the river and in the town of Valentine.


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The inner tubey things are quite colorful


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U is for....

Upland sandpiper...

In the post immediately below this one, I introduced the Nebraska Sandhills. One of the birds often seen there is the Upland sandpiper. The very first time I saw one, it was sitting on a post like this one


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The Upland sandpiper is one of the few shorebirds that seems to be disinterested in water. They breed and feed in prairies and grasslands. They are typically seen standing on fence posts or in tallgrass, midgrass and shortgrass prairies.


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The number of Upland sandpipers have declined as grasslands have been converted to cropland.

They usually arrive in Nebraska during the latter part of March, and migrate south by middle, late October. They are usually solitary, but as they ready for migration to South America, they "flock up".

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That's My World!

I grew up in Seattle, then lived in San Francisco and the Bay Area for fourteen years. After several years in Eastern Washington, I transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska. I never intended to stay long, but that was eighteen years ago, and though leaving this area crosses my mind, I never think about it for long. Before I moved here, I was told by many I would hate it, because it was flat, it was ugly, there was no ocean, there were no mountains, there was nothing to see here. Well, I suppose that some will always believe that, but I'm going to try in my small way to prove them wrong, because I firmly believe that every type landscape/scenery has it's own beauty.

A friend from my San Francisco days had moved home to Nebraska and my first spring in Nebraska she invited me to go visit her mother who lived in the Sandhills area. And so it was that I was introduced to the Nebraska Sandhills.

From the University of Nebraska site:

The Nebraska Sandhills, which encompasses approximately 19,300 square miles of sand dunes stretching 265 miles across Nebraska, contains about 95% or 12.75million acres of rangeland.

With dunes that are as high as 400 feet, as long as 20 miles, and slopes as steep as 25 percent, the Sandhills are the largest sand dune formations in the Western Hemisphere plus one of the largest grass-stabilized dune regions in the world. The large sand masses, that were formed by blowing sand are now held in place and stabilized by vegetation that consists mainly of grasses.

Now, for some photos


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Come on back, as I will be featuring photos from the Sandhills for the photo memes for the rest of the week.

Today's Flowers

As we enter the period of the year that for many include gray skies, weak sunlight at best, barren trees, and flower beds that are mulched over, it puts a smile on one's face seeing flower pictures.

This photo of two lotus and a lotus bud is among my all time favorites. It was taken at Lincoln's Sunken Gardens.


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Camera Critters

These little guys are Black tailed Prairie Dogs.


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These photos were taken at Ft. Niobrara NWR. The prairie dog town is the first stop on the auto tour of the refuge. Quoting from the auto tour pamphlet:

On both sides of the road the dirt mounds of a small prairie dog town can be seen. The most widespread of the five species in North America, the black tailed prairie dog, is found in Nebraska and across North America from Canada to Mexico. This town, just as yours, has neighbors called "wards" and family groups called "coteries". Each coterie usually consists of a single adult male, one to four adult females, and any of their offspring less than two years old. Each group defends a territory of about one acre, greeting its own members with a "kiss" and challenging any intruders to a fight. Coyotes, eagles, hawks, owls, rattlesnakes, badgers, and weasels hunt here. The small Burrowing owls also find a home here in an abandoned hole where they lay their eggs and raise their young. Look for them perched on a mound or making low short flights in the town.

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Photo Friday

The subject for this weeks Photo Friday is Dusk. This photo was taken at Ft. Niobrara NWR on Sept. 8, 2008.


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Skywatch Friday

These photos are of Sandhill Cranes coming in to roost at Quivira NWR in Kansas.


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