Today's Flowers

For the past week I've highlighted photos from the Nebraska Sandhills area. I hope you've enjoyed the tour.

Two posts down I highlighted three insects that I found in one little flower patch. Today's Flowers post will highlight one of the flowers in that patch. It seems to have several names. Hoary vervain, wooly verbena, also spelled in some places woolly verbena.

I have read that Plains Indians made a tea from the leaves and used it to treat stomachaches. Prairie chickens and small mammals eat the seeds. It is very drought-resistant, with roots that can descend to 12 feet. Cattle will not consume it due to its bitter taste so it spreads in overgrazed pastures.


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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.

Nebraska Sandhills, Day Six

Friday was pack up the car and head for home day. As I neared Valentine NWR, I looked at the time and decided that I could spare an hour. My time was rewarded by this photograph of a Common Nighthawk. I had gotten another picture of one, but this photo is far better.


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Of course that hour became and hour and forty minutes.

When I got to the Nebraska National Forest I looked at the time and decided to take the west entrance and go the back road into the forest. The road is marked for 4WD and there were a few dicey spots. There is now an entrance fee to the camping area. A number of years ago when I was first getting interested in birding I spent a few days here in an RV with friends. I was so new to birding that I asked a park person what a Killdeer was. Oy! It's a lovely campground on the Middle Loup River.

It was a wonderful week. The first couple of days of the coming week I will have to pretend to be a responsible adult and take care of stuff. Ugh.

The non wildlife refuge photos of the Sandhills can be found here.

Nebraska Sandhills, Day Five

Thursdays destination was Fort Niobrara NWR This is the closest refuge to the motel, so I didn't have to be moving quite so early. It was overcast and muggy when I left the motel. I was photographing flowers when I heard the rumble of thunder. Looked up just in time to see a little lightening.


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There wasn't much lightening, but it sprinkled just enough to put little drops of rain on the flowers, which makes for a more interesting effect.


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There are lots of Prairie Dogs.


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Which of course means there are Burrowing Owls.


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There is a herd of 400 Buffalo. I saw none of them. There is also a herd of 100 Elk. There are 4 calves this year so they are all behind a fence. The fence makes for very unactractive photos.

This is another refuge that I have visited numerous times. And I always enjoy it.

The rest of the days photographs can be seen here.

Nebraska Sandhills, Day Four

For some reason, the motel wifi wasn't working part of the evening Wednesday night. By the time I got my photos uploaded to the photography site, I just went to bed. Then Thursday night we had a beautiful thunderstorm. Spent at least an hour outside with my motel-mates chatting and watching the storm. Friday I came home and had to deal with problems with my elderly mother before I could even get the car unpacked. Sigh.

Wednesday was a cool morning and I wished for a pair of jeans and a lightweight jacket. By noon, I was glad to be in shorts. The days destination was Valentine NWR

Valentine National Wildlife Refuge lies in the heart of a vast area of undulating sand dunes which stretch across north-central Nebraska. The region, called the Sandhills, is the largest remaining tract of mid and tall grass prairie in North America.

Eons ago, receding waters exposed the bed of a huge inland sea located west of Nebraska. West winds attacked the sea bed and transported the sand to north-central Nebraska. Here the sand was deposited in the dunes which comprise the Sandhills....

Numerous lakes, productive marshes, and tall grasses on hills and meadows provide habitat for many kinds of wildlife. Blue-winged teal, mallards, pintails, gadwalls, redheads, ruddy ducks, and shovelers nest on the Refuge in large numbers. During fall and spring migrations, many other species of ducks stop to rest and feed. Sometimes as many as 150,000 ducks can be found on the Refuge, with peak numbers occurring in May and October.

More than 260 species of birds have been sighted on the Refuge. Herons, terns, shorebirds, pelicans, and many songbirds nest on and migrate through the Refuge. Long-billed curlews and upland sandpipers call from hill and fence post. In early spring, prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse gather on dancing grounds for their elaborate courtship display. Sandhill cranes pass over in spring and fall in great numbers filling the sky with trailing V's and musical rattling calls. Winter storms and cold weather bring the bald and golden eagles to hunt the snow covered prairie.

There are two roads that run east-west across the refuge. The northern road is called Little Hay Road Wildlife Drive. It is graveled and fairly well maintained. The southern road is the Pelican Lake road. Most of it is hard packed sand. The brocure you pick up at the information kiosk says four wheel drive in parenthises. There are some soft spots on the road, and since my 4WD kicks in automatically, I don't really know if it is necessary. But I thought I would mention it, anyway.

Barn Swallows had a nest at the information kiosk.


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I saw lots of dragonflies and damselflies. This one is a Twelve-spotted Skimmer.


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I have visited this refuge many times, and it never fails to disappoint.

The rest of the days photographs can be seen here.

Nebraska Sandhills, Day Three

It was a cool morning. When I went out to load up the car for the days adventures, it was sprinkling. The weather channel said scattered showers. So off I went.

Today's destination was Lacreek NWR.

Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1935 as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge is located in Bennett County in southwestern South Dakota. The refuge lies in the shallow Lake Creek valley on the northern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills and includes 16,410 acres of native sandhills, sub-irrigated meadows, impounded fresh water marshes, and tall and mixed grass prairie uplands. The refuge serves as an important staging area for migrating Canada geese, other waterfowl, sandhill cranes, shorebirds, and neotropical migrants. Providing critical wintering habitat for the high plains trumpeter swan population is a primary goal. The refuge provides a variety of habitats for resident and migrant wildlife.

Sounds good, huh? Well, it was.


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To get this picture of the American Bittern I had to open the sunroof, manuever myself to standing on the console of the car. Something I had never tried before, but it worked.


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I really enjoyed this refuge.

The rest of todays photographs can be seen here.

Nebraska Sandhills, Day Two

As I headed west out of Valentine this morning, there were lots of Black-eyed Susans lining the road.


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My first planned destination was Anderson Bridge WMA. It is on the south side of the Niobrara River and was supposed to offer "a sampling of woodland species". However, the gate was closed. No access. After offering my opinion on that (not repeatable in this forum) I looked at my trusty map to plot out plan b.

One thing that must be known about this part of the state, is that the best map is not always reliable. One needs to rely on one's sense of direction and understand that sooner or later all the sandhill roads will lead you to a highway. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. If you're going to get uptight about that, stick to the highway and miss out on much of the beautiful scenery.

So I crossed back across the Niobrara River.


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My next destination was McKelvie National Forest. It took me awhile to get there, but I didn't mind a bit. It was a beautiful sunny day, with nice fluffy clouds and there was plenty to enjoy along the way.

I'm certainly glad to have not missed seeing these Ross's Geese.


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And there were lots of dragonflies. This Common Whitetail decided to pose for me.


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This is what the road looked like after I turned north from the river.


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There were oodles of Horned Larks.


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I finally got to McKelvie about noon. I was kind of disappointed with McKelvie. I doubt I will go back there again. But the road getting there was definitely a keeper!

I took many more photographs today. You can see them here.