What is it?

*Click on the picture for a larger view*

Above is a picture taken yesterday by Mitch in my office. I think this is a bull snake because there isn't a rattle and the snake is already a foot long. I ran into a similar-sized snake in North Dakota and it definitely rattled. The snake's coloring is enough to give you quite a jolt though!

** Update ** I have recently been bragging about my awesome rattlesnake pictures (from summer 2006 in western North Dakota) so I figured I better post them to back up my claims! Enjoy! Or slowly back away from your computer and scream for help...

(Rainy) weekend in Colorado Springs

Yet another weekend adventure took me to the base of Colorado's Rocky Mountains. I was in Colorado Springs to visit my uncle with my parents in tow and we had a great time even though the weather was dreary. Saturday was 40 degrees all day with intermittent sprinkles and rain. Still, we spent nearly an hour that morning wandering (frozen) through the Garden of the Gods. That was awesome with the trees turning fall colors among the rock formations. I did notice that there are a few rotton apples in the Garden of the Gods, in the form of a nasty plant called burdock. I hope somebody in Colorado Springs is herbicide-friendly enough to spray the burdock, otherwise yet another invasive plant will continue to degrade our nation's natural treasures.

** Burdock **




On the way back to Garden City we stopped at Bent's Old Fort aka "Castle on the Plains" (Website: www.nps.gov/beol). This reconstructed fort from the 1840s is really neat and fun to explore. The fort was originally built by fur traders and it played a major role in the history of the west. Did you know that all the land south of the Arkansas River used to be part of Mexico? That's why Bent's Fort was located and then rebuilt on the north side of the river! While my parents and I were exploring the fort I made friends with the local black cat (Halloween!) and it followed me all over and is in most of my pictures of the fort. The fort is located off the beaten path, but is definitely worth visiting, especially if you have kids. I know I made the $ouviner $hop owner a happy person!

Native Plant Society meeting in Hays

KNPS members at a location just north of Hays, KS

This past weekend was one of my most anticipated times of the year. I got together with 50 to 60 fellow plant lovers and we spent the weekend hiking and enjoying the last few plants that haven't given up for the year. I enjoy having the opportunity to travel to areas of Kansas that I haven't seen before and to do so with a group of people who love being outdoors.

The focus of this year's meeting was medicinal and cultural uses of native plants. We heard about the harvesting of wild populations of Echinacea (purple coneflower) for the medical industry. Its good to know that Echinacea is resilient even after people have over-harvested the plant throughout the midwest. Echinacea roots are used as an herbal treatment in Europe and the U.S. for medical maladies such as the common cold.


On Sunday the group met at Wilson Lake, 45 minutes east of Hays. Being from southwestern Kansas, I was amazed at the volume of water in the reservoir because we don't have anything like that in the dry, sandhills area of Garden City. The scenery was beautiful and a lot of native plants were still blooming. We hiked a 3-mile trail and I saw several plants I've never seen before. Several people in the group are plant experts and can identify every plant and we even had an insect expert in the group. I am always awestruck to be around that level of expertise and experience and I can only hope to know a tiny fraction of what they carry around in their heads all the time. Plus, you can tell that everyone is enjoying themselves and doesn't want the weekend to end.

It was a great mini-vacation for me and I look forward to next year when we are supposed to travel to extreme southeastern Kansas. It will be a whole new world to me!

Click on the picture for an up-close look at a scorpion and notice the red/orange parasitic mites on the scorpion. Too cool!

Saturday trip to Scott City area

I spent all day Saturday with my coworker Sue in the Scott City area, which is a half hour north of Garden City. First, we went to the annual Whimmydiddle (I kid you not) arts and craft show and I enjoyed that WAY too much. Then Sue and I drove around Scott Lake, which is about 10 miles north of Scott City. We saw a rafter (group) of about 20 turkeys cross the road. I also walked in the cool water along the designated beach area, but was chased out by the unwanted arrival of a van full of pre-teen, church camp boys. Annoying! So then I took Sue's suggestion and we drove further north to one of the many natural wonders of Kansas, called Monument Rocks. The "rock" formations are actually clay bluffs that spring out of the otherwise flat landscape. Pretty impressive. I enjoyed climbing all over the bluffs and I saw a toad along with several neat plants. I had lots of fun taking pictures of the sun shining over the bluffs and through holes in the bluffs. Yes, I may have too much time on my hands, but what a way to spend it!

**Click on the pictures for a larger view**

Work in southeastern Colorado

*Click on the pictures for a larger view*

My office's water engineer and I drove around southeastern Colorado for 3 days checking on problems we found during our spring "dryup acres" inspections. See my June blog entry below for that trip. Basically we're looking for illegal irrigation and over-use of water on Colorado fields where no river surface water is supposed to be applied in order for Colorado to honor its water agreements with Kansas. We had a run-in with an unhappy farmer who said "don't you have anything better to do", but if we turn a blind eye to his problem then the other 80 problem fields we identified would be treated the same way, much to the detriment of Kansas farmers and irrigators. We felt sorry for the guy because he didn't know there was a problem with his field due to a breakdown in communication within the Colorado agencies. On the other hand, our view is that we'd like to see the landowners be pro-active rather than re-active on these issues.

*Update* I just compiled the numbers and this year my coworker and I visited over 60,000 acres (over 2,200 individual fields) of cropland/farmland in southeastern Colorado. Just to give you some perspective, a football field is 1.3 acres in size. Still, 60,000 acres is only about 19% of the Ark River basin which has a total of 318,000 acres of farmland. It isn't hard to see why there are water shortages.

What I love the most about fieldwork is the wildlife and wildflowers. Over 3 days we saw at least a dozen deer and I took several pictures of wildflowers. My coworker tried to catch a wasp that was laying eggs on a live caterpiller (for his son's bug collection for school), but after several capture attempts he gave up. Having an angry wasp trapped in a Taco Bell cup inside the truck wasn't my idea of a good time anyway. I can handle nature-stuff as long as it isn't mad at me.

Another day out of the office...

I spent all day reading 20 center-pivot irrigation meters in southeastern Finney County. I was so excited when I drove up to this one center pivot and saw an ornate box turtle crossing the road. I caught up with (her) before she fled into the corn rows. I have seen turtles on the prairie but never in a cornfield!

My day was going well until I started back for Garden City and noticed the work truck wasn't driving quite right. When I stopped to fill up with E85 gas, I noticed that the back driver's side tire was pretty low. As I was getting the tire fixed I took a picture of a hawk that had been rescued from traffic on Kansas Avenue by the tire workers. I don't know what happened to it, but it didn't want to fly. Pretty cute though! Whenever a person would approach it, the hawk would extend its wings out to make itself look bigger and supposably scarier, but that backfired because it made me want to take more pictures and get closer!

A day out of the office...

I got to get out of the office today to read irrigation meters. I don't normally do fieldwork with irrigation wells, so I tend to forget things like "wear hearing protection around a running well motor" and "take the cell phone with you before you walk a 1/4 mile out to a pivot center and can't find the meter". At least I am getting exercise! I'm glad I threw my boots in the truck because I had to walk 1/4 mile to another pivot center and the road was really muddy because the pivot was running!

Before today whenever I went out to read well meters I would wonder around the countryside not really knowing where I was, trying to drive and read a paper map at the same time, and hoping I ended up at the right well. Today, I took my work laptop with a GPS hooked into it and knew right where I was and where I was headed because I could see myself on the computer map (as a little blinking dot) as I was driving. I'll never have to ask for directions again! Yaa for technology! Now I need to figure out how to keep the laptop from flying off the seat when I slam on the breaks...

Mule deer on the Range...

On Saturday August 23rd I saw my first male mule deer on the Sandsage Bison Range. This guy was avoiding the midday sun by sitting under a couple of the scattered trees on the range. Eventually the deer had enough of our nosiness and bounded off over the sandhills. The tour participants were 4 hot air balloon pilots who were in town for the 5th annual Hot Air Balloon Classic in Garden City. I took several pilots on a tour last year so they recommended it to their friends this year.

Weekend visit to Wichita, KS

A view of the Botanical Gardens. Lovely!






Giant turtles at the zoo!











I spent 4 days in Wichita taking in the biological and cultural attractions with my parents. We really had a good time and I was impressed with Wichita, which was a 4 hour drive from Garden City. The first thing we did was visit the Sedgewick County Zoo. My favorite exhibit was the colossal-sized turtles, but I enjoyed the variety of exhibits and was amazed at the sheer size of the zoo. It was a lot more than I had expected. Definitely worth the time if you are in the area. My only complaint was the salt cedar tree planted in a concession area near the gorilla house. I think I am going to have to send an email to someone about getting rid of that highly invasive and ecologically devastating plant! ** Update ** I got a reply back from the zoo curator who said they know the plant is invasive, but they are "keeping an eye on it" and don't plan to remove it. That's downright irresponsible! But, unfortunately not illegal so thats that.

The next morning we strolled through the expansive Botanical Gardens. Talk about a plant lovers paradise! I loved the weird-looking plants that come from all over the world. I am a bigger fan of native prairie plants, but I definitely appreciate the effort it takes to put together a horticultural garden and the Botanical Gardens take extravagance to a whole new level. Top notch!

We also took time to check out the Wichita-area cultural history at the fancy County Museum. I learned that Wichita is named after an Oklahoma tribe of Native Americans. The Wichita Indians "agreed" to move from Oklahoma to the site in Kansas that eventually took their name. Other tribes that already inhabited that area did not respond well to the new arrivals and eventually the Wichita tribe went back to Oklahoma. There is a creek in Oklahoma named Skeleton Creek, which commemorates the sad and deadly trek of the Wichita tribe back to their homeland. So when you travel somewhere, ask yourself "What's in a name?".

After lunch at the River City Brewing Company my parents and I walked through the Museum of World Treasures in the Old Town part of Wichita. I was amazed at how clean and quaint the Old Town area looked. The World Treasures Museum is a shrine to all things opulent in the ancient world. It struck me that nothing has really changed throughout history. The powerful and wealthy have always walked all over the less fortunate in order to raise themselves to immortality. Museums tell you who owned the gold crown, but not how many people suffered as a result.

We also spent several hours going though a place called "Cow Town". It is basically a living museum. The several block-sized area is a reproduction of what a cow town of the old west would look like and how it operated. There are reenactors who portray the people that worked and lived in the town. We saw a blacksmith working the furnace, watched a mock gunfight, toured an actual working farm that only uses equipment from the 1800s, rode in a horse-drawn covered wagon, and watched the carpenter use a hand-cranked saw to split a 2x4 board. The interesting thing is that most of the tools are the same design as they are today only now with a motor instead of a hand crank attached to a system of pullies. Hey, if it isn't broke then don't fix it!

On a final note, one of the most enjoyable things we did in Wichita was go to two dinner theaters. The Mosley Street Melodrama was a comedy play with a singing/comedy variety show as well, which were both very funny! Basically, it was actors dressed as cowboys who poked fun at stereotypes. Then the other dinner theater was part of the Cow Town experience where real cowboys sang real cowboy/campfire songs and told jokes besides. Somehow I got assigned a seat front and center and I was so close that I could tell the time on the guitar players watch. The 2 dinner theaters were very different in style and content, but both were immensely enjoyable and I would go back in a heartbeat.

This concludes my review of some attractions that Wichita has to offer. I encourage you to check out the biological and cultural attractions in your surrounding area because you never know what treasures lie in your own backyard!

Re-Visited by a Sphinx moth

I had another lovely visit from my local sphinx moths. I came home from walking on the Tally Trail and ran inside to snatch up my camera and clicked away as the moths hoovered around my petunias. Their wings beat as fast as hummingbirds, so it takes time to get a perfect picture. I hope to have more chances! This is only the second time I've seen these moths at my apartment and they only show up at dusk.

Yaa! I won a cool plant!!

I won the door prize tonight at my Horticulture Club annual picnic! I saw the plant sitting there beforehand and I was chanting to myself "please let me win". This plant is a garden variety of a native plant with the scientific name Liatris and common name(s) Blazing Star or Gayfeather. Liatris is a prairie plant that blooms in the fall, and is also a popular addition to flower arrangements and is grown commercially for that purpose. Who doesn't love a purple flowering plant?? I am going to keep it in the pot for now because my flower bed's soil is quite sandy and sucks up a lot of water and I'm afraid the Liatris will dry out and die in this summer heat.

The last time I won a door prize was earlier this year at an Eagles Club monthly supper. It was Valentine's Day and I won this huge stuffed dog, which I gave away to my coworker's 8 year old great-nephew and he loved it. I won't be giving away my Liatris though. This one is a keeper!

Garden Friends...

I have noticed these little toads outside my apartment. They are about the size of a quarter and love to hang out around my flower garden, probably due to the water. I'm just afraid that they'll get underfoot (literally)!


*Update* Jeff Hansen with the KS Native Plant Society told me the toad is either a woodhouse toad or a great plains toad. It depends on if their stomach is speckled or not. I guess I'll have to look next time!

**Update** The toads have gotten bigger! Plus they are going into my garages to get out of the cooler weather and I found one that had crawled up into my shopvac hose! That could get annoying...

Always something new to see...

As I give tours of the Sandsage Bison Range in Garden City, I tell visitors that I always see something new. This past Wednesday July 9th was no exception. For the first time I saw a rattlesnake on the bison range! This was about 7:45 in the evening. The snake slipped down a hole, probably hunting rodents. I have been a tour guide since May 2007 and given nearly 40 tours to date and this was the first time I saw a rattlesnake! I have seen several other reptiles, including 3 bull snakes, a toad (see Bob on the right), several different lizards, and tons of turtles.

I've seen 3 other rattlesnakes up close and personal in my lifetime. One was in northwestern Nebraska on a gravel road as my colleagues and I drove around photographers for Nebraskaland magazine. That was a cool first encounter because there was a lightening storm rolling in over the bluff as a backdrop. The second was in western North Dakota on a gravel road as I was driving in my Forest Service truck and I took some of the wickedest pictures ever. Too up close and personal to post, for the timid readers. The third and scariest time happened as I was walking through sagebrush headed towards the Little Missouri River, again in North Dakota. I was going to the opposite side of the river to look for a rare plant as part of my botanist job. The little snake slipped down a hole as I caught a glimpse of it, but that was enough to make me beat the bushes the rest of the day to scare any others away. There's nothing quite like being alone out in the middle of nowhere and hearing that buzz just a couple feet away!

Vacation at the Spring Creek Prairie

Over the 4th of July holiday I drove back to Nebraska to see friends and family. I also took time to check out a tallgrass prairie located 15 minutes from my hometown of Crete. I visited the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center (www.springcreekprairie.org) and took a 2-hour stroll through a portion of the 808-acre area. There were tons of wildflowers, probably due to the recent rains in the area. I did not recognize many of the wildflowers, and for the first time I saw "butterfly milkweed" in person. It is a beautiful orange flowering plant (seen in the picture above). All together I think I took around 350 pictures with my digital camera.

The really neat thing about the Spring Creek Prairie is that there are hilly grasslands, low wetlands, and also a wooded area all accessible by hiking trails within a square-mile area. After walking though the grasslands and around the wetlands, I felt like I was in another zipcode as I entered the woodland draw because it's a totally different habitat. I also saw tons of songbirds and a family of Canada geese hanging out around the wetlands.

A cool history side-note is that you'll also find wagon wheel ruts in a couple spots from the pioneer days. On a personal note, my grandparents used to farm part of the area, and there is a wooden bridge on the hiking trail that is dedicated to my cousin Chris Juricek who died in a car crash when I was in junior high.

The Spring Creek Prairie is truely a gem and I look forward to going back in the fall to see the late-blooming plants. I can't believe I've never been out there before this week! The Audubon Society happens to be looking for a manager for the Spring Creek Prairie and I probably would be perfect for the job, but it would be a big pay cut. I don't plan to give up shopping anytime soon, so I guess I'm staying in southwestern Kansas for awhile! Maybe some day...

A week in SE Colorado...

I just spent the work week in southeastern Colorado driving around crop fields for our June inspections. We check up on those fields a couple times a year to see if the fields are illegally being irrigated with surface water that is supposed to go to Kansas instead. We had an interesting tour. Not so much the work, but we had several technical difficulties of the computer-kind. I also learned how to replace blown fuses in both the Kansas state truck and the Colorado guy's state truck. You can always rely on fried fuses to lighten the mood between KS and CO water officials. We had a pretty good laugh as we drove around to 4 stores trying find the right fuses. The culprit that blew the fuses was a bad inverter box that my laptop was plugged into. Of course the inverter died when I only had 20 minutes of power left on my laptop. I did get a nice picture of a showy milkweed plant along an irrigation canal and a picture of a deer jumping a fence. Enjoy!