Ode to the prairie

My husband loves prairies; he is an expert prairie biologist. So maybe this is an ode to him.

Last weekend we visited three prairies in northern and west-central Minnesota so Alison could capture the "essence of prairie" in digital form. See her Aug 30 post below for some dramatic examples. I thought I should add that we also saw some animals (besides cows) and some quite unexpected plants while walking around on some of the preserves. For example, do you know what this plant is? Not your typical prairie plant, but useful in many ways -- some illegal.

Sunset on the prairie makes it light up with color. As we were out driving the backroads at sunset we saw this male marsh hawk land in the grass. Alison and I hopped out of the car and tried to sneak up on him to get his picture, but alas he flew quickly away.

Dragonflies were especially abundant, and we managed to get close up to some different species than we see around the Twin Cities. This one was really huge (a whopping 3-4 inches) and extremely lethargic, and let me get right up in his "face".

like this.... I think this is a juvenile (just emerged) Common Green Darner, based on its gray- brown eyes with the yellowish rim, green thorax, brown abdomen, and bi-colored legs. The abdomen has a bright blue lateral stripe in adult males.

Another curious feature is the bulls-eye that appears in front of their eyes. I found a newly emerged Green Darner in my backyard the other day and got a better picture of the bulls-eye. I wonder what its purpose is.

Darners are one of the most common big dragonflies we see buzzing over the fields above our heads. Alison's prairie pictures (below) were full of dragonfly silhouettes. However, they never seem to tire cruising and darting and are hard to find at rest.

Here's another cooperative subject, a Band-winged Meadowhawk, sunbathing on the gravel near sunset. This is also a juvenile, based on its brown abdomen with black stripe. The adults have a red abdomen. The striking amber wing pattern is unmistakable for this species though. Like other meadowhawks, it hunts in low vegetation, bogs, and slow moving water. It is more common in the western US where it has less competition from other small dragonflies.

There were other meadowhawk species flitting through the low prairie vegetation as well. Alison found some individuals that are either Cherry-faced or Ruby Meadowhawks; apparently you can only tell these apart by looking at them under with 20X magnification.





The prairie is not just a flat pancake in northern and central Minnesota. Glaciers left numerous gravel (and boulder) deposits as they pushed south, while scooping out deep gouges that turned into pothole lakes. Drier hilltops and wetter creek bottoms add to the diversity of life that lives there. I had to watch where I was walking through part of the wetter prairie as we scared up frogs and toads. Sometimes they just hunker down and assume you won't step on them. This guy did not want to budge, even when I got my camera lens down 6 inches from his face.

The prairie is an interesting place to explore, and is certainly more diverse than you think when you drive by what looks like monotonous tall grass.