Over the holiday break, the WGNSS Nature Photography Group traveled to southwestern Missouri to visit Prairie State Park and surrounding prairie and wetland locations. We were hoping for opportunities to photograph the free-roaming bison within Prairie SP and hopefully find some interesting winter vagrant bird species. Likely due to the unseasonably warm conditions we were having, finding birds was a no-go. Thankfully the bison were there as expected. On two of the mornings we were there, the fog was incredibly thick. It made for some interesting photos but we had to be careful to not stumble too closely onto fog-concealed bison that probably would not appreciate that.
I did have a bird related first on this trip. While walking through Golden Prairie in Barton County, we stumbled upon the depression pictured below. In the center of the depression were fresh urates (nitrogenous waste produced by birds and reptiles) and also within the depression was a fresh owl pellet, still warm and stinking. We stumbled across the day-roost of a Short-eared Owl! After taking a picture, I picked up the pellet to add to my collection. I now only need to collect pellets of the Eastern Screech Owl to finish the owls of Missouri. The pellet can be seen within the yellow circle in this picture.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 