"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
The 2021 season has started with great success. The following orchids were found in Stoddard County on a trip with Pete Kozich, Casey Galvin and Stephen Dilks. Many thanks to all of you for your parts in finding these and several other fascinating plants on this day. It was a pleasure botanizing with you.
Another early-blooming trillium that is rare in Missouri. These Trillium pusillum var. ozarkanum were photographed in late March in southwestern Missouri.
This spring has been flying by. With great cool and wet weather, the spring ephemeral wildflower season has been one of the best I’ve experienced and in the past two weeks the bird diversity has been on the rise. Just today, I had a Wood Thrush, a Cooper’s Hawk and a Barn Swallow from my suburban yard alone! This morning I found a Sedge Wren in the grasses at Beckemeier Conservation Area among about half a dozen warblers.
I hope you are getting out to enjoy some of this action and I want to share a few photos of one of my many favorites, this Worm-eating Warbler that is already setting up territory at Bush Wildlife Conservation Area.
Thank you for visiting!
-OZB
In my 15 or so years of paying attention to important things like this, I have never seen spring ephemerals having a better year than this one. Places within the St. Louis metro area, such as Englemann Woods Natural area and Beckemeier Conservation Area are loaded with wildflowers right now. Whether this is because of the cool and mild spring we have been having so far, or some other reasons, I don’t know. Here are a few photos taken this week at Beckemeier C.A. I hope you get out to enjoy these yourself.
Many thanks to Casey Galvin for showing me these little guys. Snow trillium are the first trillium to bloom in Missouri and one of the first blooming wildflowers in the state. Potentially being found in bloom with snow on the ground, snow trillium begins blooming in mid-March. Photographed at Battle of Athens State Historic Site on 20, March, 2021.
A few more eagles and non-eagle shots at Clarksville Dam from January, 2021
Images of a large flock of blackbirds taken at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area back in January, 2021. Mostly composed of Red-winged Blackbirds, this flock contained thousands to tens of thousands of birds.
Hoping for shorebird opportunities this spring, this was one of three birds I found foraging near the road at Columbia Bottom C.A. earlier this month.
Winter Wren photographed at Creve Coeur Lake Park.
-OZB
A few images from our recent deep freeze. Casey and I visited the St. Francois Mountains and collected some images along the Little St. Francis River and Little Rock Creek.
-OZB
