LadyMin's Garden

Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny day with temperatures in the low 70′s, a rare treat for November. It was much too beautiful a day to be indoors so I grabbed my camera and went for a walk in the Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve, an 80-acre remnant prairie, wetland, and savanna complex.

The prairie looks very different in the fall with none of the vibrant color and lushness of the summer flowers.

Even though it is surrounded by development I could barely hear the traffic. In these photos you can see the office buildings in the distance.

The prairie has an interesting history. This land was originally planned as a housing development in the 1920s, but then the Great Depression came along and plans were halted.

Three cutouts were made for streets and sidewalks were poured, but that was all that was developed. The sidewalks are still there. An eerie grid of them leads you through an oak savanah to the open prairie.

Although this prairie is home to over 150 species of birds, very few were visible. I could hear them and see a few hopping in the dried grass, but they weren’t interested in letting me get too close. Perhaps the Red-tailed Hawk soaring above had something to do with it.

A tree sparrow stopped just long enough for me to get off a shot and a tree full of starlings didn’t seem too worried.

A few other interesting sights that were visible now that I wouldn’t see in the summer were an old oriole’s nest in a cottonwood tree,

a skeleton in the dried prairie grass,

and a milk weed pod, open and blowing in the breeze.