Kansas

lightning and the moon
under the same roof glowing
silent in the wind

Another Visit to Konza Prairie.

Yesterday I had to go to Kansas State for a meeting on science core outcomes related to transferability **insert arcane educational jargon here** and since the meeting finished at noon, decided that I needed a Konza Prairie break. The grasses and forbs are just starting to turn to their fall reds and browns; the tree foliage is still pretty green.



So here are some pictures, some taken with my DSLR telephoto but some with my new phone (LG G2) and its pretty amazing camera (OK for a phone). The animated gif is made by G+ from photos taken with 'burst mode".  This is cool.

First, from the phone:

What I really like with my phone is the ability to touch the screen to select focus points that are also used for metering. For instance this picture originally had a bright blue sky but the tree trunk was badly underexposed. But focusing and metering on the trunk gave this picture. The sky is blown but I got the trunk detail I was looking for. And with a bit more fiddling I probably could have done a better job of this. OK I can do something like this with my DSLR but it is a bit more awkward.






















From my DSLR (Canon 2i with 250mm telephoto).

I love the red ground color the grass seed heads are turning.

A Fritillary-not sure what species.  250mm telephoto lens.

At Konza Prairie

The other day I visited my son who is stationed at Fort Riley Kansas. So since we both like to hike and neither of us have spent much time in the Flint Hills we headed over to Konza Prairie near Manhattan KS.

If you think the prairie is boring you are not looking closely enough.

Not sure what the mailbox in the middle of the prairie is all about. 

These rocks remind me pictures I have seen of the Scottish Highlands. Very different  plants  though.

The valley areas have huge trees. These are oaks. Maybe 80 ft tall.

Old Hickory

Kansas isn't known for forests but Eastern and Southeast Kansas has some nice stands of Eastern deciduous forest mixed in with the prairie, and being from the East I can feel right at home. Yesterday I went Kill Creek Park about 15 miles from my home. This area has a few stands of nice hardwoods including lots of shagbark hickory. I am a sucker for interesting tree bark-probably stemming from fourth grade when I got into serious trouble when I was painting part of the dread class mural. My job was to paint the tree trunks. What was my transgression? Simple I did not use the generic brown tempera paint but used a mixture of colors reflecting what I saw when I looked at trees. Fortunately there were some lichen encrusted trunks right outside the classroom so I was able to win my case.

They're here!

What's better than the return of the swallows to Capistrano?  Of course! the first black swallowtail larva of the year in my garden.

 
This one is on Rue rather than dill or fennel.

Opuntia

From my garden, these cacti over winter nicely outdoors in Kansas.  The plant is beyond prickly- so hard to handle- but the flowers!

Walk in the drizzle

Walk in the drizzle, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

blue heron's leaving
just a flapping in the eye
maybe one less frog

May 2

We had a late snow today in Kansas. Supposedly this is the latest it has snowed in Eastern Kansas since 1912.

white and pink
petals swirl in cold wind
sky and tree, one bird

Psychomorpha epimenis

Psychomorpha epimenis, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Visiting Magnolia. The host plant is grapes.

April Haiku

I don't do much with haiku but wanted to try to do a haiku a day to get my poetic flow going again. So I will just add to this page-hopefully daily.

April 1...

Sleepless last night


coyote pups yip
tumbling sound into the night
car growls, later doves


April 2...

Cedars chop bright fog
green fields spread out for a feast
I drive to the sun


April 3...

snow petals echo
on magnolia branches
frogs in cold water


April 4/5...





red buds on blue sky
brief flash overrun by green
snakes on warm rocks soon




morning sky curved moon
trees upside down in the pond
better than the things?


April 7...

Tall candle from bees
burning but always with us
moon almost empty


quick hail

drops clack on the roof
lightning stirring in the clouds
then greening silence

dusk...

water drains dusk light
robins sing to each other
busy wren to itself

April 10...

lecturing, eyes fly
away to the white topped trees
petals fall in rain


green shoots from branches
hurrying in the warm rain
listen fireworks!


April 13...





Spring green shoots rising
light the dark around the trees
fireflies in July


April 14...


gulls wheel in pink dawn
over the cold spring furrow
white grubs in the muck


Been awhile thanks to end of semester stuff and family issues...


April 20...

yellow paper lips
call me to outside myself
irony, gold mouth.

April 22…

the bird riffs morning
must be serious business
if the singer hides

April 25...

grass laden geese pair
wings kissing baby leafed trees
echos to the east

We have had a spate of bad weather but today was sunny and I found these wonderful lilies along the path to my office. One of the campus groundskeepers said that these flowers smell like skunk. I couldn't detect it. I am one of those people that enjoys the musk scent of skunk and just thinking about it triggered memories...hence

orange skunk lily
no divine scent from its robes
musk woods remembered.

April 26...

Driving to work, many times I get frustrated because I can't stop and look at the trees along the the route-divided highway with impatient drivers.  What's really frustrating as a photographer is that often in the morning I hit this road just when the light is perfect for certain types of shots-yesterday for instance. There was this one view where there was a roadcut into the rock and these young trees with their golden green leaves perfectly illumed by the early sun's light.  Light also glinting on the freshly wet rock. Of course in a flash both they and I moved on.



gold leaves waxy young
the frustration of April
scribbles on work scrap



April 27...

 

drops shake in the wind

look quickly before they join

my knees wet with mud

03-19-2-13 Unexpected Snow

03-19-2-13 Unexpected Snow, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

We had some unexpected snow today. It started around 10:30 as we were going out for breakfast. Fortunately it continued until around 3:30-long enough for me to get back home and grab the camera. Good thing too since the snow is melted. Supposed to snow again on Thursday unless those pesky butterflies on the other side of the world flapped their wings again.

White Lady

White Lady, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Kill Creek Park. Sycamores. The sky was really intense but I boosted the saturation to bring out the contrast between the trees and the sky.

A look at Kansas climate for 2012. Just how bad is it out there?

Given all the talk about how hot it has been and the severity of this years drought, I put together a historical look at Kansas climate in terms of temperature and a drought severity index. Rather than repeat it here hop on over to my science blog at the Lawrence Journal World.
http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/dangerous-ideas/2012/jul/21/so-how-does-2012-stack-up-weather-wise/
But you might find my conclusions interesting so I will repost those here:

2012 does not even come close in severity to the earlier droughts, including some relatively recent droughts of the 1980's. What is interesting is that the Palmer index suggests that the drought of the mid 1950's was in some respects more intense than the drought of the 1930's.
So the data suggest that yes it has been really abnormally warm so far in 2012. On the other hand the Palmer data suggest that the current drought is not (At least through June) as severe as a number of other droughts we have had.
One problem we have of course looking at historical data is that agricultural practices have changed since the 1930's. Much of the marginal land that was farmed then is not farmed now or is farmed using large scale irrigation. Farmers today tend to use tillage and other conservation practices that that probably are moderating local temperature and precipitation to some degree compared to earlier years. This might explain the greater number of extreme highs during the 1930's when conservation practices were not as widespread.

Enjoy!

Stars down low

Stars Down Low

Today the cloudless sky,
was an eye spilling forth.
yellow flowers,
stars on the down low.

Goldfinch on yellow cone flower

Goldfinch on yellow cone flower, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Goldfinches have been picking through the heads of my yellow cone flower the last few days. Hard to get good closeups so these are cropped and filtered through Photoshop Elements sharpen tools

Water Lily at Baker Wetland

Water Lily at Baker Wetland, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

It was a perhaps 108F in the shade. About an hour and a half was about all I could stand. Most of the critters had a lot more sense than me.

Jupiter and Uranus

The 23rd of September was the harvest moon, which was pretty spectacular but I was more interested in the close approach of Jupiter and Uranus being easy to spot. Here is my first attempt to get a picture of Jupiter...and as an added bonus, Uranus. Click through to my Flickr site to see the notes.



I don't have a tracker-just my Canon rebel and my not so hot 300mm telephoto lens, so the trick is to get a long enough exposure to render the planets and Jupiter's 3 visible moons and not get any streaking from the Earth's rotation. Also the moon was just off picture at the top.

Thursday night was rainy but last night and early this morning I went out again and got this shot:



The moon was much further in the sky from Jupiter so I didn't have to do any post processing to this image. Also the moon's are much sharper.

Of course I didn't ignore our moon but full moons don't make good shots if you are interested in lunar detail-but I did have fun taking pictures of the wonderful shadows cast by our moon on the 23rd.



Note there was enough light to get color from the plants and pots.

At the base of Saunder's Mount

At the base of Saunder's Mount
Originally uploaded by pdecell

The sky was so blue it was holding hands with the trees.

Syrphid

Syrphid 2
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Got this wonderful syrphid at the Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe KS. on Saturday. Click on the picture to see larger images.

12 Spot Skimmer

This summer has been a great dragonfly season in my yard. Today I went out to get some shots and this wonderful 12 spot skimmer nicely cooperated and kept returning to its perch in my garden, letting me get pretty close before leaving. Click on the image to go to my Flickr stream for a larger view.

There are are also widow skimmers in my yard. I had forgotten just how much sexual dimorphism there can be in dragonflies.

First the male with a greyish bloom and the same sort of grey in the wings as the 12 spot:



Next the female. Note she has no grey bloom at all.



I always think of my mom when I think of dragonflies. She had this this notion the the big green darners around our house would sting and she told me to watch out for them.

These big green dragonflies are commonly called darners or darning needles. One day I found out why when I manged to catch one in my hand. The insect twisted its abdomen around and poked repeatedly at my hand. It started me but I hung on to the insect, the mystery of my mother's fear and the name resolved.

Alas, no darners in my yard.