Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie – Part 1

Reference my earlier post Tallgrass Prairie. We started our Flint Hills National Scenic Byway tour at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve’s Visitor Center. Here we toured the Spring Hill Ranch buildings and sat in on a wild bird demonstration.

Among other raptors, we were introduced to an American Kestral. I’ve never seen one up close and personal before, so I was pretty impressed. Such beautiful colors. Nor had I ever seen a Swallow-Tailed Kite before. What unusual markings and that very special tail.

Next came the best part, touring the countryside and looking at all the wildflowers. We stopped at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Bottomland Trail.  There were butterflies and pollinators everywhere.

 

 

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Tallgrass Prairie

Volunteers worked Saturday to clean up debris after an early Saturday morning storm tore through the planned site of the Symphony in the Flint Hills. Photo courtesy of Flint Hills Media Project by Kelly Glasscock

My friend Sue Forbes and I drove to Emporia, Kansas a few weeks ago to attend the Symphony in the Flint Hills held in the Tallgrass Prairie. Unfortunately, due to the horrific thunderstorms on the Friday before the Symphony, it was rescheduled for the rain date Sunday, June 16, 2019. But thunderstorms rolled through on Saturday night and the hosts finally had to cancel the day’s events including the Flint Hills Symphony.

But like all good adventurers, we made the most of our time in Kansas. Luckily, the rain occurred only in the evenings, so we were free to roam the countryside in search of all we could see, but especially the wildflowers. During the next couple of posts, I’m going to try to share our adventure with you. The prairie flowers were awesome!

Kansas Hospitality

Arriving in Emporia on Friday evening, June 14th, we ate at a local restaurant called the Radius Brewing Co. It was a 30 minute wait for a table, so we found two seats at the bar next to a lovely elderly couple from Kansas. We had a nice chat with them while waiting for our food. Upon departing, the couple told us to enjoy the symphony for them since they no longer were able to attend. They liked the fact we were from the land of the Packers and wished us well. And, to our surprise, they secretly paid for our meals as a way of treating us to Kansas’ hospitality. We do not know, of course, how to contact this delightful couple to thank them, but we are so thankful for their hospitality and so grateful for their good wishes. It helped immensely to make up for not getting to see the Symphony.

Tallgrass Prairie Natl Preserve Visitor Center Vestibule Sign.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

This national preserve is a joint endeavor between The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service which protects 4% (10,894 acres) of the once 170 million acres of North American prairie. The Tallgrass Prairie Visitor’s Center includes access to many of the buildings which formerly made up the historic Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch.

Scenic Drives

Tallgrass Prairie Flint Hills Scenic Byway planting Sullivant’s Milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii).

There are a number of scenic drives in Kansas. We chose to do the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway and the Native Stone Scenic Byway. All provided us with great opportunities to sightsee and to take photos of unbelievably beautiful wildflowers.

Stay tuned for the awsome show!

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Monarch Population Status and the Weather

If you haven’t already read Chip Taylor’s early predictions for this year’s Monarch population, I reprint it below for your information. I found his explanation about how temperatures affect the survivability of the Monarchs pretty interesting.

Monarch Population Status – by Chip Taylor*

To understand the monarch annual cycle, I break down the year into 6 stages:
1) overwintering (late Oct–early April
2) return migration through Mexico (late Feb–April)
3) breeding in the US in March and April
4) recolonization of the regions north of 37N (May–early June)
5) summer breeding north of 37N (June–August)
6) fall migration (August–Oct)
Monarch ovipositing on Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) photo by Candy Sarikonda

 

Based on first sightings, temperatures, probable egg distributions, generation length and early May conditions, my current prediction is that the overwintering population will be in the range of 4–5 hectares. At this writing, I see the population as trending toward 4 hectares. However, higher than average temperatures for May and June–August in the Upper Midwest could result in a population that is closer to 5 hectares.

The positive conditions in Stage 3 this year include the highest number of first sighting recorded in the central flyway since Journey North has been recording these data. That seems to tell us the relatively large population of 2018–2019 wintered well, in spite of reports the butterflies were abnormally active during the winter, and that they navigated from the colony sites back to Texas without experiencing high mortality.

Temperatures in Texas were lower than in 2018 which had the effect of again confining most of the egg laying by returning monarchs to Texas but also increased exposure to predators and parasites and increased generation length. Overall, the first generation produced in Texas and southern Oklahoma could be larger than in 2018 due to the larger number of returning monarchs. While that could be true, the predators and parasites could be more abundant this year. Unfortunately, we have no measures of the year to year variation in egg and larval mortality resulting from these causes.

Due to the lower temperatures, the average date of departure from Texas and Oklahoma for first generation monarchs should be a bit later this year. That may not be a bad thing since the forecasts indicate conditions for recolonizing the northern breeding areas won’t be favorable until the second half of May.

The bottom line is that we can expect monarchs to have another good year, not as good as 2018, but a good year – assuming near average temperatures of Stages 4 (May–early June) and 5 (summer).

*Taken from Monarch Watch Newsletter dated May 7, 2019.

Education

I know I’ve already written about the great news that the Monarch count for 2018-19 was up. Yepee! However, that doesn’t mean our work is over. We still need more habitat not only for Monarch butterflies, but also for all pollinators. Education is the key. Don’t hesitate to share what you know about pollinator conservation with friends, family, co-workers — even perfect strangers.

See Monarch Population Status for a more complete explanation.

See also Late Monarch Arrivals in Texas may mean Loss of Population Growth

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4th of July 2019

My wish for you on this day America has set aside to celebrate our independence is a safe and healthy holiday!

Eastern Swallowtail butterfly nectaring on Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and joined by a female Monarch butterfly.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776)

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