11/18/17

I took this image of a lovely colorful evening sky over the Konza Prairie this past June.  This was looking to the north from the barn in an image I shared a few weeks ago or so.  The light was lovely on one of the hills along with the pinky sky.

6/10/17

Well, the heat and no rain seemed to have arrived as we are heading up into the 90s for several days.  I took this image a week ago Friday on a beautiful evening out on Konza Prairie.  It's a 2 shot panorama looking east in the setting sun.  People think Kansas is flat but my area is not, it is the Flint Hills due to all the Flint rock found in these hills.  It's a beautiful sight to see all the green open space of the Tall Grass Prairie out at Konza.  The trails in the image were created by the Bison who, unlike cattle, generally walk in a single file line.  Unfortunately they were not visible on this evening, they were most likely down in the valleys. 

6/3/17

This weekend I am spending some time a couple of evenings out at Konza Prairie, last night and tomorrow evening.  Sunday night is the annual Wildflower Walk at 6:30pm where you can walk the Butterfly Hill Trail not normally open to the public.  This is one of the views you can see on the walk.  This is actually the edge of Konza and a cattle pasture adjoining it.  It show off the type of hills prominent in this area of the Flint Hills though captured in evening light.  This is a 2 shot panorama.

1/30/17

So today's image ties in with Saturday's a bit as they were both taken on the same day.  It was a great outing to Konza Prairie and the Bison were quite cooperative at being seen and photographed.  The Bison are fenced in but it is more to keep people out and safe than for the Bison.  They respect the fence and never have issues with it, it does not have to be and is not electrified.  On this day they were grazing very close to the fence and made for great photos.  This image is a fairly good example of the difference between females and males as well.  The females, the two in the foreground with young, have horns that curve in towards their head, the males curve outward away from their head like the one seen off to the right of the image almost out of frame.

1/28/17

I was in the archives today and rediscovered some images I had taken a few years back when I had the opportunity to escort a photographer from the Netherlands, Philip Friskorn, on Konza prairie in some research areas not generally open to the public.  It was a great day, the weather cooperated and the Bison did as well.  Sometimes you can go out and not see one Bison but we saw quite a few and some were up much closer than this.  I chose this image because it shows the landscape of the Flint Hills off fairly well and also shows the results after a Spring burn of the prairie.  This was taken in May and the grass was returning quite well.

Note:  A pet peeve of mine is to call them Buffalo, they are not.  The settlers thought they resembled them when they saw them but they have no connection to a true Buffalo.  When publications still refer to them incorrectly it's just laziness and continues the bad information.  I am glad to see more and more referring to them by their actual name of bison.  Rant over.

4/11/16

Well, missed out on rain as usual these days.  Sigh.  This is not good.  I am having to water things because they are not getting their April showers.  My image today shows what our area is like when it is not windy out this spring.  Ranchers and Konza Prairie are doing their annual burns.  They burn off the old dried grass which blackens the soil which causes it to warm up quickly and promote new grass growth.  Studies on Konza show that Bison seek out these burned areas as their preferred grazing areas.  Burning also keeps down the growth of woody shrubs like Dogwood and also Cedar trees which grow like weeds and keeps the grassland predominant.