Newsletter title

August 2010

In This Edition

Snow Day at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

—Dwight Thomas

After a couple of days at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in July with temperatures nearing 100°F, I remembered a special day there in March. So I went back to my notes of that day, and this is what I wrote:

On Monday, March 22, 2010, I was the volunteer Docent at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Northeastern Oklahoma had a substantial snowfall with strong winds on March 20 and 21, 2010. The reports indicated about 7 inches of snow had fallen in Osage County. The tricky part was that the snow was not just lying flat on the ground; it was mostly piled into drifts several feet deep. On Sunday evening, Ann Whitehorn called to warn me that the road to the preserve headquarters had snow drifts over it and that the road might be difficult to maneuver. I assured her that I was an experienced snow driver and would attempt to get through, but I would turn back if the road was impassable. I had not seen the Preserve covered with snow, so I was excited about the opportunity.

Early Monday morning, I set out for the Preserve from Tulsa. The drive from Skiatook to Pawhuska was spectacular with the sun rising in a cloudless sky behind me making the snow- covered landscape glisten. There was absolutely no wind, and the ponds along the drive across Osage County looked like sheets of onyx set like jewels in the snow-covered pastures.

Photography by Dwight Thomas

Just after I came to the gravel part of the road into the Preserve, I encountered a major snow drift. Fortunately a lane had been plowed through it. The lane was just wide enough for a car but had some deep ruts in the snow and side banks up to the hood of the car. My SUV has a high ground clearance, so passing through was no problem, but it was interesting. Fortunately, this was the worst point. The remainder of the drive was just over wet gravel and spots of snow; my green SUV was a nice shade of mocha when I arrived at the Visitor’s Center.

I always plan my trips to arrive at the Preserve early so I can explore before going to the headquarters to prepare for visitors. Along the way, I saw more Bison than I had ever seen before. It seemed that the entire herd was near the road. The snow on the prairie was not an even cover, but had been blown into the ravines and into drifts. The Bison were calmly grazing as though nothing was unusual and seemed to be posing for my camera. I saw three deer standing a ways from the road watching me; they were too far away for a good photograph.

On my way in, I usually stop at the Nature Trail to see what new wildflowers are blooming. On this trip, I didn’t find any wildflowers blooming, but I found an enchanted world covered in snow. There were deer and other animal tracks in the snow on the trail and no human tracks except mine. The snow-covered world was completely silent. I didn’t even hear any birds until I was back at my car, when a Redheaded Woodpecker in a nearby tree trilled.

Photography by Dwight Thomas

I was afraid there would be no visitors, but I was wrong. Just about noon, a car drove up to the visitor center and two young men from Tulsa came in. They were interested in learning about the Preserve and left saying that they planned to hike on the Nature Trail. Then there were two other visitors, who had come for other purposes, but they also learned about the Preserve. And finally a middle-aged lady drove up in her Prius with a million questions about the Bison, the Preserve, and the area. She was from Arlington, Virginia, and was taking a break from visiting family in Pittsburg, Kansas, to drive out to see the area. She had visited other prairies, and her visit to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was a planned activity. She left to hike the Nature Trail and then to drive onto Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas.

Even on a day when we might not expect visitors, they come, and they are interesting. Even when the weather is not pleasant, the Preserve is fascinating and always different.

Special Visitor: Denise Gibbs

—John Fisher with photographs by Jay Pruett

Denise Gibbs contacted Kay Krebbs a couple of months ago about the annual butterfly count. Kay asked me to contact Denise who arranged her schedule so she could join us for a couple of hours on her way West. Denise gave us permission to print her letter to me in the The Docent News.

Common Wood Nymph & Great Spangled Fritillary by Jay Pruett

I did not have time to do any research on the tallgrass prairie before my visit, so I had no expectations. I just felt drawn to it for some reason and had to come. Shortly after entering the preserve I pulled off, got out of the car, smelled the sweet air, felt the sun on my face, listened to the music of birds, insects and wind, breathed a sigh of relief at the lack of humans, and was so overwhelmed by the beauty of it all that I stood by my car weeping. This may all sound dramatic, but you have to know that fields and meadows are my favorite habitats here at home. I have spent the last 25 years studying and enjoying the life found in old field stage of succession, and through my native plant nursery business-creating or enhancing native field habitats in Maryland. My husband and I were married in a meadow on top of a mountain in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

So, when I tell you that the tallgrass prairie was more than I could have hoped for, I mean it. I definitely felt a strong spiritual connection which made my heart soar. I did not reveal what my disabilities are, but normally I endure a great deal of physical pain, and can seldom walk further than a half mile or so. Walking through the prairie during the butterfly count had me so engaged, I was not aware of my physical presence. In fact, I felt so uplifted I glanced down at my feet several times to see if they were in fact touching the ground.

If I had hand-picked people to share the prairie with, I could not have picked a better bunch of guys. I learned so much, and sensed the respect and love that all shared for a very special place.

Tiger & Nine Banded Armadillo by Jay Pruett

Photographs from left to right and top to bottom: Common Wood Nymph, Great Spangled Fritillary, Tiger, & Nine-banded Armadillo.

Special Visitor: Ellen Kiehl

—Rusty Johnson

Last month Anita asked if there was a docent who would take a lady from New York birding on the Tall Grass. Being a birder of modest credentials I volunteered. I met the lady, Ellen Kiehl, her husband, brother and daughter in Skiatook and we drove up from there. I wanted to drive into the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve with her instead of meeting at the headquarters. Our goal was to see birds she couldn’t find back east. The obvious rarities were the scissor-tailed flycatcher and the dickcissel. On the way up we spotted goldfinches, a scarlet tanager and the usual gang of sparrows, crows and vultures. I told her what to look for with the dickcissel and as soon as we entered the Preserve we started seeing them perched on the tallest sticks in the prairie. She was driving and stopped at every sighting until it finally got tiresome. The dickcissel looks like a miniature meadowlark and at first they were confusing one with the other when seen separately but when seen in proximity the size difference was obvious. Then we started looking for any western meadowlarks among the easterns. No luck there.

When we reached the headquarters she was impressed with the number of barn and cliff swallows in residence. There were hundreds on display around the ranch house.

Night Hawk by Rusty Johnson

As we headed out I thought we might take the Bison Loop and look for the upland sandpiper perched on fence posts in the western-most reaches of the Preserve. I had seen several earlier this spring. We didn’t see the sandpipers but what we did see confused us. Perched on the fence posts were several goatsuckers spaced out about a quarter mile between (members of the goatsucker family are whip-poor-wills, chuck-wills-widows and nighthawks). We couldn’t believe that we would be seeing them in the afternoon as they are strictly nocturnal by nature. We were hoping that they were whip-poor-wills because neither of us had seen one, only heard them. Closer checking of the bird book proved that they were nighthawks. We were disappointed but still happy about the sighting.

We had seen several scissor-tails but were treated to a display of two adults teaching a juvenal how to fly and use that beautiful tail. The display was a thing of beauty to watch and we spent several minutes admiring them. The whole time I kept a close eye on the road before and behind so that we wouldn’t get smashed by a cattle truck high-balling down the road.

All in all it was a successful birding adventure. The Kiehl family was impressed with the preserve (it’s beauty, serenity, greeness and the Oklahoma summer) enough to make a donation to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Oh yeah, we also saw quite a few bison.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

There were 739 people from 37 states (697) and 12 countries (42) who signed in during June. There were 399 from Oklahoma, and the next 4 highest states were Texas (37), Kansas (30), Florida and Pennsylvania (21 each). We added 1 new country in June: Dominican Republic.

The history of visitor counts for June is shown below:

Keep up the good work getting people to sign the visitor’s registry.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Excellent! 100-percent coverage for two months in a row. Let’s try for an hat-trick this month. As of August 14th, Tuesday, August 31st is available for willing volunteers.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

 

Voices from the Past

—Iris McPherson

This is the fourth in our series Voices from the Past. Read Dick Baker’s Prairie News, in which Mary McIntyre makes her debut as Education and Outreach Coordinator. You need Acrobat Reader or a similar program installed on your computer to read the PDF file.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

Over time, a matter of several weeks continuous operation, I have noticed that calibration of the touch-screen drifts away from the initial set-point. If you notice that the cursor isn’t under your finger when you touch the screen then restart the kiosk by unplugging it from the wall, waiting a few moments and then re-inserting the power plug. It will restart and recalibrate.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Some printed back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

All back issues are available electronically via the links shown below. All newsletters prior to December 2007 are available in Portable Document Format (PDF), which means that you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these files. All newsletters from December 2007 onwards are in HTML format that is easily read using your web-browser.

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Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.