Newsletter title

June 2012

In This Edition

Collared Lizard

—Dwight Thomas

Collared Lizard by Dwight Thomas

The photograph is of a Collared Lizard that was taken at a rocky area where a small stream runs from a spring in the prairie to a rock outcrop at the edge of the cross timbers. The work-road to the area ran from County Road 4201 to the east at Chicken Hill and wound 2 or 3 miles to the northeastward. It was about 3 miles straight north of the intersection of CR 4201 and 4220 (the intersection just north of the south entrance, as seen on Google maps).

Report of the Road Clean-up, Cookout, and Hike—May 19

—Dennis Bires

The large number of Docents and friends who participated in the May 19 Road Clean-Up, Cookout, and Hike had a memorable day on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. We had comfortable breezy conditions for the morning trash pick-up, and rounded up a remarkable quantity of litter. Then Ann Whitehorn and Tawnda Hopper set out a delicious reward of grilled bratwurst, franks, and burgers, with great side dishes plus homemade cherry cobbler for dessert. Thanks so much to both.

Following lunch, we caravanned following Kevin Chouteau of the Preserve staff to the vicinity of the Preserve’s highest waterfall, once affectionately known to Docents as Mary’s Waterfall for former Nature Conservancy staffer Mary Coley, who once led a Docent hike that failed to find it. The twelve-vehicle caravan was among the highlights of the trip, as several hundred bison chose to run across the track ahead, each cow in the herd leading a month-old calf, with bright green rolling prairie all around.

As Kevin led us on foot down a rocky meadow to the waterfall, a pair of whitetail bucks in velvet relinquished the location to us. Before we reached the water, Kevin pointed out a brilliant blue male mountain boomer, also known as the common collared lizard, the State Lizard of Oklahoma. Our boomer remained motionless on a rock long enough to become the most photographed collared lizard in history.

In the absence of a thunderstorm, the Preserve’s waterfall is not a torrent, but its fifteen-foot drop to a calm shady pool below holding schools of small sunfish and minnows is definitely worth the walk. One can picture cowboys stopping for a shower on hot days over the years, and Indians over the centuries. Some hikers explored upstream to the prairie spring and tiny pool from which the water originates. Others remarked at the beautiful spreading Post Oaks in the open transition zone between prairie and gallery forest, and the variations in color of Butterfly Weed blossoms, from red-orange to OSU orange to yellow.

A good time apparently was had by all. Many thanks to Ann, Tawnda, and Kevin for helping to make this a fine annual get-together.

Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)

—George Pierson

Spicebush Swallowtail

The spicebush swallowtail is common in the Eastern United States. It is a large dark butterfly with a wingspan of three to four inches. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is at the very western edge of it’s range. It flies from spring to fall over most of it’s range, including Oklahoma, and all year in the south.

Spicebush Swallowtail

Both sexes have a single row of light blue/green crescent-shaped spots on the trailing edge of the hind wings. Males have an iridescent light blue/green cast on the hindwing. On the females, this is reduced and much bluer. There is also a large orange spot on the leading edge of the hindwing, which is sometimes difficult to see.

Spicebush Swallowtail

Both sexes have a double row of orange spots in the shape of a C on the underside of the hindwing. In the leading band of spots one orange spot is missing and replaced by blue.

Larval host plants include various species of laurel like spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and sassafras (Sassafras albidum). Nectar plants include many species common to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, including thistle, milkweed and coneflowers.

What is a Flame?

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

This is brought to you by our resident pyromaniac, Bob Hamilton. What is a Flame? Good question! To find out, watch the video. For background information read this article: Flame.

Buffalo-Pawing-Earth Moon

—John Joseph Mathews

The buffalo are gone from the blackjacks and from the headwaters of the Cimarron River, where the Osage once hunted them. Here in my country, they have been displaced by the white-faced bulls, and the roaring of those great curly-headed brutes as they walk arrogantly across the prairie is the dominant voice of June. They stand and paw the earth, lifting sod high above their backs when the ground is damp and raising dust clouds when it is dry, with their noses close to the earth as they bellow and roll their eyes angrily. As the buffalo once were, they are now the lords of the range, and there is no other animal to dispute their position; not even myself when I am afoot.

[Excerpt from Chapter VI of Mathews’ book Talking To The Moon, available at the Visitor’s Center of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.]

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Docent Coverage of Season Days

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

In April we had a total of 436 visitors. Of that number there were 408 visitors representing 33 state and 28 international visitors representing 10 countries. Following Oklahoma (198) in number of visitors were the top four states of Kansas (26), California (17), New York (16) and Indiana (15). We had our first visitor from Croatia in April.

The following table displays the total counts for April, 2012, with that month in previous years.

I encourage each of you to be sure to ask our visitors to sign the guest book. I think you’ve been doing a good job. Just keep it up. Here’s to a high visitor count in 2012 and a great year for the prairie!

Other Places to Visit

Here we provide some links to other places worth visiting.

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.

2012January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2012
2011January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2011
2010January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2010
2009January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2009
2008January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2008
2007January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2007
2006—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2006
2005January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2005
2004—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2004
2003—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2003
2002—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2002
2001January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2001
2000January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2000
1999January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1999
1998January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1998
1997January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1997
1996—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1996
1995—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1995

Selected Topics Index

This persistent index of selected topics should make finding articles of interest easier. The list will grow as I move further into the past and it will grow as I add interesting topics from each new newsletter. Iris McPherson lent me the paper copies of the newsletter from the very early years of the docent program; I ran them through a scanner equipped with a document feeder, saving them as PDF files, then added them to Back Issues section above. Let me know of any dead links that you discover. Also, please lend me any paper copies of the newsletter that are missing so that I can scan and add them to the list of back issues.

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.