Countryside Trip (Flower Hunting)

The daughter and I went out around the city looking for late-summer bloomers. Found some pretty good ones!

Wild grasses on approach to a local creek

Very vibrant colors alongside the road compared to the rest of the bleak, sunburned landscape this time of year. Trumpet Vines (Campsis radicans)

 

Bushy Wallflowers (Erysimum repandum).Daughter thought they were good for picking. 

I THINK this is a sticker bush..?

Still looking for this one. A fern of some type down by the creek.

Annual Fleabane (Erigeron annuus). Not entirely sure on this one; there are several that look similar to this in Kansas. This was the closest based upon the size of the pedals and the vine.

 

Kansas domestic sunflowers. Should have turned to get a better shot of the field these were in, but it was probably 10 to 15 acres worth of these huge flowers. Honey bees everywhere!

Young Red Tail Hawk calling

Daughter and I were on a walk in town and came across this young red tail hawk calling out in the neighborhood. Pretty cool experience!

Red Eared Slider - Trachemys scripta elegans

Family and I came across a Red Eared Slider - Trachemys scripta elegans - laying her clutch. The only issue I had with the whole thing was her choice of spots. It was right in the middle of the open park / frisbee golf range! So we "stood watch" while she did her business and buried the eggs. I then took her back to the pond. Pretty exciting stuff - doubt I'll ever catch anything like it again!

Video of the "event".

Protosphyraena find

OK - so I've found the Protosphyraena before. It's one of my favorite finds because of the beautiful teeth-like ridges along the pectoral fins. It's pretty amazing, in my opinion. I came across one (and actually 3 total were found over the course of one day - JUNE 2011) and we had high hopes it would be the complete girdle, but almost immediately after removing some of the overburden, we could tell something was weird about it and it would likely not be complete. BUT we pressed on anyway. 

Here is my father clearing away debris and overburden while I take a quick camera break. We had another little bit to go at this point, but it was apparent the whole fin was not there, let alone the whole shoulder girdle!

The knife is there for perspective. That's about the size of a regular old kitchen chopping knife.

 

Here is my shoddy attempt at preservation. Using Butvar on the bones (an acetone-based glue) allows the fossils to harden up for transportation. I did not stay between the lines...

Tool of the trade - pick hammer :)

Here we are ready to take the thing out. The matrix was such that it would not come out in one piece, so we ended up just removing the fossil from the rock completely. It was a sad, sad end to the Protosphyraena's 80 million year old legacy.

Here's what we walked away with. The majority of one pectoral fin and some jumbled pieces of the pectoral girdle. Nothing glamorous, but it was a satisfying find, nonetheless.

Scenery in the chalk

Despite being high prairie and very dry, Western Kansas has had a pretty good couple of years with regards to rain (as of 2011). A LOT of the chalk has been reclaimed (covered up) and I took some pictures of some of the new "wetlands" in the bottom of this one particular valley.

 About 60' directly above the creek that cut through the chalk formations.

The water was actually running at a pretty good clip all day - and we were onsite for a good six to seven hours. 

Ground-level view of one of the open areas of water (there were three in this chalk exposure).

I've been coming out to the formations in Western Kansas for 30 years and I can't remember ever seeing everything so green and vibrant. It was a new experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope you like these pics too!

Flora from Western Kansas

I spent a good deal of time on the June 2011 trip taking flower pictures for my daughter. I definitely grew more interested as I proceeded. The variety of wild flowers on the western prairie is stunning once you actually stop to look. 

First pic and a bit blurry. This is Missouri Evening Primrose. Orange buds with a bright yellow flower. Grew everywhere on the rocks.

This is Catclaw Sensitive Briar. This picture does not do it justice. It's a extremely vibrant pink in the green fields. Definitely draws the eye.

Dang the wind! This would have been a great picture, but the blur was caused by the wind moving it around. The Prickly Poppy was not everywhere out there, but pretty common. Almost every single specimen had this strange June Bug-like beetle in the flower (seen here).

I know you're thinking Dandelion, but nope! This is Goat's Beard and I caught it after the flower's had already moved into the seedlings.

Good ol' Yucca plants in bloom.

A pretty grass called Foxtail Barley, down in the wetland portion of the area we were in. 

It wasn't blooming, but this Arrowhead plant was a neat find.

Tall Thistle. Uncommon in the field we were in, but a pretty common plant.

I really liked this one - the Indian Blanket. It was one of the few two-toned flowers in the field.

Just a fun pic (Yucca husk)

The only cactus I came across the entire trip.Some sort of Fishhook cactus, I think

I really enjoyed hunting the flowers on this trip - not as much as hunting fossils, but it was quite a bit of fun and a good change of pace when I was getting frustrated at not finding anything else!!