Big lake, McCormack CA

Took advantage of the holiday up near Squaw Creek. I first visited JC McCormack CA- across the hwy from the wildlife refuge, and spent the weekend at a property across the lake from Big Lake SP.

AT the CA, the path is carpeted by nettle- its a great host plant for all sorts of little bugs and such. Up on the prairie, everything from ox-eyed's to black eyed's, thistles, asters, mints and prairie clovers ar blooming. The lead-plant , germander and purple clover crests the loess hill, and the blue vervain pays it's compliments to the daisy in patches below the sumac and I.

I stocked a particular clover and waited for any exciting insects to pose for my camera. I tried to get some bees and a colorful longhorn beetle, but most of my photos came out overexposed. Spotted a dragonfly- perched on a stick. I crept up on 'em and became surprisingly close. Was able to get one shot off at 55mm, it came out pretty nice.!

At big lake, I cleared an area and started a fire. My grandmother and I were able to burn off the last of the ice storm damage- I fished and tooled around on my little kayak

I had no bait.. forgot to bring it up with me. put some goatsbeard peddles on a hook and jigged it infront of one of the many gar that were visible-floating just below the surface. He snapped at it and I had myself bait.

> Sunset was a disappointment, but the thumbnail moon made up for it! I watched fireworks over the lake. The rest of our family met up with us on sat.

Fireworks were very impressive (being as most of 'big lake village' pop lives in trailers).

I spent a lot of time paddling in the cove. Lots of Baltimore and orchard orioles, blue herons and some egrets. I got to watch a shriek put a meal on some locust spines and and a trio of kingbirds and a male oriole chase a heron out of the cove as if he were a threatening hawk.

I hooked something on the far side of the calm cove- It tugged and then stripped my line out many feet. I guess it was a carp- The fish turned myself and my kayak around and began to tool us around. After a good fight and 20feet, I got the fish to the boat. Some kind of carp or buffalo- about 6lbs. Caught lots of fish (and a turtle!)..

4 gar (one over 30in!), 5 bullhead, 3 channelcats, two carp, and a drum.

(above) a woodhouse? maybe a great plains? my first guess was a great plains toad, but once I looked in the book I found that his darker spots were too small. (below) a fuzzy beast of a caterpillar. He was at McCormack., One of the bullheads I was able to catch, and a Long-legged fly I photographed on the nettles.

Hidden Valley trails

KC wildlands hosted well over a hundred youth from around the nation at Hidden Vally park. This all took place last friday-sorry for the late post! The participants came through schools and were in town to compete in an academic something. They worked hard and cleared a LOT of trail through the park.
Hidden Valley Park was soggy and HOT, but we finished trails two hours before schedule and sent a lot of happy, muddy volunteers back with a sence of accomplishment. There was another group from the same organization in Swope park.

Desmodium- beggars lice, tickseed- This is the flower of those small, sticky pea-pod things that will pop up in every woodland in a few weeks.

wasps

Ive looked them up- I think that these are some sort of ichneumon wasp. THey swarmed a log that I had cut about a week ago- the sam long in which i found the horntails and book scorpions. There are 6 of them out there now.

WHen I pick one up, it rubbed its abdomen on my skin- as if to sting. Its' got a sharp ovipositor, but I never felt any stinger. They are very cool! Does anyone know what it is doing when it waves it's abdomen, or folds it onto the log like that? They were fun to watch- had to get my camera out. Would love to learn more about them if your familiar w/ them !

The clip is 54 seconds.. be sure to turn the sound down before you play it- had an ac unit workin behind me.

Collared lizards

I had the opportunity to help gather a number of Collared lizards in Missouri for a relocation project with MDC. I had not seen these beautiful creatures in the wild until the project. Seven of us, including my mother and myself, ran about a rocky area in search of the critters.

We flipped rocks- my mother found a copperhead, another found a ringneck- I got the wasps' nest.

It was not until the sun was able to overcome a passing storm- around 10 am- that we saw a lizard. Head herpetologist for MDC, Jeff Briggler, spotted a large, colorful male in the distance. The greens and blues from the lizard were intense- he was also much larger than I imagined a Collared lizard becoming.

They approached the lizard in hoped of chasing it from it's hole and catching it by hand. Jeff was armed with a fishing-rod nuse just in case. Jeff didn't have a chance; the collard' disappeared before they got close. He spotted two others close-by in no time. I sat above the original males' hideout while they tried at the others. Briggler tied a nuse from fly-line to my fishing rod. I was to approach a lizard slowly, slip the lasso around it's neck and pull as if I was setting a hook on a fish. The large male peeked out- I saw only one glaring eyeball staring at me from the crevasse;

He came out after a while. Other volunteers and project participants disappeared over a hill, leaving only myself and two others to wrangle the six identified lizards on our rocks.

I slipped the nuse around the Collareds' head and neck- 'was surprised he allowed me to do so-didn't even flinch!

I 'set the hook'- he was caught! !! !, but only for a few seconds. the rope sipped over his face and the poor lizard zipped across the rocks. He found another good hole and hid. I tried several more times. Other participants brought in Lizards. they were held in pillowcases and stashed in the shade.

I gave up on my lizard and got my first lizard. An average-sized female. Another. I got new bags and found a new spot. Two females perched upon a rock. I approached the lizards and extended my fishin' rod. They were more skiddish than the others.

A huge green guy was on the rocks to the right of me. I put my stuff down and took some photos. He took off- I tried to follow, but he was just too damn fast !

I couldnt even see where he'd gone. I nused a small female on my seach for the big guy.. Then he caught my eye again. He split to the left the second I stopped. This time, however, he picked the wrong rock. I peeked under the rock- which was far to large for me to lift.

Stuck my hand infront of him to block his likely exit path. My hand did not fit under the rock as far as I'd planned- my stretched fingers could only brush his nose. He chomped on my finger; I jerked back unconsciously.

I stuck my hand back under the rock- when he came at me this time, I pushed the tip of my finger toward him and his mouth was stuck. He tried to bite me, but he couldnt open his mouth far enough to dislodge from me. I pulled him out slowly- he was clamped to my finger.. got him out and into a bag after a photo. I got a good row of teethmarks on my finger to prove it !

We caught 19 and released two females to create a more desirable male/female ratio. Jeff took a tissue sample to keep track of DNA in our new population.

It was awesome! The collared lizards are truly fascinating!... they are gorgeous.. and probably the fastest land-critter in MO! Ohhh... and we got to see a few take off two-legged!

Truman lake

My father and I spent a night at the lake. We camped at the State park- our favorite campsite has been converted to an electrical one (with most of the park)- Its occupied, with neighboring ones, by RVs, Christmas lights, satellite dishes and pink flamingos.

Several of the remaining basic campsites are closed to flooding- We camped on a tiny spot at the top of turkey ridge.

the lake was about 20ft high- the parking lots and boat ramps are flooded, but a high water ramp and ferry run by the marina allowed us to put our little boat in the water. It sounded a bit funny, but with a new tank of gas and a few hours on the water- it worked.

I put my tiny kayak in the water- My parents gave it to me last week as a graduation gift and it was the first time Ive had it in the water. A tiny 9' sit-on-top. I paddled across to the island marina(used to be on land), around it, over the parking lots and back to the docks. Fished a bit- two small bass. We went out to the dam and set a few jug lines.

The sun set and I took some photos of the flooded parking lot- had some awesome clouds. Had us a fire- I followed an armadillo and some spiders- one very large one, perched on a tree ate a roach. I shown my flashlight on 'em and tried to take a macro- it was okay

Sunday I woke to some growling or screaming in our camp. I recognised the horrific sound as a racoon's fight. Peeked out of my tent; saw nothing. The horizon was just beginning to show evidence of a sunrise, and the fingernail moon was high and bright.

I woke again and my tent seemed like a light box.

my father and I drove down to the marina. Five doe, two fawns and a young buck later- we were on the water. The three lines we'd left on the boat had no fish- the bait was still alive. Soon we drove towards the dam. The sky was blue and the sun saw no clouds, but there was a powerful wind that ripped across the lake.

Our 14-footer was no match for the white-caps on the lake. We bounced from wave to wave- water splashed into the boat. We made it, surprisingly, to the jug lines that we'd set. No fish.

We crawled across the waves back to the marina and continued around the Park's peninsula. The flooded lake has swallowed parking lots, beaches, dumpsters, woodlands and even the bases of a few buildings.

I took my kayak around the cove for a few more hours- three lines in the entire time and still no fish. My father had one tug at him, but the line was snagged in fight.

We visited the parks glade and the dam before we split for home.

I hiked onto the glade alone and found a handful of unusual blooms. I recognised the catchfly and leadplant in the woods, but found some new ones, too. A large bean-lookin plant with pink/yellow snapdragon type flowers, a purple "scullcap" that resembles a germander and wild bergamont (horsemint) .

I flipped some rocks and followed the googles of scorpions that I stirred until they posed for photographs. One was comfy on top of a rock for one exposure- two others were more obedient for the Canon A620 point-n-shoot. Click on the photos for close-ups of their pleasant little faces!

After my photo shoot with the arachnids, I headed back. I found some spiderwort going to seed and the unripe fruits of a large prickly-pear cactus.

Surprised I found no blkwidows or tarantulas- this glade is a great spot for both.

At the dam we spotted a pair of my favorite creatures in the world ! Two male scissor-tail flycatchers flicked and flitted about each other in the sky. A family through hunks of bread down to the mob of carp and catfish in the water. A few long gar patrolled the edge of the crowd . A huge koi fish fed with the carp and the smaller, darker catfish swam underneath them all-

Kinda cool!

THE KAW

DESOTO, KS Kansas' sand beaches
Fossils- a nice rib, a chunk of glossy coal and a jar of crystals.
One of the smallest toadlets Ive ever found! They were everywhere and you'd have to work to avoid stepping on them!
Another duck to add to my collection- You can count on finding decoys like these when you spend as much time out as I do.
An alien circle- or that of a small clam. I would like to know why they draw the lines like this'n...Some can be many feet in length.

firewood surprise

I was in the back splitting firewood and discovered many of the logs' residents. Bess beetles, bark beetles, a coupla nests of termites and one of ants, some spiders and two of my more exciting finds: horntails and a tiny crab thing.

The horntails are large wasp-like creatures (sawflies) that burrow into dead trees to lay their eggs. They look mean- at about two inches- especially when theyre in the air. Their patterns are similar to the better-known CicadaKiller Wasp. When I split a large elm, I found several blue tunnels in the centre- and a translucent pupa or alien. Pupa live in their little tunnels for about two years to develope before emerging in the adult stage. I soon found others and more developed ones on the new surface of the halved tree. They were covered in the blue- it was a powder. I took the critters out of their cavities and set them at the base of another log- it the shade. They began to dry their wings- like a moth would. I think a few may have been a bit pre-mature, but outh of the eight that I set at the base of the log, only one remained at sunset!

On the same log were several tiny crabs- so I thought. They looked like a mite/scorpion. There were two larger brown ones- 2-3mm in length- and a smaller red one. I collected one in a vial. Its harder than it looks- collecting a living, moving creature the size of a pin's head!

I took some photos and spent some time reading about mites and scorpions and other arachnids. After a bit of time I found that my micro-pet was an arachnid known as a pseudoscorpion or "book scorpion." They are commonly found in birds nest; they prey on lice and other tiny things. Still dont know a whole lot about them- though, I can say that they are as hard to photograph as they are to catch!