Life on a Burned Prairie

 Becky Swearingen shared her photographs and this story of a newly burned prairie.

I. Freshly Burned Prairie
On September 18th I decided to visit around the Lockwood area and ended the day at Niawathe Prairie. This was the day the Master Naturalists had intended to visit so it seemed appropriate. Ends up the north side of the prairie was recently burned and while I always find it sad to see a burned prairie, I know it is best for the prairie’s health.



The advantage for a photographer is that it allows one to see things that would normally be hidden in the prairie’s lush growth.  I saw several snake skins, one of which I think actually was not a skin but a snake that was a victim of the fire.

Shed snake skin

Victim of the fire? Hard to tell, but there seemed to be flesh.
This crispy critter was definitely a fire victim.



But there was life among the ashes.  This larval Glowworm Beetle came wandering through. I would have never seen it if there had not been fire.



There were lots and lots of grasshoppers.  Hopefully they like their grass well done.  This Differential Grasshopper stood out against the burned prairie floor.



And several varieties of moths.  This one is probably a webworm moth of some variety.



A Chorus Frog came hopping by, unconcerned by the blackened dry prairie floor.  It was  camouflaged with its black stripes matching the burned grass stalks.





Life is returning to the scorched ground already.



Next spring a healthier prairie will come back to life.  The seed head below, pale and delicate yet somehow surviving the conflagration and is ready to create new plants.



And as I left the prairie that evening I saw one of the beneficiaries of a healthy prairie, a Northern Bobwhite, looking for a home for the winter. The quail chicks will be the size of a fingernail and start hunting insects on day one.  The open spaces between the bunches of fresh prairie grass are necessary for their survival, one more reason to burn.

II. Burned Prairie Redux 

Redux means “brought back” and that is what is happening at Niawathe a week after I first visited the burned out prairie. Already there is lots of green and even a few early flowers.

Among the new life, I did find signs of the old. Most interestingly, I found these tiny skeletal remains. A result of the fire? I don’t know.

I also found an egg. This one has been there for a while I believe as it had dirt on the inside.

This millipede was going about its business. It is too young to identify the specific variety. It was a little perturbed with me when I moved it to the ground to get a better picture but soon continued on its way.

There was a small group of Horned Larks that were flying around and feeding among the new grass shoots.  They prefer open ground with short grass.  Herds of bison provided this but freshly burned prairie is a good substitute.



The katydids are very visible against the blackened earth.

I think my favorite find was this Spider Wasp (Psorthaspis). Its bright orange stripes stood out quite boldly against the dark earth.

Less boldly colored was this Common Checkered Skipper - Pyrgus communis.

From its behavior it appeared to be laying eggs.

This lively cricket blended in with the blackened soil.  Its natural color provides good camouflage against the burned prairie.



I moved back to the road after walking through the burned area for an hour or so, finding this beautiful and tiny Pencil Flower.

And then saw a gleam of white. As I examined it I found a Meadow Katydid on the remains of a small animal’s vertebra.  Even after a burn some green survives, both in plants and animals.

Lonesome Chuck

Lonesome Chuck- Photo from Marvin De Jong

Marvin De Jong sent out this picture of "Lonesome Chuck," a male prairie chicken in a small and isolated Missouri prairie, looking for love without success.  As the patches of prairie become more isolated, the prairie chicken populations of Missouri face extirpation.

Chuck now lives on a prairie which has no hens.  Since existing prairies are separated by miles of farmland, he is unlikely to find a female, but that doesn't stop him from trying.  Greg Swick's video here of Chuck clearly emphasizes his loneliness as he calls in vain, with a response only from a distant dog and the wind.

There are other prairie chickens on a few other prairies in Missouri and some populations are holding their own for a little while but efforts to restore the former populations are challenged by the lack of contiguous prairies that are common in Kansas.

Heath Hen male- 1909

"Booming Ben" was truly the last of a breed, the heath hen, a related grouse which was quite common on the East coast during colonial times.  They were hunted down to small numbers and became extinct in 1932.  Ben was the last one alive.

"By 1927 there were only a dozen or so heath hens left.  After December 28th, 1928 there was only one heath hen, a male.  The islanders had named him “Booming Ben”.  For the next three years Ben showed up every spring to call out to any female hen that would listen.  He would eat corn in Farmer Green’s field hoping to find a mate.  He waited and waited to no avail.  On March 11, 1932, Farmer Green saw Ben scurrying under a bush.  That was the last time anyone ever saw Ben again.  He had lived a lonely solitary life booming his soothing call across the fields waiting for his true love to answer.  He died that year, alone, the last heath hen."  joanharvest.wordpress.com

Booming Ben was probably the only bird extinction where we could identify the last living victim.  Our Lonesome Chuck's problem is really more of a personal problem...for now.  His plaintive cry captures the price of fragmentation of our prairies and the subsequent loss of diversity, giving you a bird's-eye view of the possible future of the Missouri prairie chicken.  It will break your heart as well as it does his.

As with many threatened charismatic species, there is a conflict between viewing them to preserve the memory and celebrate the species versus the threat of our close presence to their safety and reproductive behavior, i.e. loving them to death.

Lonesome Chuck- Photo from Greg Swick

There is also a question whether Lonesome Chuck is calling hens in vain or simply defending the territory for reasons built into his bird brain.  It is natural to want to help even an individual bird.  When asked about the feasibility of moving Chuck to another prairie, Max Alleger, a grassland bird biologist with MDC gave this thoughtful reply.   

"Some recent history:  During the winter of 2011-2012, two wayward, radio-marked KS hens made their way from Wah-Kon'Tah Prairie to the prairie complex NW of Lockwood.  One survived the winter, mated with one of two local males and successfully hatched a brood of 14 chicks.  Several weeks later she was killed in a fence collision; we don’t know the fate of the brood members.  It is possible that the two males booming at (and near) Shelton are male siblings from that brood.  If true, they lacked access to a traditional lek occupied by mature males last fall.  They had no opportunity to, ‘learn the ropes.’  The lek is the social center of prairie-chicken life and the lessons learned thereon by juvenile birds are likely much more important to future behavior than we understand.  This poor fellow may not even realize he’s a prairie-chicken; he is driven to defend a bit of turf this time of year and, knowing no better, he takes-on all comers regardless of form.  I’ve watched chickens in several states and can confidently state that this is not the behavior of individuals on occupied leks in landscapes with healthy prairie-chicken populations.  I suspect the birds did not behave in this manner when the prairies were first settled by Europeans, by which time they had a thousand generations of collective experience with native people.

I liken the behavior being witnessed at Shelton Prairie to the death rattle of a local, profoundly isolated sub-population.  In my opinion, it should not be seen as a cool experience.  Rather, it represents a sobering reality that has likely played out many times across Missouri’s prairie landscapes over the past hundred years.  It almost always ends in the same manner – the confused male finally gets killed and prairie-chickens in that place become just a memory, a historical account.  According to Steve Clubine, “Fred” - the last male in Audrain County- was killed by a vehicle while booming in the intersection of C and D Highways.   The last male at Whiteman Air Force Base was taking on jet planes.  Residents in southern Henry County brought in photos of the last local male roosting on a school bus, challenging a tractor and flogging the landowner’s hand while booming in his driveway.  A few years ago, I heard reports from a construction crew working in rural Bates County of being approached and followed by a lone male.  Just a couple years ago I received close-up pictures of a lone male on private land in Barton County.  I’ve heard similar stories from other states as well.

We won’t attempt to move this bird from Shelton Prairie.  There is an outside chance that females remain in the landscape, or that another hen may disperse from the Wah-Kon’Tah / Taberville landscape to northwestern Dade County.  This is obviously a very slim chance.  Regardless, his proven lack of, ‘prairie-chickenness’ does not make him a great candidate for release on a functional lek elsewhere; his behavior is unlikely to change in a different landscape."

Maintaining the remaining prairies and restoring them when possible makes good sense as an investment in our future.  Trying to adopt a single bird probably doesn't, except in the case of genetic and breeding programs.  We have what we call Grandma's Rule -- "Some things just need a good leaving alone."

(Thanks to Marvin, Greg, and Jeff Cantrell for their photographs and insights.)

Addendum April 29th, 2013 
Kyle Hedges of MDC reports:

"Ironically, yesterday while waiting  for the news team, I spotted a hen out in the field with him. We absolutely, positively have not had a hen around. Then, I finally got a good enough look and sure enough, she had a radio collar on. Same thing happened last year, an Eldo radio bird flew all the way down here and found him. So, we will start tracking her and see what happens."  TV news video

Prairie Lady Beetle

Wednesday's WOLF School field trip to the Missouri Prairie Foundation's La Petite Gemme Prairie was a great success.  With Jay Barber (MDC) and Jerod Huebner (MPF) we divided the WOLFs into three teams.  The WOLF students in my exercise counted the different plants by appearance within a hula hoop (14 to a record of 22 species) before the hunt for insects began in earnest.  Nothing can put terror in an insect's heart as the sight of a 5th grader armed with a sweep net.*

Students started finding leaves with small orange and black lumps adhering to them.  These were the pupae of ladybeetles, called ladybugs, but these ladies aren't really bugs but beetles in the order Coleoptera.  They make pupae, similar to the more familiar cocoons of moths and chrysalis of butterflies.

The students found an occasional black larva with yellow-orange stripes and spots.  Now we had the question of which ladybeetle.  Until recently this would have meant a trip to Google and the books but that is changing.  INaturalist.org has gotten much better with time and submitting the photograph of our larva brought up the top 10 likely species.  A quick comparison with online photographs of the top two picks confirmed the ID of the Convergent Lady Beetle, Hippodamia convergens.

INaturalist.com entry 

"Clusters of yellow eggs are laid by the adult female beetle in batches of 10-30 eggs on stems or leaves of plants where abundant insect prey is present. Individual eggs are spindle-shaped and 1-1.5 mm (≈1/20th inch) long and laid pointing upwards."  (University of Florida Entomology).  The tiny larva that emerges is born hungry and will feed on aphids or even the eggs of its siblings.  The first instar is predominantly black but each molting the amount of orange color increases.  Ours were the final instar before forming a pupa.

Hippodamia convergens larvae feeding on eggs of the cottonwood leaf beetle - Insectimages.org CC

One of the students noticed a pupa that showed some movement.  Just like the Luna Moth pupa that they had seen dancing last fall (see the video) last fall, this one demonstrated its predator evasion moves for the students while we filmed it here.


 









I brought home a few of the pupae and the very next morning all of them had emerged and were crawling around the insect box.  Unlike the stinking, nipping and obnoxious Asian Ladybeetles that invade our homes, the Convergent Ladybeetle is well mannered and welcome in our gardens.  An adult can consume 30-50 aphids a day as well as other bug eggs and even honeydew, nectar, and pollen when prey is scarce.  They are important natural biological control agents in commercial fields plagued by aphids and other insect pests.  Out on the prairie, they were just doing their own thing as a part of the food web.


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* Few insects were harmed aside from net bruises.  Species the students found included:

• Lacewings
• Crane flies
• Grass moths and others
• Assorted diptera (flies)
• Spiders - jumping, crab and others
• Beetles - unidentified
• Preying Mantis nymphs
• Looper caterpillars
• Grasshoppers
• Katydids
• Leafhoppers
• Aphids
• Wasps (no stings)
• Solitary bees
• Stink bugs - plant and predatory
• Leaf galls harboring insect larvae
• ...and the "dick, dick, ciss, ciss, ciss" call of the Dicksissel

La Petite Gemme Prairie is indeed a "little gem."  At only 37 acres, it is one of Missouri’s smaller tracts of original, unplowed prairie, yet it is packed with a documented 335 native plant species, and with the greatest diversity of prairie plants on a quarter-meter scale (38 species) found to date in Missouri.
-->  Located 30 minutes north of Springfield, just west of Bolivar, it is our favorite prairie, easily accessible, fertile, and an easy stroll through thick and beautiful plants.  If you have never strolled a prairie and live around Springfield, this is a the one to start on.  It is owned by the Missouri Prairie Foundation and maintained by jointly by the Missouri Department of Conservation and MPF.
You can enjoy a free weekend of prairie learning experiences and even have a Saturday night campout June 2 and 3 at the Missouri Prairie Foundation’s 9th Annual Prairie BioBlitz at its Pleasant Run Creek Prairie.  Learn details at this link.
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A cloud of these showed up on radar in California in 2019.

Prairie Expedition

Prairie Guide- Click to enlarge

Recently Barb, I and a backpack sprayer made our annual trek to hunt Sericea and other invasive species on La Petite Gemme Prairie.  The weather was perfect, 70 degrees at 8:00 in the morning.  We were joined initially by a neighboring dog that volunteered to guide us.  We headed up the hill, the highest one of the original three that led to the name Three Mound Prairie.

Looking to the east you can see suburban housing of Bolivar.  On the western border, cyclists cruise quietly along the Frisco Highline Trail, developed by Ozark Greenways.  With a squint of your eyes and mind, you can almost hear the Frisco train which took Harry Truman back and forth between Springfield and Bolivar in 1948 as he practiced for what would be his famous whistle stop campaign for president.

While the world has changed, scattered remnants of prairie remain, thanks to organizations such as the Missouri Prairie Foundation (MPF) which purchased the land in 1974.  Under the joint management of MPF and the Missouri Department of Conservation, the prairie remains intact.  Surrounded by farm land and lawns, it has so far avoided both the plow, urbanization and fescue monoculture.

This is not to say that it is pristine.  Introduced invasive species such as Sericea lespedeza and Japanese honeysuckle constantly crop up, threatening to take over.  Without active management including spot spraying herbicides and the use of prescribed fire, exotic invasives and early succession native shrubs and trees such as sassafras and wooly buckthorn would eventually take over.  This year we even found some scattered asparagus which had migrated from a neighboring garden.

Walking through the thick knee high vegetation, we didn't have time to look for the copious animal life which was beneath our feet.  Beautiful golden dragonflies flitted around us.  One landed on a stem, tantalizing me while avoiding the screen of my pocket camera.  Only one shot pictured it partially, preserving the memory but not enough for identification.  I sent it to Tana Pulles who identified it as a Widow Skimmer.  Without a view of the underside of its abdomen, its sex will remain unknown.

The prairie was covered with familiar species such as purple cone flower, rattlesnake master, spiderwort and last week's favorite, sensitive plant.  Prairie mimosa Desmanthus illinoensis was a new species to us, with leaves similar to sensitive plant but no briar-like spine or cute folding leaf tricks.  Prairie roses were in full bloom, attracting the first of the Japanese beetle scouts.
Lead plant was common on the hillside, quite distinctive against the darker green background.  Its pale gray hairy leaves look like they were dusted with lead powder.   Many mammals eat this nutritious plant as do a diverse range of insects.  These in turn feed insectivores, an important ingredient of the food chain.  Later this summer it will also produce a stalk of tiny beautiful blossoms, hosting a wide variety of bees.

Blackberries were underfoot everywhere, a blessing this week but a curse for a prairie the rest of the year.  They will take over if not controlled, but today they fueled our mission as we consumed a handful whenever we spotted the juicy berries.  They also taught me a lesson in greed.  Without any other container, we used my hat to collect a supply for home.  Unfortunately, the stain of blackberries is resistant to soap and bleach.  From now on, they shall know me by my (red-stained) hat.

Like most true gems, prairies like La Petite Gemme are rare, 99.9% having been converted to other habitat.  Preserving what we have is like maintaining a museum or zoo, a place to savor a diverse ecosystem that once covered much of the midwest.  Like a museum or zoo, a prairie requires our constant maintenance.  Consider supporting the Missouri Prairie Foundation.

La Petite Gemme Prairie

We just completed the annual invasive species trek over the La Petite Gemme Prairie just west of Bolivar.  Recently featured in the News-Leader, this is our favorite prairie because of its location close to Springfield and its approachable size.  It has 37 acres of virgin land, never touched by plow or planting and all visible from the top of the hill.  A subdivision now along the eastern border is out of sight unless you climb to the top to see a single rooftop.

Sherpa spraying Sericea lespedeza

Barb led the patrol as guide and destroyer while I followed as the Sprayer Sherpa.  The prairie is in beautiful shape thanks to the efforts of Richard Datema, the management services of MDC and the Missouri Prairie Foundation.  They have controlled the woody invasives with selective spraying and prescribed fire.  Our mission was primarily killing Sericea lespedeza.  Along the way we attacked a few scattered multiflora rose stragglers, some new Japanese honeysuckle, and invasive clover.  These are so infrequent that it requires searching hard for them.

Dickcissel pair watching over their prairie

Meanwhile, I get to enjoy the prairie scenes until ordered to spray another victim.  It was 80 degrees and partially cloudy, perfect for a "good walk spoiled" only by the sprayer.  We were greeted by a pair of dicksissels which we could hear before spotting them, clinging precariously to stalks of plants not designed to carry their load.

Bee nectaring on prairie rose

Sensitive briar

Walking in a prairie is different than any other hiking.  Unless you follow a game trail, you wade through dense vegetation one to two feet tall with a remarkable variety of species.  There were prairie rose scattered everywhere, hosting nectaring bees and other insects.  Sensitive briar, Mimosa nuttallii is scattered among the tall vegetation, inviting you to touch the leaves and watch them fold up in defense to what they perceive as a predator.

Spiderwort

We found the first coneflowers opening up, their pale pink petals appearing white when photographed in the cloud filtered light.  Delicate blue prairie spiderwort was scattered along our trek, its developing stages producing shapes transformed from every angle, only the color remaining consistent.

Meadow Parsnip

Meadow parsnip, Thaspium trifoliatum, was scattered through the prairie, a member of the carrot family likely soon to be supporting a a family of black swallowtail caterpillars in their journey to adulthood.  We tend to think of butterflies as important pollinators but tiny flowers require a number of delicate pollinators such as short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, and beetles. 

Just a few years ago I considered prairies boring, just a field of knee high stuff.  La Petite Gemme has the whole package from rolling upland to a wet drainage producing a diversity of life and an unseen food web that can't be appreciated unless you wade in.  The Missouri Prairie Foundation invites you to hike through the forbs and grasses.  A word of warning - you may just get hooked!

Photo album on Flickr