Late Summer at James A. Reed WA

Sunflowers planted at James A Reed for wildlife.
Photo Credit Amy Petersen

It was a lazy, late-summer morning at James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area.  With the cooler weather we decided to get out and try our birding luck.  This time of year is usually post-breeding for most birds, the young have fledged and are dispersing to feed up for the long migration or in preparation for the winter.

Being the post-breeding season for most birds it was unusually quiet.  Indigo Buntings were calling as usual.  This species seems to enjoy calling well into the day and long after other birds have gone quiet.  We enjoyed a few Bell's Vireos,  getting a good look at one male.  There were also a number of House Wrens, one apparently feeding chicks in a nest box.  The undulating flight of the brightly colored American Goldfinches were very common.

We surprised a Cooper's Hawk eating his morning breakfast and enjoyed the soaring flight of a lone Turkey Vulture.  The Barn Swallows that nest on the floating docks on the lakes around the area were all hanging out on trees and bare branches around the lakes.  I saw none still on the nest.  We enjoyed the presence of one lone Green Heron trying hard to appear like a limb on a log.

One special treat was to see several fields of planted sunflowers.  Sunflowers are planted for wildlife including doves, quail, pheasants and turkeys, along with songbirds. Our two hour trip around the wildlife area was just what was needed after a long, hot summer.  The anticipation of fall is strong in my bones. I look forward to more adventures outdoors.

How about a river cruise?

Our Reception Committee

Having lived most of my life in Missouri, first in St. Louis and now in Kansas City I have always been acutely aware of the presence of the two rivers, the Missouri and the Mississippi. These rivers bordered my imagination, locating me in my known universe.  I have always been aware of their flow and their presence like the tides to the moon.

So on a recent trip to the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois Amy and I decided to take a drive along the Mississippi River to look for some birds and enjoy the day. As expected there was a fair number of industrial areas along the river but there were also a lot of recreational and natural areas along the river as well.

I was impressed with how much the river was used by people.  I saw boaters, swimmers, fishermen, campers, cyclists and more using the river and the area along the river. It provided a strong contrast to the almost non-existent use of the Missouri River in and around Kansas City. Even St. Louis where I grew up didn't use the river for recreational purposes quite to the extent that the folks of the Quad Cities used there portion of the mighty Mississippi!

There may be many reasons for the difference between Kansas City's non-use of the Missouri and the Quad Cities extensive use of the Mississippi.  First, there is clearly a lack of vision today as to the recreational benefits of the Missouri River. When I drove across the I-29 bridge into Kansas City and looked at the rather anemic Richard Berkley Riverfront Park (Its actually just a handful of skinny trees, a bike path and a parking lot or two) I wondered at the lack of vision. It could be so much more, a much more attractive place to play and possibly work.

Perhaps its more than just vision.  I know that the Levee Districts around Kansas City can be quite difficult to work with(I've heard impossible). These privately controlled districts own the levees and pretty much refuse to allow any access across their levees.  Add to that the various political entities that would have to work cooperatively on both sides of the river and you can see why their is little recreational use of the Missouri in and around Kansas City.

Getting to the heart of the matter may be the lack of the immediate presence of flood control measures on this section of the Missouri, unlike the flood control on the Mississippi.  The Army Corps of Engineers has a Lock and Dam located right in the Quad Cities.  They also control a good portion of the park land that we saw on either side of the river. So their presence has had a positive effect on the recreational opportunities in the area even as they may have upset the natural habitat of the river for such species as the Least Tern or the Pallid Sturgeon. This may be the real explanation of the differences between Kansas City and the Quad Cities.  The historic lack of cooperation between the various county, state and city governments in the Kansas City region would make an organization like the Corps essential in the creation of the recreational opportunities that they have in the Quad Cities.

How about a river cruise?

The bottom line for me as that I would love to see us move away from treating the Missouri and Mississippi like an open sewer and start maintaining it for conservation and recreational purposes.  Wouldn't a springtime stroll along the river or a dinner cruise on a steamboat be a better use of the river than just treating it like a sewer and trash dump?  How about a nice canoe trip down river on a summer afternoon rather than dumping old appliances onto its shores? How about allowing some areas along the river return to their natural pre-settlement uses as wetlands and habitat for deer, waterfowl, and turkeys? It just takes vision.

The Red tails are Redder than ever

Patch staying cool.

Well we can confirm that there are three, not two, fledglings from this years Red tail next in Loose Park. We were able to see at the same time two adults and three young 'uns; and we have finally given them all names. The father we call Gage, the mother is Patch (because of a conspicuous white patch on her back) and the three juveniles Cream the oldest and most independent(named after his all white or cream colored chest, belly and legs), Yankee Doodle (named for his stripped belly and red vest) and Three Feathers the youngest and most vocal of all the birds (named for her three dark feathers that protrude into her white chest).

The family is all together with dad often perching high above the din of the city on an antenna atop a tall apartment building. Yesterday, Dad was joined by Cream and Three Feathers while mom and Yankee Doodle hung around the park, panting from the heat.

Loose Park Red Tails: An Update

Well Spring has turned to Summer and the nestlings have become fledglings.  In recent weeks Amy and I have spotted at least two fledglings out of the nest.  They can fly but have not learned to catch food for themselves so their parents have been kept busy.

Three Feathers on a recent visit to our window at work.

We have named the more dominant one Cream and the more dependent bird Three Feathers.  Three Feathers has three dark feathers protruding from the neck into the white or cream upper chest area.  Three Feathers spends a lot of time calling to be feed while and seems to have more trouble flying.  She spent a lot of time on the ground alongside a building or perching on top of the building's cornice.

Cream is less vocal but more dominant.   He (I assume he is a male) has less trouble flying, tends to be more posed, more independent.  He is called Cream because his entire chest, belly and legs are an unmarked Cream or Off-white color.  Cream is a beautiful bird that I first noticed in the nest with his stark coloration.

What is special about following these Red-Tails is the ability to compare their behavior to last years brood.  There always seems to be a dominant sibling, probably the first born. They tend to hang around near their natal nest as long as their parents are feeding them.  Last year's adults seemed to disappear in late summer or fall leaving the young to fend for themselves.  The last I saw of last years young was in late Fall early Winter in a neighborhood several miles from the nest.  A young Red-Tail hand caught a squirrel and was getting ready to eat when another Red-Tail came over to claim the food much to the vocal protests of the first Red-Tail.  But readily acquiesced to the more dominant Red-Tail.   I have not seen them since and wish them well.

The Long Evenings Toward Summer

Today is the longest day of the year,  June 21st.  I had know since elementary school science that the days grew longer and shorter at different times of the year.  I remember hearing about Summer and Winter Solstice and the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox (I thought Autumnal was in Iowa?!)

It wasn't until a few years ago that I really truly experienced the long evenings of Spring leading into Summer.  I made a regular habit after work of going fishing at a little conservation area near Platte City.  Each evening I would change out of my work clothes and get dressed in my fishing clothes, grab my tackle and go.  Each evening I would fish until the last light, leaving just enough light to walk through the woods back to my car.

There was something special about those evenings, long, liquid twilight enjoying the cool of the evening and the feeling of being away from the work-a-day world.  I don't remember any of the fish I caught.  I do remember the quality of the evening light, the feel of the evening as it cooled down and the walk back to the car through the woods after a evening of hard fishing.

I can say that I experienced for the first time the lengthening of days and the amber light of those long twilights.  That was more than 7 years ago, yet it still remains with me.  When we discard our clocks and our indoor lights and turn to nature and its rhythms we become richer for it.

It's the Story We Tell

Turtles Crossing the Road

When we are driving Amy and I play a game called "Slug Bug."  Whenever we see a Volkswagen Beetle or "Bug" we call out "slug bug" and the color of the car and gently tap the other.  The farther into the Ozarks we get the fewer Volkswagen Beetles we see but the more turtles we see.  So we've started our own game called "slug turtle."  As we are driving down the Ozark back roads you'll invariably hear one or the other of us shout out "slug turtle" as I steer the car to avoid the the terrified terrapin as he ducks his head inside his shell. The game helps break up the monotony of a long trip.

On our recent trip to the Ozarks, one of our goals was to visit Sue Hubbell's old farm.  Sue lived on the farm in the 1970's and 1980's where she wrote the book A Country Year about her life on the farm.  Its one of my favorite books.  When she moved, the farm was bought by the Missouri Department of Conservation and included into the Barn Hollow Conservation and Natural Area.  I had found directions to the conservation area and so off we went.

The area is located just 3 miles north of Mountain View, Missouri.  We found the intersection where the directions told us to begin and I my heart dropped to find that it sported a Walmart and a McDonalds.  Progress had flowed right up to the doorstep of this idyllic land that Sue described.  This was not what I had imagined I'd find.  I was looking for the tranquil country life that Sue described in her book and what I got was cheap goods and cheap food.

The Little Pond

We made the drive three miles north and found the parking lot to the conservation area.  As we walked the half mile trail to the overlook I began to recall parts of the book that Sue had written.  When I heard and Indigo Bunting I was reminded that she had written about their claim to her land that preceded her own deed to the land.  When we walked past a pond I remembered she had written about the frogs calling from the pond.  The beauty of the land was still there although tainted somewhat by the proximity of the "progress" I saw just three miles away.

The Barn Hollow Overlook

The half mile trail through the Barn Hollow Natural Area ends at an overlook platform from where you can look into Barn Hollow, a deeply dissected valley with 100 foot shear dolomite bluffs on either side.  The cool shaded creek valley is the home of the ringed salamander, a species only known to exist in the Ozarks.  While there I heard the echoing call of a Belted Kingfisher and was reminded that Sue had written about hearing that same call many times from her farm.

I was still bothered by the encroachment of civilization on this eden but felt the peace that places like this bring.  As I was looking over the map of the conservation area I noticed that the entrance we had entered was on the south side and that on the north side was another entrance that had a house and an out-building marked on the map.  This portion of the map looked familiar.  The I realized that it was just like the map in Sue's book A Country Year.  Then it dawned on me that the the trail we explored was south of Sue's farm and that her farm was actually on the north side of the conservation area, a twenty minute circuitous drive through narrow back roads.  The story I had been telling myself about what I saw wasn't about her land or the book.

So after lunch Amy and I drove the twenty minute drive down increasingly narrow gravel roads following the twists and turns deeper into time to Sue Hubbell's farm.  Just before you come to a gate and sign indicating the private property of the VFW Camp mentioned in Sue's book there is a turn off  with an unmarked blue gate.  The yellow Missouri Department of Conservation signs had been torn down and only a small piece of the sign was left laying in the gravel road to give a clue to the identification of this place.

The Entrance to Sue's Old Place

Walking pass the blue gate about 30 feet is a side road heading off to the right and into an open field.  This was Sue's driveway.  I found the old power line and junction box that provided electricity to her farmhouse.  There was an old stone flower bed and the remains of what look life some daffodils that Sue may have planted.  I found evidence of an old barbed wire fence and the signage indicating the end of public use area that the MDC posts on all their properties.  There was no doubt that this was it.  This was also more like what I was looking for,  and hoping for.  This was the eden that Sue had written about.  It was beautiful and distant from anything that could be called progress.

I had gotten the story wrong.  I had recalled Sue's memories of her life on a farm and put them in a place that wasn't her place.  I had felt that progress had intruded on her eden even though it really had changed anything about the natural area we first explored nor the area that was Sue's old home.  Then I realized its the story we tell that's important.  We can tell a story that includes frequent trips to the Walmart's and McDonald's of the world or we can tell another story.  The story that recalls the time of day when the catbird calls, or the comings and goings of a fox and her kits or the time when you find a little peace in nature.  The place could be in the middle of the city or right next to a Walmart.  We can choose to tell a story of the life along the creek or the life of commerce in the local big box store.  Its the story we tell and remember that matters.

Give Me the Back Roads

Yet, I am reminded that not all stories work equally well.  Some stories we tell ourselves can cost us dearly.  The turtle tells itself a story that pulling its head and legs into its shell will protect it.  In the forest that may work most of the time and can ward off the inquisitive raccoon or wily fox but it doesn't stop the tires of a speeding car.  The truth is somewhere in between the stories we tell to create our world and the stories we tell to blind us to the dangers of life.  Its finding that fine line that is the challenge.