Heartland Safari

Dickcissel

Updated September 7, 2026

Birds are often named for their call. One infrequent visitor to Owl Acres this summer called his name in the morning chorus. He sang a buzzy “dick dick” followed by “seesle.” We call him a dickcissel. He has several other calls and songs, but this is the one we know him by. The dickcissel (Spiza […]

Birds

Like its larger red cousin, White Clover blooms with balls of tiny white flowers. By far most of the leaves of this legume have three leaflets, but about one in ten thousand has four.

Lucky Shamrock: White Clover

Updated September 7, 2026

Have you ever seen a four-leaf clover growing wild? If so, you are considered one of the lucky ones. You are one out of 10,000 folks. That doesn’t count the four- and five-leaf clover plants you can buy with their genetic modifications. Are we trying to create our own luck here? In the natural setting, […]

Plants

Balls comprising dozens of tiny red-pink flowers sit atop upright stems of Red Clover. Foliage of this important forage species is made up with leaves of three leaflets each.

Not just a pretty face: Red Clover

Updated September 7, 2026

Red clover, (Trifolium pratense), those sweet-smelling perennials that grow on Owl Acres, offer something more than their pretty flowers to the landscape. They offer nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the crucial building blocks of life. Living things use it to build DNA, RNA, amino acids, and most living tissue. Nitrogen Is all around us in […]

Plants

Carolina wren sits on a twig. Round songbird faces the camera, looking up and left in frame. Tail is carried high with rakish white eyebrow and buff colored breast to complete the suite of visual cues. We’ve only heard its call here on Owl Acres, but we’ll try to pick it out from the crowd at the bird feeder.

Out of Place?: Carolina Wren

Updated August 31, 2026

Throughout the spring and summer of this year, I have taken a few minutes each morning to explore the soundscape. With the help of the Merlin Bird ID app, I capture the voices of whatever birds happen to be singing or chattering at the time. Since the first day of spring, and periodically thereafter, we […]

Birds

A pale purple, daisy-like flower tops one of about a dozen separate stalks on Woodland Lettuce.

Salad Greens: Woodland Lettuce

Updated August 23, 2026

Lettuce, in my experience, comes in heads, wrapped in plastic from the grocery store. Or maybe in bags with a few other veggies. But here’s another kind of lettuce. It’s six feet tall and has a spray of pretty blue flowers at the top. It’s growing up in the shade right next to a walnut […]

Plants

Pea-size, snow-white, pearl-shaped flowers bloom in profusion atop wild quinine in the Owl Acres Prairie Garden.

Tonic, Anyone?: Wild Quinine

Updated August 16, 2026

I have a glass of tonic water to slake my thirst on a hot and muggy summer day. It has that bitterness that I like. The bitterness comes from its signature ingredient—quinine. Quinine, historically, was used by the indigenous tribes of Ecuador and Peru as an antimalarial long before the Spanish and the Jesuits invaded […]

Plants

Great Blue Heron in flight, viewed from below against a cloudless blue sky. Blue-grey soaring bird with wingspan much longer than its body length. Long slender legs trail behind and neck curved into an “S” shape bears its head with a long, sharp bill. The Heron carries a long twig for nesting material. (Note how many times “long” is used in this description. It’s the right word for this bird.)

Magic Dust: Great Blue Heron

Updated August 7, 2026

Early of a summer morning, I hear the rather unlovely squawk of a bird flying overhead. It beats its wings slowly as it cruises over the fields. Its legs trail behind as though forgotten, and its neck is scrunched into an S shape against its chest. It sounds like a great blue heron, but I […]

Birds

Take your pick. A sweat bee on a dandelion. Genus unknown, Species unknown. But go out in your yard right now, and there they’ll all bee.

Salty Summer: Sweat Bees

Updated July 16, 2026

On a hot summer day, I feel something land on the inside of my elbow. My initial reaction is to slap it away. It objects to this treatment, though and promptly stings me. The sting is acutely painful although it fades fairly quickly. I can’t see it to identify it, but the familiar sting tells […]

Insects and Spiders

What’s as uniform, or as boring, or as soft and luxurious underfoot, as Kentucky Bluegrass? Not much else to say, is there?

Grass Part 3: Kentucky Bluegrass

Updated July 16, 2026

The third type of grass on Owl Acres is Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis). It is by far the most prevalent, filling all of the meadow area on Owl Acres with its short thick carpet. It’s the grass we all know and love in our yards, lawns, golf courses, parks and everywhere else we want a […]

Plants

Tawny, chevron-shaped panicles of orchard grass fill the frame of this close up image. The distinctive shape of the seed heads is the easiest way to identify this soft, fine-bladed forage species.

Grass, Part 2: Orchard Grass

Updated July 16, 2026

Orchard grass, (Dactylis glomerata) is another species of grass found on Owl Acres. It can grow up to four feet tall. On Owl Acres it grows at the edges of fence rows and has to be trimmed around the house and other obstacles. It’s called cat grass because cats like to chew it, and it’s […]

Plants