Prairie & Wildlife
The grass, the potholes, and the birds that use them.
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When the prairie is worth it
The grass and the birds are seasonal in a way the roads are not. Two seasons here are genuinely excellent; one asks a lot of you.
Spring
Best birdingMigration comes through in force, the potholes fill, and sharp-tailed grouse are on their dancing grounds at first light. The single best stretch of the year for birds. Gravel can be mud.
Summer
Go at the edgesMeadowlarks on the fence posts, ducks on every slough, hawks working the fields. Dawn and dusk are the show; at midday the prairie keeps to itself.
Fall
Gold and seriousThe grass turns, the flyway fills again, the light gets low and hard, and the bugs are gone. Cool, clear, and easy to spend a whole day in.
Winter
Hard goingBeautiful and largely birdless. Wind chill on the open section lines is not abstract, and the prairie offers no shelter at all — there is nothing out there to stand behind.
The wind is the constant, not the exception. Working with it is most of the skill. The wind is a feature — read that before you plan around it.
The Prairie Is Not Empty
What is actually out there when it looks like nothing.
Pothole Country
Glacial depressions, and why continental waterfowl depend on them.
The Audubon Refuge
The driving loop, and the easiest wildlife viewing in the county.
The Wind Is a Feature
When it makes the county glorious and when it makes it miserable.