The zoomed imaging from this month were taking in my daughter’s yard in Springfield MO, my yard in Nixa MO, Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge, the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield MO, the Lake Springfield Boathouse and the Texas Welcome Center on US 75. It was not a big photography month. I expect February will have more if the weather does not cause cancellations of winter hikes I have planned.
There was an ‘eagle’ event at the Lake Springfield Boathouse last weekend. The temperature was in the 20s and a little breezy…but I bundled up and headed out. The parking lot still had plenty of spaces when I got there. The spotting scopes were set up on the lakeside deck of the boathouse…but they were on ducks rather than bald eagles! Evidently there had been a couple of eagles sighted before the event started – from a nearby lookout, not visible from the boathouse. After watching the ducks for a little while, I opted to switch my photography to plants.
The sycamore at the edge of the lake was catching the light.
I walked around to look for seed pods…and anything else interesting in the plantings around the boathouse. The beautyberries were shriveled but still retained some color. A bush trimmed to keep it within the bed displayed a cracked stump. The browns and off-white colors dominate in winter but there were some green leaves of some bulbs coming up in one bed.
It was a short foray into the cold – testing out my gear from some winter wellness hiking over the next few weeks.
July was a great month to be outdoors – even though it was very hot…plenty to celebrate.
Rescuing a large cecropia caterpillar from the trash. One of my morning shifts at the Butterfly House started with quite a surprise….finding a cecropia caterpillar in the trash while I was cleaning up before opening. I celebrated that I happened to look down before I threw in the messy paper towel…and could easily return the caterpillar to the table display.
Luna caterpillars making cocoons. I celebrated when my 40 or so Luna Moth caterpillars started making their cocoons. When they were all large caterpillars, it was challenging to keep them sufficiently supplied with sweet gum leaves.
More and more cocoons…and then I took the last 4 Luna caterpillars to the Butterfly House. I celebrated some quite days with only rustlings from the pupa inside the cocoons.
The first Luna Moths emerging. The first moths started to emerge…3 males in one day! I celebrated that so many of the cocoons seem viable too…so many more of these beautiful moths will be emerging soon.
A late afternoon barbeque picnic and evening mothing. I celebrated with a great meal with fellow Butterfly House docents…and then seeing how lights and sheets in the evening attract moths.
Dayl ilies at the Botanical. I celebrate the profusion of color and form of the day lilies every year about this time.
Finding S. Fred Prince’s The rainbow in the grass; wildflowers of the Marvel Cave Ozark. I was doing my usual look at botanical books for next month and happened upon this beautiful one from the early 1900s about the wildflowers in the Branson MO area….close to where I live!
Seeing cattle egrets. As I drove north from Dallas, I saw a flock of cattle egrets flying over the highway. It must be a good year for producing young.
Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden. My husband and I always enjoy the plantings around the building…and the walk down toward the field of wildflowers. We went early enough in the day that it wasn’t too hot.
Sunflowers at the assisted living home. My sister planted sunflowers in a big pot (and some of the seeds must have spilled because several plants are growing in the soil next to the pot). I celebrated that they are thriving and the memory that my niece brought a sunflower seedling in a cup home from kindergarten, and my mother propagated them along the alley for years. That niece is getting ready to have her second child soon.
The places for this month zoomed images include: my neighborhood/yard, Fantastic Caverns, my dad’s assisted living home, Springfield Botanical Gardens, and Lake Springfield Boathouse. It was a good month to be out and about in the morning…before the heat of the day! The early summer flowers doing well: arugula, cone flowers, day lilies, sunflowers, prickly pear cactus, button bush, and Missouri Evening Primrose. Enjoy the July 2025 slideshow!
The garden around the Lake Springfield Boathouse is maintained by Springfield Plateau Chapter of the Missouri Master Naturalists. I’m not part of that team but I do enjoy their results. My husband was looking for a place to practice a technique for photographing bees and the first place I looked was a good starting location for him: the buttonbush near the front door of the building! I took a few pictures before he even got his gear unloaded!
While he tried out his new technique, I photographed the other plantings. The second place I hoped to find insects/bees was the cup plant, but it wasn’t blooming yet. It did have buds…so should be a great place to check later in the season.
We headed past the purple martin houses (which were very busy) to the meadow area. The milkweed was blooming but the flowers looked less colorful than I expected, and they were not attracting large number of insects either. The bee balm was more attractive to bees than the milkweed. There was a spiderweb that looked a little like a hammock in some dried stems from last season; it was highlighted by the heavy dew. I took some backlit images of 2 plants that were not blooming but had interesting shapes.
One of the pictures I took of an insect on a milkweed leaf had a surprise when I looked at it on my big monitor at home: a tiny egg (maybe a Monarch egg)!
Across the walking trail there are brambles and trees. The locust was full of still-green pods and vetch was blooming in the undergrowth.
It was a productive morning activity. My husband thought maybe it was not warm enough for peak insect sightings; he might have been right but, with the humidity, it was the best time for us to be there!
I opted to drive myself the Lake Springfield boathouse last week so I could photograph the meadow/prairie and the other plantings near the boathouse before the rest of the Identifying Woody Plants class arrived. The beautyberry was spectacular! I am so glad I planted some in my yard recently and hope it makes it through the winter to be a great plant next year.
The common milkweed had already been cut down but there were several pods spilling their seeds where the plants once stood.
The asters seemed to be hosting the most insects in the meadow/prairie area. I was thrilled to see Monarch butterflies; they were large ones…the ones that go all the way to Mexico for the winter. The thistles were releasing their seeds and the golden rods were the second most popular nectar plant for insects.
It was a great day to see the meadow in fall glory!
This past week the field class I am taking through Missouri State University added new woody plants to our list from a walk near the Lake Springfield boathouse. I tried to take pictures of most of the new woody plants for this week…and a few from previous weeks:
Marshmallow – Hibiscus – Malvaceae (seed pods)
Green ash – Fraxinus pennsylvanica – Oleaceae (leaves and diamond shapes in the bark)
Black willow – Salix nigra – Salicaceae (leaves/twig)
Osage orange - Maclura pomifera – Moraceae (fruit…and I now have a fruit I am attempting to dry)
Honey locust - Gledistia tricanthos – Fabaceae (tree with drying seed pods)
Privet (non-native) - Ligustrum – Oleaceae (leave with blue fruit)
American hophornbeam – Ostrya virginiana – Betulaceae (leaves with thin, strong twigs)
Post oak – Quercus stellata – Fagaceae (rounded lobed leaves)
Bur oak - Quercus macrocarpa – Fagaceae (leaves…in the red oak group…I also picked up an acorn!)
It was an interesting afternoon…but I was tired afterward.
We set out to the Clay Henshaw Memorial Access on Lake Springfield since we had not viewed the lake from that perspective before. It was a little too late in the morning for birding, but I took a few pictures of flowers growing in the area.
There was a large (lotus?) leaf on the water surface that had interesting patterns of green in the deteriorating leaf that curled upward at the edges.
The sun was very bright, and we could feel the temperature rising.
We headed over to the boathouse…. which is our favorite place on the lake. The area around the building is full of native plants created by the area Master Naturalists…some with seed pods already.
As we started toward the meadow, I noticed that that the purple martins have already left. There were a few birds near the feeders…and the moon was visible in the nearly clear sky.
I took pictures of dragonflies that landed on the paved path or in the grass long enough for me to photograph. Most of them didn’t…they were on the prowl for breakfast.
The thistles were attracting skippers, but I didn’t see larger butterflies feeding in the meadow.
The sunny meadow had a lot of tall vegetation…not as colorful as earlier in the season. Many of the meadow plants are producing seed now. The goldenrod has not started blooming yet.
As we got to the far side of the meadow, a bird flew into a tree. I got several reasonably good pictures: a Great Crested Flycatcher!
There are two trenches made by storm runoff in that area…and both are dry right now. It’s been a dry August here.
We turned around and made our way back to the car…pleased with our morning activity before the heat of the day became overwhelming.
My husband and I enjoy the area near the Lake Springfield Boathouse for its meadow and birds. I forgot about our late May visit until I rediscovered the pictures I took!
The gardens around the boathouse were beginning to bloom and there were gardeners at work while we were there. There is a good stand of milkweed and butterfly weed but I didn’t see any Monarch butterflies.
The Purple Martin houses were full of birds!
Bluebirds were around as well. They are probably utilizing houses in the area, but I saw them near the feeders and nearby trees.
There were a pair of tree swallows on a sign as well. They use the same size house as bluebirds.
The meadow is beginning to bloom but the morning was still cool enough that I didn’t see many insects – a few butterflies and bubble bees.
My husband commented that he missed the meadow we frequented in Maryland that had a path mowed through it – the plants on both sides making it easier to get close to insects for photography. The meadow near the boathouse is one large area: no easy access to the interior.
It was a warm day in February when we opted to visit the Lake Springfield (Missouri) Boathouse area. The meadow has been mowed….no standing vegetation from last summer that might have included interesting seed pods. There were people in small boats on the water.
The most numerous birds were Canada geese although there was an occasional duck.
I enjoyed the exercise walking along the paved trail even though there was not much to photograph – savoring that there probably would not be too many February days as balmy. Then I decided to try some experiments with my Canon Powershot SX-70 HS bridge camera using the top of a large sycamore at the edge of the lake as my subject
I experimented with the Creative Filters mode using art bold, water painting, and grainy black and white. The filters make quite a difference! The art bold is supposed to ‘make subjects look more substantial, like subjects in oil paintings.’ It certainly differentiates the colors in the bark of the sycamore.
A landscape showing the lake with a few geese also looked quite different using the art bold effect.
Overall – a good outing for exercise…and OK for photography too!
Now to share some photos of the insects we saw in the meadow near the Lake Springfield (Missouri) Boathouse last week…
There were bees visiting flowers that were still blooming.
There were several pipevine swallowtails (iridescent blue on hindwing) being very active on the few thistles still blooming. These butterflies seemed to be strong fliers in the breeze; they managed to hang on as the thistle moved about too.
Several Monarch butterflies fluttered over the meadow. Finally - one landed on some asters. This Monarch (female) looked like one of the slightly larger ones that is headed to Mexico for the winter.
On the milkweed pods, groups of milkweed bugs at various stages of development were everywhere! The adult bugs migrate south to survive the winter and migrate back to Missouri in the spring and summer. I wonder how many of the immature bugs will mature in time to make the migration south!
There were lots of medium sized grasshoppers. I didn’t see any larger ones. They were very active…and I wasn’t fast enough to capture any portraits. A couple I talked to mentioned they had seen very large garden type spiders in the meadow feeding on grasshoppers but the spiders didn’t seem to be around on this fall morning.
We visited the meadow near the Lake Springfield (Missouri) Boathouse last week on a sunny, but relatively cool fall morning. Near the Boathouse, I noticed some beautyberry and asters.
The large cup plant has already been cut down - the stumps of the 4-angled square stems obvious.
We noticed that the purple martin houses had been taken down; there were big mowers in the area around the boathouse as we walked toward the meadow.
A lot of meadow plants have already produced seed. The goldenrods and asters are still blooming…and a few thistles.
The area that becomes an overflow creek during heavy rains was dry but there were some interesting plants around it:
Invasive bush honeysuckle with lots of red berries.
Seed pods of mallows.
There was only one milkweed plant I saw in the meadow…and wondered what happened to the plants I had seen earlier in the season. Perhaps they fell over, and the other plants hid them?
On the other side of the visitor center, I did find some milkweed with bursting seed ponds. The plants had fallen over but the seeds were still spilling out and floating away.
The vines in the trees were easy to see. The leaves on both poison ivy and Virginia creeper turn red in the fall! The edge of the forest is full of trees with the vines growing up the trunks and into the higher branches.
Tomorrow’s post will be about the insects we saw.
Even though August was very hot, my photography was still dominated by outdoors locations:
At home in Nixa MO
At the Dickerson Park Zoo and Lake Springfield Boathouse in Springfield MO
At the OSU Botanical Garden in Stillwater OK
At Josey Ranch and my parents’ yard in Carrollton TX
At Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge near Sherman TX
Birds and insects are more prevalent this month than previously. Enjoy the August slide show!
There was also wildlife to observe and photograph during our short walk at Lake Springfield boathouse and meadow. There were some very large funnel spider webs at the edge of the forest between the path and the lake. I didn’t see the spider…wondered if it was a larger than usual spider too. There was a very large round web (about a yard across) with a flower behind it…also on the forest side. Both were more visible because of small droplets from the fog that had recently burned away.
Grasshoppers were everywhere in the meadow. Occasionally it was possible to follow one as it jumped…and zoom in for a picture.
Pollinators were out and about too.
The high point of the morning was watching a pair of Indigo Buntings taking turns tending their young in a nest box. The box had been checked while we were walking by and the young were still there…but about ready to fledge.
Dragonflies were flying over the meadow looking for prey. Sometimes that sat long enough to be photographed.
A deer drank from a puddle in a low area at the edge of the meadow. It looked skinny for August with ribs showing as it walked away.
In the flowers near the boathouse, there seemed to be more butterflies than in the meadow. Butterfly weed and cone flowers are the big draw.
A mid-morning walk around the Lake Springfield (Missouri) boat house and meadow was pleasant…also our last outdoor activity for the day that rapidly became a hot one. There was a volunteer gardener working on the plantings around the boathouse.
I learned from her that the plant I thought of as a sunflower…was a relative called Cup Plant because its leaves fuse to the stem in a way to form a cup that holds water!
It was a cloudy morning after a recent storm. There were some branches that had broken but were still attached to trees along with trees holding mature seed pods on the lake side of the path.
The meadow was a jumble of plants of various maturities.
Some of the zoomed images showed remnants of spider webs visible because of water droplets. The milkweed pods are still green…far from splitting open and releasing seeds.
The stream that is often dry was still wet and burbling from the recent rain. Marsh mallows and pokeweed grew along the bank.
Looking more closely at the beds around the boathouse before we left, I noticed several areas where beautyberry was thriving.
There were also other natives. Some have been planted on a slope…a good strategy to avoid mowing!
Celebrating is often linked with appreciation. When I notice that I am celebrating something – I almost always notice that I appreciate that it happened or how beautiful it is…or just that it is a brilliant positive in my day. Noticing little things to celebrate/appreciate every day is a habit that builds mental resilience!
Miniature pumpkins on the vine. I planted the seeds back in May, not confident that they would be more than vines. They started to bloom – and I enjoyed the flowers. I am celebrating the recognizable little pumpkins now.
A new low weight of the year. Slowly but surely…I am getting to the ‘normal’ weight for my height. Every time I reach a new low for the year, I celebrate!
Ozark (Missouri) farmers market. I was overwhelmed by the crowd at the farmers market in Springfield and underwhelmed by the sparse number of vendors in Nixa. I celebrated that the Ozark farmers market was the Goldilocks (i.e. ‘just right’).
2 ‘hens and chicks’ planted. I finally planted something new in the front flower bed; it wasn’t a simple task since it required moving rock and cutting away landscaping fabric underneath. I celebrated the completed project…and am enjoying the anticipation of ‘chicks’ appearing before fall.
Getting the lawn mowed. Avoiding high temperatures…rain..heavy due. I celebrated that the night was dry, the light dew in the morning, and the temperatures still in the 70s when I did the mowing.
Intensity minutes while gardening. This summer I have increased my ‘intensity minutes’ rather than simply sustaining my low sedentary time. Mowing generally results in ‘intensity minutes’…but I celebrated when some of my general gardening did too!
Lake Springfield meadow. There is something different to celebrate every time I go. In July the uptick in dragonflies and butterflies was the high-point.
Sprinklers all working. We noticed that one zone of our sprinkler system was not working when the grass started turning brown…so we celebrated when it was fixed (and also that we got rain too) and the grass started its recovery.
Rounding of 3 corners in our yard. I had an idea to round the corners of our yard to make mowing easier (curves rather than right angles) and celebrated that the actions I took for 3 corners (planting some and putting down landscaping cloth to kill grass so that I can plant something) is working!
Test at doctors office shows all OK. Its always worth celebrating when a test comes back with the desired result….of course, with some measure of relief too.
Earlier this month, my husband and I headed over to the Lake Springfield boathouse for some photography of the meadow.
Before we walked to the meadow, we looked around the boathouse itself. The American lotus is blooming in the shallow water near the boathouse,
The plantings of native flowers in the beds around the structure, and
A non-native, invasive rose is growing at the edge of the forest.
The Purple Martin houses are still full and there appeared to be a young one in the grass…still being fed by the adults but also beginning to fly about as well.
Summer flowers are beginning to bloom profusely in the meadow.
There are lots of insects in the meadow too; they present a little more challenge to photograph. This month I photographed bees, butterflies, and dragonflies. The dragonflies and butterflies were intentional; I waited until they were posed. Milkweed in bloom is impossible to photograph without bees; I am including the picture that had two well positioned bees – selected from many images where they weren’t. I couldn’t resist the bumble bee butt image…a zoomed picture of a flower that a bee just happened to be flying over!
As usual, the meadow is an active place and there is always something to photograph. In August, I’ll be looking for grasshoppers!
So many photography opportunities in May…flowers are blooming, birds are out and about, we traveled to Pensacola FL and played tourist close to home when my sister visited. The first pictures are from Pensacola…then from Texas (Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and Carrollton)…then close to home (Lake Springfield, Fantastic Caverns, and World of Wildlife). It was a busy month!
I use the zoom feature on my Canon Powershot SX70 HS for almost every picture. My goal is to compose the image in a way that I don’t need to modify it later. The strategy saves time and focuses my creative energy while I am in the field when I can almost always try another shot – get exactly what I want.
The two Purple Martin houses near the Lake Springfield Boathouse are very active; there are always birds visible from the balconies. The houses are in the mowed area close to the boathouse and parking area – convenient for the birds to swoop over the meadow or out over the lake. It is very challenging to get the eyes visible with the dark coloring of the feathers!
A little further along the path and across from the meadow...there are periodic bluebird houses. One of the houses was being used by a tree swallow…another by an Eastern Bluebird that was still supplementing the nest inside.
The multiflora roses were blooming under the trees….a non-native plant that was promoted years ago, but is now generally viewed as invasive.
The meadow was mostly green….with a few plants beginning to flower The milkweed was up but not yet blooming.
I was glad I had by bridge camera with its optical zoom to photograph some insects. There were a few butterflies, but I didn’t manage to photograph any of them; they seemed to be moving about in a frenzy.
Many of the places where water makes it way down to the lake have scoured banks…the water trickling through the bottom of a ditch except right after a rain when the banks are eroded making ditch deeper/wider. There was one that was different with lots of vegetation on the banks – not eroded at all. I wondered if it was a new route for the water.
My phone and Bluetooth remote shutter control were used for some macro shots.
I was glad the boathouse had a small store since I had forgotten my water bottle. The day had started humid and a little cool, but the sun was out and the temperature rose pretty fast – an excellent morning to observe the meadow (glad we didn’t wait for the afternoon).
January is usually the calm after the flurry of holidays and other big celebrations in November and December. Still - there are plenty of little celebrations to choose from; these are the top 10 for January 2023.
50th wedding anniversary. My husband and I celebrated our 50th anniversary….a delivered lunch with our daughter. Our anniversary celebrations have always been relatively low key; this year I thought more about my parents’ 70th anniversary back in December…savoring enduring relationships with my family.
A new low weight for the year. I put on some weight in November and December. I put myself on a “healthy food” diet (logging my food into the Cronometer app) and celebrated that it worked…slowly but surely taking off pounds!
Lake Springfield. A winter meadow…and black vultures. Celebrating being outdoors in winter.
Another frost data point. I celebrated getting a second frosty morning to add to my project…noting temperature and humidit and photographing the crystals.
Hurray – bone density results still in the ‘normal’ range. Every time I get new bone density check, I am always a little anxious. I am leery of medications to treat bone density issues so I’m glad my preventative exercise - calcium – magnesium – Vitamin D regime seems to be maintaining my bones.
A sunny day in Carrollton (and seeing a downy woodpecker). After clouds and rain, a sunny day is always welcome and seeing a small woodpecker getting breakfast in a tree near a window adds to the celebration.
Coursera anatomy course. Starting a new course…celebrating filling in gaps in what I already know. Its always fun to slip back into the student role.
Pumpkin custard with peanut powder. I celebrated the success of my culinary experiment of the month: adding a cup of peanut powder to pumpkin custard (and rounding up on the spices). Yummy…and high in protein.
Snow (pictures) from Nixa/Springfield. I celebrated the event while I was in Texas.
Frosty morning in Carrollton. I added 2 frost events into my project while I was in Texas…celebrated that the conditions were cold enough…humidity high enough too.
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Celebrating the whole of life....
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Copyright © 2025 Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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