Lots of rain lately which has been a mixed blessing. On the plus side, it's made it easier to pull invasive vines up in the wooded areas. However, it also means there are lots of dead worms on the sidewalks for my dogs to obsess over during walks.

Diamond flowers at Mt Mitchell prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Obedient plant at Leadplant Prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Mock Dakota vervain from Konza Prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Bee on the slim leaf scurf pea at Mt. Mitchell prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Showy evening primrose, whorled milkweed, Indian plantain and bergamot from Leadplant Prairie. These are all plants that self-restored to an abandoned gravel parking lot next to the prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Honey bee and skipper on the milkweed at Konza Prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Rain cut short my work at the boat ramp restoration, so time to post a green comet milkweed from Konza Prairie. Don't know what the comet refers to. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Cat's claw sensitive briar popping up amid the butterfly milkweed at Konza Prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

I saw a Cadillac station wagon on the highway today. I wouldn't have guessed that people who want Caddies would drive a station wagon.

One of many stands of butterfly milkweed at #konza prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Cat's claw sensitive briar, pale spike lobelia and a late prairie phlox from Akin Prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Upcoming training to help monitor bumble bees in Kansas kansasreflector.com/briefs/buzzi...

Patch of pale purple coneflowers at Akin Prairie. #nativeplants #wildflowers

I'm having quite a deer year. The last two times I went to Leadplant, I almost tripped over fawns hiding in the grass. Today, working in a little remnant restoration, I had a doe snort at me for several minutes. I eventually left because I worried I was keeping her from a fawn stashed in the area.

Purple mallow from the yard. First one from a few years ago has spawned a number of volunteers. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Larkspur just showed up in my yard about 15 years ago. Now it just migrates from one flower bed to another, changing each year. Always curious where it will pop up next. #nativeplants

Prickly pear blooming at home. #nativeplants

Not much new at Leadplant Prairie, which is not surprising. Grooved flax one of the few new flowering #nativeplants Had to spend most of my time dealing with a big patch of sericea. Yuck.

Black-eyed susans doing well at the boat ramp restoration. #nativeplants

Textbook publishers are they worst. Constantly bombard me with unwanted marketing emails. Can't bother to let me know about a pricing change that blocked students from getting their texts at the start of the summer term.

Butterfly milkweed at the boat ramp restoration. #nativeplants

Pale purple coneflower at boat ramp restoration. #nativeplants

All the recent rain means it's hard to work in prairie without tearing up soft ground. Decided to dig up patch of Johnson grass near boat ramp restoration. It's by itself, so not much to damage. Turns out it still has many violets, so I had to work slowly to minimize trampling them.

Cat's claw sensitive briar in Akin Prairie. #nativeplants

Had a little time, so I pulled invasive winter creeper in a small riparian woodland. It's always a tiny bit discouraging when you see how much time it takes to clear a little patch & then look at how much there is to go.

I'm a huge sucker for lichen. Here are a couple I found while cleaning up branches and cutting them up to make bio chat. I have to admit if the branch has enough lichen, I usually figure out something else to do with it.

Pair of skippers on a pale purple coneflower at Akin Prairie. #nativeplants

Showy evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) in Leadplant Prairie. It's privately owned, but open to the public. Right next to the Prairie Spirit trail. Just south of Welda, KS. #nativeplants

Blue false indigo and Indian plantain from Leadplant prairie. #nativeplants Invasive teasel & sericea still down from where we started, so that's good. Oxeye daisy starting to go bonkers which has me worried.

Wild hyacinth (Camassia scilloides) from Leadplant prairie. #nativeplants

At least the city left me one pawpaw

In addition to all our native tallgrass prairie flowers in the yard I planted a bazillion flowers in pots. A variety of bee species, one which is shown here, are already loving it (and I'm getting a good workout watering nightly-worth it!). #nativebees #bees #backyardnature #pollinators #macroworld

I agree 100 % with how this ornate box turtle feels about current events.

Virginia waterleaf, Rice Woods, Baldwin City, KS. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Pileated woodpecker going to town on a stump. This is in Rice Woods, a piece of old-growth forest owned by the U of KS just north of Baldwin. This is along a newly - opened public trail.

Pale poppy mallow, death camass and old plainsman from the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Nice walk at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, but had to detour at one point because a group of ruffians were blocking the trail. #prairie

Dogs working to scan the yard in unison.

Bee working over a spider milkweed in a hayfield near Ottawa, KS. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Slim leaf scurf pea at Akin Prairie in eastern Kansas. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Habitat restoration opportunities in California. #nativeplants kymkemp.com/2026/05/06/w...

They ran a sewer line near a wooded patch I'm working on. I threw a bunch of seeds on a chunk of what they dug up & was happy to see multiple species made it. Here are lanceleaf coreopsis, Illinois bundle flower, beard tongue penstemon & slender mountain mint. #nativeplants

Native plant sale in Emporia this Saturday for anyone in the neighborhood. #nativeplants visitemporia.com/event/native...

Spider wort at #BakerWetlands. Also saw a family of wood ducks. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Leadplant and wild quinine at #BakerWetlands. #nativeplants #wildflowers

A couple of successful mulberry transplants that survived the winter. These are in a small restoration near an intermittent stream. Area will always be scrubby, but I'm trying to add a little diversity to the hackberries and ash that moved in on their own once honeysuckle was cleared.

Spotted sandpiper bopping around on the Kansas River. A little hard to see, she's in the upper right

Jack-in-the-pulpit, Douglas County, KS. #nativeplants #wildflowers

Heavy rains at least made somebody happy. Mixed flock of long-billed dowitchers and both flavors of yellowlegs. Also a couple of Wilson's phalaropes.