We went for a walk at the arboretum today. Cold and misty it was, a good day for seeing critters we don’t normally see on a sunny day. And we did- saw three deer, a covey of quail, lots and lots of birds, eagle, red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks among them.

Emerging daffodils in January!

The flora, however, is sparse due to a burn-off of even more areas than last time we were there. I know that in the natural life of a prairie, fires are a regular occurrence and serve some function like letting the plants regenerate and renew. But even the woods have been burned off, perhaps a fire-hazard reduction? This will bear watching in the spring- will the growth be different after the burn?

The glade, burned off.  I wonder what will happen in spring? Will the Indian paintbrush and bird’s foot violet and hoary puccoon be tentative or profuse?

Moss against the burned-off ground.

The draw, burned off

Burned oak trunk

Prairie, exposed. The clumps are the wonderful big grasses. I imagine they’ll be fine in spring.

Burned preying-mantis egg case

Burned young sassafrass (I hope they'll come back, one of my favorite spring sights is the sasafrass bud)