Back in April my family went camping in the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma. We planned a camping trip down there more than a year ago, which was postponed due to rain. The same thing happened on our rescheduled date. I was really happy that this time around the weather was cooperative - in fact, it was more than cooperative, it was perfect!
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| Plains Flax (Linum puberulum) |
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| Prairie Larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum ssp. virescens) |
A significant motivator for camping in this location is that the Black-capped Vireo, an endangered species, nests in this area and it is one of the few places in the United States where this species can be reliably found. I was successful with the vireo and added a total of 7 new species of my life bird list (Black-capped Vireo, Cave Swallow, Black-headed Grosbeak, Rock Wren, Canyon Wren, Chuck-will's-widow, and Rufous-crowned Sparrow).
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| Black-capped Vireo |
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| unusual white form of Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) |
We saw some other wild animals besides birds - rabbits, TONS of prairie dogs, bison, and lizards. Ever since the
Oklahoma Virtual Spring BioBlitz in April I have been logging as many wild living species as I can - plants, animals, insects, fungi, what-have-you. I spent a lot of this trip taking pictures to upload to iNaturalist.org. And once we were home I spent a lot of time trying to identify everything I had seen. Each picture is a fun puzzle and process of discovery.
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| Variegated Fritillary |
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| Lace Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus reichenbachii) |
There were many wildflowers in bloom in the Wichitas - Opuntia, Yucca, and Echinocereus cacti, Gallardia, Gaura, Linum, Castilleja, Delphinium, and more.
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| Opuntia |
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| Opuntia with pollinator, Kern's Flower Scarab |
My full album can be seen here:
