Wumple.com

From the Monroe County Clarion: Illinois, the "Prairie State," once was a part of a vast grassland stretching from Indiana to Nebraska, from Texas to Saskatchewan, called the tallgrass prairie.

In 1800, 22 million acres of Illinois were tallgrass prairie and 14 million acres were forest. …

While the place names endure, only remnants of tallgrass prairie live on. In Illinois, only 2,000 acres of original tallgrass prairie remain. But interesting variations, called hill prairies, still festoon the precipitous river bluff tops above the cliff face in Monroe and Randolph counties

Read the full story, "Prairie Patches Small Relics", at the Monroe County Clarion’s web site.

From the Joplin Globe (Missouri): Last winter, as most Southwest Missouri residents took shelter from the wave of ice that pummeled the region, Noppadol Paothong stood alone in the middle of Prairie State Park.

The 34-year-old former Joplin resident had spent the better part of four days in the deserted state park in Barton County braving the elements as he sought to take pictures of the bison herd that roams the tall grass prairie.

Watching through the lens, he saw one of the animals peel from the herd and begin making its way toward him.

Paothong, a photographer for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said he’s been chased by all manner of animals (including snapping turtles and snakes). As a joke, his co-workers at the department even gave him a piece of Plexiglas to use as a shield to protect himself.

Read the full article, "The Nature of Art with Noppadol Paothong", at the Joplin Globe.  Also visit Noppadol Paothong’s web site and blog.

N8 of Chappel Hill, NC blogged about seeing three lifers (first time in his life seeing a specific species of bird) on the prairies of Missouri where he grew up.  N8 saw Le Conte’s Sparrow, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Cackling Goose.

N8 wrote: "And so on the day after Christmas we traveled westward, to the place where the last hills and hollows of the Ozarks are shrugged off in favor of the wide sweeping vistas of the prairie. It’s not a place I traveled to regularly when I was a young birder, it’s only recently been realized as a great birding locale, so here was the possibility for several new birds merely an hour from the place I grew up. One in particular was our quarry for the day, and for us to get a shot on it we needed to travel to Bois D’Arc (pronouced Bo Dark) Conservation Area west of Springfield."

Read more about it on N8’s blog.