Badlands National Park probably isn’t at the top of your list for a fall foliage drive; there’s no forest. But Christian Begeman took a trip through the sandstone buttes in October anyway. We think the pink stripes in the ancient pinnacles make up for lack of colored leaves. And the yellowing grassland paints a rich backdrop for antelope and coyote. See more of Begeman’s work at cbegeman.blogspot.com.
If you could pick a color to represent summer in South Dakota, what would it be? Azure blue for the summer sky? Maybe green with yellow tints for the prairie pastures? The colors of the rainbow we see after a spring storm? How about a mixture of orange and red for our signature sunsets? How do you color the serene night sky? I don’t know, but one thing is certain: summertime’s palette of color is vibrant and full of life. The rains have been good. For a few months out of the year our landscapes transition from drab tans and browns to lovely green accented with yellow, blue and red flowers. We may not have the vast carpets of wildflower fields like other parts of the world, but the summer wildflower season in South Dakota is still beautiful.
Much of the state is prairie landscape, which means outside of the farm fields, grass is king. However, summer wildflowers aren’t difficult to find. These bursts of color often accent the wide pastures with pleasant shades of yellow or purple. Coneflowers, sunflowers and milkweed also attract colorful butterflies, moths and even birds. A walk on a hillside that has never seen a plow always surprises me with the abundant variety of life mixed with the grasses. It is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening hike with your camera.
Earlier this month, I was surprised to see that you don’t even have to leave the confines Sioux Falls to find wildflowers in abundance. Just north of Cherapa Place on the east side of the Big Sioux River is a large area planted back to native grass and flowers. Such a display of natural color in the midst of our largest city is a feast for the eyes.
Flowers are fun to photograph any time of day, but I’ve had the best luck early in the morning, before the wind comes up and the dew dries. Flowers look good under clouds, too, because the light is diffused more evenly and the shadows are less harsh. My favorite time to hunt wildflowers, however, is early in the evening when the golden light colors the land with warm hues. A macro lens will work wonders, but it is not necessary. A wide-angle lens can take great photos of wildflowers too. I recommend getting down on your knees or even your stomach to shoot the flowers at eye level. Getting down in the grass and looking up provides new and creative perspectives for you and your camera. Be warned, however, that un-photogenic insects like ticks, spiders and ants also live at this level, so be mindful of where you settle in and always wear repellent.
As summer wanes, the sunflower season will get into full swing. You’ll see blooming blazing stars and ironweed, and monarch butterflies will begin their migration to Mexico. But there’s still plenty of time left in the season to find your summer color. Take a hike, bring your camera and enjoy the color of summer while it lasts.
Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.
A young lady from South Dakota is the modern-day”Marlin Perkins” for Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Earlier this week I had a chance to get acquainted with her when she spoke at a meeting of South Dakota’s retired teachers in Pierre.
Stephanie Arne breaks all the molds. She was a high-achiever at Riggs High School in Pierre, and enjoyed her years as a biology student at South Dakota State University.
But she’s not the 9-5 type, so as soon as she got her degree in Brookings she took to the road — working for any wildlife organization that had an opening. It hardly seemed like a great career path. She took low wage jobs with the country’s finest zoos in Omaha, San Diego and Honolulu. Good experiences if you love critters, and she does. Not a good way to save for your first mortgage.
Even zoos couldn’t hold her back. She eventually traveled the world for a decade, finding ways to work with animals in Thailand, Japan and Africa. She showed up in Australia without a clue as to how she was going to make ends meet, and soon she was giving wildlife tours on day charters.
She became known as a wildlife ambassador — a person passionate about birds and animals and the challenges they face on an fast-changing planet.”You should have a show,” friends kept saying.
And then she heard about a job opening with Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, one of the most respected wildlife shows in the history of broadcasting. She and about 500 others applied. Upon meeting her, it’s no surprise that she won the position once held by renowned naturalists Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler.
She acknowledged that while she always had the support of her parents and teachers, they probably didn’t figure she was on a great professional trajectory while earning barely sustainable wages, sometimes for scooping pelican poop. We expect our youth to be more responsible: stay safe, earn your way and fit the mold of today’s demanding workplace. Be a square peg in a square hole.
Fortunately, Stephanie followed her heart. She did what she loved, what she thought was important. By those important standards, she was a success even before she was chosen to host Wild Kingdom.
Steph strongly credits her South Dakota upbringing and education, and is proud to always call this home. Several of her teachers were in the audience as she spoke. Buttons were busting off their jackets as she spoke about the importance of a great teacher.
Now she’s teaching the world about the nature. She’s known as the wildlife ambassador, but she’s also a fine ambassador for Pierre and Brookings and our entire South Dakota. And for young people brave enough to resist the normal patterns of society.
Another spring is settling in. I like to muse that the season is much more than simply another tilt of the planet back towards the sun. It’s the annual promise of new life. It’s another chance to smell rain on the wind. It’s another year to chase the light and see what is beyond the next bend. Springtime provides a lot to be thankful for, but also is a time of nostalgia for me. I remember life awakening on the farm, the smell of the first cut grass, the song of the meadowlark from a distant fencepost and the smell of plowed earth at planting time. This year, the season’s signature flourish of raindrops and rainbows have been few and far between, but thankfully that has not stopped the return of waterfowl on the wind, the greening of the grass and the budding of leaves. The songbirds and wildflowers are back, there’s new warmth in the breeze and the sky seems a bit more blue. Happy Spring everyone!
While checking the status of ice on area lakes, I startled a large group of migrating waterfowl hanging out in a pond of snowmelt near Silver Lake in northeast Hutchinson County.
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On the official first day of spring I took a sunset hike around the edge of Buffalo Slough south of Chester. All ice is completely gone.
I found a rather large, wild pasqueflower patch a few miles south of Lake Vermillion including a lovely little natural bouquet of five.
Just like last spring, a lunar eclipse took place, but dawn approached too quickly to see the full”blood moon.” This photo was taken roughly 20 minutes before totality above Skresfrud Lutheran of rural Lincoln County. Since I was already up, I checked the bird feeders at Good Earth State Park and watched the early bird (robin) get its worm.
Temperatures reached the low 70s on this Easter Day. In the afternoon, I went looking for snow trillium at Newton Hills State Park and found many blossoms as well as a half dozen Question Mark butterflies soaking up the day’s warmth amongst the last year’s leaves.
A spring day for the books! First I explored Union Grove State Park to find an early flowering bush along the trail. Later, after a brief thunderstorm passed, an afternoon rainbow graced the sky over the fields of Union County. In the evening another rainbow appeared on the northwest edge of Vermillion and the magic was far from over. As I drove back to Sioux Falls, the setting sun painted the retreating rain clouds pink and blue north of Chancellor.
A steady, light rain fell for most of the afternoon in Sioux Falls. It was much needed moisture. I spent some time in the Japanese Garden area of Terrace Park to see if I could capture the mood of the day. I was accompanied by a variety of geese, ducks and songbirds, including a male northern cardinal with raindrops glistening on its vibrant feathers.
Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.
Smoke from an out-of-control prescribed burn at Wind Cave hung in the air when Joel Schwader visited Custer State Park last week. “It was so smoky when I first got there,” Schwader says. “You could barely drive in it. I found it amazing how the animals seemed to adjust so well to it.”
Jon Larsen shared these recent photos from Badlands National Park. Larsen is a hobby photographer and computer repairman from Spearfish. “I’ve been taking photos for years, but my serious phase started with my new bride who was already an accomplished photographer,” Larsen says. “I plan to spend the rest of my days trying to become half as good as she is.” See more of his work at fiskr-larsen.artistwebsites.com.
Ryan Clayton, Rapid City, shared these recent photos from Custer State Park. The Black Hills received record high temps on February 6 and Clayton says the buffalo were giving free car washes. “It might have been a while since they’d seen traffic,” Clayton says. “They were in a hurry, running to greet me and lick the salt off my car. They all seemed to still have their full winter coats so we might be in for a bit more winter. ”
See more of Clayton’s work at facebook.com/imagesbyryan.
Joel Schwader shared recent photos from Wind Cave National Park. In addition to being one of our country’s longest and most complex cave systems, the park includes over 33,000 acres of mixed-grass prairies, ponderosa pine forests and wildlife such as bison, elk and prairie dogs. See more of this Rapid City photographer’s work on his Facebook page.
Deborah Johnson, Hot Springs, shared recent photos from Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. Unseasonably warm temperatures made it feel more like late spring than late January. See more of Johnson’s work at www.un-tamed.net.
