Learning about Missouri Geology – March 2025

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We took two road trips over the past month --- opportunities to observe Missouri geology along the roadsides! My copy of Roadside Geology to Missouri has been a good reference.

The first was from our home near Springfield MO to St. Louis. Interstate 44 dominates the route and there are plenty of roadcuts first on the Springfield Plateau then the slightly lower Salem Plateau…finally down the northeastern flank of the Ozark Dome close to St. Louis. Our day trip was on a sunny day, so it was easy to take pictures.

One of the most interesting road cuts is at the north side of the rest stop near mile marker 235. The Roadside Geology book says – “Tilted blocks of Pennsylvanian sandstone and shale….are part of a down-dropped block of rocks along a fault zone or a filled-sink structure, or perhaps both.” I took pictures from the south side of the road as we were going toward St. Louis

And then one as we passed by on the return.

We noticed caves and state parks along the way and are planning a ‘field trip’ in April to see some of those.

The second was from our home near Springfield MO to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City MO. The route took us from the Springfield Plateau to the Salem Plateau…then the Osage Plains as we turned toward Kansas City and crossed the Missouri River…finally to the Glaciated Plains of Northern Missouri. The day was sunny, making photographs of road cuts as my husband drove possible. I even got two pictures of the roadcut near out home as we set out!

The road cuts were less pronounced as we got further along…and more crumbly. On a botanical note – the sycamores are easy to spot this time of year.

I was so busy photographing overpasses and the bridge at Kansas City that I didn’t realize the bridge was over the Missouri River!

The Loess Bluffs (in this case roadcuts) look very different than the roadcuts further south. The loess here is from the edges of glaciers of the last ice age. Plants sometime can take root…but often sluff off and the loess is revealed again.

And then we reversed toward home.

Road Trip to Dallas in March 2025

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I left home before 6 AM and, because of the shift to daylight savings time, it was very dark for the first hour of the trip. It had been very windy the day before and cold overnight…with snow flurries. Fortunately, it was too windy and not cold enough for any accumulation. I made my usual first stop at a Loves just west of Joplin, before entering Oklahoma. I have made the trek so many times that I am very familiar with the places I like to stop. The next stop is at the Loves when I get off the turnpike at Big Cabin to go south on US 69/75. I buy a protein drink for breakfast. Stop three is at a QT in Muskogee where I buy gas this time. I stop at the Loves in Atoka for a cookie and then the Anna TX Whataburger for lunch…and then I am at the assisted living residence to visit with by dad.

I find him awake and in his rocking chair in his room. We do a round of physical therapy, and he seems resigned to doing the exercises. I notice when he stands up from the rocker that he seems stronger than he did in February after he’d had a short illness. The PT seems to be helping. We walked a bit outdoors…not around the block completely but about half the distance and he didn’t seem exhausted afterwards like he did back in January. I noticed that the redbuds are beginning to bloom, and the evergreen shrubs are getting new leaves. Afterward we disassemble a completed puzzle and put it in its box….started a new one – almost completing the frame before he complained that he can’t see well enough to continue. It had been about 2 hours since I arrived…about the max that he can enjoy at this point.

When I get to the hotel – there is no one at the front desk so I use that as a prompt to walk around outside for about 10 minutes; the afternoon temperature was in the upper 60s and the sun was shining. It was a pleasant afternoon. I took a few pictures of river rocks in one bed… some fiber curves of a yucca, and some mistletoe in a tree. There were drifts of leaves in areas of the parking lot where cars don’t park frequently….and a cedar branch that got painted red when the ‘no parking’ curbs were re-painted.

I focused on my own physical therapy for part of the evening! The food for my dinner that I brought from home worked well – I was glad I didn’t have to go anywhere else once I got to the hotel. I was still feeling the impact of the walk with my dad – must have been enough of some kind of pollen that caused my sinuses to drain (runny nose and sneezes) that continued until the early morning hours.

The next morning, I was up at my usual time and having the hotel breakfast shortly after 6:30 AM when they opened. I headed to the assisted living residence by about 7:20. It was the morning rush in the Dallas suburbs. The route is a main thoroughfare with lights but there was more honking of horns than I remembered from previous trips. My focus shifted to my dad for the hour and half I was with him.

Someone had opened the blinds on his window, and he was noticing the sun shining on the neighboring house’s chimney and then roof. I remembered to water the outdoor raised beds that my sister has planted; it was too cool outdoors to take my dad with me. After I returned, he was ready to work on the puzzle. We finished the frame and made some progress on the interior. He complained that he couldn’t see well enough about the time the staff started serving breakfast and I left. I took pictures of the rocks around the circular driveway of the assisted living residence…mostly sandstone, I think.

I had noticed on the drive down, that my stress level while driving seemed high so I decided to try keeping my thoughts more concentrated on the present rather than planning for events and activities coming up in the next few weeks. I noticed more things along the way:

  • License plates – Maine and Wisconsin were two further afield ones. Most were Texas, Oklahoma, and then, once I was close to home, Missouri. The Cherokee and Choctaw license plates were the most numerous tribal plates.

  • The cars that seemed to be trying to go faster than anyone else – darting from lane to lane on the highway – had Texas plates until I got into Missouri. Then it was Missouri drivers going way over the speed limit (more than 10 mph faster). They tended to get on the bumper of the car not going fast enough in front of them too.

  • There are some trees I recognize going down the road. Sycamores are easy to spot in winter and they haven’t leafed out yet…so they are still distinctive. The Bradford/Callery pears and redbuds are blooming right now so they are easy to ID. The Callery pears (escaped Branford pears) are more frequently seen near towns…where Bradford Pears were planted, birds ate the seeds and then carried them nearby. Sometimes they are half the trees in abandoned fields…along with eastern redcedars. The redcedars are native but they are more numerous now than they were historically because they thrive in damaged soil without periodic fires to control their numbers. The native redbuds are blooming…full bloom in Texas and buds transitioning to bloom in Missouri.

  • There are the always some roadkill that I notice. The most frequent this trip was skunks, but I saw a few racoons as well.

  • There are train tracks along US 69 in Oklahoma. Most were moving. When they were moving in the same direction I was traveling, I could tell that I was going faster than the train!

  • The wind was picking up dust in some places. It wasn’t always visible, but I could hear it when it hit my car. There was more trash along the sides of the road…caught in fences and trees or it would have just continued moving. My eyes felt itchy for much of the drive.

  • As I go closer to home, I noticed several cars that were packed with belongings – the rear window filled with what looked like clothes. I wondered if it was college student going back to school after spring break – with a lot of clean clothes!

When I got home, I checked the ‘stress’ metric that is recorded by my Garmin Lily…and it was lower than it had been on the previous day while I was driving! So – focusing on the ‘present’ is helpful!

Cedar Gap Conservation Area

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My daughter and I took an early spring hike at Cedar Gap Conservation Area near Seymour MO this week. It is about 45 minutes from where we live along good highway…to a 2-lane road that heads into the country side for less than a mile before it turns to a gravel road, and crosses some railroad tracks just before the small parking lot. The Cedar Gap Plateau is the second highest point in the State of Missouri! Three watersheds begin from the plateau: Gasconade River, Finley River, and Bryant Creek.

WThe trail is downhill to a stream – the headwaters of Bryant Creek. The trail is gravel that is sometimes large enough and loose enough that going downhill is considerably harder than going uphill!

We noticed some redbuds with buds developing but not open year. I stopped to photograph a small nest left from last season and some very green moss.   

It was not long. Before we heard trickling water! The water stairsteps down over rock ledges into pools…some clogged with leaves and others clear to the rock at the bottom of the stream. It has not been a wet winter or early spring so there was not a lot of water.

We saw a few wildflowers coming up through the leaves left from last fall.

I attempted to photograph some water striders. Their shadows show up more than the insects.

I walked a little further up to take a picture of overhang and realized that water was dribbling off the top…maybe evaporating before it reached the stream.

We hiked back up the trail the way we had come. The hike is a loop, but I wasn’t sure that we were half way around….and didn’t want a longer hike. I made stops on the way up (a steep trail) but felt surer footed than when we walked down. My last picture was of trees on top of the highest area…still like winter…but we know they will leaf out soon.

My daughter and I enjoyed a Mexican food lunch in Seymour before we drove home.

My daughter and I enjoyed a Mexican food lunch in Seymour before we drove home. The grand finale of the trip: as we drove toward my daughter’s house in Springfield, we saw two bald eagles soaring overhead. Fortunately, we were stopped at a red light so we both were able to safely see them!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 22, 2025

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

In This Storied Egyptian City, Rising Seas are Causing Buildings to Crumble – Alexandria, Egypt. Since 2001, 290 building have collapsed as the rising water table weakens soil and erodes foundations. There are other historic coastal cities with the same problem.

Astronomers Discover 128 New Moons Orbiting Saturn, Cementing the Planet’s Title of ‘Moon King’ – The total number of moons of Saturn is now 274….almost twice as many as all the rest of the moons in our solar system combined.

Microplastics could be fueling antibiotic resistance - Microplastics -- tiny shards of plastic debris -- are all over the planet. They have made their way up food chains, accumulated in oceans, clustered in clouds and on mountains, and been found inside our bodies at alarming rates. Scientists have been racing to uncover the unforeseen impacts of so much plastic in and around us. One recent discovery: bacteria exposed to microplastics became resistant to multiple types of antibiotics commonly used to treat infections. They say this is especially concerning for people in high-density, impoverished areas like refugee settlements, where discarded plastic piles up and bacterial infections spread easily.

How the Development of the Camera Changed Our World - From glass plates to paper prints to digital photograph imaging, the photo revolution's intention remains the same—to immortalize our world.

Alphonse Mucha Helped Define Art Nouveau. A New Show Explores His Lasting Influence – Mucha was undeniably revered in his day, when his posters and advertisements were widely disseminated. His posters lined the streets, and his illustrations graced the covers of major magazines. And to feed the public demand for his work, Mucha even produced smaller posters printed in publications, allowing people to bring his ornately detailed lithographs home without having to rely on the luck of finding one in the wild. The special exhibit will be at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri, April 11–August 30, 2026….maybe I will plan a road trip for next spring!

'You look up and see light coming through': The divers venturing under the ice in the name of science - In a remote corner of Lapland, northern Finland…a lake with 28 in. layer of ice with a hole cut in it. Divers are tethered to the surface using a safety rope, with a handler on the surface communicating with the diver via rope signals. The training here on the frozen lake is practice for work that will be done out on the sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic, where there are added dangers – large seals sometimes gather at the dive holes, preventing divers from leaving the water. In 2017, Alf Norkko, a professor of marine research at the University of Helsinki, and his team discovered big changes on the seafloor under Antarctic sea ice since their previous diving expedition in the same area in 2009.  "There was a remarkable increase in the abundance of life," he says. Norkko says that he and his fellow scientists are so dedicated to this work because they are aware of the urgency of climate change. At present, there is a race afoot to understand it, and to respond to it.

Grave of Roman Twins Excavated in Croatia – Twins that died between birth and 2 months…placed face to face. Suffered malnutrition before birth. Infant mortality was as high as 30% in Roman societies.

Particulate matter levels in air exceed WHO limits in majority of world's big cities - Fewer than one in five global cities met World Health Organization air pollution standards (for PM2.5) in 2024 with Central and South Asia accounting for the nine most polluted metropolitan areas on Earth. Los Angeles and Ontario, California are the most polluted in the US.  Mayaguez, Puerto Rico had the cleanest air of any metro area around the world. Man-made activities such as fossil fuel burning for transportation, generating electricity and domestic heating, industrial processes, fireworks and smoking were the largest sources of pollutant PM2.5, but that natural sources including wildfires, dust, pollen and dirt also contributed to particulate loads in the air.

China’s First Domestic Cats Took the Silk Road 1,400 Years Ago, New Study Finds - The Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.), from which the oldest cat in the study hails, saw peak activity along the legendary trade network, which boosted the exchange of goods and ideas between China, India, and Persia. It’s not improbable that merchants from the West could have carried cats on their journey to East Asia.

Can Toxic Mining Waste Help Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere? - On the coast of Newfoundland, waste from a shuttered asbestos mine has been a troubling source of contamination for decades. Now, a company plans to process the waste to draw CO2 from the air — one of several projects worldwide that aim to turn this liability into an asset. A 2022 report by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory estimated that existing asbestos tailings in Canada and the United States could remove up to 750 million tons of CO2 in total — while also removing an environmental health hazard.

Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (3)

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The trumpeter swans were in groups around the masses of snow geese at Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. They were easy to spot because of their size and their distinctive shape. Even when they are snoozing, they look different that snow geese.

They do make trumpet-like sounds too. There was a quartet that were interacting and making their sounds…sustaining their activity long enough for me to get a video!

There were a few instances where I couldn’t resist some botanical photographs. A large silver maple already blooming

And a dried stalk from last season with a backdrop of a metal fence.

There were several ducks at a distance that I photographed – good enough for id but not great pictures: Redhead

Common Goldeneye

Bufflehead

We saw mallards, pintails, ring-necked duck, and northern shoveler…but too far away to photograph. I saw a pied-billed grebe, but didn’t get a good picture.

The trip to Loess Bluffs was a learning experience with my new bridge camera. I am noticing that the Nikon Coolpix P950 autofocus does not seem to be as good as my old Canon Powershot SX70 HS….but perhaps I am still learning how to effectively use the Nikon. It is disappointing that the new camera is not already obviously better than the old…but I am determined to continue the learning curve with it rather than reverting to my old camera. I am anticipating a few more disappointing field sessions near term.

Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (2)

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While the snow geese dominated the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in terms of numbers, there were other things to see. There were many muskrat mounds, and we saw the animals swimming closer to the wildlife loop road than the snow geese. I only saw one group out of the water on a mound that looked like it was deteriorating. I couldn’t tell whether they were trying to rebuild it or just stopping there for a snack!

We heard many red-winged blackbirds. Some males might have been beginning to claim a territory, but others were still in flocks that would rise up and fly around in a murmuration. My favorite picture shows how long the claw are. It doesn’t look like the bird is gripping the twig as much as it might on a windy day.

A red-winged blackbird nest (probably from last season) was in the reeds.

There were at least two hooded merganser pairs that we saw on our morning visit. The males seemed more likely to startle and fly off…coming back to the female after a few seconds!

I took a picture of one of the bald eagle nests on our afternoon at the refuge….and then in the morning. There appears to be an eagle head visible (not in focus) in the morning picture (click on the image below to get a larger version).

More tomorrow about the other birds we saw….and the plants! There was a lot of see at Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge.

Francois Le Vaillant’s Birds

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The week’s eBook pick is the six volumes of Francois Le Valllant’s Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique published between 1796 and 1808 and available from Internet Archive. The illustrations of birds were created from his collection of skins preserved with arsenic soap that were stuffed and mounted in near lifelike positions. He was one of the first to use color plates in his books about birds and was a keen observer of bird behavior. Enjoy the sample images….and browsing the whole volumes!

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique T. 1

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique T. 2

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique T. 3

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique T. 4

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique T. 5

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique T. 6

Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (1)

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My husband and I drove up to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge last weekend – hoping to see a lot of snow geese. Their migration has begun and the ponds near the visitor center were full of thousands of birds when we arrived. A group would startle, and a lot of birds would rise off the water, swirl around over the pond and come back down not far away. There were three bald eagles that we saw around the wildlife loop road – but they seemed to be just watching rather than hunting for a meal.

As we headed to the hotel later in the afternoon, I researched snow geese migration and found that they often fly at night. We did notice that there were groups of geese that seemed to be flying away from the ponds as we were leaving. When we arrived a little before sunrise the next morning, there were much fewer snow geese than when we had left! It was very different than our experience at Bosque del Apache in December where the snow geese are there for the winter – not migrating through. As the sun came up and the smaller number of geese on the ponds begin to move about…with trumpeter swans around the edges of the group…we noticed that there were snow geese flying in! Perhaps they had been flying all night. Ribbons of birds in the sky kept coming the rest of the morning.

I took a picture from the visitor center with a lot of snow geese over the ponds.

From the lookout deck – I took pictures of birds in the water, the bridge over an irrigation dish to provide access to the wildlife loop, the bluffs (vegetation covered…loess underneath from the glaciation of the area) back toward the visitor’s center, birds in the air…and one final picture with snow geese and tumpeter swans.

I’ll be posting about other birds, muskrats, and some plants in two more posts in the next few days.

Note: We did see a few dead birds in the water. They looked like snow geese. The visitor center was not open so I wasn’t able to ask about the disease most prevalent right now (I suspect bird flu or avian cholera).

1 Month with my Nikon Coolpix P950

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I haven’t used the camera as much as I thought I would – weather caused the cancellation of one trip, and another was dominated by macro photography where I prefer my phone. My learning curve is just taking off! I am still not as proficient with the Nikon Coolpix P950 as I was with my old Canon Powershot SX70 HS….but I am determined to get there and beyond.  

There were plenty of opportunities for through-the-window bird photograph even with the multiple rounds of winter weather over the past month.

We did make a quick walk around some areas of the Springfield Botanical Garden on a cold afternoon. I’ve made a goal to try to be there at least once a month for the rest of this year. I liked the colors of the witch hazel and succulents and cedar…the textures of winter in all the images.  

Climatron and Linnean House at Missouri Botanical Garden

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After the Orchid Show and Arid House, we headed to two other conservatory structures: Climatron and Linnean House at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The two high points for me in the Climatron were

A cycad with fruit (there was a sign that cautioned to not eat the fruit!) and

Two Chihuly glass pieces (these are ones that are owned by MBC….not a special exhibit).

Of course, there are always other things to see. This time I rushed a bit because my husband was looking for bench that wasn’t wet!

The walk to the Linnean House was our longest one outdoors…and it was a cold one.

My favorite image is of a palm….the way the stem connects to the pleated part of the leaf always fascinates me.

There was a Girl Scout troop in the building with an MBC staff member….a field trip; we saw some of the same people we’d seen at the Orchid Show there too. There was plenty of space for everyone to enjoy the plants that were there.

Shoenberg Arid House at Missouri Botanical Garden

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After enjoying the orchid show, we headed to the Shoenburg Arid House at Missouri Botanical Garden. It was a short walk, but we realized that the breeze made if feel even colder than the temperature. It felt good to get into a warm building again. The air was surprisingly moist – maybe because the plants had been recently sprinkled.

There were cactus and aloes and yuccas…almost every plant had sharp points some place! A few of the cactus were blooming. It is not a large building so the plantings are relatively dense – closer together than they would be in their natural environment.

It was my first time to visit this conservatory since it opened in 2024 after a renovation…transitioning from temperate to arid plants. I liked that it is multi-level (a long ramp or stairs) and the central court. It is a get place to showcase arid plants.

Orchid Show at Missouri Botanical Garden

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We made a road trip to St. Louis last weekend for the Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is just over a 3-hour drive from our house…with some interesting road cuts along the way (more on that in another post). The temperature was in the 30s so our plan was to see the orchids then browsed the other conservatories rather than spending time wandering through the outdoor garden area. Our membership in the Springfield Botanical Garden gained us free entrance. The Orchid show was in the Emerson Conservatory, so we didn’t even need to go outside for it.

There were orchids everywhere. Some of my favorites: orange ones in sunlight (my mother’s favorite color was orange…a good memory prompt),

Shapes that had me wondering about what kind of pollinator the flower needed,

Small and delicate,

Ones that seem to have alien faces…and elaborate ‘fashion,’

Clusters of spirals.

I used my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max) on a lanyard and an external clicker - was pleased with how well it did. There were other people using their phones too. One lady was making a video which was going to be dizzying to look at because she was moving the phone so quickly. I talked to a lady that was doing excellent macro compositions with her phone….no other amenities. Another person that I talked to had lived in DC for 20 years but had grown up in St. Louis and had lived closed to the Missouri Botanical Garden for a few years when she visited almost every day. She had moved away but had made the effort to return with her mother for the orchid show.

Almost all the slipper orchids were low…the better to see into the slipper. I found myself taking mostly macro images although I also took some small landscapes and some plants that were providing greenery around the orchids.  Enjoy the slide carousel of orchids!

Tomorrow’s post will be focused on the other conservatories at Missouri Botanical Garden.

Missouri Trees

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The topic of the session at the two libraries in a nearby county was Missouri trees. Since it was the fourth (and last) event for our 3-person team of Missouri Master Naturalists, we managed to gracefully recover when one of us (the one bringing some small redcedar branches) had a tire emergency on the way to the first library. She managed to get there a few minutes before the children arrived, but we had already implemented a backup plan by cutting a few low branches from another tree! We were ready to go when the first 15 students (and 6 parents) arrived!

There were four activities:

Examining small branches of trees (river birch, redbud, maple, redcedar, shortleaf pine and eastern white pine). There were some extras that aren’t native to our area but are native to North America and that thrive planted in yards and gardens that we showed too (Southern Magnolia and Eastern Hemlock…the tiny cones on the hemlock fascinated the whole group).

Examining things left from last fall: glycerin and plastic sleeve preserved leaves, seed and seed pods, pine cones, and a white oak seedling.

Counting tree rings (everyone with their own tree cookie) along with some pictures that showed that the rings are not always neat concentric circles.

Looking forward to spring and the state tree – the Flowering Dogwood…with a pattern art project. The picture is of some samples I made beforehand, but the students did beautiful work on their pages…and were very focused (and quiet) while they worked.

The session was a great finally for our series!

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2025

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February was busier than usual this year – a combination of a class, a new role for me in the Missouri Master Naturalist chapter, and some significant volunteer hours. It all made for plenty of little celebrations.

Owl Pellets. Having 28 children busily dissecting owl pellets – finding and identifying tiny bones. I celebrated that we picked something they all seemed to enjoy doing all the way to the end of our time (and a little beyond).

A new protein drink. Another whey-based protein drink that already has lactase added…worth celebrating for the convenience (and also because it is not as thick or expensive as the one I had been buying).

Niece going to have another baby. My sisters and I celebrated that there will be another baby in the family next fall. My sister that is the grandmother shared the news with us almost as soon as she found out.

Snowy Feeder Watch day. I celebrated the extra birds that came to our feeders when snow was on the ground.

Seeing lots of Northern Harriers. I celebrated seeing Northern Harriers on our field trip to Lockwood MO. We’d seen them before in New Mexico but not as many…and it’s thrilling to see them closer to where we live.

Lunch with my daughter. My daughter and I have been meeting for lunch a Student Union dining room after my geology class. It feels celebratory every time we meet (and we generally have dessert too).

Finding witch hazel. I celebrated when I found a witch hazel in bloom at the Springfield Botanical Garden…even though I was hoping to see more of them.

Grandniece and grandnephew. I celebrated seeing my sister’s grandchildren when I went to Dallas to visit my father. One is just learning to crawl, and the other is reasonably adept at recognizing/saying colors.

Snow day. A day of staying indoors due to weather – always a time to celebrate. The day seems like a serendipity block of time that I had not anticipated.

Soup. Soup is my favorite meal on cold days. I celebrated finding a quick and tasty one made from ingredients in my freezer: turkey meatballs, corn, broccoli, and edamame….a little seasoning and sometimes left over spaghetti sauce…delicious.  

Zooming – February 2025

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There seems to be more going on this winter than usual. Most of the pictures I selected to represent February were taken within a 100-mile radius of home in Nixa MO…except for a few at the Josey Ranch ponds in Carrollton TX. There were some warm days…and some snow. Some of the bulbs are coming up --- growing slowing in the still frigid temperatures that keep coming. Enjoy the February slideshow!

Learning about Missouri Geology – February 2025

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The geology class/lecture I am taking at Missouri State University is providing good background in general geology…but I am most interested in the geology of Missouri…trying to be more aware of the geologic features around me.

My copy of Roadside Geology to Missouri has been a good reference. On the drive from Nixa to Branson, MO, my husband’s navigation system took a scenic route (to avoid a construction area); the two-lane road was predominately downhill and followed Woods Fork over to US 65.

The road cuts are spectacular along US 65 with one of the tallest marking the margin of the Springfield Plateau…and then the Salem Plateau as we continued south. There are layers of limestone, dolomite, and shale. There were frozen ‘waterfalls’ from some of the cuts. The day was sunny, so it was easy to get pictures of the cuts as we moved past.

We stopped at the Branson Scenic Overlook downstream from the dam that created Table Rock Lake. The overlook area was the first proposed location for Table Rock Dam. There were evidently too many cracks and faults in the rocks to build it at this location. The dam was built in the 1950s and spans the White River creating the deepest lake in Missouri.

The view for the overlook shows Branson and the lake in the distance but I was more interested in the river immediately below…the bare trees and remnants of snow…ripples in the cold water.

Our field trip to the prairies near Lockwood MO (from Springfield) took us from the Springfield Plateau to the Osage Plains. It was a very cloudy day, so I took few pictures - I did notice the flattening out as we drove around farmland with parcels being maintained as prairie. There were low rolling hills. There was a significant windfarm….indicating that the wind there is reliable enough to make it worthwhile.

The final geology adventure in February was the monthly Missouri Master Naturalist meeting. The topic for the month was Missouri Geology!

Previous Missouri Geology posts

Images of the Middle East in the 1830s

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The New York Public Library Digital Collections has the lithographs from Léon de Laborde’s Journey through Arabia Petraea, to Mount Sinai, and the excavated city of Petra available online. There are 60+ plates to browse! I liked that almost all of them include people…providing scale to the monuments and landscapes depicted. How many of those places still exist…how many are rubble now because of the many wars that have happened in the years since 1830?

I’ve selected 4 sample images…click on the small image to see a larger version….then click on the link below to go the whole collection and view them as a book online.

Voyage de l'Arabie Pétrée par Léon de Laborde et Linant

Sustaining Elder Care – February 2025

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I took three days for my monthly trip to Dallas rather than the usual two. A weather forecast for snow prompted the decision…since it would be impossible to leave early in the morning. There were two appointments I wanted to keep – one to signing tax forms for my dad and the other to complete the set up at his bank so I could sign for him if needed. It turned out that the drive down was not bad. The highways were clear; the first rest stop still has some snow/ice remnants but even that had melted way by the time I was mid-way through Oklahoma.

I got to Dallas early enough to see my dad on my that first day…and two more times before I left to come home. During my recent visits, I’ve noticed my father’s further decline each month – both physical and mental. He rarely can complete a sentence now and tends to look at his feet when he stands up and walks (hunched over) with the walker. The cold weather keeps him from taking walks outside most of the time and the impact on his physical fitness is noticeable. It felt right to see him for the extra day.

He had another round of Covid since my last visit; he appears to have come through OK although he had a few rough days when he was quarantined to his room, and he became concerned that the house was too quiet (thinking he was alone in the assisted living residence). One of my sisters arrived (masked and gloved) at the perfect time to reassure him. And now the house is back to normal with residents out in the shared big room more frequently…and a television on there.

We had a rough time starting a new puzzle on the second afternoon but then did very well the next morning – completing the frame and forging ahead. Dad seemed more adept at finding pieces that fit. Perhaps he is always more alert mentally in the morning. I’ll need to consider that going forward.

I drove home on the third day and it was unexpectedly harder than I thought….foggy and rainy the whole way. The temperature was high enough that I wasn’t worried about ice, but the sheets of water thrown up by the big trucks on the highway along with the wind made for a stressful drive. The 7 hours on the road was exhausting. I was relieved to be home again.

Josey Ranch – February 2025

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The weather was cold and mostly cloudy…but I headed to Josey Ranch for a nature fix – and to gain more experience with my new camera (Nikon Coolpix P950). The last time I visited was back in September, but I expected to see a lot of birds that are in Texas during for the winter. The pond between the library and the senior living complex was almost empty. I photographed a feather and a dandelion almost ready to bloom before I headed over to the other pond.

There were a lot of birds: American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Canada Geese, Greater Scaup, American Coot, and Ring-billed Gull (many immature).

There were pigeons and crows on the tall lights over the ball fields.

Surprisingly there were cormorants on the poles as well!

I headed back toward the larger pond and my car…noticing some mistletoe in a tree along the way.

There were a pair of Great Egrets that interacted and then flew away from each other. The breeding plumage is beginning to be obvious.

A group of mallards and domestic duck hybrids were on a small pond. One hybrid was mostly black but had a green head!

Back at the larger pond I saw sleeping Ruddy Ducks.

I got a better view of a cormorant on the pond. It seems to have some characteristics of a Double-Crested (bare skin in front of the eye) and the white line of the Neotropic. I read that there are instances of hybrids in the areas where the two species interact….and north Texas might be one of those places!

The cold and wind had me regretting wearing leggings rather than jeans….it was time to head back to the car.

More Snow

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We had more snow last week…not as much as our previous snow day. The temperature hovered around freezing so it was slushy from start to finish. I took some pictures around the peak accumulation. There was no breeze so the pines and cedars and seed pods and patio furniture held the wet snow.

My favorite was my young eastern red cedar; I hope it survives transplanting in the spring.

The birds were very active at our feeders – as they were during the last snow. Unfortunately, a flock of about 15 starlings swarmed in and took turns at the feeders chasing the smaller birds away.

The street in front of our house is barely covered with snow and it appears to be melting. Hopefully it will simply melt and it won’t be a problem to get out and about tomorrow.