By Brandt Mannchen

It was a lovely day at Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge (APNWR).  The temperature was in the low 80’s, partly cloudy, but mostly sunny, and a steady 15 mph wind.  The clear, clean, blue sky and the seemingly endless green and yellow prairie provided an inviting backdrop to a wonderful day outdoors.

Birds were more hidden that day versus other days but still provided plenty of interest as Mocking Bird, Loggerhead Shrike, Greater Yellow-legs, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown Cowbird, Savannah and Swamp Sparrows, Barn and Cliff Swallows, Scissortail Flycatcher, Killdeer, Morning Dove, Carolina Wren, Turkey and Black Vultures, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Meadow Lark, American Coot, Moorhen, Fulvus Whistling Duck, Green Heron, Pied-billed Grebe, and Great Egret, all welcomed us to their homes.

Not to be outdone, grasses and wildflowers speckled the prairie, wetlands, lake, and San Bernard River with white, yellow, purple, blue, red, green, and magenta.  Some of these included:

Spiderworts, Herbertias, Meadow Pinks, Senecios, Coreopsis, Verbenas, Wild Onions, False Indigos, Phloxes, Blue-eyed Grasses, Toadflaxes, Larkspurs, Obedient Plants, Scarlet Pimpernels, Wine Cups, Blue Bonnets, Indian Paintbrushes, Wooly Whites, Venus Looking Glasses, Corn Salads, False Dandelions, Bull Nettles, Bull Thistles, Wood Sorrels, Crow Poisons, Flaxes, Lantanas, Prickly Poppies, Sensitive Briars, Evening and Mexican Primroses, Vetches, Texas Dandelions, Wild Geraniums, Coral Beans, Spider Lilies, White Water Lilies, Spatterdocks, Purple Prairie Clovers, all bent in the wind, as if waving to us as we passed and bowed to their beauty and gracefulness.

Finally, butterflies, so sadly becoming rare due to changes in our climate due to us, flitted back and forth between the many colored wildflowers including Buckeyes, Monarchs, White Sulfurs, Yellow Sulfurs, and large, black Swallowtails.

Lunch was leisurely beneath the Sycamore shade at convenient benches that allowed relaxed conversation.  We admired the new visitor center and office complex that was almost completely built and had seemingly risen from the prairie since our last visit a year ago.       

All too soon we had to drive back to Houston.  We went our separate ways but happy and feeling content with a Nature derived smile.