Redbuds In April

Redbuds In April

Crawford County

Flooded Stream

Crawford County

Blue Phlox

Crawford County

Redbuds
Crawford County

Roundleaf Grounsel

Crawford County

Roundleaf Groundsel

Crawford County

Black Oak Trail in April

Crawford County

Yesterday I took a walk along Black Oak Trail near town. I wanted to see how much flooding we had on the west side of town from Cow Creek and also to look for the redbuds. Eastern Redbuds grow as a small understory tree in the woodlands here in SE Kansas. They put on a wonderful show with thousands of small dark pink flowers that sing together to light up the early spring.

I hiked slowly stopping several times to take a photo or listen. Birds that sang included an very determined robin, some warblers that I could just make out a yellow head through my binoculars, white throated sparrows, cardinals, and three crows that circled me twice calling to each other a low guttural caw. Silently a great blue heron flew overhead, a pair of blue wing teal glided to a landing in the flooded stream and a Carolina wren sat perched watching me over its shoulder suspiciously. I headed back to the truck thinking this three day weekend was off to a wonderful start.