We are headed back home from a short trip to Iowa. Iowa has lots of sky over lots of fields!
Iowa is the 25th largest state having 56,275 square miles of land.....and I would guess that most of those miles look a great deal like these photos!
Endless fields as far as the eye can see!
Green between the fields adds a touch of color.
Sky over farmland with one of many circling hawks we saw.
Working on the harvest under blue skies.
A path of green.
Geese fly overhead
Blue sky over the Quilt shop in Amana Colonies. This is an interesting group of small communities that were founded by a communal group that came from German to seek religious freedom. They are still linked in some communal way.
A bit of humor in farm country at this factory.
We saw signs for a wildlife refuge and followed them to end up at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.....5,000+ acres of tallgrass prairie! Very unusual and not what we expected to find. I've never seen a lot of prairie land before. They are trying to turn this land back into the type of prairie it once was and ridding it of the trees and plants that don't belong.
We saw numerous hawks overhead, but I am really poor at getting overhead shots and do not have a bird book with me. I can see light areas on the wings of this bird. I do not have a good photo program on my laptop either! (Eve has suggested a juvenile red tail hawk)
They have reintroduced buffalo and elk to this refuge and presently have a herd of 47 adults and 3 young buffalo. We were fortunate to spot 4 of the buffalo!
Not great shots, but my camera is really confused by all that grass.
We also spotted one elk! We thought we did great for driving the auto loop and expecting to see nothing at all but grass.
Again...not a good shot. He was a great distance away and the camera is not that good.
Sunset on the way back to Des Moines for the night.
Moon to end the day.Headed home all day Friday. Back to normal soon :-)
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23 comments:
It's nice to see big blue sky with wide open spaces. I love your moon shot!
Lots of land - beautiful.
Your sunset and moon shots were fantastic.
Thanks for sharing.
Mary these are wonderful shots...I would love to have a good bird of prey book. I have a book of birds, but it doesn't show an actual picture of them in flight.
OMG! you have such beautiful photos of the sky from different hours of the day. thanks for sharing them with us. I especially like the sunset and the moon shots.
Oh my wow! I just love your sunset and moon shots very beautiful. And the fields vibrant blue and greens great Iowa shots!
Mine is about the HongKong skies check it out here.
That is some very nice scenery Mary.
I'm glad I don't have to pick a favorite,that would be impossible.All the pitures are lovely and ,oh so, interesting.I like the way you ended the post with a lovely sunset,how fitting.
mary, you find beauty where ever you go. Thanks for sharing with us, and happy skywatch.
Beautiful shots Mary...I like the blue trailers! I think you have a juvi Red-tail there. Maybe. Great moon!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Good photos, I enjoyed the wild life. Iowa looks a lot like my state Illinois. We are having a beautiful blue-sky day here too.
I had to go back and look at the previous post again. Those quilts just fascinate me. So beautiful.
Marnie
I love seeing the Bison Mary. You are right, that is very flat country around there not like some of the other States.
Beautiful skies "above the fruited plains."
Love the first picture of endless fields and sky!
WOW!
I love the green fields and the clear blue sky! :)))
Beautiful!
It seems the sky is endless. The sunset photo was my favorite. The sun was so BIG!
So many varied, beautiful images throughout the day. Wonderful series. Your blog header is just the sweetest
Hi Mary, I loved all your photographs, just beautiful every one, and love how you ended with the sunset and the moon shot. Great, great, great! Thanks for sharing.
Mary: A wonderful trip around the refuge. You posted a lot of neat photos for SWF. I loved the animal bonus and theat sunset is really neat.
Awesome jaw-dropping photos! Perfect for a Sky Watch Friday such as today!!!
You really have some wonderful photos in this series... I adore your moon shot... those can be tricky but wow...you did a fantastic job!
~Michele
Mountain Retreat
What wonderful country you have been driving through. I love the elk and the buffalo and all of the wide open spaces!! Most special of all is the beautiful sunset near the last of your photos.
ann
Thank you everyone, and I apologize for not doing individual responses, but I'll never get caught up if I do! I think it is interesting that most of you like the sun and moon best :-) I was much more thrilled about the bison and elk, myself, having never seen any before.
Marnie: We saw a great deal of your state going and coming and I agree that these fields and skies could just have easily have been from Illinois. I was really amazed at how huge these farms were. Even though I see farms in Indiana, these seemed bigger.
Eve: Thanks for making a stab at the hawk....now that I am home with a bird book, I agree that it seems the most likely match. I saw so many hawks flying overhead and always when someone else was driving and didn't understand my need for them to stop so I could try to get photos! I have so much trouble tracking them, when I do try.
I missed your post on Friday. I'm sorry I did...but glad I still got to see them. These are wonderful! And that sunset shot... Wow!
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