Winter storm warning..

I am literally stuck in Norton, KS.  I tired to do some points today, but slid off the road twice due to slick muddy conditions.  A sunfire just isn't made for Kansas.  Out here, people who have pick-up trucks actually *need* them.  In my opinion, you would need this to live out here.

deuce and a half...you can buy one of these from a military vehicle surplus...

So, I had to decide if it was worth it to keep going, or to stop.  Seeing as how I can't go on ANY dirt (now mud) roads here, I was forced to stop.  I will use today to map out my routes through Nebraska, which I will hopefully make it to eventually!  Hopefully the forecast for 3-5 inches of snow is wrong...I am just going to pretend I never read that forecast...

In the meantime, I can post some interesting photos from the past few days.  While in Osborne County, Kansas, I came across this...a lesser prairie chicken sitting on a power line!!!  Of all the places I imagined seeing my first one, I did not imagine it would be on a power line!

I saw three more later that day in the same county, flying into a sunflower field.  The warm sunny weather brought out some little birds I hadn't been seeing too much, including flocks of white-crowned sparrows...

and a few grasshopper sparrows.

While driving on a well-used paved/gravel road, I came across this guy basking in the road!  He is a 4 foot long bull snake, and he was very nasty.  I tried to shove him off to the side of the road, but he only reacted by coiling up and getting defensive. 

Bull snake

About half a mile down the road from the bull snake was a really dark red-tailed hawk.  I drove by it sitting on a telephone pole, and as I turned around to go back, it dove at a small snake in the road.  It then flew to a hay bale to eat it, where I took this photo.  You can see the dark feathers on the leg. 

dark morph red-tail

Later in the day, I came across this bird flying with a turkey vulture.  It had a very dark appearance, similar to the vulture, which is what caught my attention.  I didn't notice any red on its tail at all, which makes me think this is a harlan's.  Alex agrees, but we can't really be sure, since my photo came out a little blurry.  Hopefully I will see another and get better photos!

Later in the day, I rushed to get as many points done as possible.  I came across tons of northern harriers, including the two below.  I also saw my first great horned owls of the trip.  See if you can find the one in the bottom photo peeking through a hole in the leaves at me!

male northern harrier

going for a critter, but missed it!

great horned owl "hiding"