Joe Neal report on swainson[s hawk in the Chesney Prairie and Stump Prairie area

A cooperative Swainson's Hawk perched in a snag alongside the gravel  
drive down to Chesney this morning. Chesney proper has several  
interesting patches of blooming prairie sunflowers (Helianthus  
pauciflorus), at least 4 blooming species of goldenrods, and still  
many flowering ashy sunflowers attended by American Goldfinches --  
lovely dominant yellow landscape, except one of the goldenrods has  
white flowers!
 
I also saw a Swainson's Hawk flying low and slow over nearby Stump  
Prairie on August 29. The natural productivity of tallgrass prairies  
is evident and actually measurable in hay, a valuable reality,  
especially in this year, when many non-native hay crops are failures.  
60 bales of native grass (mainly big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian  
grass, switch grass) were cut off 18 acres of Stump recently.
-- 
JOSEPH C. NEAL in Fayetteville, Arkansas