Saturday, July 21, 2012

Go West XXXVIII - Golden Grains

Grain Field, western Kansas  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)



Although western Kansas seems an endless wave of golden grains, these high plains were once the realm of immense prairie land. Vast herds of buffalo roamed the plains, and prairie grass stretched for hundreds of miles. It was a scene my ancestor James Butler Hickok (aka Wild Bill) was no doubt familiar with, having worked as a stagecoach driver in the territory of Kansas, and later as gunslinging marshal in Hays City and Abilene. But the Old West is gone, along with the unspoiled prairie.

Today the vast lands of Kansas are a bread basket for the world, producing wheat, oats, barley, milo, soybeans, corn, and sunflower seeds for backyard birds,
and binocular-slinging birders, like me.


22 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful photo with interesting detail in the grain, a lovely sky and an attractive hill and fence to add interest.

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  2. Kansas, the bread basket of our nation, is suffering severe drought right now, and the photos I saw in the newspaper today looks vastly different from your photo of waving miles of beautiful grain.

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  3. Wild Doug Hickok? Well your shooting looks pretty impressive to me.

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  4. ahhhh it's a fantastic shot, looove it!

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  5. i'll have America, the Beautiful, streaming through my head the rest of the day. Thanks, Doug.

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  6. Oats, barley, milo, soybeans, corn... And superheroes! You forgot superheroes.

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  8. Beautiful texture and colour Doug. A cushion of gold covering the earth as far as the eye can see.

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  9. makes me think of the musical, "oklahoma"

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  10. Gorgeous sea of gold Doug--wouldn't it be great to see it all as it was? What I wouldn't give to witness one of those vast buffalo herds making it's way, well, wherever it wanted.

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  11. I can almost feel the warm temperature and the cool breeze...
    God bless you!
    Cezar

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  12. The prairie grass may have gone, but it still has a vast empty beauty that you've caught superbly.

    And I'm wondering if Wild Bill really is forebear to Wild Doug?

    And your reference to birding reminded me of your question regarding willets...we don't have them on this side of the pond, they're Oyster-catchers.

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  13. Well captured. The calmth in this photo is beautiful. I like your work a lot!

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  14. simply superb! anyone who has ever tried to capture the plains in a photo knows that it's almost impossible, the result more often than not being absolutely "nothing"! not so here, however! what a clever and successful interpretation of this stark and beautiful landscape!

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  15. Nice capture agian, we can feel the wind here: seems so sweet.
    Have a nice day.

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  16. aside from the tornadoes, the never ending flatlands would drive me crazy.. it looks like a good place to visit from time to time though.. great catch!

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