Date: 11/20/25 12:49 pm From: Todd Ballinger <todd.ballinger...> Subject: Re: Old Walt Whitman would know (Maysville November 19 2025)
A wonderful read, Joe!
On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 9:40 AM Anita Schnee <
<000003224553d416-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> Well worth the seeing. Here's the link without the rogue paragraph:
>
> https://ebird.org/checklist/S285278940 >
>
>
> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>
> Anita Schnee
>
> http://catself.wordpress.com > http://afriqueaya.org >
> <http://afriqueaya.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/afriqueaya_eplogo.jpg> >
> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>
>
> On Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 07:24:00 AM CST, Ragupathy Kannan <
> <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
>
> If you really want to see Joe's list you need to remove the parenthesis at
> the end :)
> The extra effort is worth the lovely Roadrunner and Brewer's Blackbird
> photos, among others.
>
> On Thursday 20 November, 2025 at 06:45:44 am GMT-6, Joseph Neal <
> <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
>
> (Birds with photographs, submitted to eBird:
> https://ebird.org/checklist/S285278940).
> In western Benton County, State 72 runs from Gravette to Maysville through
> what old timers knew as Beatie Prairie. No special highway signs to that
> effect. Ornithological and botanical signs aplenty.
> In high summer, patches of Big Bluestem Grass, extravagant flowering of
> tall purple Blazing Stars, whole rights-of-way covered with Compass Plant.
> By late summer, Sawtooth Sunflowers 8 feet in a clear blue sky. That is,
> fencerows full of prairie botanical history that once ruled a whole country.
> I’ve been visiting old Beatie since late 1970s. Sometimes on these trips I
> hear booming of Greater Prairie-Chickens, though of course it’s my busy
> imagination. My way through that sometimes seemingly impossible barrier,
> time.
> Back in 1980s I met Maysville native late Maurice Loux who remembered
> those chickens from his youth in early 1900s. Prairie-chicken booming
> grounds may today be Simmons chicken houses and pastures, but that doesn’t
> erase legacy. Savannah Sparrows and a Loggerhead Shrike belong to my trip
> today. They too are legacy.
> Pritchard Road part of former Beatie Prairie has little traffic and legacy
> aplenty. Most of it is grassland. The road passes through an old – ancient
> – Post Oak barren but no urban opportunities. Decidedly out of step with
> juggernaut Northwest Arkansas City.
> Call it “blessing in disguise.” Call it what Tufted Titmice and brilliant
> red Fox Squirrels call it.
> Very little traffic passes through a Post Oak barren. Tiny acorns fall in
> the road. Big birds like Red-headed Woodpeckers and Blue Jays pick up small
> acorns and fly off. Simmons poultry trucks and the postal carrier – and
> yes, the occasional birder – crush whatever acorns remain. Resulting acorn
> meat is a blessing for Carolina Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos.
> Pastures and hayfields still have prairie mounds a little west of
> Pritchard Hill, along Leonard Ranch Road. Eastern Meadowlarks were singing
> in today’s warm sunshine. So were whole choruses of White-crowned Sparrows.
> More legacy.
> I sing the song of Tallgrass Prairie. Bison and prairie-chickens, even if
> unseen. Eastern Meadowlarks and prairie grass. Loggerhead Shrikes and
> Savannah Sparrows flocks. Big Bluestem and Indian Grass. Where Turkey
> Vultures soar. Where diamond sunlights dance in white fluffy-encased seeds
> of bluestem grass. I sing the Indian Grass.
> Old Walt Whitman would know what I mean about tall grass. Modern prairie
> acolytes, too.
>
>
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--
Todd Ballinger, MA, NBCT
English 11/AP English Language and Composition
Fayetteville High School
