Flowering prairie southeast of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Tallgrass praire can be a lush, thick, green forest, head high by fall. Although many species of birds can be found around the edges of the prairie or along watercourses, where there are a few trees, the most abundant species out in the open prairie itself are a relatively small number of ground-nesting species. The virgin tallgrass prairie pictured here covers a gently-rolling terrain. It has never been plowed, but does harbor some exotic plant species, and is grazed by cattle.
Air is somewhat hazy from smog.
Canyon at edge of Guadalajara, with city visible in background. Guadalajara is a city of some 5 million people in the central Mexican state of Jalisco. Although it is a BIG city, it ends abruptly to the north at the Canyon of the Oblatos. This canyon provides habitat for a number of resident and migrant species. The area around Guadalajara is normally arid, and a major agricultural crop in the area is agave, used for making tequila.