It sure was a pleasure to pull into a campground adjacent to a large lake, especially after driving through the plains of Kansas. As we pulled into Prairie Dog State Park we were treated to a scenic park with views of the large Reservoir.
We reserved a full hookup site with a concrete pad up on a ridge overlooking the lake. We felt sure it would be a great place to spend a few days. There was something else of interest to us at Prairie Dog State Park. Yes, it was the Prairie Dogs themselves and we were hopeful also to view a particular species living amongst them.
Prairie Dogs are known as a keystone species which is defined as an organism very important in defining the ecosystem. The Prairie Dog town was less than a quarter mile from our campground and was a fairly large colony. As the evening approached on our first day we walked over to see them.
While we enjoy watching Prairie dogs, our main focus was to see if we could find any burrowing owls. These interesting and somewhat comical birds live within the Prairie Dog town. While the owls can dig their own burrows to live in, they often repurpose abandoned prairie dog holes and colonize them.
Some think that they feed on the Prairie Dogs but they do not. Predators of Prairie Dogs are typically coyotes, ferrets and hawks. The owls actually live in a symbiotic relationship with the Prairie Dogs and they are such a delight to watch. While we also did a lot of hiking around the park, on the few trails that exist, our favorite was watching the owls. The two evenings we were there we took a lot of photos of them. What a great stop this was!
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