Meet the Residents

A wonderful array of wildlife and plants reside on the Southern Plains Land Trust preserves. The following lists are of animals and plants that have been observed on or near our grassland properties.

Eastern Fence Lizard
Porcupine
Red-tailed Hawk – Photograph by Norm Lewis
Siva Juniper Hairstreak– Photograph by Norm Lewis

Badger

Black Bear

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Bobcat

Coyote

Deer Mouse

Desert Cottontail

Elk

Meadow Vole

Mule Deer

Northern Pocket Gopher

Porcupine

Pronghorn

Striped Skunk

Swift Fox

White-tailed Deer

Texas Horned Lizard

Eastern Fence Lizard

Lesser Earless Lizard

Prairie Lined Racerunner

Rattlesnake

Bull Snake

Whipsnake

Coachwhip

Plains Garter Snake

Common Garter Snake

Racer

Western Box Turtle

Painted Turtle

Tiger Salamander

Bull Frog

Burrowing Owl

Barn Owl

Long-Eared Owl

Short-Eared Owl

Great Horned Owl

White-tailed Kite

Ferruginous Hawk

Swainson’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

Northern Harrier

Golden Eagle

Bald Eagle

Turkey Vulture

American Kestrel

Merlin

Prairie Falcon

Great Blue Heron

White-faced Ibis

Killdeer

American Golden Plover

Long-billed Curlew

Upland Plover

Willet

Greater Yellowleg

Marbled Godwit

Sandhill Crane

Scaled Quail

Greater Roadrunner

Ring-necked Pheasant

Turkey

American Coot

White Pelican

Snow Goose

Canada Goose

Mallard

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Greater Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Common Goldeneye

Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Rock Dove

Mourning Dove

White-throated Swift

Red-winged Blackbird

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Cassin’s Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Lark Sparrow Lark Bunting

Common Raven

American Crow

Western Meadowlark

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Cassin’s Kingbird

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Eastern Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe

Vermilion Flycatcher

Skylark

Horned Lark

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Black-billed Magpie

Common Grackle

Boat-tailed Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Western Tanager

Lazuli Bunting

Cassin’s Finch

House Finch

Canyon Towhee

Junco

Canon Wren

Northern Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher

American Robin

Veery

Mountain Bluebird

Townsend’s Solitaire

American Pipit

Cedar Waxwing

Starling

Yellow-rumped Warbler

House Sparrow

Bobolink

Common Nighthawk

Northern Flicker

Red Headed Woodpecker

Loggerhead Shrike

Bullock’s Oriole

Goldfinch

Butterflies

  • Blues
  • Monarch butterfly
  • Sulphurs
  • Western fritillary
  • Whites

 

Biscuit root

Blue grama

Broom snakeweed

Buffalo gourd

Buffalograss

Colorado green gentian

Coppermallow

Cottonwood

Curlycup gumweed

Dakota verbena

Four-wing saltbush

Golden flax

Green milkweed

Indian paintbrush

Indian ricegrass

Lavender leaf evening primrose

Little bluestem

Needle-and-thread

Nipple cactus

One-seed juniper

Penstemon species

Pink paintbrush

Plains prickly pear

Prairie larkspur

Prickly poppy

Prince’s plume

Puccoon

Purple groundcherry

Purple prairie coneflower (echinacea)

Purple three-awn

Rabbitbrush

Sand lily

Sand onion

Sand sage

Sand verbena

Scarlet gaura

Sideoats grama

Slim-flowered scurf pea

Snow-on-the-mountain

Soaptree yucca

Spiderwort

Spike gilia

Stickleaf mentzelia

Stiff flax

Switchgrass

Ten-petaled mentzelia

Tree cholla

Wavyleaf thistle

Western wheatgrass

Wild blue flax

Willow

Winterfat

Yellow prairie coneflower

Yellowspine thistle

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs – Photograph by Richard P. Reading

About prairie dogs

Black-tailed prairie dogs are one of the most ecologically important species in the Great Plains, and they are welcome on our properties. For more than a century, they have been the subject of misinformation and persecution. For a fresh perspective on this small but mighty creature, check out SPLT’s factsheets.

Fact Sheet #1: Debunking Common Prairie Dog Myths

Fact Sheet #2: The Ecological Importance of Prairie Dogs

Fact Sheet #3: Decline of the Shortgrass Prairie

Fact Sheet #4: Myths about Cattle and Prairie Dogs

CONTACT US

Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT)
PO Box 1016, Lamar, CO 81052

‭217.621.6007‬
splt@southernplains.org

A special thanks to the SPLT photographers!

Check out the photographer here.