Visiting four CWC preserves in one day (Part One)

The Chippewa Watershed Conservancy currently own twenty-two preserves scattered across four counties.  Yesterday (29 October 2017) I visited the four "flagships" of the CWC's preserve system - Sylvan Solace Preserve, Bundy Hill Preserve, Hall's Lake Natural Area, and Audubon Woods Preserve.  The close nature of three out of these four preserves made it easy to link my visits together.  My goal was simply to visit each of the four preserves, walk on and off trail, and photograph whatever grabbed my attention.  Because I took so many photos I am going to split this into two posts.  This post will deal with my visits to Sylvan Solace Preserve and Bundy Hill Preserve.

Sylvan Solace Preserve

Sylvan Solace Preserve was my first stop.  This preserve is located on Pickard Road, between Gilmore and Littlefield Roads, approximately 7 1/2 miles west of Mt. Pleasant.  I arrived at Sylvan Solace just a few minutes after 9:00AM and spent about approximately 1.5 hours on site.

Here are a few of the many photos that I took during that time.

A deer trail through a grove of Black Locust trees.

A dead pine slowly succumbs to rot, insects, and woodpeckers.

Ferns change into their subtle shades of red, orange, and brown.

Small metal arrows mark the location and direction of trails throughout the preserve

Looking up at the overcast sky through Bigtooth Aspen trees.

Bigtooth Aspen leaves turn yellow then brown as they dry out.

Along the east trail at Sylvan Solace, I noticed several scrapes made by White-tailed Deer.   Scrapes are one of the ways White-tailed bucks leave scent to mark their territory.  Located above the scrape is typically a low-hanging branch that the buck will lick and rub with the scent glands located on his head.  The buck scrapes the ground with its hooves to draw attention to the scent marker and typically urinates on the scrape to add even more scent.  Both bucks and does will check out scrapes.  Although bucks create scrapes year-round, this behavior intensifies in the weeks before mating season.  I found several fresh scrapes at Sylvan Solace and would go on to find scrapes at each of the other three preserves I visited.

A fresh deer scrape is used to leave a scent "calling card" to announce a buck's presence in the area.

A mushroom pokes up from the leaf litter.

Looking upstream at Sylvan Solace Preserve.

Spreading oak trees grew up in the open before being surrounded by forest.

American Beech trees will be among the last to lose their leaves - often holding them through mid-winter.

Nest boxes provide artificial cavities used by many bird species.

A fern, grasses, and Bigtooth Aspen leaves create a colorful mosaic.

Rain and dewdrops bead up on the waxy coating of freshly-fallen Aspen leaves.

The pictures of my second preserve visit can be seen below.

Bundy Hill Preserve

My second stop of the day was Bundy Hill Preserve.  This preserve is located just 6 1/2 miles from Sylvan Solace on W. River Road,  between Wyman Road and Sherman Road.  One of the newest preserves in the CWC's system, Bundy Hill is 100 acres in size, but currently has only one official trail.  Additional trails will be added in the next year, but for now a series of two-track logging roads make travel easy through all but the highest elevations of the preserve.  For most people the highlight of Bundy Hill Preserve is Bundy Hill itself.  At approximately 1276 feet above sea-level, it is the highest point in Isabella County.

American Beech is one of the most common trees at Bundy Hill.

A Red Maple leaf rests atop a moss-covered boulder.

Red Maple usually lives up to its name!

A miniature forest of moss, lichen and one maple seedling grows atop an old stump.

Old stumps are all that remains of old logging operations.

Dry sandy soil means it takes time for forest to regenerate and fill clearings.

 

A Sugar Maple glows golden yellow in the far southeast part of the preserve.

An Eastern White Pine seedling grows near the summit of Bundy Hill

Witch Hazel is setting fruit right now.

The far distance can be seen through the trees to the north.

There is an old cabin hidden in the woods at Bundy Hill.  It was built many years ago by the former owners of the property.  Time has not been kind to this structure.  Many of the logs used to build the cabin have nearly rotted away and the cabin looks like it could collapse at any time.  If you go to Bundy Hill and find the cabin in the woods, do not go inside!  It is completely unsafe at this time.

The old cabin at Bundy Hill is near-to-collapse.

Bundy Hill is partially known for a large glacial erratic near the summit.  (A glacial erratic is a boulder that was carried by glaciers and left far from its parent rock when the glaciers retreated.) The perimeter of that granite boulder measures nearly forty feet, but it is only one of many boulders scattered around the preserve.  Many of these boulders are covered with centuries' growth of moss and lichen.

This large granite boulder sports a healthy growth of moss on its cooler north and east sides.

The moss on this boulder is really a landscape at a smaller scale.

A Red Oak leaf rest atop the mossy boulder.

Several species of lichen call this boulder home.

The gracefully drooping branches of American Beech make them oh so photogenic!

Several open field at Bundy Hill are the sites of form oil drilling operations.  These fields will eventually revert back to woods, but it may take many decades.  For now, they provide pockets of habitat for sun-loving species.

The largest of four former oil well sites at Bundy Hill.

Yucca is not native to Michigan, but likes the dry sandy conditions found at the old oil site.

With the fibers peeling from their edges, Yucca leaves have an interesting texture.

Common Milkweed also like the open fields.

Check again tomorrow to see the photos from Hall's Lake Natural Area and Audubon Woods.