Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 31 through Day 40)

As of yesterday (28 April 2019) I'm forty days into my Spring photography project.  My plan is to photograph something in nature every single day.  This means that I have to go outdoors every single day no matter how busy I am. Sometimes I only have ten minutes available, on other days I may spend a couple of hours.  No matter how much time I have it's always worth it.  You can check out the first three sets of images at the following links:

Day 1 through Day 10

Day 11 through Day 20

Day 21 through Day 30


Over the last ten days spring has finally begun to look like spring.  There are so many more things to photograph now - insects, birds, gardens, wildflowers, unfurling leaves, and more!  The challenge now become choosing which photograph will be used to represent each day.  Tough choices need to be made, some photographs that I really loved just didn't make the cut... Here are the next ten images that did.

Day 31 (19 April 2019) - Bud Burst

This photograph was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  Much of the park is in the floodplain of the Chippewa River.  Boxelder (Acer negundo) is one of the common trees found in the floodplain.  It is also one of the first trees species in the area to develop leaves.  I love the pale green of this stage as well as the overall "fuzziness" of the newly forming leaves.

Day 32 (20 April 2019) - Mission Point Beach

Over the weekend of April 19th - 21st, we took a trip to Traverse City to celebrate Shara's birthday.  One of our favorite locations in the area is Lighthouse Park at the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula.  We visit this park almost every time we are in Traverse City love photographing the lighthouse and the lake.  The lake looks appealing right now, but the water is still COLD...

Day 33 (21 April 2019) - Bloodroot

This photograph was taken in our home (mostly) native pollinator garden.  Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is one of the earliest woodland wildflowers in mid-Michigan.  We have it planted along the porch on the east side of our house - it gets lots of morning sun, but it shaded by midday.  This clump started as a single plant.  Our early native bees are very successful at pollinating and then ants help disperse the seeds.  The ants consume a fleshy coating on the seed (known as an eliasome) and then discard the seed itself in their garbage heaps.

I tried several formats for this picture, but I think the square crop looks the best.  I did adjust the brightness on this image to tone down the whites a little bit.  The same adjustment allows the greens to become more prominent.

Day 34 (22 April 2019) - Sleepy bee

This photograph was taken during a walk at Mission Creek Woodland Park.  This queen common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) had only recently emerged from hibernation.  She was busy foraging for nectar on wildflowers and searching for the perfect site to establish her nesting colony.  All that work is tiring on a cool spring day.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to nap in the sun and recharge.  That's what this lady is doing in the picture, snuggling up to that downed branch and waiting for the annoying human to go away so she could sleep in peace.

Day 35 (23 April 2019) - The Boys' Club

I noticed this trio of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) drakes cavorting together on the Chippewa River at Chipp-A-Waters Park.  Either these three drakes have not paired up with hens or their hens were sitting on nests somewhere nearby as these enjoyed some time male bonding time.  As I watched them they repeated splashed themselves with water, groomed their feathers and scratched themselves.  I took about a dozen photos of the group with this being my favorite.  I did crop this down to a widescreen (16:9) format to remove the far riverbank at the top of the picture and some open water at the bottom.

Day 36 (24 April 2019) - Gooseberry

I photographed this gooseberry plant (Ribes sp.) at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace preserve.  Without flowers or fruit I can't be exactly sure which species it is, but my guess is prickly gooseberry (Ribes cynosbati).  I like this image because of the way the backlighting shows off the hairs on the leaves and the overall simplicity of the image.  I do wish the background  had been all dark.  Again this image seemed to work best as a square crop.

Day 37 (25 April 2019) - Spring Beauty

These spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) flowers were photographed at Mission Creek Woodland Park.  From a distance the overall impression of spring beauty is that the flowers are white or pale pink.  Up close you can make out the pink or purple stripes on the petals (nectar guides) and the pink tipped stamen. 

Day 38 (26 April 2019) - Flying Dutchmen

I photographed these Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) flowers at Chipp-A-Waters Park.  This park has long been my favorite location for spring woodland wildflowers.  It's name comes from the shape of the flowers - they look like little pairs of pants hanging upside down from the ankles.

Day 39 (27 April 2019) - Norway Maple Flowers

Norway maples (Acer platanoides) is not native to Michigan, but it has naturalized across the state.  It is currently flowering throughout mid-Michigan.  I photographed these flowers at Mill Pond Park.  Yesterday I noticed a flock of cedar waxwings feeding on the flowers in the to Norway maples in my front yard - amazingly that picture didn't make the list.

Day 40 (28 April 2019) - Beetles are pollinators too!

Picking a photograph for yesterday was tough.  I had a photo of cedar waxwings feeding on maple flowers.  I also photographed a bronzed tiger beetle on the trail at Chipp-A-Waters Park and a closeup of a bloodroot flower.  Any of these could have been selected, but my favorite image of the day was this one of a beetle on a yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum).

The Days of Summer - Day Forty-five through Day Fifty-one

This is part seven of my Days of Summer photography project.   Beginning with the Summer Solstice (21 June 2018) and ending with the Fall Equinox (22 September 2018), I am making it a point to get outdoors and photograph something every single day.  One photograph from each day is being selected for this project and shared here.

The previous installments of this project can be found at the links below:

Part Six
Part Five
Part Four
Part Three
Part Two
Part One

I hope you enjoy the photos from this past week - one of them might be quite a surprise.

Day 45 (04 August 2018) - A Banded Bird

The first image of the week was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  If you look closely at This female Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) you might notice that her left leg sports a band.  Between this picture and several others of this bird I was able to make out a couple numbers on the band.  With that information, I contacted Mike Bishop at Alma College - he is running a banding project at Forest Hill.  With the numbers I gave him, Mike was able to narrow it down to one of two birds that he banded on June 28th of this year.  We both thought this was pretty cool.

This photograph has been cropped into a landscape format - taking some off the top and bottom of the image.  I just thought it was the most appealing of all the different crops that I tried.  I like how the bird looks like she is about the launch herself at the goldenrod to the left of the image.

Field Trip - Pyramid Point Hiking Trail

Shara and I spent the weekend camping near Traverse City.  On Saturday (24 SEP), we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and hiked a section of the Pyramid Point Trail.  This popular trail segment leads to a bluff that rises 300 feet above Lake Michigan.  The trail to this overlook measures about 0.6 miles one way (for a 1.2 mile round trip).  The total elevation change of this trail is more than 200 feet, with about 140 feet of that coming in the final 0.2 miles of the climb.  If you are not used to climbing hills it can be a challenge, but the view is entirely worth the effort.

The trail leads upward

The trail passes though a mixed hardwood forest - including stands of birch

Shara stops to photograph something along the trail

Pay attention to the sign!

Tired, but proud, the view is totally worth it

Me with North Manitou Island in the background

The South Manitou Island lighthouse can be seen on the horizon at the left

The lake is 300 feet down from the top of the bluff!

Looking east along the bluff

A wider angle view of the horizon to the northwest

North Manitou Island - you see the dunes on the island's southwest side

Another view of the eastern horizon

Heading back down the trail

The Pyramid Point Trail is just one of thirteen named trails within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore - not counting the trails on the Manitou Islands.  Sleeping Bear Dunes is located about 2 hours 15 minutes from Mid-Michigan.  There is a fee for using the park. Currently, a 7-day vehicle pass costs $15 or an annual pass can be purchased for $30.  There is also a pass for people entering the park on foot or by bicycle ($7 for 7 days).  Check the calendar, there are several fee-free days throughout the year - the next one is scheduled for Veterans Day (November 11th).

Monarch Migration

We spent this past weekend near Manistee, MI.  Manistee is located about thirds of the way up the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan.  Like all of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan is a major obstacle for migrating Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus).  When they hit a large obstacle such as this, they tend to fly along it rather than attempting to cross over its width.

Monarch circling back into the trees at Lake Bluff Audubon Sanctuary, Manistee, MI (26 SEP 2015)

Over the course of the weekend, we frequently saw Monarchs flying southward along the shoreline of the lake.  On Saturday night while watching the sunset we counted approximately 20 Monarchs fly past us over a 30 minute period. 

Monarch heading south along Lake Michigan at Lake Bluff Audubon Sanctuary, Manistee, MI (26 SEP 2015)

The peak migration period for Monarchs in Michigan is probably over, but there is still a steady stream of them heading south out of the state.  I managed to get three photos of Monarchs as they passed by our position.

Monarch migrating south at sunset - Lake Bluff Audubon Sanctuary, Manistee, MI (26 SEP 2015)

 

Field Trip - Michigan's Largest Giant Sequoia

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly.  It does say "Michigan's Largest Giant Sequoia".

The Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is native to the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains Range in California.  They are among the largest and oldest living organisms on earth.  Record trees have been measured as tall as 311 feet (94.8 meters) and with a trunk diameter of 56 feet (17 meters).  There were more than 3500 growth rings counted on the stump of one tree!

The trees that are found in Michigan are babies in comparison.  Because the Giant Sequoia is not native to the state, any Sequoia found here has obviously been planted by man.

The largest Giant Sequoia in Michigan can be found at the Michigan Audubon Society's Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary.  Lake Bluff Sanctuary is located just north of Manistee, MI at 2890 Lakeshore Road (just north of Orchard Beach State Park.  This is about a two hour drive from Mid-Michigan.

The Lake Bluff Sanctuary was donated to Michigan Audubon in 1988.  The property was previously an estate owned by Edward and Gertrude Gray.  Mr. Gray was the nephew of the founder of the Morton Salt and managed the company's salt plant in Manistee.  They purchased the property in 1936 and began building a home.  The home is now operated by Michigan Audubon as a Bed & Breakfast (rates are $80 - 95 per night depending on the room).  During our visit to the sanctuary we booked a weekend for later this fall.

Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary Bed & Breakfast

  
On the grounds of the estate they established an arboretum with over 70 varieties of trees from around the world.  One of the species that was planted was the Giant Sequoia.  Six of these were planted in 1948.  Of those six, tree remain alive.  The tallest of these is approximately 95 feet (approx. 29 meters) tall.

Michigan's largest Giant Sequoia - Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary, Manistee

The above photo doesn't look that impressive until you add a human being into it for scale.  Here is a photo of me standing next to the tree.

A photograph of me with Michigan's largest Giant Sequoia - photo by Shara LeValley

These lower branches have died out naturally as the branches above shade them out.  Eventually the tree will drop these branches.

Giant Sequoia at Lake Bluff Sanctuary

One thing that amazes me about sequoias is the relatively small size of their cones.  The cones are not much larger than those of a red pine.  The seeds that come from the cones are only about 1/4 inch long.

Giant Sequoia cone - photo by Shara LeValley

Giant Sequoias were not the only interesting trees planted in the arboretum.  We also found this Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), American Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), and many other other species.

Me standing next to a Dawn Redwood at Lake Bluff Sanctuary - Photo by Shara LeValley

Ginkgo leaves and fruit

American Tulip Tree leaves

Outside of the arboretum, much of the grounds have been restored with native plants.

 

Other features of the site include over 300 feet of Lake Michigan Shoreline, two miles of walking trails, and a great view of the lake from atop the bluff.

The view from Lake Bluff Sanctuary

Michigan Audubon also operates a small visitor center at the preserve.  I doubt that there is usually anyone manning the center, but it is a nice place to get out of the weather for a few minutes.

Visitor center at Lake Bluff Sanctuary

With everything that the Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary has to offer for nature lovers, this is definitely worth the two hour drive from Mid-Michigan.  The Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary is open daily from dawn until dusk.  There is no admission charge to the grounds but donations are encouraged. 

Earth Science Week - Tuesday

Every day of Earth Science Week has a focus.  The focus today is "No Child Left Inside".  There is a lot of research that shows that the average child today spends less time playing outside that his/her parent's generation did.  While there are many reasons for this, the point is that kids need to spend more time outside.  What better way to spend time outside and learn about earth science than to go somewhere and pick up rocks.

Interesting rocks can be found throughout Mid-Michigan.  The glaciers that covered Michigan during the Ice Age picked up rocks from further north (Canada) and dumped them across Michigan.  Any time you did a hole in Mid-Michigan you are likely to come across rocks that are not only hundreds of millions of years old, but that have also traveled hundreds of miles from where they formed.

Rather than digging holes to search for rocks, I would rather go to a place where I can look over thousands of rocks at once.  There is no better place to do this than a rocky beach.  I have two favorite beaches where I like to search for rocks.  Unfortunately neither one is very close to Mid-Michigan.

Peterson Park Beach

Peterson Park Beach is located near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula (Michigan's pinkie finger).  Unlike the sandy beaches that can be found along most of Northwest Michigan, the beach at Peterson Park is covered with rocks.  Most of the rocks range from fingernail to fist-size, but larger ones can be found in the water offshore.  The rocks are variety of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic types and represent the many types of bedrock found in the Canadian Shield and Michigan Basin.

Peterson Park Beach

The rocks extend out into the lake.

Sizes, shapes, and colors of Peterson Park Beach rocks

If you go to Peterson Park make sure that you bring a bucket to carry your treasures home.  You will want to limit how many rocks you collect - it's 114 stairs back up to the parking lot...

The stairway down to the beach.

Click here for directions to Peterson Park from Mt. Pleasant.

Peterson Park is my favorite place in the Lower Peninsula to pick up beach rocks, but my favorite place in Michigan to look for rocks is in the Upper peninsula.

Muskallonge Lake State Park Beach.

Muskallonge Lake is located about 4 1/2 hours from Mt. Pleasant, Muskallonge Lake State Park is located in Luce County in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  The park is situated between Muskallonge Lake and Lake Superior and includes two miles of Lake Superior Beach.  Storms and waves constantly bring a new supply of rocks to the beach.  The rocks here are concentrated along the edge of the water with sand higher up the beach.  Again, the rocks come mainly from bedrock types found in the Canadian Shield - lucky searchers find Lake Superior Agates.  There is no stairway to climb back up here so you can easily collect as many rocks as you want to carry.  On our last trip to the park we brought back about 3 gallons of rocks.
 

The Lake Superior Beach at Muskallonge Lake State Park

A closer view of the beach rocks

Lake Superior's waves constantly bring new rocks toward shore.

The campground at Muskallonge Lake State Park is one of my favorites in Michigan.  On one clear night we spent about an hour lying on a picnic table staring up at the innumerable stars. 

Click here for directions to Muskallonge Lake from Mt. Pleasant.

Back to work...

I have been on vacation for parts of the past two weeks with no internet access.  As a consequence I have written nothing for this blog.  As a first post back I thought I would share just a few photos from my trip.  We spent our vacation driving around Michigan's Lower Peninsula and visited several lighthouses on both the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan shoreline.  Regular blog posts will return next week.

Ludington North Breakwater Light

S.S. Badger car ferry passing the Ludington North Breakwater Light bound for Manitowoc, WI

Grand Haven South Pierhead Lights - the iron walkway allowed lightkeepers access to the lights in rough weather

Boat passing Holland Lighthouse - this light is known as "Big Red"