Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 81 through Day 93)

Nearly two weeks into summer and I am finally finishing up my spring photography project.  I began this project on the spring equinox and have photographed something outdoors in the natural world (with one notable exception) every day of the season.  I have selected only one photograph to represent each day.  If you haven't seen the first eight sets of images they can be found at the following links:  Days 1 - 10, 11 - 20, 21 - 30, 31 - 40, 41 - 50, 51 - 60, 61 -70, and 71 - 80.

The final set of images consisted of fourteen photographs photographed between June 8th and June 20th (the last full day of spring)

Day 81 (08 June 2019) - White Campion

This image shows a white campion (Silene latifolia).  This species is native to Europe but has naturalized across much of North America.  Unlike many European imports, this species probably does not have a negative impact on the environment.  In fact it may have a slight positive impact as its white flowers attract a variety of moths that seek it out for nectar.  This photograph was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  Forest Hill is located northwest of Alma in Gratiot County and is operated by the Gratiot-Isabella RESD.  Forest Hill is located less than fifteen minutes from my house so it is a convenient site for me to visit and photograph.  Many of the photos from my 2018 summer photography project were taken at Forest Hill.

Day 82 (09 June 2019) - How Blue Can You Get?

My second image was taken at one of the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's farthest flung preserves.  Peterson Natural Area is located in Mecosta County nearly 40 miles west of Mt. Pleasant.  The preserve is significantly closer to Big Rapids (less than 10 road miles away).  Before become a nature preserve, the Peterson Natural Area was farmed for many years.  Much of the property remains clear of trees and shrubs today.  This attracts birds that like open habitats such as this pair of eastern bluebirds (Sialis sialis) who claimed this nesting box along the old farm lane.  A pair of tree swallows was using a nesting box a few posts away.

Day 83 (10 June 2019) - Backroad, Tree and Clouds

Sometimes I take the gravel roads home just in case I find something worth photographing.  I love photographing clouds and on this day the cumulous clouds were perfect.  As I passed this tree I realized I had found something worth taking time to photograph.  This picture was taken from a low angle so the grass along the roadside would block a couple trees in the background.

Day 84 (11 June 2019) - Cirrocumulus Clouds

Another day, another cloud photograph.  This image of cirrocumulus clouds was taken from my driveway in Alma, MI.  Cirrocumulus clouds are often referred to as "mackerel scales" because the pattern of the clouds resemble the scales on a fish.

Day 85 (12 June 2019) - A Snake Called Fluffy

Until 2013 I had never seen a northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) in Mt. Pleasant, despite working in the city parks from 2002 through 2010.  Now I see them every single year, sometimes several at a time.  I now know that if I want to see this species I can reliably find them at Chipp-A-Waters Park.  There is a small pond located near the southernmost parking area in the park.  This pond was originally dug as part of a wetland mitigation project.  It now is home to fish, tadpoles, and frogs.  In other words it's the perfect hunting ground for the northern water snake.  This particular snake did not appear to be actively hunting; instead it was basking in the sun in the middle of the pond.  The white fluff covering the surface of the water is composed of hundred (more like thousands) of fluffy cottonwood seeds.

Day 86 (13 June 2019) - Hairy Beardtongue

The native pollinator garden at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy was planted way back in 2011.   Other than the occasional weeding and trimming down old stalks each spring, the garden has been largely on its own since it was planted.  One of my favorite flowers in the garden is hairy beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus).  This species doesn't flower profusely every year, but this was one of those years where it did.  I especially like how it contrasts with the surrounding lance-leaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata).

Day 87 (14 June 2019) - Sic semper Tyrannus tyrannus!

This photograph of an eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) was taken at the Ziibiwing Center.  Eastern kingbirds are a species of flycatcher.  As that association implies, they feed on flying insects.  This was one a pair of kingbirds I observed feeding in the open field behind the Ziibiwing Center.

Day 88 (15 June 2019) - Bombus ternarius

June 15th was a busy day for me.  I had to be in Tustin, MI at the Kettunen Center for a meeting of the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) board of directors at 1:00PM.  At 3:00PM I needed to be in Cadillac at William Mitchell State Park to give a presentation on Michigan's logging history.  When the presentation was over I had to return to the Kettunen Center for more MAEOE meetings.  Arriving back at the Kettunen Center I decided to take a few minutes to walk along the edge of the woods before going back into the meeting.  I photographed a few flowers and some fern.  Then I noticed a bumblebee buzzing around a bunch blackberry or raspberry plants.  Right away I could see that this was not the common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens), instead its the orange-belted or tricolored bumblebee (Bombus ternarius).  I rarely see this species as it is not common in the southern half of the lower peninsula.

Day 89 (16 June 2019) - Emerald Spreadwing

This photograph was taken near Laingsburg, MI at my parent's home.  My parents own approximately 15 acres of land of which nearly half is part of the floodplain of the nearby Looking Glass River.  The floodplain has been consistently flooded for much of this year.  That much water should result in a mosquito problem, but the damselflies seem to be keeping populations under control.   I can honestly say that I have never seen so many damselflies in one place - at one point I was standing in a small clearing (maybe 20ft by 20ft) in a planted woodland and was surrounded by several hundred individual.  Most of them appeared to be emerald spreadwings (Lestes dryas) such as this one, but there were several other species mixed in.

Day 90 (17 June 2019) - You Talkin' to Me?

Another day, another damselfly.  This ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) was photographed at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Audubon Woods Preserve.  When I first started approached this damselfly I began photographing it from the side, but it quickly turned to face me.  It didn't fly away.  It just seemed curious and allowed me to photograph it for several minutes.  This photo was cropped from a horizontal to a vertical format.

Day 91 (18 June 2019) - Hungry Hungry Caterpillar

As summer gets closer and closer more insects appear.  This monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus) was feeding on a common milkweed (Asclepia syriaca) at the Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum's native pollinator garden.  This photograph was originally in a horizontal format, but has been cropped to a vertical format.

Day 92 (19 June 2019) - Hive Mentality

There are currently a pair of honeybee hives at the Forest Hill Nature Area.  When I visited on June 19th one of the hives had almost no activity while the other was literally abuzz with activity.  I took this photograph from about ten feet away.  The bees were completely unconcerned by my presence, but I would not recommend approaching the hive from the front.  I really like this picture because of the bees I captured in flight on the left of the image.

Day 93 (20 June 2019) - Last Day of Spring

With this photograph we've reached the end of spring.  This image of a pair of flies on a buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) flower was taken at Picken's Field in Mt. Pleasant.  For some reason, I find yellow flowers really difficult to photograph.  They always seem to be over exposed and the highlights completely blow out the details.  Because of this I did adjust the brightness of this image on the computer to tone down the highlights.  I also cropped this to a vertical image from the original horizontal.

I may have reached the end of spring, but the photography hasn't stopped.  As I type this on July 3rd, I'm thirteen days into an as-yet-unnamed summer photography project.  I'll start posting those photographs soon.  Hopefully I will be able to catch up on that project fairly quickly.

Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 61 through Day 70)

To this point I've shared two months worth of spring photographs.  As of today (June 21st) spring has reached its end, but I have a months worth of photographs still to share.  Here are the photos from day 61 through day 70.  To see the previous set of images follow this link.

Day 61 (19 May 2019) - Plum flowers

We have a plum tree right outside our back door.  It rarely produces much fruit, but every spring it is absolutely covered with blossoms.  I photographed these flowers after a light rain covered everything with water and softened the light.

Day 62 (20 May 2019) - Audubon Woods Creek

Another rainy day.  This image was taken in a light drizzle at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Audubon Woods Preserve.  The CWC owns 23 separate properties, but Audubon Woods is my favorite because of the mature trees.  The center of the preserve can often feel ten degrees cooler than the edge.  The water trickling over these rocks helps add moisture to the air cooling it even further.  Even the color of the woods feels cool as the mist in the air diffuses the light making everything glow green as the sunlight penetrates the forest canopy.

Day 63 (21 May 2019) - Dandelions 

Spring wouldn't be spring without dandelions.  Homeowners may not love them, but the bees and other pollinators do.  Some people are taking notice - the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture has adopted the policy of not mowing until the dandelions have gone to seed.  I photographed this dandelion bloom in the lawn at the Isabella Conservation District office.

Day 64 (22 May 2019) - Forest Ecology Studies 

Most of the programs that I do are in the classroom out of necessity, but every year I take students from Winn Elementary out to Audubon Woods to explore forestry and forest ecology.  In this photograph the students are measuring the distance from a stake (representing the center a 0.1 acre plot) to a tree in their study plot.  If the tree is within 37 feet of the stake (the radius of a 0.1 acre plot), they will then get an azimuth to the tree, measure the diameter of the tree, and record all of this date on a map of their plot.  I keep copies of all this date in the hope that it can be used to record changes in the forest over time.

Day 65 (23 May 2019) - Look up...

May 23rd was another day of forest ecology studies at Audubon Woods.  I think actually took more photographs of students on this day than I did on the 22nd, but my favorite photo of the day was taken when the students had gone back to school for lunch.  Looking up, I spotted this combination of blue sky, white clouds, dark branches, and yellow-green leaves.  With the sun lighting up the edge of a cloud formation I couldn't resist this photograph.

Day 66 (24 May 2019) - Honey Locust Thorn 

This photograph was taken right outside my back door.  We have a large honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) growing only a few feet from the house.  This tree provides lots of shade in the summer and a home for many species of birds and insects (not to mention squirrels).  The most interesting thing about the tree is the large thorns that grow from a few branches.  The honey locust originally developed these thorns as defense against ice age mammals - now they are just a reminder of a time when elephants walked the tundra and forests of North America.

Day 67 (25 May 2019) - Fern Frond 

Another photograph from home.  This fern covered with a layer of fine spider webs was photographed in the garden on the side of the house.  This image has been cropped to a square from its original format.

Day 68 (26 May 2019) - Home, Sweet Home

On May 26th we drove about forty-five minutes from home to visit my parents near Laingsburg, MI.  At one point I took a few minutes to walk around their property looking for something to photograph.  As I walked past this nesting box in a wooded area, a wren popped its head out of the box.  It's not grand architecture, but it's good enough for a wren.  If you look close you can see the wren's toes gripping the entrance hole.  The bird looked at me for a few seconds and then flew off into the underbrush.

Day 69 (27 May 2019) - Iris

When we moved into our house eight years ago there was already a patch of irises planted on the south side of the house.  I think these are Siberian iris, but am not certain.  I love the nectar guides on each large landing pad of a petal directing pollinators toward the nectar (and pollen).  The large serrated leaves in the background belong to cut-leaved coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata).

Day 70 (28 May 2019) - Wild Columbine 

My final image from this set of photos was taken at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Williams-Blackburn Preserve.  Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) is one of my favorite late-spring wildflowers.  It's very photogenic when the flowers are fully mature (like this one), but I often miss out on finding them so it's always exciting to find a perfect bloom.  One really interesting thing to me about these flowers is how hairy they are.  Look close and you can see that the petals, stem, and leaves are all covered with minute hairs.  I like being able to peer in and see that level of detail.

"The study of things high up"

Happy Earth Science Week 2018!

You might remember that meteorology is one of the four earth science disciplines.  Meteorology is a science that deals with the study of atmosphere and how processes in the atmosphere affect weather and climate (long term weather patterns).  The word meteorology comes from the Greek words meteōron meaning roughly "thing high up" and logia meaning "study or discussion of".  

One of my favorite "things high up" is clouds - so today I am going to share a ten of my favorite cloud images from the past year.

The Days of Summer - Day Eighty through Day Eighty-six

Summer is nearly at an end.  This is my next-to-last installment of my Days of Summer photography project.  I began this project on the Summer Solstice (21 June 2018) with the idea that I would photograph something in nature every day until the Fall Equinox (22 September 2018) and share one image from each day of the summer.  If you've missed the previous seventy-nine photographs, you can start to get caught with the images that I shared last week.

Day 80 (08 September) - Golden

This image of the sun shining through a Boxelder (Acer negundo) was photographed at Forest Hill Nature Area.  This is one of my favorite photos of the summer.  In addition to the sun, I like the contrast of the light sky with the band of dark trees on the horizon, the goldenrods lit up by the setting sun and the shadows in the foreground.


Day 81 (09 September) - Eastern Hemlock

We spend so much time looking down, sometimes we need to remember to look up.  This photograph was taken during a hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's (CWC) Audubon Woods Preserve.  Audubon Woods is my favorite CWC nature preserve.  On September 9th, I led a group on an off-trail hike at the preserve.  One of the sites that I led the group to was this small grove of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) trees.  Most visitors to the preserves never leave the established trails and I wanted to show off some of my favorite sites in the woods including this grove.


Day 82 (10 September) - Milkweed Portrait

When I started this project I knew that it would be a challenge to take a good nature photo every day, especially once school started.  Fortunately there are many local parks and preserves that can be easily accessed within a few minutes distance from schools or the office.  On September 10th, I did my first school programs of the 2018-19 School Year.  This photo was taken in the field behind the Conservation District offices after completing my classroom presentations for the day.


Day 83 (11 September) - Ah-choo!

This picture was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  This bumble bee (and a bunch of other insects) were eating pollen and nectar from Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) blossoms.  I took several pictures of this bee as it foraged, but this was my favorite.  I like how you can see the bee's long tongue as it sips nectar.  I have never found Sneezeweed growing wild in Mt. Pleasant.  These flowers were planted about a decade ago as part of restoration project.


Day 84 (12 September) - Fall Abstract

I photographed these poplar leaves at the Conservation District offices.  This trees has been changing color and dropping leaves for about a week.  I thought about cropping the right leaf out of the picture to make the picture more of an abstract image, but decided that I liked the contrast of color.


Day 85 (13 September) - Coral Mushrooms

Recent rains have caused fungi to fruit in every local woods.  This image of coral mushrooms was taken at the CWC's Sylvan Solace Preserve.  I think this is one of several species of Ramaria fungi - there are several yellow Ramaria species that can be difficult to tell apart.  I would have liked to have taken several more images of this mushroom, but the rains have also caused mosquito populations to explode!  I couldn't stop in one place for more than a few seconds.  I am generally pretty tolerant of mosquitos, but they are absolutely miserable right now.


Day 86 (14 September) - Bean Fields

The final image for the week was taken in southern Isabella County.  Mid-Michigan is farm country and soy beans are one of the major crops.  I really liked the color of the sky when I took this picture and wanted to find the simplest landscape that I could.  The row of trees blocked out more distant elements and let me focus on the field and sky without worrying about other distractions.  The color of the ripening bean fields, sky, and clouds remind me of an impressionist landscape painting.

I hope that you have been enjoying viewing this series of photographs as much as I have enjoyed capturing them.  I am into the final week of the project and I don't know what my next photographic journey will be.

The Days of Summer - Day Seventy-three through Day Seventy-nine

For many people, Labor Day Weekend marked the unofficial end of summer.  I say we still have two full weeks remaining!  Here is installment eleven of The Days of Summer, my summer photography project.  If you've been following along, you've already seen parts one through ten.  If you just stumbled upon this blog for the first time...  Welcome!  You can get caught up on previous parts of the project starting here.  I started this project on the Summer Solstice (June 21st) and am photographing every day until the Fall Equinox (September 22nd).  So far I have taken more than ten thousand photos this summer, but I have only shared seventy-two images to date (one image to represent each day of my summer).

Here are the images for Day 73 through Day 79.  Enjoy!

Day 73 (01 September) - Native bee on Rudbeckia laciniata

This image of a small native bee (less than 1/4 inch long) on a Cut-leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) was photographed late in the day in our home pollinator garden.  This image was cropped to a square to focus on the bee and flower and eliminate some of the background.

Day 74 (02 September) - Golden fields 

This photograph was taken at my go to site for photography this summer, Forest Hill Nature Area.  Goldenrods are now in full bloom.  I like several things about this image.  First the colors - golden flowers, green leaves, dark green trees, and the blue of the sky.  I also like the lines of this image - the curve of the plants in the meadow mirrored by the treeline and the radiating clouds.  Finally I like the pattern of the clouds themselves.

Day 75 (03 September) - The beginning of the end of summer

Labor Day may not be the official end of summer, but it seemed as if a switch flipped on September 1st.  Many plants that were in bloom stopped and their leaves began to change from green to yellow or brown.  This image of a Riverbank Grape (Vitis riparia) and Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum sp.) was another image taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.

 Day 76 (04 September) - A feast of thistles

This image of a male American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park.  American Goldfinches feed almost exclusively on seeds and thistles are one of their favorite sources of food.  Goldfinches have been my nemesis bird this summer.  I have not been able to get near enough to photograph one this summer.  Until now.  I started photographing this bird from about thirty feet and slowly walked up on it (never moving my camera from my eye) until I was only about five feet away.  It was fun to watch him tossing clumps of thistledown into the air as he foraged for seeds.  The hardest part was choosing which photo I liked best.

Day 77 (05 September) - In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines

This is another image from Chipp-A-Waters Park.  I photographed this Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) in a pine plantation near the west edge of the park.  This image is all about light and shadow.

Day 78 (06 September) - Tag!  You're it!

Our first Monarch of 2018 has emerged from its chrysalis.  It was tagged and released into our home native pollinator garden.  As most of them do when released, it promptly flew up into a tree and perched out of sight and out of reach.

Day 79 (07 September) - Dewdrops

This morning we woke up to a world soaked with dew/fog/rain or some combination of the three.  After dropping Shara off at work, but before heading to the office, I stopped at Mill Pond Park with the hope of getting a few good images.  This picture of dewdrops on an orbweaver web was my favorite.  I did adjust both the light and color on this image - dropping down the light and bringing up the color to help the dewdrops pop out from the background.

The Days of Summer - Day Sixty-six through Day Seventy-two

This is part ten of my Days of Summer photography project.  It's hard to believe that August has passed and we are into September.  I started this project on the Summer Solstice (21 June 2018) and have just under three weeks remaining until the Fall Equinox (22 September 2018).  Photographing every day has been both incredibly rewarding and a grind.  I have taken some of the best photos of my life, but there have also been days when I did not want to pick up a camera at all. When I reach the end I plan to compile all the photographs into one long post, but if you can't wait here is the previous installment.


Day 66 (25 August 2018) - Sunset at Forest Hill Nature Area

On August 26th, we headed out to Forest Hill Nature Area to participate in a public bird-banding event.  While waiting for birds to be caught I made a quick circuit of the property to try to photograph several Sandhill Cranes that could be heard on one of the hills.  The cranes (as always) were wary and while I has able to get several photos from a distance, none of them were very high quality.  Instead my favorite image of the day was this one of the seed heads of Big Bluestem Grass silhouetted against the setting sun.


Day 67 (27 August 2018) - Spotted Touch-me-not

This picture of a raindrop on a Spotted Touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) flower was taken during a hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Hall's Lake Natural Area.  Spotted Touch-me-not is also known as Jewelweed for the way raindrops bead up on its leaves like so many miniature jewels.  This image has been cropped from a horizontal to a vertical format and the brightness of the image has been adjusted to tone down the highlights.


Day 68 (27 August 2018) - Yellow-collared Scape Moth on Blue Vervain

This image of a Yellow-collared Scape Moth (Cisseps fulvicollis) on a Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) flower was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  A wasp mimic, this day-flying moth is a common sight in late summer as it nectars enthusiastically in the restored grassland at Forest Hill.  Blue Vervain is one of my favorite wildflowers.  It's individual flowers are tiny, but each plant may have hundreds of individual blooms.  Large patches of this plant can paint fields, shorelines, and ditches purple.


Day 69 (28 August 2018) - Black Saddlebags in flight

Several days recently have been spent indoors, at my desk, preparing for the new school year.  On these days, my time sent outdoors has been short.  Outdoor time is not always measured in length, but in moments.  On this day, I walked into the field behind the office.  As I walked, a mixed swarm dragonflies flew overhead hawking at small flying insects.  I spent more than a few minutes trying to photograph them in flight.  This picture of a Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) was my best image of the bunch.

Day 70 (29 August 2018) - Turbines

On August 29th, I drove to St. Charles, MI for a meeting on a generally dreary day.  Driving back from the meeting, somewhere in eastern Gratiot County, I stopped to take a few photographs of wind turbines against a cloudy sky.  I took this image over a corn field by standing on the running boards of my truck and photographing over the cab.  I like this picture because of the brooding dark-banded clouds and the upright lines of the wind turbine.

Day 71 (30 August 2018) - Oleander Aphids

This image was another taken at the office.  Some days there is an obvious star photograph; on other days, all the photos feel like duds.  This was one of those days.  I do like the pop of color provided by these bright orange Oleander Aphids (Aphis nerii) feeding on a Common Milkweed stalk, but otherwise I am not enamored by this picture.  I was shooting images of aphids because I spend so much attention on Monarch butterflies and I wanted to get photos of some of the other species that depend on milkweeds.  This picture has been cropped from a horizontal to a vertical format.  I feel like I could have cropped it further, but I thought it would lose some context. 

Day 72 (31 August 2018) - Habitat

This final photograph for the week was photographed on private land near Winn, MI.  This property is owned by a member of the Board of Directors for the Isabella Conservation District and open to the the public for hunting through the MI DNR's Hunting Access Program (HAP). 

I visit this property a couple of times each summer for a very specific kind of hunting.  I am hunting for Monarch caterpillars.  The property is a perfect Monarch habitat with a mix of milkweed and nectar plants.  Right now the Common and Lance-leafed Goldenrod are both in bloom and the Sky Blue Aster is just beginning to flower.  Mix in several species from the mint family, Joe-pye Weed, Water Smartweed, and some hawkweeds and it's a pollinator paradise.

I have visited this place twice in the past three days and have come away with 21 caterpillars.  One of them is hiding in the picture above.  I would never have noticed this caterpillar if I had not knelt down to photograph a bee as it passed from one goldenrod bloom to another.