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 Thirty-one through Day Thirty-seven

This is installment five of my Days of Summer photography project.  (Click here to view the photos from part four.)  The intent of this project is to get outdoors everyday to photograph something in nature and to pick a single image to represent each day of the summer from the Summer Solstice (21 June 2018) to the Fall Equinox (22 September 2018).  Five weeks into summer, this has been a very rewarding project.  It takes time, but I think I am producing some of my best photography ever.  I am definitely learning more about my camera and lenses.

Enjoy.

Day 31 (21 July 2018) - Raindrops on Rosinweed

This image a raindrops on a Rosinweed (Silphium integrifolium) was photographed at home in our native pollinator garden during a lull between rain showers.

Day 32 (22 July 2018) - Monarch on Purple Coneflower

This photograph was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area during a very windy afternoon.  At one point this Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) nearly blew off the top of this Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purperea).  Despite the wind, this was a great day for pollinator photography.  I was able to photograph five butterfly species, a couple moths, numerous bees, and several wasp species.  Picking a single image for the day was difficult, but I like the position of the butterfly facing into the wind and the grass blades blowing in from the left of the picture.

Day 33 (23 July 2018) -Early Fall Colors

This picture of Red-osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) berries and leaves was also taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  Many of the dogwood leaves were already changing color.  This is not necessarily a sign of fall, but a sign of stress such as too little rain.

Day 34 (24 July 2018) - Green Frog

This picture was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  I heard several Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans) calling from a small wetland area near the back of the park.  Most of the frogs dove into the pond when I approached but this one let me approach to about five or six feet.  This image has been cropped from a horizontal to a vertical image.

Day 35 - Yeah, Here Come the Rooster

This image and the next one were actually taken indoors.  I spent much of last week at the Isabella County Fair.  County fairs are an integral part of summer across much of the United States.  This rooster was one of the many animals entered in the fair by 4H members.

If you understand the title of this image, bonus points for you!  If you don't...

Day 36 (26 July 2018) - Charolais Steer

Another image from the Isabella County Fair.  Raising beef cattle is one of the most popular projects for 4H members in the area.  It quite something to watch a nine or ten year old kid weighing maybe 100 pounds walk a full grown steer around the arena and present it for judging.  I photographed the Charolais steer  in the beef cattle barn as it stared at me from its stall.

Day 37 (27 July 2018) - Stormcloud

The final picture of the week was photographed in southern Isabella County on my way home from work.  I watched this storm approached from the west and raced to try to intersect it in a place where I could get a good image.  Don't worry, I never went above the speed limit - the gravel road that I was traveling on would not allow for speeds much above 30 mph in most sections.  I like this picture because of the contrast between the dark water laden bottom of the cloud and the sun shining through the top.

Harvest

Covered hopper cars being loaded with grain - Shepherd, MI (October 2017)

Fall in Mid-Michigan means different things to different people: leaves changing color, deer season, apple cider, and the fall harvest.

Michigan produces over 300 different agricultural commodities, making it the second most diverse agricultural state behind California.  Michigan is the nation's leading producer of several crops including dried red and black beans, tart cherries, and pickling cucumbers.  Overall Michigan ranks 22nd in the nation (in US dollars) for agricultural production.

According to USDA data from 2012, agricultural products from Isabella County sold for over $119 million.  Gratiot County farms contributed even more to the economy, with products valued at over $345 million!

Here in Mid-Michigan, most farms are currently harvesting corn, with a few fields of soy beans and dry beans remaining to be harvested.  Sugar Beets also have yet to be harvested.  Harvest has currently stopped due to the heavy rains earlier this week. 

Go to the Fair - Isabella County Fair (through Saturday July 29th)

This week (24 - 29 July 2017), the Isabella Conservation District has a booth at the Isabella County Fair.  Today Shara (Mrs. LeValley) joined me at the fair for a few hours and we took time to walk around all of the exhibits and animal barns.

Shara with a new friend

Until I moved away to college (at age seventeen), I lived on and around farms.  Every year we would go to the county fair - visiting the merchant buildings (where local businesses always gave things away to kids and adults), checking out the arts & crafts and other exhibits, climbing on new tractors and other farm machinery, riding carnival rides, and more!

The Ferris Wheel

One of the highlights was visiting the different animal barns.  Although I never showed animals at the fair many of my friends did.  I always saw people that  I knew when we went to the fair.

The animal buildings at the fair are still a highlight for me.  Now, when I go to the fair, I see the children of friends and co-workers exhibiting animals.  I also see lots of students from classrooms that I visit.  The students always want to tell me about their animals (especially if they won prizes).

Here are a few pics of animals from the fair.

A stylish sheep

Being a hog is tiring

A pen of goat kids

 

Rabbits are one of the most popular animals to show

Shara conversing with a prize-winning pen of chickens

Dairy feeders

Teens showing beef cattle

I think everyone should visit their local county fair.  With less and less people growing up around farms and being connected to agriculture, this is one of the few opportunities that many people have to interact with farm animals (or even see them up close).  For the kids that exhibit animals, the fair provides an opportunity to develop responsibility as they raise and then show their animals.  Many of the animals are then sold at the fair, earning the kids money for their hard work.  Local businesses and individuals will often pay big bucks for animals especially champions.

If you visit the Isabella County fair, stop into the Merchant's Building and say hello to me (or other conservation district staff), eat at the 4-H food stand (the food is good and the money goes to support 4-H and the fair), and be sure to see all of the animals.

If you can't visit the Isabella County Fair, visit one of the other county fairs held across the state between now and September.

Happy Summer Solstice 2017!

Wheat ripening on the Summer Solstice

If you were to arise at dawn every day of the year and record the point on the horizon where the sun rises you would be able to track the progression from the Summer Solstice (in which the sun rises furthest North) to the Winter Solstice (in which the sun rises furthest South) and back again.  Tracking the position of the rising sun was one of the earliest astronomical observations.  Many ancient monuments were constructed to act as solar observatories, recording the longest and shortest days of the year.  These observations were used to plan planting dates for various agricultural crops.

Today the sun reached its northernmost point on the horizon.  Officially, at 12:24 AM EST Spring ended and Summer began in the Northern Hemisphere.  This moment of change is known as the Summer Solstice.  At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere was experiencing its Winter Solstice as their Fall ended and Winter began. The word Solstice comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).  Today the sun has reached its highest position in the northern Sky, giving us our longest day of the year.  With the sunrise at 5:58 AM and sunset at 9:24 PM, mid-Michigan will experience approximately 15 hours 26 minutes of daylight today.  By comparison, Christchurch, New Zealand (which is approximately the same latitude south of the equator as Mid-Michigan is north of the equator), will have only 8 hours 56 minutes of sunlight today.
 

Field Corn (Zea mays) requires long summer days to grow and ripen

Why does the length of daylight vary?  The Earth rotates around its axis approximately once every 24 hours.  However this axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees from the vertical.  The points on the globe that the axis revolves around are referred to as the North and South Poles.  The axis is always pointed toward the same location in the sky.  The North Pole points toward the "North Star" - Polaris.

At any given time, fifty percent of the earth is in sunlight (Day) and the other fifty percent is in darkness (Night).  However, because the Earth is tilted on its axis sunlight does not always strike the Earth at the same angle.  This means that during different seasons different parts of the Earth will receive varying amounts of sunlight and darkness.
 
As the earth revolves around the sun, sometimes the North Pole is closer to the sun, sometimes the South Pole is closer to the sun.  When the North Pole is at its closest, the sun lights a larger portion of the Northern Hemisphere than it does the Southern Hemisphere.  When this happens, we experience Summer in Mid-Michigan and the Southern Hemisphere experiences Winter.  During our Northern Summer, not only does the sun light more of the Northern Hemisphere, but the sun also lights every Northern Hemisphere location for a higher percentage of the day than a comparable Southern Hemisphere location. 

When the North Pole is at its furthest from the sun, we experience Winter and the Southern Hemisphere experiences Summer.  During our Northern Winter, the sun is striking a a larger portion of the Southern Hemisphere than it is the Northern Hemisphere, and consequently the sun lights every Southern Hemisphere location for a higher percentage of the day than a comparable Northern Hemisphere location.  On two days of the year, the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, the sun lights the Northern and Southern Hemispheres equally and the length of day for will be the same for both.

A lone tree

There is a tree that I admire.  This tree stands in the edge of a field, completely alone. You can tell this tree grew up in the open, away from other trees, by the symmetry of its shape and the wide spread of its branches.

Trees like this are rarely left to stand.  They become victims to progress.  As farmers buy larger equipment, they remove the fence rows that divide fields and the trees that grew up along the fences.  Trees that once stood in the middle of fields to shade cattle and other livestock are cut down and their stumps pulled up. 

I don't begrudge the farmers for doing this - larger field make sense and trees in the middle of a tilled field don't make sense.  I wonder why this tree has managed to survive?  Does the owner of the field keep it there for sentimental reasons?  Or do they, like me, simply like the way the tree look.

I have passed by this tree dozens of times.  Yesterday I stopped for a few moments to photograph it.  I like how it stands out above the horizon and how it fills most of the frame of the picture.  I also like how the mist/fog adds a softness to the trees in the background and to the sky.  This is already one of my favorite photos of the year.

Sunrise (26 OCT 2016)

In case you missed it, the sunrise this morning was lovely...

Although the clouds barely shifted, the colors intensified as the sun rose higher toward the horizon.

Mid-Michigan may not known for its scenery, but there are times when it does quite well for itself.

Project R.E.D. in Isabella County (22 September 2015)

I spent all day yesterday at a local Project R.E.D. event.

What is Project R.E.D.?

The R.E.D. in the name stands for Rural Education Day.  This is an event hosted by the local chapter of the Michigan Farm Bureau in locations around the state of Michigan.  This project is designed to expose 3rd and 4th grade students to various aspects of rural and farm life to which they may not have been exposed.

For these events, the Farm Bureau brigs in local experts to talk about various aspects of farming and natural resources.  Experts may be farmers, government employees, veterinarians, etc..  As an employee of the Isabella Conservation District, I was asked to come in and talk about soil.

Talking to students about soil types - photo by Leigha Shoaf

With the exception of a group of home-schooled students, the students that participated in the Isabella County Rural Education Day were 4th graders from schools in the Shepherd, Mt. Pleasant, and Beal City area.  I had worked with almost all of these students when they were in 3rd grade (and will visit most of their classrooms again later this year).

Students examining soil profiles - photo by Leigha Shoaf

Each group of students rotated through a series of stations, with only eleven minutes at each station.  At the conclusion of the eleven minutes, the horn on a semi-truck was sounded to indicate that it was time too rotate.

I missed this.  This student appears to be biting a lump of rock-hard clay - photo by Leigha Shoaf

Eleven minutes is not a long time.  It is barely enough time to give an introduction to soil, but because most of the students had already studied soils with me when they were in 3rd grade we were able to treat it as a review.  We talked about the various components that make up soil (minerals, organic matter, water, air, and microorganisms), the different different sizes of soil (sand, silt, and clay), and how the various combinations of those components and soil sizes either help or harm plant growth.  We also looked at soil profiles and handled samples of soil dug on site.

Explaining the properties of loamy soil - photo by Leigha Shoaf

I had a great time at this event and look forward to participating again in 2016.  Thanks to Leigha Shoaf for taking the photographs.  Leigha is an Outdoor Recreation major at Central Michigan University and is volunteering her time this semester to help me with classroom programs and gain some experience at the same time.