Frontyard Waxwings

I mentioned in yesterday's post that a flock of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) was feeding on the buds and flowers of a Norway maple in my front yard.  I knew that waxwings sometimes consume flowers and buds, but this was the first time I had observed it.  I rushed back inside to get my camera.  When I got back outdoors, most of the flock had moved on to a neighbor's trees, but a few birds lingered and I was able to get the following photographs.

The Days of Summer - Day Seventeen through Day Twenty-three

This part three of my Days of Summer photo project.  To learn more about the inspiration for this project and to see the photos from part one and part two click on the following links:

     The Days of Summer - Day One through Day Nine
     The Days of Summer - Day Ten through Day Sixteen

 Day 17 (07 July 2018) - Snowberry Clearwing Moth

We normally think of moths as nocturnal insects, but many are adapted to daytime living.  This includes a group of sphinx moths known as Clearwings.  In North America, there are four species in the genus Hemaris.  All fly by day.  They mimic the appearance of bumblebees and the feeding behavior of hummingbirds - thus they are often known as Bumblebee Moths or Hummingbird Moths.  This one is specifically known as the Snowberry Clearwing Moth (Hemaris diffinis) after a favorite larval host plant.  This photo was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  This probably not the best image from the day, but I cannot resist the subject.

Day 18 (08 July 2018) - Japanese Maple

This image of Japanese Maple leaves was taken in front of our house.  I like the silhouette of the red leaves against the blue sky and the details of the delicate veins in the central leaf.

Day 19 (09 July 2018) - Impression, Michigan Lily

If the previous photo was all about details.  This one is all about impressions.  This Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense) was photographed at Mission Creek Woodland Park.  This photo reminds me of an Impressionist painting with only the blooms pistil and one or two stamen in sharp focus.  The rest of the flower is clearly visible but much softer.  It's all about the light!

The name given to this photo was inspired by the painting that Impressionism was named after:  Impression, soleil levant (Impression, sunrise) by Claude Monet.

Day 20 (10 July 2018) - Sunlight and Basswood

The photo for Day Twenty is also all about the light.  In this image sunlight filters down through the canopy, shedding light on American Basswood (Tilia americana) leaves.  The sun itself bursts through a gap in the upper right of the image. This image was taken in Mt. Pleasant at Mill Pond Park.

Day 21 (11 July 2018) - Waves of grass

I am constantly drawn to subjects that show pattern and texture.  Choosing a photo for July 11th was difficult.  I traveled north along US 127 to North Higgins Lake State Park for a late afternoon meeting.  Before my meeting I spent a little time exploring the park and came away with images of the lake, pine trees, lichens, etc.  Most of these images focused on pattern and texture.  In the end, I selected this image because of the suggested wavelike motion of the grasses.  I could have easily selected three or four other pictures from the day,

Day 22 (12 July 2018) - Blue Vervain

This photo of Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) was taken along the Chippewa River at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  The individual flowers are small, but each plant can have hundreds of blooms over the course of several weeks in mid- to late-summer.  The sheer abundance of blooms makes this an important nectar source for native bees.  Although none appear in this picture, there were dozens buzzing around this colony of plants.

Day 23 (13 July 2018) - White Water Lily with native bee

My final picture of the week shows a native bee collecting pollen from a White Water Lily (Nymphaea odorata).  I took about two dozen of pictures of this exact flower at the beginning of a walk through Mill Pond Park this morning.  I came back near the end of my walk and there was a bee on the flower.  One picture and the bee was gone...

An autumn walk at Forest Hill Nature Area

The weather yesterday was absolutely beautiful.  After arriving home from work, we decided to head out to Forest Hill Nature Area for a walk.  Here are a few of the sights.

Drip. Drip. Drip. (The sap is running.)

The current warm daytime temperature and cold nights means that the sap is running in maple trees.  Even though it is a little earlier than most years, local syrup producers have begun tapping trees.

Sap buckets hanging on a maple tree

To Anishinaabe people in Michigan the maple sap is known as ziisbaakdwaaboo and the month of March is known as Ziisbaakdoke-Giizis (Sugaring Moon).  March is traditionally when the people would gather at sugar camp.  Today, people usually boil the sap until it becomes a thick syrup, but Anishinaabe people of the past continued boiling the syrup down until it began to granulize as maple sugar.  Sugar was one of the staple foods of the Anishinaabe people as it could packed into birch bark containers and stored for many months.

Sap drips from a spile into a sap bucket

Maple leafs - more than just a hockey team from Toronto

Is a maple tree just a maple tree?

No.

There are seven different native Maple (Acer) species in Michigan as well as several introduced species.

Yesterday (12 July 2016) was the second full day of the 2016 Michigan DNR Academy of natural resources.  While wandering around the grounds of the Ralph A. MacMullan (RAM) Conference Center over the past two days, I noticed that several different species of Maple trees could be found on the property.  While all three species  have similarities, they also bear distinct differences.

The first of the three trees was the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum).  This species can grow to an average height of 60 to 100 feet and reach a trunk diameter of up to 48 inches.  Michigan's record  Sugar Maple has a recorded diameter of more than 72 inches, but is only 78 feet tall.  Often for "big tree" listings, trees are measured only by their trunk diameter.

The leaves of Sugar Maples are simple (meaning one leaf on one stem) and typically have five lobes (rarely three).  The margins (edges) of the leaves have a few wavy teeth.  These leaves normally measure 2 to 5 inches wide and long (not counting the leaf petiole or stem).  The leaves of this species (and all maple species) are arranged in opposite pairs.

Sugar Maple leaf - note five lobes and wavy-toothed margins

The second Maple species that I noticed was the Red Maple (Acer rubrum).  Red Maples are similar in size to Sugar Maples.  They reach a height of 50 to 100 feet and normally have a trunk diameter of up to 32 inches.  The Michigan record Red Maple is actually larger than the state record Sugar Maple, with a trunk diameter of 74 inches and a height of 120 feet.

The leaves of the Red Maple are similar in size to those of the Sugar Maple (2-5 inches).  They also have three to five lobes - three lobes seem to be more common than five in most trees.  The majore difference between the Sugar Maple and this species is the leaf margins.  Red Maple leaves have margins with many sharply pointed teeth.

Red Maple leaf  - note five lobes and sharply serrated leaf margins

The third Maple species that I found was the Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum).  This species is significantly smaller than the previous two species, only reaching a height of 20 to 30 feet and a trunk diameter of 3 to 8 inches.  The state record Mountain Maple has a trunk diameter of only 11 inches and a height of 58 feet.

Like Red Maple, the margins of Mountain Maple Leaves are serrated (toothed).  The teeth on Mountain Maple leaves are much coarser than those of the Red Maple.  The leaves often smaller (3-5 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide) and have only three lobes.

Mountain Maple leaf - note three lobes and coarsely serrated leaf margins

In this final photograph you can see all three species for comparison.

Sugar Maple (top left), Mountain Maple (bottom left), and Red Maple (right)