The Days of Summer - Day Fifty-nine through Day Sixty-five

Here is installment nine of my Days of Summer photo project - I am trying to catch up, but I have been very busy with scheduling school program  I started this project on the Summer Solstice (21 June 2018) with a photo from a sunrise hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Bundy Hill Preserve.  My plan is to photograph something every day until the Fall Equinox (22 September 2018) and share one image from each day.  I am currently in week ten of the project.  To see the previous installments click here.
 
Day 59 (18 August 2018) - American Robin feathers

This image was photographed at my parent's home in Clinton County.  While searching for something to photograph, I found a dead American Robin lying on the ground on a mowed path through the woods.  This picture shows some of the feathers on its back and wings, with just a tiny bit of orange from its neck at the bottom left of the image.


Day 60 (19 August 2018) - Woodpecker holes in a birch trunk

This picture was taken at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Hall's Lake Natural Area during a stewardship outing.  I noticed this log while searching the woods for Autumn Olive (an invasive species) and went back to photograph it later.  These holes were probably originally created by a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  Now a Hairy Woodpecker was taking advantage of the easy access to search for insects in the rotting trunk.


Day 61 (20 August 2018) - Goldenrod Soldier Beetles on Rosinweed

This image was taken in our home native pollinator garden.  At any given time (especially during late summer) I can find dozens pollinators in our garden.  This year, for the first time, I noticed an influx of Goldenrod Soldier Beetles.  This mating pair was crawling around on one of the Rosinweed plants.  This image has been cropped from a horizontal to a vertical format.


Day 62 (21 August 2018) - Bombus impatiens on Purple Coneflower

I love bees, especially bumble bees!  This image of a Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) was taken at the Forest Hill Nature Area.  I cropped the image to a square just because I thought it looked best in this format.


Day 63 (22 August 2018) - Storm clouds

This picture was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant late in the day.  This image reminds me of the froth created by waves crashing on a beach.


Day 64 (23 August 2018) - Monarch caterpillar

This Monarch (Danaus plexippus) on a Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) was photographed in the field next to the Isabella Conservation District office.  On days that I spend a lot of time in the office, sometimes I just need to go outside for a few minutes.

Day 65 (24 August 2018) - Native Pollinator Garden at Winn Elementary

The Isabella Conservation District planted and currently helps maintain native pollinator gardens at two local schools and the Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum.  With school starting, I spent a couple hours pulling weeds and moving "volunteer" plants from pathways at the Winn Elementary School Garden.  The Leopold bench in the picture was one of six constructed with students back in 2013.  They were all recently repainted in the school colors.

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...

Native Pollinator Garden Update - Winn Elementary (25 August 2017)

Winn Elementary Native Pollinator Garden

 
School starts this week for students at Winn Elementary (and several other local school districts).  With that in mind, I went out to the school last week to do a little bit of maintenance on the garden.  This garden was originally planted in June 2012.  With five full growing seasons behind it, it is really starting to come into its own.  

I don't like to fuss too much in the garden.  Plants will move around in the garden, seeking the best growing conditions.  Surprises will pop up - this garden now has Wild Columbine and two species of Goldenrod that were not planted here.  Most of the maintenance on this garden consists of pulling plants that have grown up in the walkways and preventing invasive species from becoming established.  In addition to a little weeding, I mulched the pathways through the garden just to get it ready for students walking through. 

Here are a few photos.

This garden is a certified butterfly habitat.

Freshly mulched pathways make it easy to walk through the garden.

Grey-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)

Missouri Ironweed (Vernonia missurica)

Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)

Nodding Wild Onion (Allium cernuum)

Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)on Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera)

A Leopold bench provides a spot for students to sit and work

 

Bee nesting tubes are mostly full

 

In a few weeks, asters and goldenrod will color the garden shades of purple and gold.

This Wednesday (30 August), we will be visiting this garden as part of an education series hosted by the Isabella Conservation District.  Unfortunately, registration for this program is closed, but we  have a class on the identification and control of native species scheduled for 20 September.  When more information on that class becomes available I will publish it here.

At home in the (Mostly) Native Pollinator Garden - 23 July 17

Last week I shared some photos of two of the native pollinator gardens that we maintain (and the story of why I am digging up a third garden).

I am going to start off this week by sharing some photos from our home garden.  I always refer to it a (Mostly) Native Pollinator Garden.  It is probably about 75 per cent native plants, but there are many domestic plants included in the garden.  Some of these (spiderwort, irises, hostas, etc.) were already here when we moved in in 2011.  Other plants (garden phlox, Turk's Cap Lily, Shasta Daisy, sedum, etc.) we added to the garden.  We have also planted several hundred tulip bulbs.  Nowadays, when we add plants they are almost always native species.

The result is that we have a garden that blends the native and non-native.  Although I advocate for the use of native plants, there is nothing wrong with using a mixture.  I know my garden is not a wild habitat, but it is close in function.  I frequently see hundreds of insects each day - especially native bees.  They are drawn by the abundant pollen and nectar of the blooming plants as well as the nesting sites that we provide for them.

One of the things that I like about our garden is the layering.  It almost never needs weeding because of a layer of low plants that act as groundcover.  Above that there are flowering plants in several layers up to eight feet tall!

The view of the southeast corner of the house

Further along the south side of the house

The garden as seen from the street

Here are few of the wildflower species that can be found in the garden:

Red Baneberry grows in the shade at the front of the house

Northern Maidenhair Fern is another shade-loving species

Rosinweed is one of the giants in the garden at nearly 8 feet

Purple Conflower adds a change from all the yellow flowers

Green Coneflower is up to 5 feet tall - it needs other plants to keep it from flopping over

Cup Plant is another giant in the garden.  This one is growing right next to the corner of the porch.

A closer view of a Cup plant flower

Cup Plant leaves hold rainwater at their base.  This water is used by bees, wasps, other insects, and even small birds!

Big-leafed Aster

Blue-eyed Grass

Our garden is certified as a Monarch Waystation.

Our garden is home to home to dozens of native bees.  We have several nesting sites for several cavity-nesting species including mason. leafcutter, and small carpenter bees.  The holes that the bees nest in are quickly filling up.

One of our bee nesting boxes

These drilled holes are about 5 - 6 inches deep.  Filled holes are capped with sections of leaves or mud.

Another nesting block up close.  Each hole contains as many as six bee larvae and enough food for them to mature to adulthood.

Because we have so many bees, we need to provide plenty of food in the form of pollen and nectar.  Our goal is to have something in bloom from April to October.  Here are a few more of the native plants that help us achieve that goal.  These plants are all growing in the shaded areas at the rear of th house.

Culver's Root - even though this plant prefers full sun, it is thriving in partial shade

Woodland Sunflower

Ground-cherry came up on its own this year.  Thanks birds!

False Sunflower - another one in partial shade

Highbush Cranberry provides winter food for birds.

Native Pollinator Garden at Saginaw Chippewa Academy (06 June 2017)

While waiting for Shara today I photographed the Native Pollinator Garden at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy.  Most of the pollinator gardens that we have installed have a mix of plants that bloom throughout the growing season.  Right now the garden at SCA is at one of its two annual peaks - the other will be in August/September.

Enjoy the pics.

This garden is a certified Monarch Waystation and Native Plant Butterfly Garden

Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus)

Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)

Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)

Small native bee and Hairy Beardtongue

Common Bumblebee (upper left) and bee fly (bottom right)

American Alumroot (Heuchera americana) and Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis)

Hairy Beardtongue and Lanceleaf Coreopsis

Common Bumblebee

A native bee - click on picture to see it closer

Canada Anemone

Common Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) - if you click on the picture you can see the bee's five eyes