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.

You have your St. Patrick's Day traditions. I have mine.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Everyone has their favorite St. Patrick's Day tradition - eating corned beef and cabbage, wearing green, listening to the Irish Rovers (or the Dubliners or the Pogues or Flogging Molly or any other Irish band), attending a parade, etc.

I like to share pictures of snakes...

Why snakes?

There are all sorts of legends surrounding St. Patrick.

My favorite legend about St. Patrick says that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick chased them from the island.  The story is that St. Patrick was involved in the middle of a forty day fast when he was attacked by snakes.  This angered Patrick so greatly that he chased the snakes into the sea and banished them from the island forever.  To this day, Ireland has no native population of snakes.

Run away!  Run away!

 
While this is a great story, the truth is that there were never any snakes on Ireland for St. Patrick to chase away.  Ireland has been covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  During the last glacial maximum, which occurred about 11 thousand years ago, three-quarters of Ireland was buried under a thick layer of ice.  The remainder of the island was too cold and inhospitable to support snakes and most other species of wildlife.


When the glaciers retreated, Ireland was temporarily connected to Great Britain and the rest of Europe by a land bridge.  This connection allowed some species to repopulate Ireland, but snakes did not make it across before the connection was severed by rising sea levels.  This isolation is the true reason for Ireland's lack of snakes, not an angry fifth century saint.

You're welcome, Ireland! (photo by Shara LeValley)

In a knot...

Yesterday, as I was collecting some pond water at Chipp-A-Waters Park, I noticed four different Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon) around the margins of the ponds.  I have found snakes around this pond before; the pond is full of things they like to eat such as frogs, tadpoles, fish, leaches, etc..  So it was no surprise to find one near this pond.  It was unusual to find more than one at a time.

It's confusing, but you can count four snakes in this picture - the female is the biggest and the other three are males

Why were all of these snakes congregated in one place?

The answer to that question soon became obvious.

One of the snakes that I saw was significantly larger than the other three snakes.  Not only that, but the three smaller snakes were vigorously pursuing the largest snake.  Eventually all four snakes clustered together in a loose ball on some cattail stalks a dozen feet from the edge of the pond.

The period April to June is mating season for Northern Water Snakes.  The largest snake was a female.  The smaller snakes were males, competing for the opportunity to mate.  Eventually one (or more) of the males successfully mated with the female.

Female (center) and largest male (right) Northern Water Snake - he was the apparent winner of the mating competition.

I don't expect to find a bunch of snake eggs any time soon.  Northern Water Snakes give birth to live babies (7 to 9 inches long) during late summer.  Once the babies are born they are completely on their own.

One thing that I noticed about these snakes was the color variation.  All Northern Water Snakes have a pattern of dark striped with a (usually) lighter background of brown or grey.  As they age, their colors typically darken so there is little difference between the stripes and the background color.  On of the three male snakes was noticeably lighter than his co-suitors.  His stripes were an almost olive green against a tan background.  You can this in the two pictures below.

A lighter color morph Northern Water Snake

In this photo you can really see the color variation in the species - fours snakes, four different colors

It's nice to have the opportunity to see and interact with this species.  I didn't see my first Northern Water Snake in the wild in Mt. Pleasant until 2013, despite having worked in Mt. Pleasant Parks for nearly a decade.  Now I see them on a somewhat regular basis, especially at Chipp-A-Waters Park.

Just for fun...  A group of snakes can be known as a"knot".  I can see why!

Snakes Patrick Day!

It's time for my annual St. Patrick's Day tradition - sharing a photo of snakes.
 

This cluster of mating Eastern Garter Snakes would probably have enraged St. Patrick.

There are all sorts of legends surrounding St. Patrick.

My favorite legend about St. Patrick says that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick chased them from the island.  The story is that St. Patrick was involved in the middle of a forty day fast when he was attacked by snakes.  This angered Patrick so greatly that he chased the snakes into the sea and banished them from the island forever.  To this day, Ireland has no native population of snakes.

While this is a great story, the truth is that there were never any snakes on Ireland for St. Patrick to chase away.  Ireland has been covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  During the last glacial maximum, which occurred about 11 thousand years ago, three-quarters of Ireland was buried under a thick layer of ice.  The remainder of the island was too cold and inhospitable to support snakes and most other species of wildlife.

When the glaciers retreated, Ireland was temporarily connected to Great Britain and the rest of Europe by a land bridge.  This connection allowed some species to repopulate Ireland, but snakes did not make it across before the connection was severed by rising sea levels.  This isolation is the true reason for Ireland's lack of snakes, not an angry fifth century saint.

Michigan was affected by the same glacial periods as Ireland.  It also was scoured clean by a thick layer of ice.  However, Michigan remains attached to the rest of North America and snakes have repopulated both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas in the past 11,000 years.  A total of seventeen snake species currently call the state home.  I am glad that they are here.  They play an important role in the ecosystem as both predators and prey.  Ireland you're missing out.


Fun fact:  In addition to being the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick is also the patron saint of engineers and the nation of Nigeria.

Snakes - A St. Patrick's Day Tradition

It's time for my St. Patrick's Day tradition - sharing a photo of snakes.

A Northern Water Snake training for the future invasion of Ireland.

Legends says that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick chased them off of the island.  The story is that St. Patrick was involved in the middle of a forty day fast when he was attacked by snakes.  This angered Patrick so greatly that he chased the snakes into the sea and banished them from the island forever.  To this day, Ireland has no native population of snakes.

The truth is that there were never any snakes on Ireland for St. Patrick to chase away.  Ireland has been covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  During the last glacial maximum, which occurred about 11 thousand years ago, three-quarters of Ireland was buried under a thick layer of ice.  The remainder of the island was too cold and inhospitable to support snakes and most other species of wildlife.

When the glaciers retreated, Ireland was temporarily connected to Great Britain and the rest of Europe by a land bridge.  This connection allowed some species to repopulate Ireland, but snakes did not make it across before the connection was severed by rising sea levels.  This isolation is the true reason for Ireland's lack of snakes, not an angry fifth century saint.

Michigan was affected by the same glacial periods as Ireland.  It also was scoured clean by a thick layer of ice.  However, Michigan remains attached to the rest of North America and snakes have repopulated both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas in the past 11,000 years.  A total of seventeen snake species currently call the state home.  I am glad that they are here.  They play an important role in the ecosystem as both predators and prey.

Let me tell you 'bout the frog and the snake...

I have lots of stories.  When I show one of my photographs in a classroom, I often have a story that goes along with it.  Unfortunately, many of my best stories don't translate well to the written form.  This is because my storytelling usually has a physical component - I don't just tell a story, I act it out.  So until the day that I become a better writer (not likely to happen), or I start to record videos of my stories (even less likely to happen), many of my stories can only be experienced in person.

There are a few, a very few, of my photographs that can almost tell the story on their own.  One example is this sequence of pictures from 2006.

I remember discovering this Common Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) struggling with a Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) in the woods at Mission Creek Woodland Park.

I have made a habit of discovering interesting things not only by sight, but also by smell and sound.  My attention was drawn to this pair by a horrible grunting squeak that I couldn't replicate if I tried.  It was not a sound that I usually hear in a forest or anywhere else for that matter.  It was so unique that I had to search for the source.  When I first spied the snake and frog in the leaf litter, the snake had a hold of a single hind leg of the frog.  This was enough...

 A garter snakes jaws are lined with many small needle-sharp teeth.  They help the snake get a grip on struggling prey.  By walking its jaws along the frog's body, it was quickly able to position the frog in the preferred head-first swallowing position.  The frog had no real defense for this - it tried to puff up its body to make itself to large to swallow, but the garter snake is an expert on frogs.

I think I will let the snake show you.

Native Species Profile - Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi)

Michigan is home to seventeen species of snakes.  Most of them are rarely encountered.  In the past two years, I have seen only six of the seventeen species in the wild (Common Garter Snake, Butler's Garter Snake, Northern Ribbon Snake, Northern Water Snake, Eastern Hognose Snake, and Brown Snake).  Of those six species, the two that I have seen most frequently are the Common Garter Snake and the Northern Ribbon Snake.

The third most frequent snake that I encounter is the Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi).  As the name implies, the Brown Snake is normally colored some shade of brown with some individuals being gray-brown or tan.  Other distinctive markings include a cream or pink belly and two rows of black dots on opposite sides of the back.  The color between the two rows of black markings is often lighter than on its sides.  Young Brown Snakes often have light gray or white ring around their necks.

Brown Snake - note brown color, row of black dots, and light color on back

Brown Snakes are typically generally small, with most individuals being between 9 and 15 inches long.  Rarely they will approach two feet in length.

A young Brown Snake resting inside my ballcap

Because of their small size, Brown Snakes concentrate on eating small animals.  Their typical diet includes worms, slugs, and snails.  They have also been known to eat grubs, beetles, and small salamanders.  I would expect that large individuals may also eat small frogs and other small vertebrates.

Brown Snake are small - normally measuring less than 15 inches.

Brown Snakes can be found in a variety of habitats including woodlands, wetlands, and suburban areas.  One way to attract Brown Snakes to a property is to provide them with boards or other suitable objects to hide under.  In Michigan they can be found throughout the Lower Peninsula and parts of the Upper Peninsula.  Overall they can be found throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains,  southern Canada, and northern Mexico.




Basic Information

Brown Snake
Storeria dekayi

Size:  9-23” long 

Habitat:  wetlands, fields, prairies, forests, agricultural lands, suburban areas, etc.

Eats:  worms, slugs, snails, grubs, small salamanders

Field Trip - Nature Discovery, Williamston, MI

Yesterday (13 September 2015), Shara and I visited Williamston, MI for the sixth annual Michigan Snakes Day at Nature Discovery.  Nature Discovery is a nature-based business owned and operated by biologists Jim and Carol McGrath.  In their own words: NATURE DISCOVERY is dedicated to enhancing awareness and sensitivity toward Michigan's diverse living resources through natural science education.

Jim and Carol have operated Nature Discovery  for the past 28 years - most of that time out of their home!  They have the most complete collection of Michigan reptiles and amphibians anywhere in the state - currently 46 of 52 species.  Maintaining their "zoo" is a full-time job.

Some of the tanks at Nature Discovery

They regularly take their collection to locations around the state and present to thousands of people every year.  Until recently they have been helped by their four children, but the kids have all grown up so Jim and Carol are now largely on their own.


One Sunday each month, Jim and Carol host a themed open house at their home-based nature center. During open houses, visitors have the opportunity to observe and interact with the many species that call Nature Discovery home.  To learn about upcoming presentations and open house date please check out their monthly newsletter.  The cost to attend one of their open houses is only five dollars per person.

Here are a few of the species that we observed during the open house yesterday.

A young Spotted Turtle - photo by Shara LeValley

A Green Snake at Nature Discovery - photo by Shara LeValley

An American Toad peeks out from under a log in its habitat - photo by Shara LeValley

Two Fox Snakes peer out from an old blue bird house in their tank

A Box Turtle dozes in the sun at Nature Discovery

 

A collection of aquatic turtle species enjoys the warm sun

To maintain the diversity of species in their collection, Jim and Carol frequently capture wild specimens to replace animals that have died of natural causes.  Some species live longer than other - some snakes live more than a decade and turtles commonly live much longer.  Other species (especially some frogs) may only live for a couple of years.

Because they maintain such a large number of animals on site, there is always the potential that some of the animals will successfully breed and produce offspring.  When this happens Nature Discovery occasionally has an excess of certain species of animals.  When this happens, the extra animals are frequently donated to schools and other educational facilities that have booked presentations through Nature Discovery.  Part of the reason for out visit was for Shara to pick up a four year old rat snake to add to her classroom.

Shara with her new classroom pet

This new addition to the "zoo" measures nearly four feet long.  It is very gentle due to repeated handling.  Shara and I handled it for two straight hours while we visited Nature Discovery.  At one point, in addition to the snake we were bringing home, Shara had five additional snakes climbing on here.  Almost 26 feet of snakes in total!

Shara is not an ophidiophobe

Anyone with an interest in nature in general and Michigan reptiles and amphibians in particular should see a display or presentation by Jim and Carol.  I learn something new every time I see them.  I book them every year for the Isabella County Environmental Education Day and they are one of the highlights for students and teachers alike.

Nature Discovery is located only an hour and fifteen minutes from Mt. Pleasant.  It is well worth the drive to visit during one of their open houses.  If Sundays are not an option, special appointments can also be arranged.  To arrange a special visit or to receive their newsletter in your email contact them at naturedisc87@gmail.com. 

What's Blooming - Thursday 30 April 2015

Last week I posted a few photographs that I had taken of a Barred Owl during a walk the previous day.  The owl was a great surprise, but it wasn't the reason that I went into the woods.  I actually went in search of Spring wildflowers.  My first stop was Chipp-A-Waters Park.  Chipp-A-Waters Park is located along the Chippewa River on the southwest side of Mt. Pleasant.  It has a variety of wooded habitats including floodplain forest and beech/sugar maple forest.  The best place for spring ephemeral wildflowers at Chipp-A-Waters park is along a series of old riverbanks that are elevated above the surrounding floodplain.  Unfortunately, this area is becoming degraded by the incursion of invasive species.  I have managed to keep the Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) away from the best wildflower areas so far, but things do not look good in the long run. 

Chippewa River floodplain overgrown with Garlic Mustard

I did find a few Garlic Mustard plants in the prime wildflower areas of the park, but as of right now they can be controlled by hand pulling.  Here are a few photographs of the wildflowers that I am trying to protect.

A large expanse of Wild Leek (Allium tricoccum) - these plants flower later in the summer after the leaves die back

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Dutchman's Breeches - a closer view showing the namesake flowers

Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardmine concatenata)

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)

A bonus that I found during my photographing of wildflowers was this small Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis).  This snake measured between 12 and 18 inches long and I initially found it by hearing crawl through the dead leaves that litter the forest floor.  It was quite calm and i was able to get within a couple of feet to photograph it.

After leaving Chipp-A-Waters Park I headed to the north side of Mt. Pleasant to look for more flowers at Mission Creek Woodland Park.  Mission Creek is very different than Chipp-A-Waters in terms of habitat.  While it does have a large section of beech/sugar maple forest, my favorite parts of the park consist of forested wetlands, both northern hardwood-conifer swamp and southern hardwood swamp. 

All of the following photographs were taken in the wetlands area of the park.

Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

Two-leaf Mitrewort (Mitella diphylla)

Scouring Rush (Equisetum hyemale)

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) leaf growing through the decayed remains of a White Birch log