Day 1 (20 March 2019) - Skunk Cabbage
This image of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) was photographed in a cedar swamp at Mission Creek Woodland Park in Mt. Pleasant. Skunk Cabbage is my favorite wildflower. It's the first flower to bloom each spring, often flowering while there is still ice and snow on the ground. This species generates enough metabolic heat that it will sometimes melt its way through the ice.
Day 2 (21 March 2019) - Woodland Mallard
The combination of spring rains and melting snow and ice caused the Chippewa River to overflow its banks in Mid-March. A week later parts of the floodplain remained under water, especially at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant. This Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) drake would not normally be found in the woods, but was taking advantage of the flood to forage in an old river channel.
Day 3 (22 March 2019) - Maple Buds
This image of swollen buds on a Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) was taken from my front yard in Alma. Silver and Red Maples are among the first local tree species to bud each spring. I chose this image for the simplicity of the limbs and buds silhouetted against the blue sky.
Day 4 (23 March 2019) - Awake
On March 23rd I led a hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve. The goal of the hike was to search for early signs of spring. Other than a group photograph I didn't ake any images during the hike, but I did take several pictures of an active mound ant (Formica sp.) nest before the hike began. There are a number of these mounds at Sylvan Solace Preserve, but only those in direct sunlight had warmed enough for the ants to be active.
Day 5 (24 March 2019) - Willow Catkins
This image of willow catkins (flowers) was taken at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant. I went to the park with the goal of photographing Red-winged Blackbirds in the large cattail marsh. I never did get a blackbird image that I was happy with, but did photograph several Black-capped Chickadees as they foraged among the cattails. But the image that said "SPRING!" was this one. I like how everything in this image is fuzzy - the catkins, the budscales, the branch itself, and the cattail seeds that have affixed themselves to the willow.
Day 6 (25 March 2019) - Floodplain Geese
March 25th found me back at Chipp-A-Waters Park. This pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) was photographed along the edge of the oxbow pond located near the back of the park. An oxbow is a section of river meander that has been cut off from the main flow of the river as it has changed course over time. This oxbow holds water year round, but is only connected to the main river a few weeks each year as the river tops its current banks. This image has been cropped to a widescreen (16:9) format to remove some of the clutter at the top and bottom.
Day 7 (26 March 2019) - Deep in Thought
This picture of a Red-winged Blackbird was taken in the cattail marsh at Mill Pond Park. I removed the left 1/3 of this picture to crop to a square - this helps emphasize space on the right of the picture, giving more "space" for the bird to gaze into. The result is that bird appears to be thinking intently or waiting for something to appear. The blurring in the picture is due to shooting through cattails.
Day 8 (27 March 2019) - Woodland Robin
For many people the first sign of spring is the appearance of the first American Robin (Turdus migratorius). While some robins remain in mid-Michigan throughout the year, the numbers do increase when spring nears. This photo was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.
Day 9 (28 March 2019) - Western Chorus Frog
This picture was taken in a shrub swamp/season wetland near the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways. I stopped at the Ziibiwing Center in hopes that that there may be bluebirds checking out the nest boxes. Instead I rolled down my windows to the sound of Western Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris triseriata). Fortunately I had my neoprene boots in the back of my truck. I could hear dozens of frogs calling as I approached the wetland. In typical frog fashion, they all went silent as soon as they say me. After about ten minutes of standing silently, several nearby frogs started calling again. They are difficult to spot - the one in the picture is about as big as my thumb from the tip to the first knuckle. I hope that as the weather warms back up this week I will be able to return and get a few more pictures. I need to remember to take my binoculars this time - maybe they will make it easier to spot the frogs!
Day 10 (29 March 2019) - Sunburst
The final image was taken in the Canopy Walk at the Whiting Forest in Midland, MI. We went to Midland to visit the Butterflies in Bloom exhibit at Dow Gardens. Unbeknownst to us, you have to reserve a time slot to enter the exhibit - this is a new policy this year! We didn't want to wait two hours to get in so we decided to check out the Canopy Walk instead. This is a new feature of Whiting Forest (which is part of Dow Gardens), completed in 2018. During peak times, you also need to reserve a time to go on the canopy walk but we were able to walk right up.
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