tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22681174148754834922024-03-28T22:43:19.101-07:00Isabella Conservation District Environmental Education ProgramMike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.comBlogger1122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-43072954040961206852019-07-03T12:37:00.000-07:002019-07-10T11:22:42.018-07:00Vernal: 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 <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">1 - 10</a>, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-11.html" target="_blank">11 - 20</a>, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-21.html" target="_blank">21 - 30</a>, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-31.html" target="_blank">31 - 40</a>, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/05/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-41-day.html" target="_blank">41 - 50</a>, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/06/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-51.html" target="_blank">51 - 60</a>, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/06/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-61.html" target="_blank">61 -70</a>, and <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/06/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-71.html" target="_blank">71 - 80</a>.<br />
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The final set of images consisted of fourteen photographs photographed between June 8th and June 20th (the last full day of spring)<br />
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<b>Day 81 (08 June 2019) - White Campion</b><br />
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This image shows a <a href="https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=SILA21" target="_blank">white campion</a> (<i>Silene latifolia</i>). 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. <br />
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<b>Day 82 (09 June 2019) - How Blue Can You Get?</b><br />
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My second image was taken at one of the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's farthest flung preserves. <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/peterson-natural-area/" target="_blank">Peterson Natural Area</a> 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 (<i>Sialis sialis</i>) who claimed this nesting box along the old farm lane. A pair of tree swallows was using a nesting box a few posts away.<br />
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<b>Day 83 (10 June 2019) - Backroad, Tree and Clouds</b><br />
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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. <br />
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<b>Day 84 (11 June 2019) - Cirrocumulus Clouds</b><br />
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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 "<a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/01/weather-mackerel-skies.html" target="_blank">mackerel scales</a>" because the pattern of the clouds resemble the scales on a fish.<br />
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<b>Day 85 (12 June 2019) - A Snake Called Fluffy</b><br />
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Until 2013 I had never seen a <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/07/ophidiophobes-beware.html" target="_blank">northern water snake</a> (Nerodia sipedon) in Mt. Pleasant, despite working in the city parks from 2002 through 2010. Now I see them every single year, sometimes <a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2017/05/in-knot.html" target="_blank">several at a time</a>. 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.<br />
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<b>Day 86 (13 June 2019) - Hairy Beardtongue</b><br />
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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 (<i>Penstemon hirsutus</i>). 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 (<i>Coreopsis lanceolata</i>).<br />
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<b>Day 87 (14 June 2019) - Sic semper <i>Tyrannus tyrannus</i>!</b><br />
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This photograph of an eastern kingbird (<i>Tyrannus tyrannus</i>) 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.<br />
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<b>Day 88 (15 June 2019) - <i>Bombus ternarius</i></b><br />
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June 15th was a busy day for me. I had to be in Tustin, MI at the Kettunen Center for a meeting of the <a href="https://www.maeoe.com/" target="_blank">Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education</a> (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 (<i>Bombus impatiens</i>), instead its the orange-belted or tricolored bumblebee (<i>Bombus ternarius</i>). I rarely see this species as it is not common in the southern half of the lower peninsula.<br />
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<b>Day 89 (16 June 2019) - Emerald Spreadwing</b><br />
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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 (<i>Lestes dryas</i>) such as this one, but there were several other species mixed in.<br />
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<b>Day 90 (17 June 2019) - You Talkin' to Me?</b><br />
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Another day, another damselfly. This ebony jewelwing (<i>Calopteryx maculata</i>) 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.<br />
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<b>Day 91 (18 June 2019) - Hungry Hungry Caterpillar</b><br />
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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.<br />
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<b>Day 92 (19 June 2019) - Hive Mentality</b><br />
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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.<br />
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<b>Day 93 (20 June 2019) - Last Day of Spring</b><br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-87623792195800731162019-06-21T11:56:00.001-07:002019-06-21T11:56:41.309-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 71 through Day 80)Here come more photographs from my spring photography project. To see the previous set of photos click <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/06/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-61.html" target="_blank">this link</a>.<br />
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<b>Day 71 (29 May 2019) - Green Frog </b><br />
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This image of a male green frog (<i>Lithobates clamitans</i>) was taken in Mt. Pleasant at Chipp-A-Waters Park. Earlier in the spring I shared a photograph of an American toad taken in the same pond - both species breed in this pond, but at different times. The fact that this is a male frog can be determined by the size of its tympanum (the circle behind its eye). Female green frogs will have a tympanum the same size as their eye while the tympanum of a male frog is larger than the eye. These frogs are often heard before they are seen as they announce their presence with a loud PLUNK! sounding like someone plucking a single out-of-tune guitar string. This photograph has been cropped to a widescreen (16:9) format to eliminate some distracting elements at the top of the image.<br />
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<b>Day 72 (30 May 2019) - Wild Geranium </b><br />
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I selected this image of <a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/05/native-species-profile-wild-geranium.html" target="_blank">wild geranium</a> (<i>Geranium maculatum</i>) because of color. I like how the pink of the flowers contrasts with the varying shades of green from the geranium itself and surrounding plants. This photograph was taken at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve. Wild Geranium has long been one of my favorite wildflowers to photograph.<br />
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<b>Day 73 (31 May 2019) - Mayapple </b><br />
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This photograph was taken at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant. Mayapple (<i>Podophyllum peltatum</i>) produces a single large while flower beneath as pair of large umbrella-like leaves. From above its almost impossible to see the flowers, but from below... This image was taken by holding the camera at ground level and using the moveable digital viewer to compose the image.<br />
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<b>Day 74 (01 June 2019) - White-tailed Fawn </b></div>
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June 1st was National Trails Day. I was scheduled to lead hikes at four CWC preserves, but the weather was horrible almost the entire day. We dodged thunderstorms and rain all morning with even heavier rain due early afternoon. Everyone bailed on the hike scheduled for 1:00 except me and Shara. Despite the rain we went for a short hike at Hall's Lake Natural Area. I kept my camera tucked inside my raincoat for most of the hike, but I did bring it out when we spotted this white-tailed deer fawn. Despite the rain, the hike was worth it for this picture.<br />
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<b>Day 75 (02 June 2019) - Portrait of an Iris</b><br />
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In the last set of photographs I shared an image of a Siberian iris photographed in our home flower garden. This iris image comes from our gardens too, but this is a bearded iris. I deliberately shot this image to focus on the iris' beard.</div>
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<b>Day 76 (03 June 2019) - Monarch Egg </b></div>
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On June 3rd I decided to stop at Forest Hill Nature Area on the way home. Large parts of the property were mowed down last fall and then (apparently) sprayed with herbicide this spring. I can only assume the intent is to replant these areas with native seed sometime this year. Right now walking through these areas is rather depressing.<br />
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However, I did notice that the herbicide did not kill all of the common milkweed (<i>Asclepias syriaca</i>). On a whim I decided to search the milkweed plants for a monarch butterfly egg. I found this one on the second plant I searched. This image has been cropped down to about 30% of the original size and has been the brightness of the image has been adjusted.<br />
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<b>Day 77 (04 June 2019) - Impressions of grass @ icd office</b><br />
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The photograph for Day 77 was taken at the Isabella Conservation District Office. The wind was constantly creating waves in the grassy field behind the office. I decided to work with the wind and create an Impressionist photograph of the scene. The image above was shot at 1/6 second at f/32 to capture the blur of the grass as the wind moved it around. This image reminds me a bit of some of the landscapes in Frederick Remington's later paintings that were heavily influenced by Impressionism. Of this set of ten photographs, this is my favorite image.<br />
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<b>Day 78 (05 June 2019) - Dead Man's Fingers</b></div>
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A trip to Mission Creek Woodland Park yielded this photograph of the appropriately-named Dead Man's Fingers fungus poking out of the ground. I like this image more for the subject than I do for the composition.<br />
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<b>Day 79 (06 June 2019) - Common Whitetail</b><br />
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I love photographing dragonflies... <i>when they will sit still for more than a few seconds</i>. <br />
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This female common whitetail (Plathemis lydia) perched on a blade of grass a few inches off the ground at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant. She sat still as I approached to within about 4 feet and stayed there long enough for me to snap several dozen photos from more than one angle. This picture has been cropped from a horizontal to a vertical image.<br />
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<b>Day 80 (07 June 2019) - Raindrops on Spiderwort leaf @ Saginaw Chippewa academy </b></div>
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The final image of this set was taken at 7:30 in the morning at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy's native pollinator garden. The garden has reached its early summer glory with hordes of coreopsis, penstemon, Canada anemone, and spiderwort bursting into bloom. On this morning the star of the show as not the flowers but rather the thousands of water droplets left by an overnight rain shower. My favorite image of the day was of this single large droplet poised on the end of a spiderwort leaf. A couple of smaller drops sit further back along the leaf and droplets in the background refract circular globes of light. If you look closely at the central water drop you can see an inverted image of the background plants and sky.</div>
<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-66454462008087225392019-06-21T07:38:00.000-07:002019-06-21T07:38:04.907-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 61 through Day 70)To this point I've shared two months worth of spring photographs. As of today (June 21st) spring has reached its end, but I have a months worth of photographs still to share. Here are the photos from day 61 through day 70. To see the previous set of images follow <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/06/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-51.html" target="_blank">this link</a>.<br />
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<b>Day 61 (19 May 2019) - Plum flowers</b><br />
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We have a plum tree right outside our back door. It rarely produces much fruit, but every spring it is absolutely covered with blossoms. I photographed these flowers after a light rain covered everything with water and softened the light.<br />
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<b>Day 62 (20 May 2019) - Audubon Woods Creek</b><br />
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Another rainy day. This image was taken in a light drizzle at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's <a href="https://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/audubon-woods-preserve/" target="_blank">Audubon Woods Preserve</a>. The CWC owns 23 separate properties, but Audubon Woods is my favorite because of the mature trees. The center of the preserve can often feel ten degrees cooler than the edge. The water trickling over these rocks helps add moisture to the air cooling it even further. Even the color of the woods feels cool as the mist in the air diffuses the light making everything glow green as the sunlight penetrates the forest canopy.<br />
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<b>Day 63 (21 May 2019) - Dandelions </b><br />
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Spring wouldn't be spring without dandelions. Homeowners may not love them, but the bees and other pollinators do. Some people are taking notice - the <a href="http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/" target="_blank">Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture</a> has adopted the policy of not mowing until the dandelions have gone to seed. I photographed this dandelion bloom in the lawn at the Isabella Conservation District office.<br />
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<b>Day 64 (22 May 2019) - Forest Ecology Studies </b><br />
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Most of the programs that I do are in the classroom out of necessity, but every year I take students from Winn Elementary out to Audubon Woods to <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2015/10/big-tooth-aspen-leaf-october-2015-last.html" target="_blank">explore forestry and forest ecology</a>. In this photograph the students are measuring the distance from a stake (representing the center a 0.1 acre plot) to a tree in their study plot. If the tree is within 37 feet of the stake (the radius of a 0.1 acre plot), they will then get an azimuth to the tree, measure the diameter of the tree, and record all of this date on a map of their plot. I keep copies of all this date in the hope that it can be used to record changes in the forest over time.<br />
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<b>Day 65 (23 May 2019) - Look up...</b><br />
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May 23rd was another day of forest ecology studies at Audubon Woods. I think actually took more photographs of students on this day than I did on the 22nd, but my favorite photo of the day was taken when the students had gone back to school for lunch. Looking up, I spotted this combination of blue sky, white clouds, dark branches, and yellow-green leaves. With the sun lighting up the edge of a cloud formation I couldn't resist this photograph.<br />
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<b>Day 66 (24 May 2019) - Honey Locust Thorn </b><br />
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This photograph was taken right outside my back door. We have a large honey locust (<i>Gleditsia triacanthos</i>) growing only a few feet from the house. This tree provides lots of shade in the summer and a home for many species of birds and insects (not to mention squirrels). The most interesting thing about the tree is the large thorns that grow from a few branches. The honey locust originally developed these thorns as <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-tree-might-forgive-but-it-never.html" target="_blank">defense against ice age mammals</a> - now they are just a reminder of a time when elephants walked the tundra and forests of North America.<br />
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<b>Day 67 (25 May 2019) - Fern Frond </b><br />
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Another photograph from home. This fern covered with a layer of fine spider webs was photographed in the garden on the side of the house. This image has been cropped to a square from its original format.<br />
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<b>Day 68 (26 May 2019) - Home, Sweet Home</b><br />
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On May 26th we drove about forty-five minutes from home to visit my parents near Laingsburg, MI. At one point I took a few minutes to walk around their property looking for something to photograph. As I walked past this nesting box in a wooded area, a wren popped its head out of the box. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Wren" target="_blank">It's not grand architecture, but it's good enough for a wren</a>. If you look close you can see the wren's toes gripping the entrance hole. The bird looked at me for a few seconds and then flew off into the underbrush.<br />
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<b>Day 69 (27 May 2019) - Iris</b><br />
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When we moved into our house eight years ago there was already a patch of irises planted on the south side of the house. I think these are Siberian iris, but am not certain. I love the nectar guides on each large landing pad of a petal directing pollinators toward the nectar (and pollen). The large serrated leaves in the background belong to cut-leaved coneflower (<i>Rudbeckia laciniata</i>).<br />
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<b>Day 70 (28 May 2019) - Wild Columbine </b><br />
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My final image from this set of photos was taken at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Williams-Blackburn Preserve. Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) is one of my favorite late-spring wildflowers. It's very photogenic when the flowers are fully mature (like this one), but I often miss out on finding them so it's always exciting to find a perfect bloom. One really interesting thing to me about these flowers is how hairy they are. Look close and you can see that the petals, stem, and leaves are all covered with minute hairs. I like being able to peer in and see that level of detail.Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-15198415697165913932019-06-10T08:56:00.000-07:002019-06-10T08:56:02.034-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 51 through Day 60)I've fallen way behind on sharing the images from my <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">spring photography project</a>. Here are my photos from Day 51 (09 May) through Day 60 (18 May). If you haven't been following along, my goal is to photograph something outdoors in nature every single day this spring.<br />
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<b>Day 51 (09 May 2019) - Tulips</b><br />
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I love tulips. They are the only non-native flower that I regularly add to our home garden. Last fall we planted nearly three hundred tulip bulbs all red, orange, and yellow. I love the pop of color that they add to spring.<br />
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<b>Day 52 (10 May 2019) - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher </b><br />
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I am not now, nor have I ever been, a birder. I do not chase birds, but this spring the birds seemed to find me everywhere I went. This blue-gray gnatcatcher (<i>Polioptila caerulea</i>) was photographed at Mission Creek Woodland Park as it foraged on low branches of an eastern hemlock tree. A second after I captured this image the bird flew off.<br />
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<b>Day 53 (11 May 2019) - World Migratory Bird Celebration</b><br />
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So this photograph was taken indoors. It's the only image of this entire photography project to be taken inside a building. (I also took one indoor image during my Summer 2018 photography project.) This picture shows my friend Rebecca Lessard with Pearl the red-tailed hawk at the World Migratory Bird Day Celebration at the <a href="http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/" target="_blank">Ziibiwing Center</a> in Mt. Pleasant. Rebecca is the founder and executive director of <a href="http://www.wingsofwonder.org/?fbclid=IwAR2kJ5dIMXr0huHCk1X6AThufs5oLoYmvrCjX0uWuWxKNfgnt_qxvMEqMS4" target="_blank">Wings of Wonder</a>, a raptor rehabilitation center located near Empire, MI. She has been the presenter at the Ziibiwing Center WMB Celebration several times. I think this is the best image that I have ever taken of Rebecca - she is a blur of motion when presenting and it's almost impossible to photograph her well in low light.<br />
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<b>Day 54 (12 May 2019) - Jack-in-the-pulpit </b><br />
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<a href="https://www.giresd.net/cms/lib/MI01000537/Centricity/Domain/18/NewFHNAMAP2013forweb.pdf" target="_blank">Forest Hill Natura Area</a> is not particularly rich in spring woodland wildflowers, but I did manage to find several jack-in-the-pulpit (<i>Arisaema triphyllum</i>) plants in the South Woods. I love all the shades of green in this image. This photo was taken right at ground level using the LCD live viewer to compose the shot - I like this feature as it means I no longer have to lay on the ground to shoot images from this angle.<br />
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<b>Day 55 (13 May 2019) - Northern Parula Warbler</b> <br />
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Another bird that found me. This male Northern Parula (<i>Setophaga americana</i>) landed on a branch right at eye level during a walk through Mill Pond Park. Normally these birds are found high in the canopy, but they will be found lower in the forest during migration. Although as I said before, I am not a birder, it's hard not to admire a bird as beautiful as this one.<br />
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Day 56 (14 May 2019) - Large-flowered Trillium <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOIFin2tJ_VJMym0AeMYW44TaNvQIgKSbGR7lhXc4o_f6A8Owlc-DB9b2XhkQIhNxxodP_MMJG8jZnq75U9lMC8pugWMEWcHe8PZifi29CtZw5PCvUCRTYs_g8GecUmtbCMOhKIDX8yP7O/s1600/14+May+-+large-flowered+trillium+%2540+szock+preserve.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOIFin2tJ_VJMym0AeMYW44TaNvQIgKSbGR7lhXc4o_f6A8Owlc-DB9b2XhkQIhNxxodP_MMJG8jZnq75U9lMC8pugWMEWcHe8PZifi29CtZw5PCvUCRTYs_g8GecUmtbCMOhKIDX8yP7O/s400/14+May+-+large-flowered+trillium+%2540+szock+preserve.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Chippewa Watershed Conservancy has recently been gifted a new property along the Chippewa River east of Mt. Pleasant. This property consists of three acres of riverbank and will eventually be developed as a preserve with a canoe landing. On May 14th a small group visited the property to conduct a biological survey. I identified approximately forty species of herbaceous plants including this large-flowered trillium (<i>Trillium grandiflorum</i>). This image has be deliberately underexposed so that the highlight didn't completely wash out. I like that you can see all the little grains of pollen both on the stamens and on the white petals surrounding the stamens.<br />
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<b>Day 57 (15 May 2019) - Waxing Gibbous Moon </b><br />
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I have really grown to enjoy photographing the moon. Fortunately, the sky in Alma is dark enough that I can do it right from my driveway any time the notion strikes me. I recently purchased a new (better) tripod head that holds long lenses in place much better than what I was previously using, making this kind of photography easier. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">This image of a waxing gibbous moon has been cropped to a 16:9 widescreen format for no other reason than I like how it looks.</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
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<b>Day 58 (16 May 2019) - Common Blue Violet </b><br />
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Another image photographed at home. Common blue violets (<i>Viola sororia</i>) are slowly trying to take over both as a groundcover is our flower gardens and as the dominant plant in parts of our lawn. The seeds of this flower are eagerly collected by ants. The ants eat a fleshy coating known as an eliasome and discard the seeds in their garbage middens where they sprout easily. I like the details such as the hairs of the flower's beard and the dark veins on the petals.<br />
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<b>Day 59 (17 May 2019) - Environmental Education Day </b><br />
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For each of the past ten years the Isabella Conservation District has hosted an environmental education day for third grade classrooms in the county. This year over 550 students and 100 adults attended. One of the many highlights is a live display of Michigan reptiles and amphibians. I love how the students in this image are interacting calmly and with curiosity toward an eastern garter snake.<br />
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<b>Day 60 (18 May 2019) - Bleeding Hearts </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9Xelyd9w7fz9Q_PtkS6GCQDpJ31HHcdmmMobf5NPukBVYQVYozeGNwPuZxNgrjHF9Rkpi4xGQsl58OD9Royghp47ZHlXMnitM4WA6MkW-eXcsZU9Apmw3z7vWTRgTx8wK7H8F8wK1eUM/s1600/18+May+-+bleeding+heart+%2540+home.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9Xelyd9w7fz9Q_PtkS6GCQDpJ31HHcdmmMobf5NPukBVYQVYozeGNwPuZxNgrjHF9Rkpi4xGQsl58OD9Royghp47ZHlXMnitM4WA6MkW-eXcsZU9Apmw3z7vWTRgTx8wK7H8F8wK1eUM/s400/18+May+-+bleeding+heart+%2540+home.JPG" width="400" /></b></a></div>
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Another photograph from our home flower gardens. While tulips are my favorite garden flower, Shara loves bleeding hearts. She is still upset about the bleeding heart plants that we left behind when we moved more than eight years ago. (I will admit that the bleeding hearts that we planted in Alma have not yet grown to the magnificence of the plants that we left behind.) One of the first photographs that I ever took with my first digital SLR camera was of a bleeding heart flower in that garden. I cropped this image to a 16:9 widescreen format to focus solely on the flowers and remove some of the distracting foliage of other plants.</div>
<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-42085790428092324522019-05-26T17:35:00.001-07:002019-05-26T17:35:37.410-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 41 - Day 50)It has been nearly a month since I shared anything on this blog. I've have been photographing every single day for my <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">Vernal photo project</a>, but I have suffered from both a lack of time (and often a lack of motivation) to write. It's been so long since I have written that my mom has started to yell at me...<br />
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Here you go, Mom. <br />
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<b>Day 41 (29 April 2019) - Rise up</b><br />
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The fiddlehead of ferns emerging from the ground are one of my favorite spring photography subjects. I have been taking pictures of them since I before I purchase my first "real" camera. Between film and digital I probably have hundreds of images like this in my archives, but I continue to take more. Why? Because it screams "SPRING" and after a winter devoid of color - anything green is more than welcome. This photograph was taken at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant.<br />
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<b>Day 42 (30 April 2019) - Raindrops on Tulips </b><br />
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Most of the plants in our garden are native to Michigan with one major exception - tulips and other spring bulbs. I can't get enough tulips. Every few years I plant a couple hundred in the garden on the south side of the house. In addition to the tulips, we have several other spring flowering bulbs: alliums, grape hyacinth (which spread like crazy on its own), crocuses, and striped squill. But the tulips are the star of the show - my favorites are these variegated ones that have petals that fade from red in the center through orange to yellow on the edges. This photograph of tulips covered with raindrops was underexposed a little bit to deepen the colors of the petals and the image has been cropped around the edges.<br />
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<b>Day 43 (01 May 2019) - May Day Raindrops</b><br />
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Rain was a common theme for the beginning of May. I took this image of raindrops hitting a pool of water on land owned by Shepherd Public Schools near the south end of Shepherd.<br />
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<b>Day 44 (02 May 2019) - Dutchman's Breeches</b> <br />
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Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) is perhaps my favorite spring wildflower (after <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/04/skunk-cabbage-is-blooming.html" target="_blank">skunk cabbage</a>). I photographed this stem of dutchman's breeches flowers at Chipp-A-Waters Park. For many years I knew of only one patch of this flower in Mt. Pleasant, but in recent years it has both expanded at Chipp-A-Waters Park and begun to grow at another location along the river. I chose this photograph because of the way the raindrops have beaded up on the flowers and stem.<br />
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<b>Day 45 (03 May 2019) - Mayapples </b><br />
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What would the month of may be without <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/05/native-species-profile-mayapple.html#more" target="_blank">mayapples</a> (<i>Podophyllum peltatum</i>)? I love how these plants pop up out of the ground and unfurl like small umbrellas over the course of several days. This photograph was taken at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/audubon-woods-preserve/" target="_blank">Audubon Woods Preserve</a>. This species spreads both by seed and clonally by spreading roots. Audubon Woods is home to several large colonies Mayapple. I imaging that if you were to look at the genetic makeup of any single colony you would find that the majority of the plants share the exact same DNA.<br />
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<b>Day 46 (04 May 2019) - Grape hyacinth </b><br />
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This is the fifth day in a row that my photograph featured raindrops. When we moved into our house eight years ago there was already a flower bed planted on the south side of the house. One of the plants present was grape hyacinth. Over time the as we have added other species of plants the hyacinth has "migrated". Now many of the plants appear in the lawn. I don't really mind. They add a lot of color and when mowed the leaves look similar to the grass. In this image I like the contrast between the vibrant green, deep dark purple, and the glowing raindrops. Although there is no focal point thimage just works for me.<br />
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<b>Day 47 (05 May 2019) - White Trout Lily </b><br />
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If I want to see <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-trout-out-of-water.html" target="_blank">white trout lily</a> (Erythronium albidum) in Mt. Pleasant I have to search a certain patch of woods. Many years I search without finding a single bloom. I once went five years between sightings. It isn't that the plants are not there, but rather that they take so long to bloom. Their corms (bulbs) need to store up enough sugars to produce a bloom. In non-flowering years, the plant produces a single speckled leaf. It can take up to seven (or maybe more) years for a plant to store enough sugar. This year I was able find a few flowers in bloom. I like all the detail on the pistil and stamen in this image. You can also see specks of pollen on the petals. This image is worth clicking on to enlarge the details.<br />
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<b>Day 48 (06 May 2019) - Love is in the air... </b><br />
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I thought I missed <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2016/12/native-species-profile-american-toad.html" target="_blank">American toad</a> (<i>Anaxyrus americanus</i>) breeding season this year. I heard them calling at Chipp-A-Waters Park during the last week of April. Then nothing more as the period of cold rainy weather hit mid-Michigan. Thus I was actually kind of surprised when I heard them calling again. There is a small wetland near the the canoe landing at the park. Around the edge of this wetland could be seen several dozen toads calling periodically from the shallows. This individual let me sit about five feet away as I waited for it to call again. I like this image because not only can you see the fully inflated throat sac, but you can also see the ripples in the water cause by its calling.<br />
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<b>Day 49 (07 May 2019) - Hide-and-seek </b><br />
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For me 2019 has bee the year of the wood duck. It seems like every time I walked into the woods in April or early May I would see at least one pair. On May 7th, while walking a trail at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant, I passed a small seasonal wetland. Something caught my eye. This wood duck drake was doing his best to "hide" perched atop this downed log, but his camouflage scheme left something to be desired.<br />
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<b>Day 50 (08 May 2019) - A view of the sky </b><br />
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My final image of this set was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park. We spend so much time looking down, sometimes it's just nice to look up and take in the sky over our heads. I like how the trees frame this opening, the bright green of their newly emerging leaves, an the varying shades of blue sky.<br />
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<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-13960351189170221012019-04-30T16:49:00.000-07:002019-04-30T16:49:13.228-07:00Frontyard WaxwingsI mentioned in yesterday's post that a flock of <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/01/native-species-profile-cedar-waxwing.html#more" target="_blank">cedar waxwings</a> (<i>Bombycilla cedrorum</i>) 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.<br />
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<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-7096851880484241932019-04-29T16:24:00.000-07:002019-04-29T16:24:54.722-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 31 through Day 40)As of yesterday (28 April 2019) I'm forty days into my Spring photography project. My plan is to photograph something in nature every single day. This means that I have to go outdoors every single day no matter how busy I am. Sometimes I only have ten minutes available, on other days I may spend a couple of hours. No matter how much time I have it's always worth it. You can check out the first three sets of images at the following links:<br />
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<a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">Day 1 through Day 10</a><br />
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<a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-11.html" target="_blank">Day 11 through Day 20</a><br />
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<a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-21.html" target="_blank">Day 21 through Day 30</a><br />
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Over the last ten days spring has finally begun to look like spring. There are so many more things to photograph now - insects, birds, gardens, wildflowers, unfurling leaves, and more! The challenge now become choosing which photograph will be used to represent each day. Tough choices need to be made, some photographs that I really loved just didn't make the cut... Here are the next ten images that did.<br />
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<b>Day 31 (19 April 2019) - Bud Burst</b><br />
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This photograph was taken at <a href="http://www.mt-pleasant.org/departments/division_of_community_services/parks_and_recreation/parks/chipp-a-waters.asp" target="_blank">Chipp-A-Waters Park</a> in Mt. Pleasant. Much of the park is in the floodplain of the Chippewa River. Boxelder (<i>Acer negundo</i>) is one of the <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/02/mid-michigan-habitats-floodplain-forests.html" target="_blank">common trees found in the floodplain</a>. It is also one of the first trees species in the area to develop leaves. I love the pale green of this stage as well as the overall "fuzziness" of the newly forming leaves.<br />
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<b>Day 32 (20 April 2019) - Mission Point Beach</b> <br />
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Over the weekend of April 19th - 21st, we took a trip to Traverse City to celebrate Shara's birthday. One of our favorite locations in the area is <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/09/field-trip-mission-point-lighthouse.html" target="_blank">Lighthouse Park</a> at the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula. We visit this park almost every time we are in Traverse City love photographing the lighthouse and the lake. The lake looks appealing right now, but the water is still COLD...<br />
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<b>Day 33 (21 April 2019) - Bloodroot </b><br />
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This photograph was taken in our home (mostly) native pollinator garden. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is one of the earliest woodland wildflowers in mid-Michigan. We have it planted along the porch on the east side of our house - it gets lots of morning sun, but it shaded by midday. This clump started as a single plant. Our early native bees are very successful at pollinating and then ants help disperse the seeds. The ants consume a fleshy coating on the seed (known as an eliasome) and then discard the seed itself in their garbage heaps. <br />
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I tried several formats for this picture, but I think the square crop looks the best. I did adjust the brightness on this image to tone down the whites a little bit. The same adjustment allows the greens to become more prominent.<br />
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<b>Day 34 (22 April 2019) - Sleepy bee </b><br />
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This photograph was taken during a walk at Mission Creek Woodland Park. This queen common eastern bumblebee (<i>Bombus impatiens</i>) had only recently emerged from hibernation. She was busy foraging for nectar on wildflowers and searching for the perfect site to establish her nesting colony. All that work is <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/08/busy-as-bee.html" target="_blank">tiring on a cool spring day</a>. Sometimes the best thing to do is to nap in the sun and recharge. That's what this lady is doing in the picture, snuggling up to that downed branch and waiting for the annoying human to go away so she could sleep in peace.<br />
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<b>Day 35 (23 April 2019) - The Boys' Club</b><br />
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I noticed this trio of mallard (<i>Anas platyrhynchos</i>) drakes cavorting together on the Chippewa River at Chipp-A-Waters Park. Either these three drakes have not paired up with hens or their hens were sitting on nests somewhere nearby as these enjoyed some time male bonding time. As I watched them they repeated splashed themselves with water, groomed their feathers and scratched themselves. I took about a dozen photos of the group with this being my favorite. I did crop this down to a widescreen (16:9) format to remove the far riverbank at the top of the picture and some open water at the bottom.<br />
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<b>Day 36 (24 April 2019) - Gooseberry </b><br />
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I photographed this gooseberry plant (<i>Ribes sp.</i>) at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace preserve. Without flowers or fruit I can't be exactly sure which species it is, but my guess is prickly gooseberry (<i>Ribes cynosbati</i>). I like this image because of the way the backlighting shows off the hairs on the leaves and the overall simplicity of the image. I do wish the background had been all dark. Again this image seemed to work best as a square crop.<br />
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<b>Day 37 (25 April 2019) - Spring Beauty </b><br />
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These spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) flowers were photographed at Mission Creek Woodland Park. From a distance the overall impression of spring beauty is that the flowers are white or pale pink. Up close you can make out the pink or purple stripes on the petals (nectar guides) and the pink tipped stamen. <br />
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<b>Day 38 (26 April 2019) - Flying Dutchmen </b><br />
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I photographed these Dutchman's breeches (<i>Dicentra cucullaria</i>) flowers at Chipp-A-Waters Park. This park has long been my favorite location for spring woodland wildflowers. It's name comes from the shape of the flowers - they look like little pairs of pants hanging upside down from the ankles.<br />
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<b>Day 39 (27 April 2019) - Norway Maple Flowers </b><br />
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Norway maples (<i>Acer platanoides</i>) is not native to Michigan, but it has naturalized across the state. It is currently flowering throughout mid-Michigan. I photographed these flowers at Mill Pond Park. Yesterday I noticed a flock of cedar waxwings feeding on the flowers in the to Norway maples in my front yard - amazingly that picture didn't make the list.<br />
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<b>Day 40 (28 April 2019) - Beetles are pollinators too! </b><br />
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Picking a photograph for yesterday was tough. I had a photo of cedar waxwings feeding on maple flowers. I also photographed a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw0XEAaBcMU/" target="_blank">bronzed tiger beetle</a> on the trail at Chipp-A-Waters Park and a closeup of a bloodroot flower. Any of these could have been selected, but my favorite image of the day was this one of a beetle on a <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-trout-out-of-water.html" target="_blank">yellow trout lily</a> (<i>Erythronium americanum</i>).Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-43803536960439266392019-04-22T13:37:00.000-07:002019-04-22T13:37:46.103-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 21 through Day 30)I'm writing this on April 22nd, more than a month into my <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">spring photography project</a>. We have finally turned the corner and spring is really here, but you wouldn't know it from a couple of the photos in this set.<br />
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The goal of this project is to get outdoors every single day and document what is happening throughout the entire season. Some days I take hundreds of photographs and on other days I may take less than a dozen. Regardless of how many images I take each day, they have been pared down to a single photo to represent each day.<br />
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Enjoy the most recent set of images!<br />
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<b>Day 21 (09 April 2019) - Oh, Canada!</b><br />
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This photograph was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area. A pair of Canada Geese (<i>Branta canadensis</i>) are nesting atop a muskrat lodge on the north side of the property. Sometimes they will sit silently as you pass by, but other times they make a big ruckus (as seen in this picture). I like how this image captures the gander (the male goose) in mid "Honk". This photo has been cropped from a horizontal to a vertical format. I think the simplicity makes it a stronger image. <br />
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<b>Day 22 (10 April 2019) - Ramping up to spring... </b><br />
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One of the earliest plants in the local woods is the Wild Leek (<i>Alium tricoccum</i>). Also known as "ramps" the leaves of this species emerge from the forest floor before most of the other wildflowers, but it won't flower until summer. By that point the leaves will have all dried up for the year. Considered by many a choice wild edible, over-harvesting has reduced the population of this plant in many areas. I photographed these plants at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant - please not that harvesting is not allowed in any park in Mt. Pleasant.<br />
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<b>Day 23 (11 April 2019) - Bloodroot Leaves</b><br />
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We have a small patch of Bloodroot (<i>Sanguinaria canadensis</i>) in our native pollinator garden. The plants here often emerge a week or more before the same species in Mt. Pleasant. Our Bloodroot is already blooming and I have yet to find a single plant in Mt. Pleasant.<br />
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<b>Day 24 (12 April 2019) - Birch Grove </b><br />
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This photo has taken late in the day at Forest Hill Nature Area. I like the minimalist look of the bare trunks of birch against the darker trees in the forest behind. Although this photo could just as well represent late fall, it was my favorite image of the day so it became part of this collection.<br />
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<b>Day 25 (13 April 2019) - Brown-headed Cowbirds </b><br />
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April 25th found me back at Forest Hill for the third time in five days. My favorite picture of the day was this trio of Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) perched on a grape vine covered thicket of dogwood. The top bird and the bird to the right are both females; the male is on the left. I tried several different crops of this image to remove the twig on the right, but ultimately decided that the original looked best. I like the repetition of the birds' forms and the warm tones created by the afternoon light.<br />
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<b>Day 26 (14 April 2019) - White-throated Sparrow and a Brief Return to Winter </b><br />
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Winter gave us one last blast on April 14th. We only received about two inches of snow in Alma, but areas north and west of Mt. Pleasant ended up with six to nine inches! I hadn't filled the birdfeeders in a couple of weeks, but the snow brought the birds back, including this White-throated Sparrow (<i>Zonotrichia albicollis</i>). I photographed this bird perched on a gate in our back yard. If you look closely you can see snow falling in the background.<br />
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<b>Day 27 (15 April 2019) - Wood Duck Pair</b> <br />
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I photographed this pair of Wood Ducks (<i>Aix sponsa</i>) at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant. This is one of three pairs that I saw in the oxbow pond at the back of the park. This was the only pair that I was able to get a photograph of. The colorful male is on the left and the more drab female on the right. This image has been cropped to a widescreen (16:9) format.<br />
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<b>Day 28 (16 April 2019) - Skunk Cabbage </b><br />
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I have frequently said on this blog that Skunk Cabbage (<i>Symplocarpus foetidus</i>) is my favorite wildflower. I can't resist photographing it each and every spring, especially once its leaves begin to emerge. I think my eyes just crave green after a long winter lacking the color. I love how the color "pops" against the rich browns of last autumn's leaves. This photo was taken at Mission Creek Woodland Park during a light rain. This might be my favorite weather to photograph in, the rain and even light just enhances the colors of everything in the woods. <br />
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<b>Day 29 (17 April 2019) - Dutchman's Breeches Buds </b><br />
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This image was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant. I couldn't find a single wildflower in bloom last week, but these Duchman's Breeches (<i>Dicentra cucullaria</i>) are almost there. When these flowers are mature, they will <a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/05/native-species-profile-dutchmans.html" target="_blank">look like little pairs of pantaloons</a> pinned up by their ankles to dry. There is a large patch of these flowers at Chipp-A-Waters Park - follow the trail to toward the back of the park and look for an interpretive sign highlighting wildflowers. The plants are right there near the sign along with close to a dozen other species of spring ephemerals.<br />
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<b>Day 30 (18 April 2019) - Nesting Dove</b><br />
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The final photo in the set was taken from our front porch. Every year we have an American Robin (<i>Turdus migratorius</i>) nest on one of our roof brackets. Every year we have a Mourning Dove (<i>Zenaida macroura</i>) use one of the old robin nests as the base for its own nest. Normally the robin is the first to nest, but this year the dove decided to get the jump on things and got the first pick of nesting locations. This picture has been cropped to a square format.Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-83560466469248508332019-04-14T10:11:00.000-07:002019-04-14T10:11:27.338-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 11 through Day 20)On March 20th, the date of the spring equinox, I started a new photography project. The title of this project, <i>Vernal</i>, translates from Latin as "of, relating to, or occurring in the spring". My plan is to photograph something in nature every day of the season through the summer solstice (June 21st). Last year I did <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-days-of-summer-day-one-through-day.html" target="_blank">a similar project</a> for summer; who knows I may keep this going through the summer months too...<br />
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If you missed my images of the first ten days of spring they can be found <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">here</a>, otherwise enjoy the new photographs!<br />
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<b>Day 11 (30 March 2019) - Raindrops on Alium and Tulip </b><br />
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This picture was taken at ground-level in our flower gardens at home. While the focus of our gardens in native plants (We love the pollinators!), we definitely make room for spring flowering bulbs. I must have planted close to 400 bulbs last fall to replace and replenish those that have died out over the past several years. This image has been cropped from the regular 3:2 format to a widescreen 16:9 format to emphasize the plants as they emerge from last year's leaf litter. <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2017/11/leave-those-leaves-alone.html" target="_blank">Don't rake those leaves out of the flower beds - they're free mulch!</a><br />
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<b>Day 12 (31 March 2019) - Friends, Robins, Countrymen...</b><br />
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This American robin (<i>Turdus migratorius</i>) was photographed at Chipp-A-Waters park in Mt. Pleasant. Perched upon this decaying stump, with its chest puffed out, this robin looks like an orator standing upon a stage ready to address an audience.<br />
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<b>Day 13 (01 April 2019) - Blackbirds</b><br />
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This image of birds silhouetted against backlit clouds was photographed at Forest Hill Nature Area near Alma. Spring can be rather dreary at times and I think this photograph would work just as well to illustrate the month of November. Forest Hill was originally acquired by the Gratiot Conservation District and has been operated as a nature center by the Gratiot-Isabella Regional Education Service District (GIRESD) since the 1990s. <br />
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<b>Day 14 (02 April 2019) - Potential</b><br />
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Early spring is all about potential. We know what spring will become, but we are stuck waiting. Se we search for signs everywhere. Birds newly arrived from the south. Green grass peaking up in the lawn. Or the buds of buds of a boxelder (Acer negundo) swelling with the potential of new leaves.<br />
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This image was photographed at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant during a foray to photograph red-winged blackbirds. The blackbirds didn't want to cooperate, but the trees were willing.<br />
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<b>Day 15 (03 April 2019) - Marsh Marigold </b><br />
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On this day I found my first <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/04/native-species-profile-marsh-marigold.html" target="_blank"><b>marsh marigold</b></a> (<i>Caltha palustris</i>) plants of the year at Mission Creek Woodland Park. Some of the ground remained frozen in the shadowy areas of the wetlands, but seeps running down to the creek create warmer microclimates. This plant was emerging from the water in one of those seeps. To capture this angle of the backlit leaf, I placed my camera directly on the ground next to the seep and used the digital viewfinder to compose the shot. Normally I don't use the viewfinder, but it is a nice feature for shots like this.<br />
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<b>Day 16 (04 April 2019) - Acorn Caps </b><br />
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On Thursday April 4th I had several classroom programs canceled due to a scheduling conflict. This gave me the rare opportunity to escape into the woods for an extended time. With my schedule opened up I drove to the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/audubon-woods-preserve/" target="_blank">Audubon Woods Preserve</a> to walk the trails. I found this cluster of acorn caps hanging on a broken limb dangling from a small pine tree. I like this image for the simple composition and the variety of textures on the caps and branch tip. Audubon Woods is my favorite CWC preserve - I spend several days there each spring and fall conducting forestry studies with students.<br />
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<b>Day 17 (05 April 2019) - The Ant and the Crocus</b><br />
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This photograph was taken in the flower garden along the south side of our house. Every evening when we come home from work, before we step through the door, we walk around to look at what the plants in the garden are doing. These crocuses are among the first flowers to bloom - attracting bees, flies, and ants to the pollen and nectar. <br />
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<b>Day 18 (06 April 2019) - Up Periscope!</b><br />
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Those little periscope-like structures are known as sporophytes. They are the reproductive part of a moss. Under the right conditions, mosses will grow those sporophytes; when the capsules at the top open up their spores will be released to the mercy of the wind and rain. Most will never grow into a new plant, but a lucky few will land in a place with just the right conditions and establish a new colony. This picture was taken at Audubon Woods Preserve prior to a guided hike.<br />
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<b>Day 19 (07 April 2019) - Wood Frogs</b><br />
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This picture of mating wood frogs (lithobates sylvaticus) was photographed at Forest Hill Nature Area. This picture already appeared in my previous post. To learn more about the mating habits of wood frogs <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/wood-frogs-looking-for-love-in-2019.html" target="_blank">click here</a>. I know it's only April, but this is the early front runner for my favorite image of the year,<br />
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<b>Day 20 (08 April 2019) - Pollination Station</b><br />
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I photographed this small native bee on striped squill in our lawn. Along with grape hyacinth, this small plant moves around in or flower gardens and invades our lawn. I never know for sure where it will pop up each spring, but the early pollinators love it. In addition to this native bee, I saw a couple European honey bees taking advantage of a warm sunny day to fuel up on squill nectar and pollen.<br />
Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-59244941493205132082019-04-07T16:54:00.000-07:002019-04-07T16:54:51.304-07:00Wood Frogs, looking for love in 2019...This afternoon we took a trip to the <a href="https://www.giresd.net/Page/156" target="_blank">Forest Hill Nature Area</a>. Shara wanted to walk the trails and I wanted to find something to photograph. We spent a lot of time at Forest Hill last summer when I was doing my <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-days-of-summer-day-eighty-seven.html" target="_blank">Days of Summer</a> photography project - I expect to spend many hours there again this spring as I work on <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/03/vernal-spring-photo-project-day-one.html" target="_blank">another project</a>.<br />
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Walking the trails I photographed Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, a bird nest, cattails, and my first snake of the year (Eastern Garter Snake). Near Forest Hill's South Woods (<a href="https://www.giresd.net/cms/lib/MI01000537/Centricity/Domain/18/NewFHNAMAP2013forweb.pdf" target="_blank">see map</a>) I heard something I have been waiting for all spring, the laughing/quacking sounds of mating Wood Frogs. <br />
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Known both as <i>Rana sylvatica</i> and <i>Lithobates sylvaticus</i>, the Wood Frog is, with the Western Chorus Frog and the Spring Peeper, one of the earliest breeding frogs in mid-Michigan. I hear them calling every spring, but I have never had any success in photographing them during the mating season. Normally when I near a vernal pond full of Wood Frogs, they immediately stop calling and remain silent until I leave the area. <br />
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Today was different.<br />
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The frogs stopped calling as I neared the pond, but I could see them swimming around everywhere. After a couple minutes of standing still, several frogs began calling again. They continued calling even when I started to move around to get photographs. Shara walked up to the pond and the frogs continued calling even as we talked (and laughed) about the frogs. Several frogs even let us approach within a few feet as they were so intent on mating. I photographed several individual frogs swimming around the pond, but the best part was photographing a couple pairs of frogs in <i>amplexus</i>. Amplexus is the mating position of Wood Frogs (and many other species of frogs and toads). Male Wood Frogs will climb onto a female's back and clasp her with his forelegs, clinging tightly until she has released all of her eggs. Sometimes they get so excited or frantic that males will attempt to clasp onto other males. This results in a flurry of agitated croaking and swimming.<br />
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No agitation from me, only photographs. Enjoy!<br />
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<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-21036517306309672362019-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:002019-03-31T13:51:11.089-07:00Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day One through Day Ten)Last summer I decided to do a photography project that took the entire season to complete. Beginning on the <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-days-of-summer-day-one-through-day.html" target="_blank">Summer Equinox</a>, I photographed something every day through the <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-days-of-summer-day-eighty-seven.html" target="_blank">Fall Solstice</a>. In all I recorded over 10,000 photographs, but only ninety-four of them counted - one for each day of summer. It's a new season and here is my next photography project. <i>Vernal</i> means "of, relating to, or occurring in the spring". <br />
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<b>Day 1 (20 March 2019) - Skunk Cabbage </b><br />
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This image of Skunk Cabbage (<i>Symplocarpus foetidus</i>) 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 <a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-plant-that-can-melt-snow-whats-your.html" target="_blank">melt its way through the ice</a>. <br />
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<b>Day 2 (21 March 2019) - Woodland Mallard </b><br />
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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 <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2015/01/100-species-to-know-by-sight-9-mallard.html" target="_blank">Mallard</a> (<i>Anas platyrhynchos</i>) drake would not normally be found in the woods, but was taking advantage of the flood to forage in an old river channel.<br />
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<b>Day 3 (22 March 2019) - Maple Buds</b><br />
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This image of swollen buds on a Silver Maple (<i>Acer saccharinum</i>) 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.<br />
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<b>Day 4 (23 March 2019) - Awake</b><br />
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On March 23rd I led a hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/sylvan-solace-preserve/" target="_blank">Sylvan Solace Preserve</a>. 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. <br />
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<b>Day 5 (24 March 2019) - Willow Catkins </b><br />
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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.<br />
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<b>Day 6 (25 March 2019) - Floodplain Geese </b><br />
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March 25th found me back at Chipp-A-Waters Park. This pair of Canada Geese (<i>Branta canadensis</i>) 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.<br />
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<b>Day 7 (26 March 2019) - Deep in Thought</b><br />
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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. <br />
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<b>Day 8 (27 March 2019) - Woodland Robin</b><br />
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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, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-sign-of-spring-american-robin.html" target="_blank">the numbers do increase when spring nears</a>. This photo was taken at <a href="https://www.giresd.net/domain/18" target="_blank">Forest Hill Nature Area</a>. <br />
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<b>Day 9 (28 March 2019) - Western Chorus Frog </b><br />
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This picture was taken in a shrub swamp/season wetland near the <a href="http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/" target="_blank">Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways</a>. 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 (<i>Pseudacris triseriata</i>). 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!<br />
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<b>Day 10 (29 March 2019) - Sunburst </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4TDCeGZSMmPKfPFPe9uUnrR9uB3986e_lcFxeOkJjaSGUtvdC3w4QZVPq2E1avRpy6JZClQCZG5kz4X1vuDWXuCSTcoC-teKOV_ERbxTkk_TKd5L82-xb70nLEeTxIPxl2eKaBJsv8hGq/s1600/29+March+-+sunburst+in+canopy+walk+%2540+whiting+forest.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4TDCeGZSMmPKfPFPe9uUnrR9uB3986e_lcFxeOkJjaSGUtvdC3w4QZVPq2E1avRpy6JZClQCZG5kz4X1vuDWXuCSTcoC-teKOV_ERbxTkk_TKd5L82-xb70nLEeTxIPxl2eKaBJsv8hGq/s400/29+March+-+sunburst+in+canopy+walk+%2540+whiting+forest.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The final image was taken in the Canopy Walk at the <a href="https://www.dowgardens.org/whitingforest" target="_blank">Whiting Forest</a> 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. Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-37618284371495950612019-03-24T15:04:00.000-07:002019-03-24T15:04:26.195-07:00Happy National Reading Month 2019 (just a little late)!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWodfN4w1iIQNn87_PGaehYQACypcGyJY9Tvh2CFOROMsDOjv2JEmw3a1x1SNYlt1nK859Szz_G_9Eda3ss08ufhRbt7hPWYzP7v7YCyzPsfwLQLkwuUH8itNx1qvNXqtr5jUnRwWx31bc/s1600/IMG_0394.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWodfN4w1iIQNn87_PGaehYQACypcGyJY9Tvh2CFOROMsDOjv2JEmw3a1x1SNYlt1nK859Szz_G_9Eda3ss08ufhRbt7hPWYzP7v7YCyzPsfwLQLkwuUH8itNx1qvNXqtr5jUnRwWx31bc/s400/IMG_0394.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
March is National Reading Month!<br />
<br />
Shara (Mrs. LeValley) and I love to read! There are books everywhere in our home. Our goal every year is to each read a minimum of fifty-two books - one for each week of the year. Not only do we read lots of books, but we each record them in a journal. I don't write anything about the book; just title, author, number of pages, and where the book came from (my personal library, public library, borrowed book). I have a record of every book I have read since January 2005, with one major exception - we moved to our current home in 2011 and I didn't record anything from we packed up and moved in March of that year until January 2012. I'm bummed that I don't have any records from that time... Even with that missing nine months, I have records of over eight hundred books, including thirteen so far in 2019.<br />
<br />
What do I read? A little of everything - biography, history, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and more. I especially read books about science, nature, and the outdoors (including hiking, fishing, and hunting stories).<br />
<br />
Here is my nearly complete list of the science, nature, and outdoor books that I have read since 2005 (minus the missing months of 2011 - <i>plus I think I may have forgotten to write down a few others</i>). These books have been grouped into rough categories in no particular order. Many books could easily fit in more than one category. Books that have been boldfaced are either ones that I particularly liked or thought were important.<br />
<br />
<u>Alaska/Canada</u><br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>One Man's Wilderness</i> by Sam Kieth and Richard Proenneke</b></li>
<li><i>Alaska's Wolf Man: The 1915-55 Wilderness Adventures of Frank Glaser</i> by Jim Rearden</li>
<li><i>Shopping for Porcupine: A Life In Arctic Alaska</i> by Seth Kantner</li>
<li><i>Standing Ground: Alaska Stories, Police Tales, and Things I'd Rather Not Talk About</i> by Alan L. White</li>
<li><i>Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People</i> by William L. Iggiaruk Hensley</li>
<li><i>Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska</i> by Miranda Weiss</li>
<li><i>First Wilderness: My Quest in the Territory of Alaska</i> by Sam Keith </li>
<li><i>Yukon Alone: The World's Toughest Adventure Race</i> by John Balzar</li>
<li><b><i>Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod</i> by Gary Paulsen</b></li>
<li><b><i>Red Summer: The Danger, Madness, and Exaltation of Salmon Fishing in a Remote Alaskan Village</i> by Bill Carter</b></li>
<li><i>Braving It: A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild</i> by James Campbell</li>
<li><i>Death on the Barrens: A True Story of Courage and Tragedy in the Canadian Arctic</i> by George James Grinnell</li>
<li><i>The Alaskan Retreater's Notebook: One Man's Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness</i> by Ray Ordonica</li>
<li><i>Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage</i> by Brian Castner</li>
</ul>
<u>Arctic/Antarctica</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Being Caribou: Five Months on Foot With an Arctic Herd</i> by Karsten Heuer </li>
<li><i>South With the Sun: Roald Amundsen, His Polar Exploration and the Quest for Discovery</i> by Lynn Cox </li>
<li><i>The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos</i> by Nick Jans</li>
<li><i>Roald Amundsen</i> by Tor Bomann-Larsen</li>
<li><i>White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic</i> by Stephen R. Brown</li>
<li><i>The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World</i> by Robert McGhee </li>
</ul>
<u>The North Country</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Open Horizons</i> by Sigurd F. Olson </li>
<li><i>Woman of the Boundary Waters: Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving</i> by Justine Kerfoot</li>
<li><i>The Grand Portage</i> by Walter O'Meara</li>
<li><i>The Long-shadowed Forest</i> by Helen Hoover </li>
<li><i>We Took to the Woods</i> by Louise Dickinson Rich</li>
<li><i>At Home in the Woods: Living the Life of Thoreau Today</i> by Bradford Angier and Vera Angier </li>
<li><i>The Meaning of Wilderness</i> by Sigurd F. Olson</li>
<li><i>Chips from a Wilderness Log</i> by Calvin Rutstrum</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Birds/Birdwatching</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, A Son and a Lifelong Obsession</i> by Dan Koeppel </li>
<li><i>The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching</i> by Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan</li>
<li><i>The Ghost With Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species</i> by Scott Weidensaul</li>
<li><i>Out of the Woods: A Bird Watcher's Year</i> by Ora E. Anderson</li>
<li><i>Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding</i> by Scott Weidensaul</li>
<li><i>All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures</i> by Roger Tory Peterson</li>
<li><i>Hope is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds</i> by Christopher Cokinos</li>
<li><i>Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Gir</i>l by Stacey O'Brien</li>
<li><i>The Verb 'To Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder </i>by Peter Cashwell</li>
<li><i>A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It Al</i>l by Luke Dempsey</li>
<li><i>Birdology: Adventures With a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosau</i>r by Sy Montgomery</li>
<li><i>Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness</i> by Lyanda Lynn Haupt</li>
<li><i>Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans</i> by John Marzluff and Tony Angell </li>
<li><b><i>Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle</i> by Thor Hanson</b></li>
<li><i>Life Birds</i> by George Levine</li>
<li><i>H is for Hawk</i> by Helen MacDonald </li>
<li><i>Ravens in Winter</i> by Bernd Heinrich</li>
<li><i>Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century</i> by Tim Gallagher</li>
<li><i>The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness</i> by James Campbell</li>
<li><i>One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives</i> by Bernd Heinrich </li>
<li><i>The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg</i> by Tim Birkhead</li>
<li><i>Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year</i> by Neil Hayward</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Nature/Ecology/Natural History</u><br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year</i> by David M. Carroll</b></li>
<li><i>Natural Coincidence: The Trip from Kalamazoo</i> by Bil Gilbert</li>
<li><i>Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison</i> edited by Hampton Sides</li>
<li><i>Wintering</i> by Diana Kappel-Smith</li>
<li><i>Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters</i> by Annie Dillard</li>
<li><i>Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search For the Continent's Natural Soul</i> by Scott Weidensaul</li>
<li><i>Northwoods Wildlife: A Watcher's Guide to Habitats</i> by Janine M. Benyus</li>
<li><b><i>Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder</i> by Richard Louv</b></li>
<li><i>It's Raining Frogs and Fishes: Four Seasons of Natural Phenomena and Oddities of the Sky</i> by Jerry Dennis</li>
<li><i>The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples</i> by Tim Flannery</li>
<li><i>Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness</i> by Guy Waterman and Laura Waterman</li>
<li><i>My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watching, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, In the Age of the Industrial Dark</i> by David James Duncan</li>
<li><i>Squirrels at My Window: Life with a Remarkable Gange of Urban Squirrels</i> by Grace Marmor Spruch</li>
<li><i>Life Counts: Cataloguing Life on Earth</i> by Michael Gleich, Dirk Maxeiner, et al</li>
<li><i>A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place</i> by Hannah Hinchman</li>
<li><i>The World Without Us</i> by Alan Weisman</li>
<li><i>The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild</i> by Craig Childs</li>
<li><b><i>Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest</i> by Tom Springer</b></li>
<li><b><i>Ecology of A Cracker Childhood</i> by Janisse Ray </b></li>
<li><i>Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners</i> by James B Nardi</li>
<li><i>The Search for a Sense of Wildness</i> by Michael P. Ausema</li>
<li><i>Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology</i> by D. Bruce Means</li>
<li><i>Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators</i> by William Stolzenburg</li>
<li><i>The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge</i> by Jamie James</li>
<li><i>The Wild Places</i> by Robert MacFarlane</li>
<li><i>Watchers at the Pond</i> by Franklin Russell</li>
<li><i>Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret life of the Natural History Museum</i> by Richard Fortey</li>
<li><b><i>A Year in the Maine Woods</i> by Bernd Heinrich</b></li>
<li><i>One Square Inch of Silence: One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World</i> by Gordon Hempton ans John Grossman</li>
<li><i>Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo</i> by Kate Jackson</li>
<li><i>The Book of Yaak</i> by Rick Bass</li>
<li><i>Summer World: A Season of Bounty</i> by Bernd Heinrich</li>
<li><i>Every Creeping Thing: True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife</i> by Richard Conniff</li>
<li><i>The Founding Fish</i> by John McPhee</li>
<li><i>A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a New Kinship With Nature </i>by James William Gibson</li>
<li><i>Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America</i> by Douglas Brinkley</li>
<li><i>Footnotes on Nature</i> by John Kieran</li>
<li><i>Why We Run: A Natural History</i> by Bernd Heinrich</li>
<li><i>The Path: A One-mile Walk Through the Universe</i> by Chet Raymo</li>
<li><i>The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana</i> by Rick Bass</li>
<li><i>Water: A Natural History</i> by Alice Outwater</li>
<li><i>The Forgotten Pollinators</i> by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul</li>
<li><i>The Mountains Next Door</i> by Janice Emily Bowers</li>
<li><i>Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy</i> by Melissa Milgram</li>
<li><i>The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through A Century of Biology</i> by Bernd Heinrich</li>
<li><i>Why I Came West</i> by Rick Bass</li>
<li><i>Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals</i> by Hal Herzog</li>
<li><i>The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating</i> by Elizabeth Tova Bailey</li>
<li><i>Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals</i> by Jay Kirk</li>
<li><i>Wading For Bugs: Exploring Streams With the Experts</i> edited by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour</li>
<li><i>The Big Swamp: A Wildlife Biologist's Lifetime of Adventures</i> by Raymond D. Schofield</li>
<li><i>Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death</i> by Bernd Heinrich</li>
<li><i>Time and Tide in Acadia: Seasons on Mount Desert Island</i> by Christopher Camuto</li>
<li><i>Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-wild World</i> by Emma Marris</li>
<li><i>The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature</i> by David George Haskell</li>
<li><b><i>Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods </i>by Christine Byl</b></li>
<li><b><i>Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe</i> by Charlotte Gill</b></li>
<li><i>The Endangered Species Road Trip: A Summer's Worth of Dingy Motels, Poison Oak, Ravenous Insects, and the Rarest Species in North America </i>by Cameron MacDonald</li>
<li><i>Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout</i> by Philip Connors</li>
<li><i>A Sand County Almanac: With Essays on Conservation from Round River</i> by Aldo Leopold</li>
<li><i>Beyond Walden: The Hidden History of America's Kettle Lakes and Ponds</i> by Robert M. Thorson</li>
<li><i>Keith County Journal</i> by John Janovy Jr.</li>
<li><i>Island Year</i> by Hazel Heckman</li>
<li><b><i>A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees</i> by Dave Goulson</b></li>
<li><b><i>A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm</i> by Dave Goulson</b></li>
<li><b> </b><i>The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons From a Life in Nature</i> by David Gessner</li>
<li> <i>Theodore Roosevelt in the Field</i> by Michael R. Canfield</li>
<li><i>The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild</i> by Lyanda Lynn Haupt</li>
<li><i>Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver</i> by Frances Backhouse</li>
<li><i>Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping</i> by Dan White</li>
<li><i>The Carry Home: Lessons From the American Wilderness</i> by Gary Ferguson</li>
<li><i>Bog tender: Coming Home to Nature and Memory</i> by George Szanto</li>
<li><i>The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples</i> by Tim Flannery</li>
<li><b><i>The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature</i> by J. Drew Lanham</b></li>
<li><i>Hawk's Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone</i> by Gary Ferguson</li>
<li><b><i> Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses</i> by Robin Wall Kimmerer</b></li>
<li><i>The Pine Barrens</i> by John McPhee</li>
<li><i>Becoming Teddy Roosevelt: How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President</i> by Andrew Vietze</li>
<li><i>The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collection of Natural History Museums</i> by Christopher Kemp</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>The Snow Tourist: A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall</i> by Charles English</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction</i> by Mary Ellen Hannibal</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>Hiking Naked: A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance</i> by Iris Graville</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family's Quest to Heal the Land</i> by Scott Freeman</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><b><i>The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier Healthier, and More Creative</i> by Florence Williams</b></li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>The Power of a Plant: A Teacher's Odyssey to grow Healthy Minds and Schools</i> by Stephen Ritz</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>The Naturalist at Large</i> by Bernd Heinrich</li>
<li><i>The Art of Naming</i> by Michael Ohl</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><b><i>Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees</i> by Thor Hanson</b></li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century</i> by Kirk Wallace Johnson</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Everending Earth</i> by Craig Childs</li>
<li><i>The Ninemile Wolves</i> by Rick Bass</li>
<i>
</i>
<li><i>Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds</i> by Jim Sterba</li>
</ul>
<u>Trees/Plants/Gardens</u><br />
<ul><i>
</i>
<li><i>Beautiful Madness: One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens</i> by James Dodson</li>
<li><b><i>The Trees in My Forest</i> by Bernd Heinrich</b></li>
<i>
</i>
<li><b><i>The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring</i> by Richard Preston </b></li>
<li><i>People With Dirty Hands: The Passion for Gardening</i> by Robert Chotzinoff</li>
<li><i>American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree</i> by Susan Freinkel</li>
<li><i>The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet</i> by Jim Robbins </li>
<li><i>Wood: Craft, Culture, History</i> by Harvey Green </li>
<li><b><i>Lab Girl</i> by Hope Jahren</b></li>
<li><i>Unearthed: Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden</i> by Alexandra Risen</li>
<li><i>Nature's Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests</i> by Joan Maloof</li>
<li><b><i>The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World</i> by Peter Wohlleben</b></li>
<li><i>Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape</i> by Jill Jonnes</li>
<li><b><i>The Wood for the Trees: One Man's Long View of Nature</i> by Richard Fortey</b></li>
<li><i>Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-old Oak</i> by Lynda V. Mapes</li>
<li><b><i>The Ghost Orchard: The Hidden History of the Apple in North America</i> by Helen Humphreys</b></li>
<li><b></b><i>The Man Who Climbs Trees</i> by James Aldred</li>
<li><i>The Long, Long Lif of Trees</i> by Fiona Stafford </li>
</ul>
<u>Geology/Geography </u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>On the Map: A Mind-expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks</i> by Simon Garfield</li>
<li><b><i>Rising From the Plains</i> by John McPhee</b></li>
<li><i>Coming Into the Country</i> by John McPhee</li>
<li><i>Annals of the Former World</i> by John McPhee</li>
<li><i>The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt tells Us About Who We Are</i> by Paul Bogard</li>
<li><i>Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology</i> by David B Williams </li>
<li><i>The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology</i> by Simon Winchester</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Farming/Rural Life</u><br />
<ul>
<li> <i>A Country Year: Living the Questions</i> by Sue Hubbell</li>
<li><i>The Last American Man</i> by Elizabeth Gilbert</li>
<li><i>See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America</i> by Logan Ward </li>
<li><i>Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm</i> by Jane Brox</li>
<li><i>Heirloom: Notes From and Accidental Tomato Farmer</i> by Tim Stark</li>
<li><b><i>Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass</i> by Gary Paulsen</b></li>
<li><i>It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life</i> by Keith Stewart</li>
<li><i>Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato</i> by Arthur Allen</li>
<li><i>Claiming Ground: A Memoir</i> by Laura Bell</li>
<li><b><i>Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies From the Land</i> by David Mas Masumoto </b></li>
<li>Mostly in Clover: Growing Up in Rural Ontario. A Boy Now a Man Recounts His Memories by Harry J. Boyle</li>
<li><i>Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression </i>by Mildred Armstrong Kalish </li>
<li><i>Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World</i> by Joel Salatin</li>
<li><i>Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine </i>by Leo Ureneck </li>
<li><i>Triple Ridge Farm</i> by Ruth Fouts Pochmann</li>
<li><i>Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground</i> by Peter Svenson</li>
<li><b><i>The Shepherd's Life</i> by James Rebanks</b></li>
<li><i>More Scenes From the Rural Life</i> by Verlyn Klinkenborg</li>
<li><i>Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer</i> by Richard Rhodes</li>
<li><i>Cabin Lessons: A Nail-by-Nail Tale: Building Our Dream Cottage from 2x4s, Blisters, and Love </i>by Spike Carlsen </li>
<li><i>Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life</i> by David R. Montgomery</li>
<li><i>Craeft: An Inguiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts</i> by Alexander Langlands</li>
<li><i>The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Foods, and Love</i> by Kristin Kimball</li>
</ul>
<u>Logging</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Hard Maple, Hard Work</i> by John Gagnon </li>
<li><i>McTaggart's Red Keg: Logging From A-Z on the Tittabawassee in Michigan</i> by Irene M. Hargreaves and Harold M. Foehl</li>
<li><i>"Daylight in the Swamp": Lumberjacking in the Late 19th Century</i> by Robert W. Wells</li>
<li><i>Timber! The Bygone Life of the Northwoods Lumberjacks</i> by John C. Frohlicher </li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Food </u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto</i> by Michael Pollan</li>
<li><i>The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans</i> by Patricia Klindienst</li>
<li><i>Empires of Food: Feast Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations</i> by Evand D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas</li>
<li><i>The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals</i> by Michael Pollan</li>
<li><i>Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life</i> by Barbara Kingsolver</li>
<li><i>The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food</i> by Dan Barber</li>
<li><b><i>The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America</i> by Langdon Cook</b></li>
<li><i>A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life</i> by Jim Harrison</li>
<li><i>100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why it Matters Today</i> by Stephen Le</li>
<li><i>American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields</i> by Rowan Jacobsen</li>
<li><i>The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine</i> by Steven Rinella</li>
<li><i>The Traveling Feast: On the Road and at the Table With My Heros </i>by Rick Bass </li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Mountaineering/Adventure </u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback</i> by Robyn Davidson</li>
<li><i>Foot by Foot Through the USA</i> by Winfield H. Line and Francis R. Line </li>
<li><i>Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting</i> by T.R. Pearson</li>
<li><i>A Sense of the World: How A Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler </i>by Jason Roberts</li>
<li><i>Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest</i> by Jamling Tenzing Norgay w/ Broughton Coburn</li>
<li><i>Halfway to Heaven: My White-knuckled - And Knuckleheaded - Quest for the Rocky Mountain High</i> by Mark Obmascik</li>
<li><i>A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Fredrick Russell Burnham</i> by Steve Kemper </li>
<li><i>Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life</i> by Arlene Blum</li>
</ul>
<u>Paddling/Canoeing/Rafting</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Canyon Solitude: A Woman's Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon </i>by Patricia C. McCairen </li>
<li><i>From a Wooden Canoe: Reflections on Canoeing, Camping, and Classic Equipment</i> by Jerry Dennis</li>
<li><i>An Adirondack Passage: The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp</i> by Christine Jerome</li>
<li><i>Canoeing With the Cree </i>by Eric Severeid </li>
<li><b><i>One Incredible Journey</i> by Clayton Klein and Verlen Kruger</b></li>
<li><i>The Survival of the Bark Canoe</i> by John McPhee</li>
<li><i>Cold Summer Wind </i>by Clayton Klein</li>
<li><i>Portage Into the Past: By Canoe Along the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters</i> by J. Arnold Bolz </li>
<li><i>The Last Voyageurs: Retracing LaSalle's Journey Across America: Sixteen Teenagers on the Adventure of a Lifetime</i> by Lorraine Boissoneault</li>
<li><i>Waterwalk: A Passage of Ghosts </i>by Steven Faulkner</li>
<li><i>Hidden Nature: A Voyage of Discovery</i> by Alys Fowler</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Hiking/Walking</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>A Walk in the Woods</i> by Bill Bryson </li>
<li><i>A Season on the Appalachian Trail</i> by Lynn Setzer </li>
<li><i>Walking My Dog, Jane: From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay Along the Trans Alaska Pipeline</i> by Ned Rozell</li>
<li><i>The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland</i> by Rory Stewart </li>
<li><i>AWOL on the Appalachian Trail</i> by David Miller</li>
<li><i>Alone Together: My Adventure on the Appalachian Trail</i> by Wally Miars</li>
</ul>
<u>Paleontology/Archaeology</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors</i> by Nicholas Wade</li>
<li><b><i>Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America</i> by Craig Childs</b></li>
<li><i>Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession</i> by Craig Childs</li>
<li><i>My European Family: The First 54,000 Years</i> by Karin Bojs</li>
<li><i>The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest</i> by David Roberts</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Michigan/Great Lakes</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Walking to Mackinac</i> by David E. Bonior</li>
<li><i>The Superior Peninsula: Seasons in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan</i> by Lon L. Emerick</li>
<li><i>The Living Great Lakes: Searching For the Heart of the Inland Seas</i> by Jerry Dennis</li>
<li><i>The Fourth Coast: Exploring the Great lakes Coastline From the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota</i> by Mary Blocksma</li>
<li><i>Graced by the Seasons: Fall and Winter in the Northwoods</i> by John Bates</li>
<li><i>Great Lakes Nature: An Outdoor Year</i> by Mary Blocksma </li>
<li><i>River of Iron</i> by David Lee</li>
<li><i>The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance</i> by Rolf O. Peterson</li>
<li><i>Lake Country: A Series of Journeys</i> by Kathleen Stocking</li>
<li><i>An Uncrowded Place: The Delights and Dilemmas of Life Up North and a Young Man's Search for Home</i> by Bob Butz</li>
<li><i>Great Lakes Country</i> by Russell McKee</li>
<li><i>The Turn in the Trail: Northwoods Tales of the Upper Great Lakes </i>by Walt Sandburg</li>
</ul>
<u>Native American</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Rez Life</i> by David Treuer</li>
<li><i>Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community</i> by Brenda J. Child</li>
<li><b><i>Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants</i> by Robin Wall Kimmerer</b></li>
<li> <i>Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America</i> by Michael A. McDonnell</li>
<li><i>Wilderness Empire</i> by Allan W. Eckert</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Hunting/Fishing/Trapping</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa</i> by Philip Caputo</li>
<li><i>Fly-fishing the 41st: Around the World on the 41st Parallel</i> by James Prosek</li>
<li><i>Trout Madness</i> by John D. Voelker (Robert Traver)</li>
<li><i>On The Run: An Angler's Journey Down The Striper Coast</i> by David DiBenedetto</li>
<li><i>Trout Eyes: True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly Fishing</i> by William G. Tapply</li>
<li><i>Kerplunk!</i> by Patrick F. McManus</li>
<li><b><i>The River Home: An Angler's Explorations </i>by Jerry Dennis</b></li>
<li><i>The Fish's Eye: Essays About Angling and the Outdoors </i>by Ian Frazier</li>
<li><b><i>A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home </i>by Jerry Dennis</b></li>
<li><b><i>Hunting From Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains</i> by Christopher Camuto</b></li>
<li><i>American Buffalo In Search of a Lost Icon</i> by Steven Rinella</li>
<li><i>West With the Rise: Fly-fishing Across America </i>by James Barilla</li>
<li><b><i>The Sporting Road: Travels Across America in An Airstream Trailer - With Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer</i> by Jim Fergus</b></li>
<li><b><i>Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had</i> by Rick Bass</b></li>
<li><i>Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America </i>by Eric Jay Dolan</li>
<li><i>Fool's Paradise</i> by John Gierach<b><br /></b></li>
<li><i>The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family</i> by Walt Harrington</li>
<li><i>At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman</i> by John Gierach</li>
<li><i>Still Life With Brook Trout</i> by John Gierach</li>
<li><i>Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Treasury</i> by John Gierach</li>
<li><b><i>The Old Man and the Boy</i> by Robert Ruark</b></li>
<li><i>Remembrances of Rivers Past</i> by Ernest Schwiebert</li>
<li><b><i>The Fragrance of Grass </i>by Guy de la Valdene</b></li>
<li><i>Meat Eater: Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter</i> by Steven Rinella</li>
<li><i>Afield: American Writers on Bird Dogs</i> edited by Robert DeMott and Dave Smith</li>
<li><i>Upland Autumn: Birds, Dogs, and Shotgun Shells</i> by William G. Tapply</li>
<li><i>Fishing the River of Time</i> by Tony Taylor </li>
<li><i>Use Enough Gun: Ruark on Hunting Big Game </i>by Robert Ruark</li>
<li><i>Every Day Was Special: A Fly Fisher's Lifelong Passion </i>by William G. Tapply</li>
<li><i>Charley Waterman's Tales of Fly-fishing, Wing-shooting, and the Great Outdoors</i> by Charley Waterman</li>
<li><i>On the Water: A Fishing Memoir </i>by Guy de la Valdene</li>
<li><b><i>Red Stag: A Novel </i>by Guy de la Valdene</b></li>
<li><i>Brown Feathers: Waterfowling Tales an Upland Dreams </i>by Steven J. Mulak</li>
<li><i>The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing</i> by Thomas McGuane </li>
<li><i>Outdoor Chronicles: True Tales of a Lifetime of Hunting and Fishing</i> by Jerry Hamza</li>
<li><i>A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge</i> by Christopher Camuto</li>
<li><i>Midwest Meanders</i> by Tom Huggler</li>
<li><i>This Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest</i> by Robert Glass Cleland</li>
<li><i>The Ghosts of Autumn: A Season of Hunting Stories</i> by Joel Spring</li>
<li><i>A Fly Rod of Your Own</i> by John Gierach</li>
<li><i>Jill and I and the Salmon</i> by Jack Russell</li>
<li><i>Moose in the Water Bamboo on the Bench: A Journal and a Journey</i> by Kathy Scott</li>
<li><i>What the River Knows: An Angler in Midstream</i> by Wayne Fields</li>
<li><i>Salmon On A Fly: The Essential Wisdom and Lore from a Lifetime of Salmon Fishing</i> by Lee Wulff</li>
<li><i>A Rough-shooting Dog: Reflections From Thick and Uncivil Sorts of Places</i> by Charles Fergus</li>
<li><i>A Hunter's Fireside Book: Tales of Dogs, Ducks, Birds & Guns</i> by Gene Hill</li>
<li><i>My Secret Fishing Life</i> by Nick Lyons</li>
<li><i>Covered Waters: Tempests of a Nomadic Trouter</i> by Joseph Heywood</li>
</ul>
Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-72152062557831241172019-03-20T16:28:00.000-07:002019-03-20T16:28:56.837-07:00Spring is...Spring is the season of my favorite wildflower.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7R9yAkgO3S5B5qaiajxEjb1y-ETiGn-BKkokNx51WNhd6iIYDxMhJ6XLlBEEp2jqHU9oiAQfUl8-oFiq34Ltke_uYu5fRpKzBFrQvn6FsNxi7Z72naFb7a2LKSFiiqau05HCyuIBmJXh7/s1600/IMG_0344.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7R9yAkgO3S5B5qaiajxEjb1y-ETiGn-BKkokNx51WNhd6iIYDxMhJ6XLlBEEp2jqHU9oiAQfUl8-oFiq34Ltke_uYu5fRpKzBFrQvn6FsNxi7Z72naFb7a2LKSFiiqau05HCyuIBmJXh7/s400/IMG_0344.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is the first wildflower of the year in Mid-Michigan. This species is so insistent on blooming that <a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-plant-that-can-melt-snow-whats-your.html" target="_blank">it has the ability to melt through snow and ice</a>! I often find this species blooming in seeps and swamps as early as the first week of March, but regardless of when I find it I know that spring will soon be here. <br />
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My first sighting of Skunk Cabbage for 2019 coincided with the Vernal Equinox - so for this year at least Skunk Cabbage truly was a sign of spring!Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-10505603394347899762019-03-18T16:43:00.000-07:002019-03-18T16:43:13.222-07:00Spring!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIslfloneSkqqXtgQa85UM-2VarGiQDU__mFmOIgV2IPoLKLSt1FJoRMRdGBb1OqqSWi8cPCmYdK1rEW89YJWORvhRzRSEuqXbvzLhCPOZKFHCpYhxSPz6ndDpMP4qilwF3fzPrY-YPCn/s1600/IMG_0844+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIslfloneSkqqXtgQa85UM-2VarGiQDU__mFmOIgV2IPoLKLSt1FJoRMRdGBb1OqqSWi8cPCmYdK1rEW89YJWORvhRzRSEuqXbvzLhCPOZKFHCpYhxSPz6ndDpMP4qilwF3fzPrY-YPCn/s640/IMG_0844+%25282%2529.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>
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Spring may be two days away on the calendar, but according to the birds it's already here! The surest sign of spring to me is the <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2017/02/what-bird-signals-spring.html" target="_blank">return of the Red-winged Blackbirds</a> (<i>Agelaius phoeniceus</i>). I saw my first blackbird of the year about ten days ago; now they are everywhere in Mid-Michigan. <br />
<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-41166861152274201432019-03-15T12:54:00.001-07:002019-03-15T12:54:54.695-07:00Chippewa River Floods (March 2019 Edition)Over the past few days warm temperatures and rain have caused most of the snow around Mt. Pleasant to melt. Unfortunately the ground remained largely frozen so none of the water could filter into the ground. The water had to go somewhere - it pooled on the surface and where it could flow downhill entered the local waterways. Enough water entered the streams that flood warnings were issued for the Chippewa River and several other local streams. Today I stopped at several parks in the Mt. Pleasant to check on the state of the flooding - here are some photos.<br />
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My first stop was <a href="http://www.mt-pleasant.org/docs/dept/parks/park%20maps/Chipp-A-Waters_Park_Map.pdf" target="_blank">Chipp-A-Waters Park</a>. The river here is well over its banks and flowing over the <a href="http://www.mt-pleasant.org/docs/dept/parks/park%20maps/GKB_Riverwalk_Trail.pdf" target="_blank">Riverwalk Trail</a>. I waded in to the top of my boots but could not get down the trail without getting my feet wet.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR5ZDS5kHE1hejTa76b-UV_3l0chNlZDpRsM2U4J4QEZMLoEZMOvnnpbmly-nQBW6hNUEl2LxmoRFjCM-OVLm4CdHFFCF_hpooqj942TUXHbJjtwCqFnRmA_-po_olWcvs3GIbd3tIgeAT/s1600/IMG_0705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR5ZDS5kHE1hejTa76b-UV_3l0chNlZDpRsM2U4J4QEZMLoEZMOvnnpbmly-nQBW6hNUEl2LxmoRFjCM-OVLm4CdHFFCF_hpooqj942TUXHbJjtwCqFnRmA_-po_olWcvs3GIbd3tIgeAT/s400/IMG_0705.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking upriver near the canoe landing - the Riverwalk Trail is on the right.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMg0sgXY-DIdgEltmdNNDwBmQm1MzER9rsplF0YbyVnLdn0vfQK3mwTOVJNhAYNTNwDgHzPWzfDjl629yu3HQXhLWL_UXWK3vWrc7gKVEg7UthVR4cE43jjyVIoxyK-c13JzYfFHYCnSi/s1600/IMG_0706.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMg0sgXY-DIdgEltmdNNDwBmQm1MzER9rsplF0YbyVnLdn0vfQK3mwTOVJNhAYNTNwDgHzPWzfDjl629yu3HQXhLWL_UXWK3vWrc7gKVEg7UthVR4cE43jjyVIoxyK-c13JzYfFHYCnSi/s400/IMG_0706.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water over the trail</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdULD6WYOcO_Bp622wd4cq0A66_AOeoHKxN5FnxMOHVCH-EqTg4Ir0Z4CzMRzay08cdEb6TFDNqe2K5_zQOUs9TyD0UapY_dMnbjCenhR7wD7eKZv_Q2U3VB-_0TU7pO6oNGnqhaqzDoEj/s1600/IMG_0709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdULD6WYOcO_Bp622wd4cq0A66_AOeoHKxN5FnxMOHVCH-EqTg4Ir0Z4CzMRzay08cdEb6TFDNqe2K5_zQOUs9TyD0UapY_dMnbjCenhR7wD7eKZv_Q2U3VB-_0TU7pO6oNGnqhaqzDoEj/s400/IMG_0709.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great Blue Heron resting on a stump in the woods.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUvM_cwI7WNrDCrfTjUAVmbsUogOPp_KbD3RkMvFxYajlNTM3eqdtjR5VBdMM0KNoCzndQjMhc_uP7K6uLEPfBdUw7vL96Fz_hlX7KK-611W063WWgZEWkplM7PXTlGqki4tmhF2qdNX0/s1600/IMG_0713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUvM_cwI7WNrDCrfTjUAVmbsUogOPp_KbD3RkMvFxYajlNTM3eqdtjR5VBdMM0KNoCzndQjMhc_uP7K6uLEPfBdUw7vL96Fz_hlX7KK-611W063WWgZEWkplM7PXTlGqki4tmhF2qdNX0/s400/IMG_0713.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pedestrian bridge across the Chippewa River - the bridge abutment to the left normally sits several feet above the river level.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMyfS0nRN3GZKA91GmVkOGyIbySxaFrR3iCm0c0nUSitHOXiDDFEGXluaf5D-TsUy2248s_9orKXZZjhx7-FvDxWxpH8PrXB2W_RcGxcgnkgARcBz1Nk3dL2VpkUq7CDSDA5SA_N9NALPi/s1600/IMG_0714.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMyfS0nRN3GZKA91GmVkOGyIbySxaFrR3iCm0c0nUSitHOXiDDFEGXluaf5D-TsUy2248s_9orKXZZjhx7-FvDxWxpH8PrXB2W_RcGxcgnkgARcBz1Nk3dL2VpkUq7CDSDA5SA_N9NALPi/s400/IMG_0714.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mallard ducks swimming over what is normally dry land.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4iV5i360nLBRPbB_80h9CjPBHa5Euz_wKoC0B0rNWJNMwq428mgrtsakR10_9wUNIZDyh0Up9jSBWVzbrFwFGaSm8j1WfAy2tPDF7ZuNVC4mF5-ksbLWLhBfboQ1S2_KdB0zQubCtOLtv/s1600/IMG_0719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4iV5i360nLBRPbB_80h9CjPBHa5Euz_wKoC0B0rNWJNMwq428mgrtsakR10_9wUNIZDyh0Up9jSBWVzbrFwFGaSm8j1WfAy2tPDF7ZuNVC4mF5-ksbLWLhBfboQ1S2_KdB0zQubCtOLtv/s400/IMG_0719.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those ducks should have been on a leash!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRavLnTEXuLOXlw4g8OCT52sWiBSebQ7sInUM3Q962-O6m8I4iL5KnFqWfYeREA2cdCwx3bgoNKspnLmuaEmU8yYNt5okXkXeh-hbUUG-JPvmAl4yFq6u_XkNDsXPtDxNJzG5-T1I_Jxd/s1600/IMG_0720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRavLnTEXuLOXlw4g8OCT52sWiBSebQ7sInUM3Q962-O6m8I4iL5KnFqWfYeREA2cdCwx3bgoNKspnLmuaEmU8yYNt5okXkXeh-hbUUG-JPvmAl4yFq6u_XkNDsXPtDxNJzG5-T1I_Jxd/s400/IMG_0720.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This tree is in what would normally be the main channel of the river.</td></tr>
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My second stop was at <a href="http://www.mt-pleasant.org/docs/dept/parks/park%20maps/Millpond_Park_Map.pdf" target="_blank">Mill Pond Park</a>. The Riverwalk trail continues through Mill Pond Park, but several sections are flooded over.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAiYRDAT66zE-gBYnoGYoMkb0IbKuTkre4UVzTNr1xFqHYrQVPUOn4WlxwSgcmGGLgiSGaBdP20THrkUejHOoCHZJ8_Jgl8koaK7kXR9DpPp5pPJUjRlZprnBM1u8sSJ4pLj2QiY2Qh-74/s1600/IMG_0722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAiYRDAT66zE-gBYnoGYoMkb0IbKuTkre4UVzTNr1xFqHYrQVPUOn4WlxwSgcmGGLgiSGaBdP20THrkUejHOoCHZJ8_Jgl8koaK7kXR9DpPp5pPJUjRlZprnBM1u8sSJ4pLj2QiY2Qh-74/s400/IMG_0722.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking upstream from an island at the Leaton St. parking lot.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4i1gK9QE1wDFeA34rta1qbje1ObC_1OspUforor2VbgvYxKKfy3PUROhIdxNPcgZgfQOFgzqIXSzsmqB_jFSXS4kA6vgMqEGJJhTmf6D_C5myFj6nVdZabMiiyQ5WrV2kzsoCmsdD0Y-T/s1600/IMG_0727.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4i1gK9QE1wDFeA34rta1qbje1ObC_1OspUforor2VbgvYxKKfy3PUROhIdxNPcgZgfQOFgzqIXSzsmqB_jFSXS4kA6vgMqEGJJhTmf6D_C5myFj6nVdZabMiiyQ5WrV2kzsoCmsdD0Y-T/s400/IMG_0727.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flow under a pedestrian bridge at Leaton St.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4va8BoveMnxK1iyHynO0pJhtCiTtCRVypvnxpMFHHIAA2rXEjrfc2e4zir2Vl97toE1HNGQPsMziAY9DaMgG8wCezlwkTvuTPBeca3UZkK9vLXawuwdl0CcbyJOK09v4FznAk1R71lQsn/s1600/IMG_0731.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4va8BoveMnxK1iyHynO0pJhtCiTtCRVypvnxpMFHHIAA2rXEjrfc2e4zir2Vl97toE1HNGQPsMziAY9DaMgG8wCezlwkTvuTPBeca3UZkK9vLXawuwdl0CcbyJOK09v4FznAk1R71lQsn/s400/IMG_0731.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water flows over weirs creating standing waves.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRGEGcgzC1zBvUY2CRZdg0CNERX5g2vVdPzxSf29FOC9fvq7lQwko5xn8-RkhDFbWp6EV_9vu_OniHCx-SQBHmYzHqcSvUV6joTH4x5kOZccXCItMuQN0HjMFnSO6VQvy4d73rSim0DkM/s1600/IMG_0739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRGEGcgzC1zBvUY2CRZdg0CNERX5g2vVdPzxSf29FOC9fvq7lQwko5xn8-RkhDFbWp6EV_9vu_OniHCx-SQBHmYzHqcSvUV6joTH4x5kOZccXCItMuQN0HjMFnSO6VQvy4d73rSim0DkM/s400/IMG_0739.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking downstream from the pedestrian bridge - the glide in the center is the spillway of the first of five weirs with tree trunks hung up on the second weir in the background.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A small footbridge is mostly underwater on the far side of the river.</td></tr>
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My final stop was at <a href="http://www.mt-pleasant.org/docs/dept/parks/park%20maps/Pickens_Field_Map.pdf" target="_blank">Pickens Field</a>. From there I crossed a pedestrian bridge to the north end of <a href="http://www.mt-pleasant.org/docs/dept/parks/park%20maps/Island_Park_Map.pdf" target="_blank">Island Park</a>. Pickens Field is the northern terminus of the Riverwalk Trail<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NJymGc3THFkV1Q4juU78Wle1EGX4RxA6rUKve4nGsCtAzWtyCa5aV0MZW9GamUkz5aj9_2FzCEe3CAV6dg8cbFecqww0St49LBH3ZRi8niTA85j8EriMdcehjP-ZFIhcO00kDbZw8aJz/s1600/IMG_0743.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NJymGc3THFkV1Q4juU78Wle1EGX4RxA6rUKve4nGsCtAzWtyCa5aV0MZW9GamUkz5aj9_2FzCEe3CAV6dg8cbFecqww0St49LBH3ZRi8niTA85j8EriMdcehjP-ZFIhcO00kDbZw8aJz/s400/IMG_0743.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flooded ballfield at Pickens Field</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVKWgzo_hEchqFZYDKrO4JmXN_WO33FMsYRE6v8rw4Ryrb5RDFtr3Q7q5x1siOtR1C-YVsvdIOY5jjjXP2Rwi1jNeBTT4zVfYY7tTip3B9XaEu2QdRPnDRA66rw7btu5zBN3MF53WxUzlY/s1600/IMG_0745.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVKWgzo_hEchqFZYDKrO4JmXN_WO33FMsYRE6v8rw4Ryrb5RDFtr3Q7q5x1siOtR1C-YVsvdIOY5jjjXP2Rwi1jNeBTT4zVfYY7tTip3B9XaEu2QdRPnDRA66rw7btu5zBN3MF53WxUzlY/s400/IMG_0745.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Michigan Vietnam Memorial is surrounded by floodwaters</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A kayaker paddles down the road at Island Park</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water levels were up to the bottom of the bridge connecting Pickens Field and Island Park</td></tr>
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This is not the worst spring flooding Mt. pleasant has experienced in the past decade. <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2014/04/chippewa-river-floods-2014-edition.html" target="_blank">2014 saw approximately the same water levels</a> and the <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2013/04/if-it-keeps-on-rainin-levees-goin-to.html" target="_blank">spring floods of 2013</a> were higher. If you type "flood" in the search box to the right you can find pictures from several more years.Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-58563498690961609912019-03-14T10:00:00.002-07:002019-03-14T10:00:48.562-07:00Pi Day 2019<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Happy "Pi Day"! Not pie the pastry, but pi the number. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml"> </span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml">The number <b>pi</b> is symbolized by the Greek letter </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml"><span class="texhtml">Ï€ .</span> </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml">We use pi to figure the circumference and area of circles and the volume of spheres and cylinders. </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml">The circumference of any circle is its diameter times pi. The
area of any circle is its radius squared time pi. So what does that have
to do with today?<br />
<br />
Today is the 14th of March. Otherwise expressed as 3/14 or 3.14. Just like the number <b>pi</b>! </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml">But, pi doesn't end at 3.14. The number is thought to be infinite and non-repeating - no one has found the last digit of pi (currently at over one trillion digits and counting) and there is no sequence of numbers that repeats itself within pi! Written to 100 decimal points pi is... </span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;">3.14159<span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">26535</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">89793</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">23846</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">26433</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">83279</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">50288</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">41971</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">69399</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">37510</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">58209</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">74944</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">59230</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;"></span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">78164</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">06286</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">20899</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">86280</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">34825</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">34211</span><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;">70679...</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In celebration of Pi Day, I bought two pies (the pastry) to share at work. One blueberry pie </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and one apple </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">pie.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are eating pie for mathematics! This is not just because pi(e) is delicious!</span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 13.53px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="margin-left: 2.7px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZafmcR2JUKhLVAlHrgc0N0dZIbkZGwxndK9JUppt8sTEJEapX4asaBxCD9N6Gepe1rcKeS4nJWiaVNBp6awnlP6quulPBIksk49Ysk-R86kF3bbgoszOx1RqD8fbo3daNdp1yeSo4kG82/s400/IMG_0694.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at all that math!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZafmcR2JUKhLVAlHrgc0N0dZIbkZGwxndK9JUppt8sTEJEapX4asaBxCD9N6Gepe1rcKeS4nJWiaVNBp6awnlP6quulPBIksk49Ysk-R86kF3bbgoszOx1RqD8fbo3daNdp1yeSo4kG82/s1600/IMG_0694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #001000;"></span></a></div>
</span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Now for a little Pie (pi) related math. The diameter (the distance
across a circle from one side to the opposite side, passing through the
center of the circle) of each of these pies is 8.5 inches. To calculate
the circumference (the distance around the perimeter of a circle) we
just need to multiply 8.5 inches by pi (3.14).</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Circumference</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> = </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">Ï€ x diameter</span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> Circumference = 3.14 x 8.5 inches</span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> Circumference = 26.69 inches</span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><span class="texhtml" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizu3Bkt-U2yjhfPsq6_b6a2aOVXMabnVGWHEFJiF2zpkSwOKBXI_mxfz1KZ6DKgajyMgcJ2rkmOTMRyKFQ49qJxy2mpXcTtxv9x_P9jCvQH8e76SAyhVFKkB0hiqX5VsVxufV-Fr-VWXoT/s1600/IMG_0696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizu3Bkt-U2yjhfPsq6_b6a2aOVXMabnVGWHEFJiF2zpkSwOKBXI_mxfz1KZ6DKgajyMgcJ2rkmOTMRyKFQ49qJxy2mpXcTtxv9x_P9jCvQH8e76SAyhVFKkB0hiqX5VsVxufV-Fr-VWXoT/s400/IMG_0696.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I eat this pie in the name of mathematics!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="texhtml" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span class="texhtml" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">To calculate the area of the pie we need to know
the radius. Radius is the distance from the center of a circle to the
edge of the circle. This number is one half of the diameter - so if the
diameter of these pies is 8.5 inches, the radius would be 8.5 inches
divided by 2, which equals 4.25 inches. The formula for calculating the
area of a circle is Area = pi times the radius squared (the radius
times the radius). Expressed as a mathematical formula this is A= </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">Ï€</span></b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">r</span><sup style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 13.99px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sup><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">. </span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> </span></b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">Area = </span><b style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">Ï€</span></b>r<sup style="line-height: 13.99px; position: static; width: auto;">2</sup> </span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> </span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> Area = </span></b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><b style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">Ï€ </span></b>x (radius x radius)</span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><br style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;" /></span></b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> Area = 3.14 x (4.25 inches x 4.25 inches)</span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><br style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;" /></span></b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> Area = 3.14 x (18.0625 inches</span></b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><sup style="line-height: 13.99px; position: static; width: auto;">2</sup>)</span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><br style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;" /></span></b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"> Area = 56.71625 </span></b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;">inches</span></b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"><sup style="line-height: 13.99px; position: static; width: auto;">2</sup></span></b><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; position: static; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; width: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="texhtml" style="line-height: 20.29px; position: static; width: auto;"></span></b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">That's 56.71625 square inches of delicious per pie!</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">If I eat 1/6th of the blueberry pie I am eating 9.4527 square inches of pie (56.71625 x 1/6 = 9.4527 inches<sup style="font-size: 11.06px; line-height: 13.99px; position: static; width: auto;">2</sup>)! </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Bi-B1poHkBsytM1ftV197HI6dPERieLudA9fcLHzWIcCiZT6PlUcq3Q3x7xVPrIn0b_Z8ap-HdCwycIT1Cz2ac_0ICN3Ej2Qk4B_hM-vRKS0aclFn_DX6xhWdsKofmrS_f1Atdo7a_dJ/s1600/IMG_0695.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Bi-B1poHkBsytM1ftV197HI6dPERieLudA9fcLHzWIcCiZT6PlUcq3Q3x7xVPrIn0b_Z8ap-HdCwycIT1Cz2ac_0ICN3Ej2Qk4B_hM-vRKS0aclFn_DX6xhWdsKofmrS_f1Atdo7a_dJ/s400/IMG_0695.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Math can be delicious!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #001000; font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember! This is for the cause of furthering mathematical knowledge!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20.29px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></b></strike><span style="color: #001000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-91216607561786264702019-03-11T18:05:00.001-07:002019-03-11T18:05:28.260-07:00Crescent Moon (11 March 2019) and an upcoming eventTonight's waxing crescent moon as seen from my driveway...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDAUV4xH1rRwg8Ij3bOA54voogOyMtrvohVAHsjWXDuX0Axt6V0zv_yBu2c24oOSMmmEGPVJ-K9tQHeF0DeEOifu_jWBCUF3L58c3aifF7ZQ9FO1dOjRm77Z6B4w8VuxRc4_IMRGprsnz/s1600/IMG_0664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDAUV4xH1rRwg8Ij3bOA54voogOyMtrvohVAHsjWXDuX0Axt6V0zv_yBu2c24oOSMmmEGPVJ-K9tQHeF0DeEOifu_jWBCUF3L58c3aifF7ZQ9FO1dOjRm77Z6B4w8VuxRc4_IMRGprsnz/s400/IMG_0664.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our next full moon will be on the Spring Equinox (20 March) - I am leading a hike that night at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve. For more information, <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/event/spring-equinox-full-moon-hike/" target="_blank">check their website</a>.Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-53389521648918672482019-03-06T15:05:00.000-08:002019-03-06T15:05:48.564-08:00A long reach...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2Z_l1kozilpmOzMmPXgXudL6Xut5dpC2lJt3TgHicpzxzF8PQDIOo7csme7AZixheRKLDB_vg1D4nAHcZjEvcRc8tRp7_0WJU9yl_lQvkxl7HhU-gnVDailrBM0RnTgHZk6Uk1oAFRYj/s1600/01290031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2Z_l1kozilpmOzMmPXgXudL6Xut5dpC2lJt3TgHicpzxzF8PQDIOo7csme7AZixheRKLDB_vg1D4nAHcZjEvcRc8tRp7_0WJU9yl_lQvkxl7HhU-gnVDailrBM0RnTgHZk6Uk1oAFRYj/s400/01290031.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Deep snow can make winter survival difficult for <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2014/09/100-species-to-know-by-sight-2-white.html" target="_blank">white-tailed deer</a>. Getting around is difficult and requires more energy. Most of the food sources are inaccessible, especially if the snow is combined with a layer of ice that prevents deer from digging down to the ground.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0V23xqIBl2RqMKhPEaHfCvUeYo0wkVq9d7HtAjccwy6HYtRDPaKVMcpSw86MLmOkhIM9YSGW3wL3Oimlfv3iCwPhm2cQMO3GGlMYNYno7lw8ifuKGS1sYz5SU5UDOS9cQC-2ZqVOJ6UY/s1600/01300065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0V23xqIBl2RqMKhPEaHfCvUeYo0wkVq9d7HtAjccwy6HYtRDPaKVMcpSw86MLmOkhIM9YSGW3wL3Oimlfv3iCwPhm2cQMO3GGlMYNYno7lw8ifuKGS1sYz5SU5UDOS9cQC-2ZqVOJ6UY/s400/01300065.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Because foods such as grasses, forbs, and nuts are often unavailable, <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/01/northern-white-cedar-important-winter.html" target="_blank">deer survive mostly on a diet of browse (buds, leaves, branch tips) during the winter months</a>. Where deer populations are heavy, all the food that is easy to reach is already gone by this time of winter. Sometimes the only food left available in area is high overhead. It is not unusual to see where deer have browsed as high as eight feet off the ground by standing on their hind legs. <br />
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I retrieved my trail cameras this afternoon and was lucky enough that one of the cameras had recorded this behavior. The deer in this series of images is reaching up to eat needles from an Eastern Hemlock (<i>Tsuga canadensis</i>).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWD9fN4nPhUDN1pQ7S4Nxdewki2EeXO1J-Y7JRHkTll9QR9ytPXbEnNyVVNeqaCRDtDae_HXVCp-tTp3z7pRKf1hoxm7tZMf4SwIRL2e5fEp09F0Q45jror3AjhbNRK2GIGgIGbk39M75W/s1600/WGI_0031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWD9fN4nPhUDN1pQ7S4Nxdewki2EeXO1J-Y7JRHkTll9QR9ytPXbEnNyVVNeqaCRDtDae_HXVCp-tTp3z7pRKf1hoxm7tZMf4SwIRL2e5fEp09F0Q45jror3AjhbNRK2GIGgIGbk39M75W/s400/WGI_0031.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRal22PhGp3DZe8Rbot0pgXaEXj1zLeeAPaZpQM4BtURWtHHNeZbB58yGlHtd0WhZP2JreA1BUInPcnkDd2FkQu0DtuaRhb_aJm4P0ijzbtUstfsk90zgq6TijI9Vr7qlvr00HAwWQNYU/s1600/WGI_0055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrRal22PhGp3DZe8Rbot0pgXaEXj1zLeeAPaZpQM4BtURWtHHNeZbB58yGlHtd0WhZP2JreA1BUInPcnkDd2FkQu0DtuaRhb_aJm4P0ijzbtUstfsk90zgq6TijI9Vr7qlvr00HAwWQNYU/s400/WGI_0055.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Normally I just change out the memory cards in my trail cameras and leave the cameras in the woods, but I decided to remove the cameras completely for now. Even though its in a public park, the area that I place the cameras is quite secluded when the ground is not frozen - it's in the middle of a swamp. However, right now its easy to access because everything is frozen over. I also left a trail of footprints directly to the camera sites. I also recorded a person on one of the cameras. This is not the first time I have ever seen a person on one of the cameras, but it was the first time I could tell that they knew the camera was there. Fortunately, they only smiled at the camera and left it in place.<br />
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If this you - Thank you for being an honest person!<br />
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<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-31758345048332580652019-02-25T11:57:00.001-08:002019-02-25T11:57:37.871-08:00Random photos with the same nameHere is a seemingly random collection of thirteen photos from the past five years. The only thing these pictures have in common is their name IMG_0225. Why? Because its February 25th or if you prefer 02/25. To see a similar random collection of photos here is<a href="http://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2018/01/img0115-for-0115-random-collection-of.html" target="_blank"> a post celebrating IMG_0115</a> from January 15th of 2018.<br />
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The best thing about these photos is that they were all taken in locations open to the public - public gardens, nature preserves, local parks, state parks, national lakeshores, national monuments, and national parks.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOkJB2ZFt5eIg3-2QW9NuPX_zoVXTWsTIs5l7ma9pk5uMrFvLgm8SvPoseJ3s5xCxZrtn9Fidbe8o11-WRJpdU1ZuWw-gshE4HwZhHqRnEUu-3mmISNIbCiRpmYN-JDDL0_L7Pg27W3Y5/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOkJB2ZFt5eIg3-2QW9NuPX_zoVXTWsTIs5l7ma9pk5uMrFvLgm8SvPoseJ3s5xCxZrtn9Fidbe8o11-WRJpdU1ZuWw-gshE4HwZhHqRnEUu-3mmISNIbCiRpmYN-JDDL0_L7Pg27W3Y5/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dow Gardens, Midland, Michigan (August 2018)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2r6POZcxDLgi7cXqZ9vSw-lZdHNCjVhkL9lyh5d6zqtQ_0gfCR-m8RQOW5BQVlmz46HN58iuY_9XCUvhYdxONeoR2Y_F47ftcUPWOsQdMBuYoRJEP-89iamn6Z4l-c79IEYHpJGv9ZxGB/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2r6POZcxDLgi7cXqZ9vSw-lZdHNCjVhkL9lyh5d6zqtQ_0gfCR-m8RQOW5BQVlmz46HN58iuY_9XCUvhYdxONeoR2Y_F47ftcUPWOsQdMBuYoRJEP-89iamn6Z4l-c79IEYHpJGv9ZxGB/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Higgins Lake State Park, Michigan (July 2018)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdNnzOg72CYq3XAoX_DaZc_4tMpg14RvtQG6HDLf7pUk58jAMGOsd8f5NDFMf9kxvVJtp_6wOZWXl77avh9L1vP74bYdsmzKL70gJYps7mPVGKRtTdecsBaQT3RetuSLC9YYs6t470alv/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdNnzOg72CYq3XAoX_DaZc_4tMpg14RvtQG6HDLf7pUk58jAMGOsd8f5NDFMf9kxvVJtp_6wOZWXl77avh9L1vP74bYdsmzKL70gJYps7mPVGKRtTdecsBaQT3RetuSLC9YYs6t470alv/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bundy Hill Preserve, near Remus, Michigan (June 2018)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpMNB6aYlao_mPXliB95ljq8cQcp3FBpRSzjvltvVoAcMB-6ktIkermFqN5kNpAPd8z-CUcc0GPKtHsEbmG-q6IizJP-lgJkd42vRfjkcmoErjZ-vZ8Tgm3FbbkzMWIVadV5GPFGMo028/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpMNB6aYlao_mPXliB95ljq8cQcp3FBpRSzjvltvVoAcMB-6ktIkermFqN5kNpAPd8z-CUcc0GPKtHsEbmG-q6IizJP-lgJkd42vRfjkcmoErjZ-vZ8Tgm3FbbkzMWIVadV5GPFGMo028/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chipp-A-Waters Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI (November 2017)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3RibuTpdy2IZ5TmtU8oao8tpCbApjwE9n5h5uwd3RKnY2UXDMqqkOWSM9GrFATcmXiaXYwW0S8-b5vBM2F-FUu90iJsjcbUjIdKgudevTtAE2VfobY09ckRVTm7OzhyphenhyphengOX7ulqhkDzIq/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3RibuTpdy2IZ5TmtU8oao8tpCbApjwE9n5h5uwd3RKnY2UXDMqqkOWSM9GrFATcmXiaXYwW0S8-b5vBM2F-FUu90iJsjcbUjIdKgudevTtAE2VfobY09ckRVTm7OzhyphenhyphengOX7ulqhkDzIq/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teddy Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota (July 2017)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEElT5Y-w8mS6iRBmvUj-_AD0xiAmYy-0pKBUnJRME4f_sTOuXcjv9iv2zRwhocZ6I_Fb22IfH0w22fvvmzj09CIGKk6hnQ_tGi6Be58CM_iKMruxxsn1bjOx3Wrr_gjSW7Zisam0Ud97/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEElT5Y-w8mS6iRBmvUj-_AD0xiAmYy-0pKBUnJRME4f_sTOuXcjv9iv2zRwhocZ6I_Fb22IfH0w22fvvmzj09CIGKk6hnQ_tGi6Be58CM_iKMruxxsn1bjOx3Wrr_gjSW7Zisam0Ud97/s640/IMG_0225.JPG" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming (July 2017)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVNU5J6pIH-b8Skur19zWNNbQU2VCaFIpudRwhIrPaZMrRSS20f2-ubdFrcZJTFVp_SOvIiSOD6PoLrAFRn3rRVnrfw-DJn2jYJ7ZBTBRwXRQQeoLNI1Xbu7OdbVmWEVvopzVlS1orKa2H/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVNU5J6pIH-b8Skur19zWNNbQU2VCaFIpudRwhIrPaZMrRSS20f2-ubdFrcZJTFVp_SOvIiSOD6PoLrAFRn3rRVnrfw-DJn2jYJ7ZBTBRwXRQQeoLNI1Xbu7OdbVmWEVvopzVlS1orKa2H/s640/IMG_0225.JPG" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hall's Lake Natural Area, near Remus, Michigan (October 2016)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMBUfDHRhJaXDLpSF-Z04vALzqz909BYLRpBTRAgBkz5me-io7K2u-kFvUk5tS3q8JCoCWz3qKCFJZ9OFllHwSTRSzIf91UQhQ3KlfgoQUdfU2vuKJ7saS-5XQYO5gECpBc1Ddcpvo1VS/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMBUfDHRhJaXDLpSF-Z04vALzqz909BYLRpBTRAgBkz5me-io7K2u-kFvUk5tS3q8JCoCWz3qKCFJZ9OFllHwSTRSzIf91UQhQ3KlfgoQUdfU2vuKJ7saS-5XQYO5gECpBc1Ddcpvo1VS/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Michigan (October 2015)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyL1qYiwtLMHlbhYz_5776QzgfNKMhXywILFehVMj4zuUCUgiF2dU6MX4duRREjhemp4aRxHtXX00c1qEqaRy2IRw5oAAtAaCUKvE0G0HdE2q9ek8_tOmsMoy8s6A6lppfGibO75US0mc/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyL1qYiwtLMHlbhYz_5776QzgfNKMhXywILFehVMj4zuUCUgiF2dU6MX4duRREjhemp4aRxHtXX00c1qEqaRy2IRw5oAAtAaCUKvE0G0HdE2q9ek8_tOmsMoy8s6A6lppfGibO75US0mc/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Michigan seen from Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary, Manistee, Michigan (September 2015)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1EjYfjcolzk-JMTCF2KE0dtvD3_1leM8kUEnA3979HM6jSUXpDy4LFTq4vStzwMmxK6IRUvKcOBndRHmHPcYMrvJiXWd7ISe2aZd2Og0Eh6Z5wdf1axwx6f1zbapFEjFTEUP2HSv1f9L1/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1EjYfjcolzk-JMTCF2KE0dtvD3_1leM8kUEnA3979HM6jSUXpDy4LFTq4vStzwMmxK6IRUvKcOBndRHmHPcYMrvJiXWd7ISe2aZd2Og0Eh6Z5wdf1axwx6f1zbapFEjFTEUP2HSv1f9L1/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peterson Natural Area, Stanwood, Michigan (August 2015)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbhwAwrS3jTATji4odIPNZr861YQ0_2BacaKzVTZmGfyUI1radRlL26ZbmQtLWB6T3e5gI3Y66yHtVNRtkrMyyTk1bZfHkpa7AJeX_JXN8S2ZxRX0OZA1RF5jA0oMz_DgfH8RR5tAYrGuf/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbhwAwrS3jTATji4odIPNZr861YQ0_2BacaKzVTZmGfyUI1radRlL26ZbmQtLWB6T3e5gI3Y66yHtVNRtkrMyyTk1bZfHkpa7AJeX_JXN8S2ZxRX0OZA1RF5jA0oMz_DgfH8RR5tAYrGuf/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Garden Door, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin (July 2015)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixnUYPTsF0QPM3VzVHAJ52LMG3M34GLYQZdjacDd00Z0dSN2fXcS-FftVTfOUxTgevbWhpIVANC2Mpylngu95PlEyGSNbtLJOiNcGOrUhJc-fpY5v6kF1YgwNof4EvYpyHwK87HumrKS0r/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixnUYPTsF0QPM3VzVHAJ52LMG3M34GLYQZdjacDd00Z0dSN2fXcS-FftVTfOUxTgevbWhpIVANC2Mpylngu95PlEyGSNbtLJOiNcGOrUhJc-fpY5v6kF1YgwNof4EvYpyHwK87HumrKS0r/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan (September 2014)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsG1pngY0znKwcJowzukDxzhX7U1hYlxgu9NzKcdoNkrBWqnWosMfapE-zK9tmmZlxxyQnCNSGLRCfEoM_TIUipmNTUEZpIH-JgJGzjYhsjbRwlrUK6Pw4ebAkTx5MtCWYgzl5t201UfKQ/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsG1pngY0znKwcJowzukDxzhX7U1hYlxgu9NzKcdoNkrBWqnWosMfapE-zK9tmmZlxxyQnCNSGLRCfEoM_TIUipmNTUEZpIH-JgJGzjYhsjbRwlrUK6Pw4ebAkTx5MtCWYgzl5t201UfKQ/s400/IMG_0225.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ludington, Michigan (August 2018)</td></tr>
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<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-29680911512710898592019-02-20T16:16:00.000-08:002019-02-20T16:16:24.111-08:00Full Moon - February 2019On Monday (18 February 2019) I led a nighttime hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/sylvan-solace-preserve/" target="_blank">Sylvan Solace Preserve</a>. The snowy woods was well-lit by a nearly full moon - at 98% visible the moon could be considered full. This was my third full moon hike of the winter. Altogether, about 50 people have joined me on the three hikes. Monday's hike was attended by nine people.<br />
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Monday's full moon was the best we have seen this winter here in Mid-Michigan. Not only was the sky clear (unlike December) and the temperature moderate (not like the 20 below windchill in January, but February's full moon could be considered a <a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2019/01/lunar-eclipse-20-january-2019.html" target="_blank">"supermoon"</a>. A supermoon occurs because the moon's orbit around the earth is not a perfect circle. Instead the orbit is more like an ellipse, resulting in times when the moon is closer to the earth than other times. If the moon is near its closest point at the full moon stage, the moon is commonly referred to as a supermoon.<br />
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Although I didn't photograph the hike, I took several photos of the moon from the parking lot before the hike began. This was my favorite image - it has been cropped down to a square shape. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw98VdK3S7g-VgFL90Gig4m_KOzyHGyOYF7B81Wp9tO_eOvGl1a-M_5JVaAugnAxlykHD9tCgh43MTNq_KlGdR1ewt7AwD5b18TkoRSX3GG4WJ6SlLG6-EnmpeFUYA5LIENYUpszkOIxSx/s1600/IMG_0340+-+square+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw98VdK3S7g-VgFL90Gig4m_KOzyHGyOYF7B81Wp9tO_eOvGl1a-M_5JVaAugnAxlykHD9tCgh43MTNq_KlGdR1ewt7AwD5b18TkoRSX3GG4WJ6SlLG6-EnmpeFUYA5LIENYUpszkOIxSx/s400/IMG_0340+-+square+crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I have <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/event/spring-equinox-full-moon-hike/" target="_blank">one more night hike scheduled this winter at Sylvan Solace</a>. This final hike will take place on the next full moon. This full moon just happens to coincide with the Vernal Equinox on March 20th.Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-4159664162116138492019-02-17T12:30:00.002-08:002019-02-17T12:51:12.069-08:00A backyard visitorWe live in town in a residential area. So imagine my surprise when I opened our back door one night last week to see this...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBv9BgW0nkaLW53vxOcJzS_YRjeVUrFMGo-tEIMHv1jGvcHcwq2m6zyT3fJD7z6fGLTXLzNUHSe-aZhPhS7W1KWS_mEoNV8ln-G7gRCYRP4gZUSoRL1SgrdfPPMGXoBJSt6MXxMvfEa-2/s1600/IMG_0451-edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBv9BgW0nkaLW53vxOcJzS_YRjeVUrFMGo-tEIMHv1jGvcHcwq2m6zyT3fJD7z6fGLTXLzNUHSe-aZhPhS7W1KWS_mEoNV8ln-G7gRCYRP4gZUSoRL1SgrdfPPMGXoBJSt6MXxMvfEa-2/s400/IMG_0451-edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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That's an <b>Eastern Screech Owl </b>(<i>Megascops asio</i>) sitting in a large Honey Locust tree less than 25 feet from the house. This species is common across the eastern United States and can be found anywhere mature trees exist including urban or suburban areas.<br />
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This owl was probably hanging out in our yard waiting for a mouse to show up under our bird feeders - it was facing directly toward the feeders. This is actually the first screech owl that I have ever seen in the wild. It was pretty amazing to see (and photograph) one in my backyard.<br />
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To learn more about the Eastern Screech Owl check out <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Screech-Owl/overview" target="_blank">this entry from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology</a>.Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-10391749198341668582019-02-12T07:35:00.000-08:002019-02-12T07:35:06.575-08:00Tracks, scat, slides, and porcupine buttsIt seems like the weather has kept me cooped up indoors all winter. Over the past two weeks, local schools have been in session for a grand total of two days out of ten; on one of the days that they actually had school there was a weather delay. I have already had to cancel or reschedule thirty-five school programs since the second week of January. So imagine my excitement to have nice weather on Saturday (09 February) for a planned animal signs hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's <a href="http://www.chippewawatershedconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Halls-Lake-Natural-Area-Map-June-2015.pdf" target="_blank">Hall's Lake Natural Area</a>. Sunny weather and a couple of inches of fresh snow! What more could we ask for!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTws58cCBESwLB7KFCi_-YyvbMhetO4MHwByNWKI-Cxv3VqyEnTeYkUNF7RnG8QwVKpzsJllXWgpnz8qHM_qYYPvCwHXQS8ISIflxbiyyMnvOh__ULPgO1K3AW4wpRvsEg2AZj1XqCQ7h6/s1600/IMG_0275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTws58cCBESwLB7KFCi_-YyvbMhetO4MHwByNWKI-Cxv3VqyEnTeYkUNF7RnG8QwVKpzsJllXWgpnz8qHM_qYYPvCwHXQS8ISIflxbiyyMnvOh__ULPgO1K3AW4wpRvsEg2AZj1XqCQ7h6/s1600/IMG_0275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTws58cCBESwLB7KFCi_-YyvbMhetO4MHwByNWKI-Cxv3VqyEnTeYkUNF7RnG8QwVKpzsJllXWgpnz8qHM_qYYPvCwHXQS8ISIflxbiyyMnvOh__ULPgO1K3AW4wpRvsEg2AZj1XqCQ7h6/s400/IMG_0275.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Hall's Lake is located on the far west side of Isabella County. The three main preserves (Kabana, Neely, and Schaftenaar) that make up Hall's Lake Natural Area encompass 155 acres of woodland and wetland protect nearly one half of the shoreline of Hall's Lake from development. This land serves as habitat for a wide variety of animal species. I was fairly confident that we could find tracks (or other sign) for several common species such as white-tailed deer, coyote, squirrels, mice, and voles. All of these tracks were present and easy to find. We also discovered a set of tracks belonging to either a small American mink or a large long-tailed weasel - there is a little bit of overlap in track size so I was not 100% confident in assigning the tracks to one species.<br />
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The best tracks of the day were a surprise to me - they probably shouldn't be, but I rarely see them. We found tracks from both the <b>North American river otter (<i>Lontra canadensis</i>)</b> and <b>bobcat (<i>Lynx rufus</i>)</b> along the shore of Hall's Lake. At first I had some difficulty identifying the tracks because both animals had traveled along the same path and their prints sometimes overlapped. Also, snow had drifted into many of the tracks making it hard to see their features. Finally, the tracks diverged in a sheltered area and I was able to see enough identifying features to make a positive identification.<br />
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This is a print from an otter - the important thing to note is that it has five widely spread toes.<br />
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Here is a set of all four otter feet as it bounded along in the snow - the otter was traveling from right to left in the picture. We did notice several tail drags along this path, but I didn't photograph any of them. <br />
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Here is one of the bobcat tracks. Note how this track has only four toes. We also found several coyote tracks. It's easy to tell the bobcat and coyote tracks apart; look for toenails. If you see toenails the print belongs to a coyote - cats (such as bobcats) usually have their claws retracted and the nails rarely show up in their footprints.<br />
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In this picture you can easily see the spacing of the bobcat's tracks. At one point I couldn't decide if some of the tracks belonged to a small bobcat or a large domestic cat. The prints were in rough terrain and the stride was quite short, but here in the open on this trail the animal opened ups its gait.<br />
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We eventually discovered the tracks of not one, but two bobcats on site. The two could be told apart by the different size of their tracks. Like most wild cat species, bobcats will not usually share a territory with another animal of the same sex. Males normally have larger territories than females. Either Hall's Lake Natural Area is on the boundary of two territories of same-sex animals or two animals of the opposite sex have territories that overlap. <br />
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Bobcats often mark their territory by urinating or defecating in places where other Bobcats (and other predators such as coyote or red fox) will notice it. Just like a domestic cat, this Bobcat kicked up the snow after leaving its mark. Fox and coyote (and my dog) exhibit the same kind of behavior.<br />
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The bobcat scent station was only the second coolest thing we found during the hike. My favorite can be seen in the two pictures below - an otter slide! With short legs and a body shaped like a sausage, sometimes the easiest way for an otter to move (especially downhill) is to slide on its belly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCO3n2pU1qyGDT9wZ47rccrlYOSCtEAbrljE6jKVlVFgvharzOcEXfzg0rQ8YgT6I5aOEej-g1Do9KzUM-uNzkcUU5STT4BqEeQsZ9w1Pr4Fc942tCwXkN-xOt1lscTvvHx5sxe9fse3sh/s1600/IMG_0271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCO3n2pU1qyGDT9wZ47rccrlYOSCtEAbrljE6jKVlVFgvharzOcEXfzg0rQ8YgT6I5aOEej-g1Do9KzUM-uNzkcUU5STT4BqEeQsZ9w1Pr4Fc942tCwXkN-xOt1lscTvvHx5sxe9fse3sh/s400/IMG_0271.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking out the otter slide</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Slide!</td></tr>
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There was one more stop we had to make. Hall's Lake Natural Area has a well-known porcupine den tree. In all the times I've ever been to Hall's Lake, I've never seen more of the porcupine than its rear end hanging out of a hole in the tree. Last year during a hike at Hall's lake we found a second porcupine high up in an Eastern White Pine, but no such luck today. So on to the den tree...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ie3JFN2kC2EBcW4uDl3MRrGAKQ5jgHriuMLj_u11OGs9cx1ivems1XHlpgZjv4G9dZhNYQF0S8Alv7aY7-A1FUsFZiMsgSr8Lo5LP2-R4Yk1SRZRcGKhO_iLgrYbSy25cLo7d-pKEQoh/s1600/IMG_0283.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ie3JFN2kC2EBcW4uDl3MRrGAKQ5jgHriuMLj_u11OGs9cx1ivems1XHlpgZjv4G9dZhNYQF0S8Alv7aY7-A1FUsFZiMsgSr8Lo5LP2-R4Yk1SRZRcGKhO_iLgrYbSy25cLo7d-pKEQoh/s640/IMG_0283.JPG" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Normally, when I see the porcupine it's tucked up in the top of that hole.</td></tr>
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Believe it or not, this is actually the best view that I have ever had of this porcupine. This individual porcupine seems to be almost completely nocturnal. It comes out of this den tree at night and travels to a nearby stand of pine trees where it feed before returning to the den to sleep away the day.<br />
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All in all, I'd declare this a very successful animal sign hike, filled with tracks, scat, slides, and porcupine butts! Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-77622950992319155972019-02-05T13:00:00.000-08:002019-02-05T13:00:36.978-08:00Native Specie Profile - White-breasted Nuthatch<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White-breasted Nuthatch</td></tr>
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One of the most widespread birds in the United States is the <b>White-breasted Nuthatch</b> (<i>Sitta carolinensis</i>). This species is found in portions of every state except Alaska and Hawaii. It also ranges north into southern Canada and south through much of central Mexico. Never found far from trees, the White-breasted Nuthatch prefers wooded habitats, especially deciduous forests. It is also frequently found in parks, yards, and suburban areas with mature trees. Three other Nuthatch species can be found in the United States, but of the three only the Red-breasted Nuthatch (<i>S. canadensis</i>) is also found in mid-Michigan.<br />
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The White-breasted Nuthatch is a small bird. An adult White-breasted Nuthatch measures about 5 - 5.5 inches
(13 - 14 cm) from beak to tail, with a an 8 - 10.5 inch (20 -27 cm)
wingspan. They weigh between 0.6 and 1.1 ounces (18 - 30 grams) or
about as much as 3 to 5 quarters.<br />
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This species has a blue-grey back and wings, accented with black, and a white breast and belly. The outer feathers of its tail are white, but only noticed when tail feathers are fanned. Another interesting feature that you don't
always notice is the patch chestnut colored feathers on its belly and
flank. Males and females can be identified by the color of their "cap". Males have a black cap and females grey as seen in the photos below. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The nuthatch's beak is strong and straight or slightly upturned. </span><br />
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Although White-breasted Nuthatches have a strong beak they rarely excavate their own nest holes. Instead they will use abandoned woodpecker holes or natural cavities in trees. This species will use artificial nest boxes; I have had a pair nest a few feet away from a window in a nest box that I had placed. Their nest consists of a cup made of fine grasses, shredded bark, feathers, and other soft materials.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwH97pO-8woOa_egQonGqXmwGeB2xuL9vjMYk3TVAcR8v9sHEIAONXbSG2FZwuzbBQmWAyLjtxSVLLaqylwgfnjZGPi7RLkm82yHSGd66QLn_e9FuB0A_Lc4ZATWsAHhC1OfePNplpCPY/s1600/IMG_2186+%2528003%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwH97pO-8woOa_egQonGqXmwGeB2xuL9vjMYk3TVAcR8v9sHEIAONXbSG2FZwuzbBQmWAyLjtxSVLLaqylwgfnjZGPi7RLkm82yHSGd66QLn_e9FuB0A_Lc4ZATWsAHhC1OfePNplpCPY/s400/IMG_2186+%2528003%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Female White-breasted Nuthatch - not grey cap and elongated rear toe (hallux)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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White-breasted Nuthatches are omnivores. They consume a composed mostly of insects, insect larvae, and other invertebrates such as spiders, but will also readily eat seeds and nuts. They visit feeders readily and consume both seeds (especially sunflower seeds and peanuts) and suet. In the wild, White-breasted Nuthatches often forage in mixed flocks with other nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, and small woodpeckers. <br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhias0mH51LavO9c6lBO1n3eRfOqHx52JwdOYDjZp2PJ9o3RnT-rxocfdhbnTwEpdzu1aqbSeduI8nYWTFeNXqZ6qPCHd0xmkfHkhMs4dwWBQkdQUUVAiAbGF8JIvNg4770-f4V7mz27pgI/s1600/IMG_0318.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhias0mH51LavO9c6lBO1n3eRfOqHx52JwdOYDjZp2PJ9o3RnT-rxocfdhbnTwEpdzu1aqbSeduI8nYWTFeNXqZ6qPCHd0xmkfHkhMs4dwWBQkdQUUVAiAbGF8JIvNg4770-f4V7mz27pgI/s400/IMG_0318.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Female White-breasted Nuthatch - Its unique downward foraging method allows it to find food other birds overlook </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Nuthatches have a unique foraging strategy that is not employed by other birds in mid-Michigan; they can walk head down on a tree trunk. Many birds such as woodpeckers and Brown Creepers (<i>Certhia americana</i>) forage by climbing up a trunk poking their bees into cracks and crevices in the bark. It is thought that the nuthatches method allows them to find food that has been overlooked by these species. <br />
<br />
Why can nuthatches climb face-down, but other birds can't? It has to do with their toes. Nuthatches have four toes on each foot; three face forward and one faces backwards. This backward facing toe is known as the <b>hallux</b>. On nuthatches the hallux is elongated and has a strong curved nail. The three forward facing toes, although shorter, also have strong curved nails. This combination allows the nuthatch to grip in such a way as to allow it to walk facedown on a tree trunk. It is our only native bird that is capable of such motion.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9oA0ik-Q4MJrssugyV7HxrJavWUKf-W-Yv_Mndomv0CAFbc8rqREjKhaYMKhJPaCFCT3WK1ZScYn_XGyUZOFsgDhdmkGzZDg-Ho2hUjt93zwME8swTjnDHh_7vtwYSbXbnOrrMs4XXa09/s1600/IMG_0322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9oA0ik-Q4MJrssugyV7HxrJavWUKf-W-Yv_Mndomv0CAFbc8rqREjKhaYMKhJPaCFCT3WK1ZScYn_XGyUZOFsgDhdmkGzZDg-Ho2hUjt93zwME8swTjnDHh_7vtwYSbXbnOrrMs4XXa09/s400/IMG_0322.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Male White-breasted Nuthatch - note black cap.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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White-breasted Nuthatches are usually found in pairs. A male and female will remain together year-round and aggressively chase other nuthatches out of their territory. The male and female shown in the two pictures directly above were photographed a few feet from each other on the same tree. <br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Basic Information</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">White-breasted Nuthatch</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Sitta carolinensis</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Size:</b> 5.0 - 5.5" long</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> 8.0 - 10.5" wingspan</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Habitat:</b> woodlands, woodland edges, parks, suburban areas</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Eats:</b> insects, insect larvae, spiders, seeds, nuts</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.1in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><b>Nest:</b> in natural cavities in trees, abandoned woodpecker nests; a cup made of grass, shredded bark, feathers, other soft materials; will nest in artificial nest boxes</span></div>
Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-468350437502313302019-02-03T11:28:00.001-08:002019-02-04T03:15:05.919-08:00Windchill (and the perils of writing a blog longterm)I've been writing this blog since January 2013. In that time I have created more than eleven hundred individual posts. It's often a challenge thinking of something new to write about...<br />
<br />
Today I thought I'd sit down and write something about <b>windchill -</b> a measure of how wind<b> </b>changes the perception of air temperature and its impact on exposed skin..<br />
<br />
Many of the schools in Michigan were closed four or five days last week. Two cancellations were due to snow and two more were because of extremely low windchill - on Friday some schools closed because of a combination of windchill and road conditions.<br />
<br />
Surely I haven't already written anything about windchill!<br />
<br />
Have I?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.weather.gov/images/safety/windchill21.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="261" src="https://www.weather.gov/images/safety/windchill21.gif" style="margin-top: 15px;" width="400" /></a></div>
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It appears that I have... in February 2015<br />
<br />
<a href="https://midmichigannatureandscience.blogspot.com/2015/02/wind-chill-what-is-it-and-why-is-it.html" target="_blank">Wind Chill - What is it and why is it important?</a><br />
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<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2268117414875483492.post-29783559378449899312019-01-28T16:47:00.000-08:002019-01-28T16:47:03.633-08:00Backyard Birds (28 January 2019)Our yard was absolutely filled with birds today! At one point I counted five male/female pairs of Northern Cardinals, more than fifty birds in a mixed flock of finches and sparrows, and eight Black-capped Chickadees. I also saw several Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos, a Hairy Woodpecker, several White-breasted Nuthatches, and a single Red-Breasted Nuthatch over the course of the day. A pair of Fox Squirrels appeared for a short time this morning, but didn't stay long. <br />
<br />
The birds were busy feeding on suet cakes and black oil sunflower seeds both in hanging feeders and on the ground. Even though the birds don't really need us to provide food to get through the winter, when heavy now or ice makes it difficult to find natural foods they sure do appreciate the food that we provide. These birds were so intent on feeding that some of them let me photograph them from about ten feet away as they went to and from the feeder.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-JaacEIhDQn6IN9dA453b8Gm7RJb4HyWmhpbrC94YJPztxjMyP9nHThOnShsATcPY3CkhQv9XxJZqr4-hBO0YZTGBRMmJxLEvt4ZR0SDb91IkoS4nyewOixv8ic2wEG_zorbXyEJignfQ/s1600/IMG_0318.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-JaacEIhDQn6IN9dA453b8Gm7RJb4HyWmhpbrC94YJPztxjMyP9nHThOnShsATcPY3CkhQv9XxJZqr4-hBO0YZTGBRMmJxLEvt4ZR0SDb91IkoS4nyewOixv8ic2wEG_zorbXyEJignfQ/s400/IMG_0318.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White-breasted Nuthatch (female) - note grey cap</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxRG5a3MsyvKuybDv3LcQSQvFZsZyMCrvwv_j_htyI3FRgHFxqHhnlgDD78s-wUWTu3McHKhKTG2H6L55xCzsCaXFLEeoYdfu7Ue6sfxspKpvvs3zwaSBKQarvCOdPdhLMoNgylcO3mF1/s1600/IMG_0321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxRG5a3MsyvKuybDv3LcQSQvFZsZyMCrvwv_j_htyI3FRgHFxqHhnlgDD78s-wUWTu3McHKhKTG2H6L55xCzsCaXFLEeoYdfu7Ue6sfxspKpvvs3zwaSBKQarvCOdPdhLMoNgylcO3mF1/s400/IMG_0321.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White-breasted Nuthatch (male) - note black cap</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiIOL1bC_7Sqdt50eAbPhWluVrrTAKlNYMI0vTyAx9ujL096lNaFbaPMCOym7YfG4zXMAcu4Op20TqnZ6UI3WDNMpjXcmdVlO4sG6r0EEJ43kJEWR0zSrW0LYAtDxk2XksUyHURIwd4D28/s1600/IMG_0326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiIOL1bC_7Sqdt50eAbPhWluVrrTAKlNYMI0vTyAx9ujL096lNaFbaPMCOym7YfG4zXMAcu4Op20TqnZ6UI3WDNMpjXcmdVlO4sG6r0EEJ43kJEWR0zSrW0LYAtDxk2XksUyHURIwd4D28/s400/IMG_0326.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White-breasted Nuthatch (male)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm028RTId0yPERssbEuBJITRFPK2HoywtZIf8TGpCLQLUdczVXJFcNA9HWQ8uSJyv9G3Jni1bVYkcMbUzNBkfmpdlXfhVskmIpK-8oH5T6ohuogqpiC7hBlQmnAnLyZ78JGqBBT3np1H-9/s1600/IMG_0328.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm028RTId0yPERssbEuBJITRFPK2HoywtZIf8TGpCLQLUdczVXJFcNA9HWQ8uSJyv9G3Jni1bVYkcMbUzNBkfmpdlXfhVskmIpK-8oH5T6ohuogqpiC7hBlQmnAnLyZ78JGqBBT3np1H-9/s400/IMG_0328.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House Finch (male)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5fuj5b7N5A7VG9novvfMv63VLAbc_lGBrmQ-H7V9ZcAXAb4pEZEbNhVdH4999D4L4dufj4Y_fFGVNYBn-JjES6HW5UzqJDUagXrK3BFLk2EFDjVIiMoezYizEDRuMrovwRYjlI7Dg436p/s1600/IMG_0331.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5fuj5b7N5A7VG9novvfMv63VLAbc_lGBrmQ-H7V9ZcAXAb4pEZEbNhVdH4999D4L4dufj4Y_fFGVNYBn-JjES6HW5UzqJDUagXrK3BFLk2EFDjVIiMoezYizEDRuMrovwRYjlI7Dg436p/s400/IMG_0331.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House Finch (male)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvxlORgwsWTps2tU60nklPN5gtlcVR9L36nead9c5Ui_0_M7krJS66VuRh45N0lWYCF-c_AiXX-0Gj-xwKPCutj8dmbpWej3n5Dm3o-0jqr7-21A1U3AEVXnMH8G-5YCdGvo4aW3pcY8z/s1600/IMG_0380.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvxlORgwsWTps2tU60nklPN5gtlcVR9L36nead9c5Ui_0_M7krJS66VuRh45N0lWYCF-c_AiXX-0Gj-xwKPCutj8dmbpWej3n5Dm3o-0jqr7-21A1U3AEVXnMH8G-5YCdGvo4aW3pcY8z/s400/IMG_0380.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black-capped Chickadee eating a sunflower seed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTEjxFuB0cJb8VWOCNSs2R908-Ie7HvyjWmGQZ3ahQ1-aTXVAxmOw5N8T3z-P6ovvj1MXepzOxRi6J-ioKnLDnNXmhabGDhkJ3417SgSCVl14R3ZkWZ9cz897qvpm1PQT5l_ylFOX-XlU/s1600/IMG_0385.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTEjxFuB0cJb8VWOCNSs2R908-Ie7HvyjWmGQZ3ahQ1-aTXVAxmOw5N8T3z-P6ovvj1MXepzOxRi6J-ioKnLDnNXmhabGDhkJ3417SgSCVl14R3ZkWZ9cz897qvpm1PQT5l_ylFOX-XlU/s400/IMG_0385.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northern Cardinal (male)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Jw996pwybHcNhphpfK6Xi1tx0xfz-X1Txrc-bw2hTf-kNXVyqQS2JLx6SkDH_Pp7bJzfCGxkfAbXSvUznz6fn8ZO6vkB53_KjXmHkYknLtSmfFYfddJIHCd6gIOWFhzzj0AyemKf3mQV/s1600/IMG_0406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Jw996pwybHcNhphpfK6Xi1tx0xfz-X1Txrc-bw2hTf-kNXVyqQS2JLx6SkDH_Pp7bJzfCGxkfAbXSvUznz6fn8ZO6vkB53_KjXmHkYknLtSmfFYfddJIHCd6gIOWFhzzj0AyemKf3mQV/s400/IMG_0406.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dark-eyed Junco</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklqgjzdJiSJuPPCidZe-4-jxnQAPr3puduaGOWdjNYUsjwubm0EDnoEXZdowQoBDeROsV2ejfXS3KD_zeEK9LosbgzGAEXPx9Yc75GfUmcqx7fNuuYz_iNMGl-HZny3uDmVBt25okz4C2/s1600/IMG_0397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklqgjzdJiSJuPPCidZe-4-jxnQAPr3puduaGOWdjNYUsjwubm0EDnoEXZdowQoBDeROsV2ejfXS3KD_zeEK9LosbgzGAEXPx9Yc75GfUmcqx7fNuuYz_iNMGl-HZny3uDmVBt25okz4C2/s400/IMG_0397.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">American Goldfinch </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffvRtj5KuxqdHhqatErBVoA8Myf5Kna5vFKZRklj3fQSnFrUruF0cF9zHA3tDrgru8YNy2dEySRJRIQ8FQKsFVM2rAWqHyNgsDgAS_WyHks-hu5nkYOTMS0cly7XTCFOElsGaHuhwISN6/s1600/IMG_0414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffvRtj5KuxqdHhqatErBVoA8Myf5Kna5vFKZRklj3fQSnFrUruF0cF9zHA3tDrgru8YNy2dEySRJRIQ8FQKsFVM2rAWqHyNgsDgAS_WyHks-hu5nkYOTMS0cly7XTCFOElsGaHuhwISN6/s400/IMG_0414.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White-breasted Nuthatch (female)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UCIzp90sZe_Vk2jii6wDVwgh323COf8Nx6OxyW13AkFVxzPJGvZ5s3Ygfe4LUNUrmNzBmQ-4DODV-aGfGrbvMwsSCumw-xQHi7AR5xIX31EHIlHnzJE8tBTykWFT30cbEAGyhFw-sd4n/s1600/IMG_0439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UCIzp90sZe_Vk2jii6wDVwgh323COf8Nx6OxyW13AkFVxzPJGvZ5s3Ygfe4LUNUrmNzBmQ-4DODV-aGfGrbvMwsSCumw-xQHi7AR5xIX31EHIlHnzJE8tBTykWFT30cbEAGyhFw-sd4n/s400/IMG_0439.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northern Cardinal (male)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Mike.LeValleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02893208957819230066noreply@blogger.com0