Vernal: 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 this link.

Day 61 (19 May 2019) - Plum flowers

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.

Day 62 (20 May 2019) - Audubon Woods Creek

Another rainy day.  This image was taken in a light drizzle at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Audubon Woods Preserve.  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.

Day 63 (21 May 2019) - Dandelions 

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 Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture 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.

Day 64 (22 May 2019) - Forest Ecology Studies 

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 explore forestry and forest ecology.  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.

Day 65 (23 May 2019) - Look up...

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.

Day 66 (24 May 2019) - Honey Locust Thorn 

This photograph was taken right outside my back door.  We have a large honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) 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 defense against ice age mammals - now they are just a reminder of a time when elephants walked the tundra and forests of North America.

Day 67 (25 May 2019) - Fern Frond 

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.

Day 68 (26 May 2019) - Home, Sweet Home

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.  It's not grand architecture, but it's good enough for a wren.  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.

Day 69 (27 May 2019) - Iris

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 (Rudbeckia laciniata).

Day 70 (28 May 2019) - Wild Columbine 

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.

Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 51 through Day 60)

I've fallen way behind on sharing the images from my spring photography project.  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.

Day 51 (09 May 2019) - Tulips

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.

Day 52 (10 May 2019) - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

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 (Polioptila caerulea) 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.

Day 53 (11 May 2019) - World Migratory Bird Celebration

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 Ziibiwing Center in Mt. Pleasant.  Rebecca is the founder and executive director of Wings of Wonder, 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.

Day 54 (12 May 2019) - Jack-in-the-pulpit

Forest Hill Natura Area is not particularly rich in spring woodland wildflowers, but I did manage to find several jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) 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.

Day 55 (13 May 2019) - Northern Parula Warbler

Another bird that found me.  This male Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) 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.

Day 56 (14 May 2019) - Large-flowered Trillium

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 (Trillium grandiflorum).  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.

Day 57 (15 May 2019) - Waxing Gibbous Moon

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.  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.

Day 58 (16 May 2019) - Common Blue Violet

Another image photographed at home.  Common blue violets (Viola sororia) 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.

Day 59 (17 May 2019) - Environmental Education Day

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.

Day 60 (18 May 2019) - Bleeding Hearts

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.

Frontyard Waxwings

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

Vernal: A Spring Photo Project (Day 21 through Day 30)

I'm writing this on April 22nd, more than a month into my spring photography project.  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.

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.

Enjoy the most recent set of images!

Day 21 (09 April 2019) - Oh, Canada!

This photograph was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  A pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) 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.

Day 22 (10 April 2019) - Ramping up to spring...

One of the earliest plants in the local woods is the Wild Leek (Alium tricoccum).  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.


Day 23 (11 April 2019) - Bloodroot Leaves

We have a small patch of Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) 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.

Day 24 (12 April 2019) - Birch Grove

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.

Day 25 (13 April 2019) - Brown-headed Cowbirds

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.

Day 26 (14 April 2019) - White-throated Sparrow and a Brief Return to Winter

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 (Zonotrichia albicollis).  I photographed this bird perched on a gate in our back yard.  If you look closely you can see snow falling in the background.

Day 27 (15 April 2019) - Wood Duck Pair

I photographed this pair of Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) 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.

Day 28 (16 April 2019) - Skunk Cabbage

I have frequently said on this blog that Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) 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. 

Day 29 (17 April 2019) - Dutchman's Breeches Buds

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 (Dicentra cucullaria) are almost there.  When these flowers are mature, they will look like little pairs of pantaloons 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.

Day 30 (18 April 2019) - Nesting Dove

The final photo in the set was taken from our front porch.  Every year we have an American Robin (Turdus migratorius) nest on one of our roof brackets.  Every year we have a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 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.

Vernal: 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, Vernal, 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 similar project for summer; who knows I may keep this going through the summer months too...

If you missed my images of the first ten days of spring they can be found here, otherwise enjoy the new photographs!

Day 11 (30 March 2019) - Raindrops on Alium and Tulip

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.  Don't rake those leaves out of the flower beds - they're free mulch!

Day 12 (31 March 2019) - Friends, Robins, Countrymen...

This American robin (Turdus migratorius) 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.

Day 13 (01 April 2019) - Blackbirds

  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.

Day 14 (02 April 2019) - Potential

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.

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.

Day 15 (03 April 2019) - Marsh Marigold 

On this day I found my first marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) 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.

Day 16 (04 April 2019) - Acorn Caps

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 Audubon Woods Preserve 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.

Day 17 (05 April 2019) - The Ant and the Crocus

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.

Day 18 (06 April 2019) - Up Periscope!

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.

Day 19 (07 April 2019) - Wood Frogs

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 click here.  I know it's only April, but this is the early front runner for my favorite image of the year,

Day 20 (08 April 2019) - Pollination Station

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.

Vernal: 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 Summer Equinox, I photographed something every day through the Fall Solstice.  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.  Vernal means "of, relating to, or occurring in the spring". 


Day 1 (20 March 2019) - Skunk Cabbage

This image of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) was photographed in a cedar swamp at Mission Creek Woodland Park in Mt. Pleasant.  Skunk Cabbage is my favorite wildflower.  It's the first flower to bloom each spring, often flowering while there is still ice and snow on the ground.  This species generates enough metabolic heat that it will sometimes melt its way through the ice. 

Day 2 (21 March 2019) - Woodland Mallard

The combination of spring rains and melting snow and ice caused the Chippewa River to overflow its banks in Mid-March.  A week later parts of the floodplain remained under water, especially at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  This Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) drake would not normally be found in the woods, but was taking advantage of the flood to forage in an old river channel.


Day 3 (22 March 2019) - Maple Buds

This image of swollen buds on a Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) was taken from my front yard in Alma.  Silver and Red Maples are among the first local tree species to bud each spring.  I chose this image for the simplicity of the limbs and buds silhouetted against the blue sky.


Day 4 (23 March 2019) -  Awake

On March 23rd I led a hike at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve.  The goal of the hike was to search for early signs of spring.  Other than a group photograph I didn't ake any images during the hike, but I did take several pictures of an active mound ant (Formica sp.) nest before the hike began.  There are a number of these mounds at Sylvan Solace Preserve, but only those in direct sunlight had warmed enough for the ants to be active.

Day 5 (24 March 2019) - Willow Catkins

This image of willow catkins (flowers) was taken at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant.  I went to the park with the goal of photographing Red-winged Blackbirds in the large cattail marsh.  I never did get a blackbird image that I was happy with, but did photograph several Black-capped Chickadees as they foraged among the cattails.  But the image that said "SPRING!" was this one.  I like how everything in this image is fuzzy - the catkins, the budscales, the branch itself, and the cattail seeds that have affixed themselves to the willow.


Day 6 (25 March 2019) - Floodplain Geese

March 25th found me back at Chipp-A-Waters Park.  This pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) was photographed along the edge of the oxbow pond located near the back of the park.  An oxbow is a section of river meander that has been cut off from the main flow of the river as it has changed course over time.  This oxbow holds water year round, but is only connected to the main river a few weeks each year as the river tops its current banks.  This image has been cropped to a widescreen (16:9) format to remove some of the clutter at the top and bottom.


Day 7 (26 March 2019) - Deep in Thought

This picture of  a Red-winged Blackbird was taken in the cattail marsh at Mill Pond Park.  I removed the left 1/3 of this picture to crop to a square - this helps emphasize space on the right of the picture, giving more "space" for the bird to gaze into.   The result is that bird appears to be thinking intently or waiting for something to appear.  The blurring in the picture is due to shooting through cattails. 

Day 8 (27 March 2019) - Woodland Robin

For many people the first sign of spring is the appearance of the first American Robin (Turdus migratorius).  While some robins remain in mid-Michigan throughout the year, the numbers do increase when spring nears.  This photo was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.

Day 9 (28 March 2019) - Western Chorus Frog

This picture was taken in a shrub swamp/season wetland near the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways.  I stopped at the Ziibiwing Center in hopes that that there may be bluebirds checking out the nest boxes.  Instead I rolled down my windows to the sound of Western Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris triseriata).   Fortunately I had my neoprene boots in the back of my truck.  I could hear dozens of frogs calling as I approached the wetland.  In typical frog fashion, they all went silent as soon as they say me.  After about ten minutes of standing silently, several nearby frogs started calling again.  They are difficult to spot - the one in the picture is about as big as my thumb from the tip to the first knuckle.  I hope that as the weather warms back up this week I will be able to return and get a few more pictures.  I need to remember to take my binoculars this time - maybe they will make it easier to spot the frogs!

Day 10 (29 March 2019) - Sunburst

The final image was taken in the Canopy Walk at the Whiting Forest in Midland, MI.   We went to Midland to visit the Butterflies in Bloom exhibit at Dow Gardens.  Unbeknownst to us, you have to reserve a time slot to enter the exhibit - this is a new policy this year!  We didn't want to wait two hours to get in so we decided to check out the Canopy Walk instead.  This is a new feature of Whiting Forest (which is part of Dow Gardens), completed in 2018.  During peak times, you also need to reserve a time to go on the canopy walk but we were able to walk right up.