Vernal: 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:

Day 1 through Day 10

Day 11 through Day 20

Day 21 through Day 30


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.

Day 31 (19 April 2019) - Bud Burst

This photograph was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  Much of the park is in the floodplain of the Chippewa River.  Boxelder (Acer negundo) is one of the common trees found in the floodplain.  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.

Day 32 (20 April 2019) - Mission Point Beach

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 Lighthouse Park 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...

Day 33 (21 April 2019) - Bloodroot

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.

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.

Day 34 (22 April 2019) - Sleepy bee

This photograph was taken during a walk at Mission Creek Woodland Park.  This queen common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) 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 tiring on a cool spring day.  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.

Day 35 (23 April 2019) - The Boys' Club

I noticed this trio of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 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.

Day 36 (24 April 2019) - Gooseberry

I photographed this gooseberry plant (Ribes sp.) 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 (Ribes cynosbati).  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.

Day 37 (25 April 2019) - Spring Beauty

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. 

Day 38 (26 April 2019) - Flying Dutchmen

I photographed these Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) 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.

Day 39 (27 April 2019) - Norway Maple Flowers

Norway maples (Acer platanoides) 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.

Day 40 (28 April 2019) - Beetles are pollinators too!

Picking a photograph for yesterday was tough.  I had a photo of cedar waxwings feeding on maple flowers.  I also photographed a bronzed tiger beetle 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 yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum).

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. 

The Days of Summer - Day Forty-five through Day Fifty-one

This is part seven of my Days of Summer photography project.   Beginning with the Summer Solstice (21 June 2018) and ending with the Fall Equinox (22 September 2018), I am making it a point to get outdoors and photograph something every single day.  One photograph from each day is being selected for this project and shared here.

The previous installments of this project can be found at the links below:

Part Six
Part Five
Part Four
Part Three
Part Two
Part One

I hope you enjoy the photos from this past week - one of them might be quite a surprise.

Day 45 (04 August 2018) - A Banded Bird

The first image of the week was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.  If you look closely at This female Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) you might notice that her left leg sports a band.  Between this picture and several others of this bird I was able to make out a couple numbers on the band.  With that information, I contacted Mike Bishop at Alma College - he is running a banding project at Forest Hill.  With the numbers I gave him, Mike was able to narrow it down to one of two birds that he banded on June 28th of this year.  We both thought this was pretty cool.

This photograph has been cropped into a landscape format - taking some off the top and bottom of the image.  I just thought it was the most appealing of all the different crops that I tried.  I like how the bird looks like she is about the launch herself at the goldenrod to the left of the image.

Ducks in Trees?

Ducks in trees?

A pair of Wood Ducks at Audubon Woods Preserve

Absolutely!  Several species of Michigan ducks can commonly be found in trees - not only do they perch in trees, but they also nest in cavities in trees!. 

Cavity-nesting duck species include the Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), Common Merganser (Mergus merganser), Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) and Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).  Of these five species, only the final two species are year round residents.  The first three species are migrants and winter visitors to Mid-Michigan, but migrate further north to nest.   

Of the two year-round residents, I have never seen a Hooded Merganser in a tree.  I have seen Wood Ducks in trees many times, including last week at Audubon Woods Preserve.  While waiting for students to arrive I observed a pair of Wood Ducks landing in a nearby tree.  The ducks were aware of me, but didn't startle and fly away immediately. 
 
Instead, they remained in the tree for several minutes.  Long enough for me to retrieve my camera and photograph them for nearly two minutes.  There were many tree branches in the way, but I still managed to get several clear shots of both the male and female before they startled and flew deeper into the woods.

A Wood Duck drake is much more colorful than the drab colored hen.

 

The hen's dull colors help camouflage it much better than the bright plumage of the drake.

These two Wood Ducks were probably searching for a nesting site such as an old woodpecker hole.

Photos from Mill Pond Park (29 November 2017)

Today, after my school programs were done for the day, I was able to slip away for about an hour to Mill Pond Park.  Mill Pond park is located in the center of Mt. Pleasant. 

The park is bounded on the north by Broadway Street, on the South by High Street, to the west by Adams Street, and on the east by the Great Lakes Central railroad.  The park is bisected by the Chippewa River.  Most of the park falls within the river's floodplain and is covered by either wetlands or floodplain forest.  The park measures 90 acres in size.

Here are a few photos from my walk.

Virgin's Bower or Old Man's Beard (Clematis virginiana)

Sunlit Common Cattails (Typha latifolia)

A dozen Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were swimming around the small pond near the eastern edge of the park.  No matter how hard I tried to get a good picture, the ducks managed to stay in the shadows along the edge of the pond or to keep directly in line with the sun - both made photography difficult.

I have photographed this small creek dozens of times in the past fifteen years.  Today I really liked the golden colors of the dried grass, the blue sky and its reflection in the creek, and reflections of the logs in the calm water.  I took this photo from a small footbridge that crosses the creek.

This is the vies from the opposite side of the bridge.  In this picture I squatted down to shoot between the boards on the side of the bridge.  Getting at a lower angle allowed me to (somewhat) frame this steel bridge and its reflection between the grass covering the banks.  With no wind, the river itself was very calm and allowed the smallest details to be reflected.

This was my favorite picture of the day.  A pair of Chickadees was flitting around searching for insects in cracks and crevices of tree bark.

A Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) hangs upside down from a branch

Happy Thanksgiving 2017

*The Following Blog Post is a Public Service Announcement from Wild Turkeys of America.  Wild Turkeys of America is a fictional organization dedicated to the cause of protecting the glorious Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) from becoming the centerpiece of Thanksgiving meals across North America.  Any resemblance that Wild Turkeys of America bears toward any real organization is strictly coincidental.*

Wild Turkeys - notice the complete lack of gravy and cranberries!

Wild Turkeys of America would like to remind you that although turkeys were definitely eaten by the settlers at Plymouth Colony, there is no evidence that points to them being consumed at the famous "First Thanksgiving".

Instead, the aforementioned Wild Turkeys, would like to suggest the following more historically correct menu options for your Thanksgiving feast.

Venison!

What's on the menu?!?!

Goose!

I always considered myself more of a Christmas bird...

Swan!

Sorry, we'll be traveling this holiday!

Duck!

The turkey told you what?!?!

This message has been brought to you by Wild Turkeys of America.  Please enjoy a historically correct, turkey-free Thanksgiving.  To all of our Turkey brethren, keep your heads down. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.