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.

The Days of Summer - Day Ten through Day Sixteen

This is the second installment of my Days of Summer photo project.  To read about the project and see the first installment click here.

Day 10 (30 June 2018) - Wheatfield

Agriculture may not be the first thing that you think of when you hear the word Michigan, but it is one of the leading industries in the state.  This image of a ripening field of wheat was taken along the border of Isabella County and Gratiot County.  I spent the morning at Forest Hill Nature Area photographing wildflowers in a restored grassland.  Deciding to take a different route home, I passed by this field a couple of miles from Forest Hill.  I've been admiring wheat fields for the past several weeks, but never found one that I could easily photograph.  Stopping here was a no-brainer.

Day 11 (01 July 2018) - Ragged Fringed Orchid

This photo was taken at the Williamston Township Community Park in Ingham County, MI.  I stopped at this park to revisit an older grassland restoration that I have photographed several times over the years.  A pair of Ragged Fringed Orchids (Platanthera psycodes) was my reward.

Day 12 (02 July 2018) - Moss Sporophytes

Mosses are small; thus they are easily overlooked.  For those that take the time to notice them, they are well worth the effort.  One of the best books I have read in recent years is about moss.  These white balloon-like structures are reproductive bodies known as sporophytes.  When conditions are right, they will each release hundred or thousands of spores into the world.  We often associate mosses with shady woodland habitats, but these mosses were growing on bare sandy soil on land owned by Shepherd Public Schools.

Day 13 (03 July 2018) - Last of the Brood

This Days of Summer project means that I have to photograph something every day.  It means I have to get outdoors and away from my desk.  Fortunately Isabella County has lots of public land within a short drive of my office.  This picture of a Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) with a single poult (chick) was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  Seeing a hen with only a single chick raises so many questions.  Was this the only egg that hatched?  Were the other eggs stolen by predators such as raccoons? Did predators get the rest of its nest mates?

Unlike most of my photographs, this image has been edited.  It has been cropped from the original size (about 50%) and the highlights have been toned down to bring some of the color back into the image.

Day 14 (04 July 2018) - Curious Fawn

The Fourth of July found me exploring the Maple River State Game Area.  This curious White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn wanted to check me out up close.  Unlike the previous picture, this one has not been cropped.  The fawn was that close and approaching closer.  It probably would have allowed me to touch it if I hadn't shooed it away into the woods.

Day 15 (05 July 2018) - Great Spangled Fritillaries

Yesterday I visited the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve for about an hour in the middle of the day.  Mid-day may not be the best time for photography, but the heat of the day does bring out the pollinators.  I was luck to spot this pair of mating Great Spangled Fritillaries (Speyeria Cybele).

Day 16 (06 July (2018) - Chicory Flowers 

My final photo for the week is of a pair of Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus) flowers.  This photograph was taken at the Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum early this morning.  Originally from Europe, Chicory is a common roadside plant in Mid-Michigan.  Even though this plant is not native to North America, it is well-behaved and likes roadsides and other waste places.    This is one of my favorite flowers to photograph.  The pale blue color is absolutely beautiful.  You have to get up early to photograph Chicory, by mid-day the flowers have closed up tight.

Forestry with Winn Elementary (23 & 24 May 2018)

Last week I spent two days (Wednesday 23 May & Thursday 24 May 2018) working with students from Winn Elementary at Audubon Woods Preserve.  On Wednesday the Third and Forth Grade classrooms each spent half a day at the preserve.  On Thursday the Fifth Grade class spent the entire day (minus a break for lunch back at the school) in the woods.

The students were doing a variety of activities related to forestry and forest ecology.  Activities included measurement of tree diameter, using a compass and measuring tape to map trees in 1/10th acre plots, estimating the number of leaves on the forest floor, estimating the weight of all the leaves, measuring canopy cover, identifying and sketching leaves; and sketching the layers in the forest.

This might seem like a lot of work, but this is not the first time these students have visited Audubon Woods.  Third Grade students visited once last fall, and the other two grades have visited at least once a year since they were in Third Grade.  By now the Fifth Graders are quite familiar with the preserve and the activities they are being asked to accomplish.  The lower grades have less time available on site and less experience so they correspondingly do less work.

Here are a few images of the students hard at work as well as some nature photos from the two days.

Wednesday 23 May 2018

The compass is an important forestry tool

Mapping the location and size of trees

Visiting four CWC preserves in one day (Part One)

The Chippewa Watershed Conservancy currently own twenty-two preserves scattered across four counties.  Yesterday (29 October 2017) I visited the four "flagships" of the CWC's preserve system - Sylvan Solace Preserve, Bundy Hill Preserve, Hall's Lake Natural Area, and Audubon Woods Preserve.  The close nature of three out of these four preserves made it easy to link my visits together.  My goal was simply to visit each of the four preserves, walk on and off trail, and photograph whatever grabbed my attention.  Because I took so many photos I am going to split this into two posts.  This post will deal with my visits to Sylvan Solace Preserve and Bundy Hill Preserve.

Sylvan Solace Preserve

Sylvan Solace Preserve was my first stop.  This preserve is located on Pickard Road, between Gilmore and Littlefield Roads, approximately 7 1/2 miles west of Mt. Pleasant.  I arrived at Sylvan Solace just a few minutes after 9:00AM and spent about approximately 1.5 hours on site.

Here are a few of the many photos that I took during that time.

A deer trail through a grove of Black Locust trees.

A dead pine slowly succumbs to rot, insects, and woodpeckers.

Ferns change into their subtle shades of red, orange, and brown.

Small metal arrows mark the location and direction of trails throughout the preserve

Looking up at the overcast sky through Bigtooth Aspen trees.

Bigtooth Aspen leaves turn yellow then brown as they dry out.

Along the east trail at Sylvan Solace, I noticed several scrapes made by White-tailed Deer.   Scrapes are one of the ways White-tailed bucks leave scent to mark their territory.  Located above the scrape is typically a low-hanging branch that the buck will lick and rub with the scent glands located on his head.  The buck scrapes the ground with its hooves to draw attention to the scent marker and typically urinates on the scrape to add even more scent.  Both bucks and does will check out scrapes.  Although bucks create scrapes year-round, this behavior intensifies in the weeks before mating season.  I found several fresh scrapes at Sylvan Solace and would go on to find scrapes at each of the other three preserves I visited.

A fresh deer scrape is used to leave a scent "calling card" to announce a buck's presence in the area.

A mushroom pokes up from the leaf litter.

Looking upstream at Sylvan Solace Preserve.

Spreading oak trees grew up in the open before being surrounded by forest.

American Beech trees will be among the last to lose their leaves - often holding them through mid-winter.

Nest boxes provide artificial cavities used by many bird species.

A fern, grasses, and Bigtooth Aspen leaves create a colorful mosaic.

Rain and dewdrops bead up on the waxy coating of freshly-fallen Aspen leaves.

The pictures of my second preserve visit can be seen below.

A walk through Mission Creek Woodland Park (01 April 2017)

On Saturday (01 April) I spent a little time tromping around the wetlands at Mission Creek Woodland Park.   I had no particular objective in mind.  I just wanted to be out in the nice weather.  Here is some of what I saw.

Birch wood tends to decay quite rapidly.  Birch bark on the other hand is extremely resistant to rot.  It is not uncommon to find birch logs lying on the ground in which the bark is still intact, but the wood inside has rotted away to mush.  The waterproof bark hold moisture in the log, creating a perfect environment for fungi and bacteria to work on the wood.  Here's a little tip: if you want to use birch as a firewood, it has to be split to allow the moisture to escape.

More tussocks!

I do love the Skunk Cabbage.

No matter how many times I see them, I just can't get enough.

Perhaps its just the craving for something blooming,

But this time of year I am drawn again and again back into the swamp to see the Skunk Cabbage.

I didn't spend all of my time looking down at the ground.  I did manage to see a flock of Wild Turkeys sneaking through the woods ahead of me.  There were at least six birds in the flock and probably more that I couldn't see because of the trees.

After the turkeys passed through, I managed to find some "evidence" of their passing.  Yes, that is a pile of turkey scat.

Maybe I do spend a lot of time looking at the ground.  FYI this is not the first photo of animal scat to appear on this blog.  A quick search for "scat" in the search box to the right will reveal at least six other photos.

But life is not all Skunk Cabbage and turkey scat...

It is also full of Downy Woodpeckers.

And mosses...

Life is especially full of mosses.

On a side note, I am currently reading the book Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  It is a thoroughly enjoyable book about science written for the average reader.  I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about natural history.  I also heartily recommend her more recent book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

Bogs...

Yesterday, during a presentation about wetlands, I was trying to explain what a bog is and how they form.  A student asked if I have any pictures of bogs - I didn't have any in my presentation.  I do however have a few pictures that I have taken of bogs.

The first photograph was taken at the Alma College Biological Station near Vestaburg, MI.  This bog shows the typical features of a bog that formed in a kettle lake.  A floating mat of living and dead sphagnum moss rings the bog.  Other plants, including trees, have taken root in the floating moss layer.   

This photo shows a view across the bog early in late April 2010.  In the foreground can be seen plants growing atop the floating mat of sphagnum moss.  The evergreen trees (mostly spruce) in the background are also growing atop the moss.  The leafless deciduous trees beyond the spruce trees are growing in the uplands that surround the bog.

Vestaburg Bog - Evergreen trees on the far side of the bog are growing on the floating mat of sphagnum moss.

The next two photographs come from the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Schaftenaar Preserve at the Hall's Lake Natural Area.  This bog also formed from a small kettle lake.  Unlike the Vestaburg Bog, this bog has filled in almost completely and there is no central area of open water. 

The first photo shows volunteers and staff from the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy crossing an area of this forested bog during a wetland plant survey in 2014.

Hall's Lake Natural Area - traversing a forested bog

This photograph shows a mushroom growing up in the carpet of sphagnum moss.  Sphagnum moss is the characteristic plant of bog.

Sphagnum moss

So how do bogs like these form?

When the glaciers that covered Michigan during the last Ice Age began to retreat northward they did not melt evenly.  In many places large blocks of ice were left behind when the rest of the nearby glacier melted.  These blocks of ice would be surrounded by a thick layer of glacial till.  Glacial till is the name for all of the sediments such as rock, gravel and sand that were transported under and within the glacier as it advanced southward.  When the glaciers retreated, the till was left lying over the landscape.

When the block of ice melted, they left a depression surrounded by hills formed from glacial till.  These depressions are known as kettle lakes.  Many kettle lakes are deep and steep sided.  Most kettle lakes lack input or output from streams.  They drain slowly through the soil surrounding them and are recharged by rainwater.  Because the lakes lack input from streams, they often lack many of the minerals that plants need to thrive.

While the surrounding upland areas are colonized by a wide variety of plants, the mineral-poor water of the kettle lakes restricts the number of species that can grow within them.   One species that does well in this habitat is sphagnum moss.  The moss will begin growing from the shoreline and extend out over the surface of the water as a floating mat.  At this point we can begin to refer to the kettle as a bog.

Over time this floating mat will thicken to the point that other plants will begin to take root within the moss, including trees.  At the same time, organic matter will slowly begin to accumulate on the bottom of the bog.

Over time the mat will continue to thicken and grow toward the center of the bog.  Organic matter will also continue to fill the bottom of the bog.

Eventually the kettle will fill in completely with live and dead moss and other organic matter.  The organic matter will continue to hold large amounts of moisture and may continue to support species that cannot be found in the nearby uplands.