Vernal: 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 1 - 10, 11 - 20, 21 - 30, 31 - 40, 41 - 50, 51 - 60, 61 -70, and 71 - 80.

The final set of images consisted of fourteen photographs photographed between June 8th and June 20th (the last full day of spring)

Day 81 (08 June 2019) - White Campion

This image shows a white campion (Silene latifolia).  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.

Day 82 (09 June 2019) - How Blue Can You Get?

My second image was taken at one of the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's farthest flung preserves.  Peterson Natural Area 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 (Sialis sialis) who claimed this nesting box along the old farm lane.  A pair of tree swallows was using a nesting box a few posts away.

Day 83 (10 June 2019) - Backroad, Tree and Clouds

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.

Day 84 (11 June 2019) - Cirrocumulus Clouds

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 "mackerel scales" because the pattern of the clouds resemble the scales on a fish.

Day 85 (12 June 2019) - A Snake Called Fluffy

Until 2013 I had never seen a northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) in Mt. Pleasant, despite working in the city parks from 2002 through 2010.  Now I see them every single year, sometimes several at a time.  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.

Day 86 (13 June 2019) - Hairy Beardtongue

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 (Penstemon hirsutus).  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 (Coreopsis lanceolata).

Day 87 (14 June 2019) - Sic semper Tyrannus tyrannus!

This photograph of an eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) 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.

Day 88 (15 June 2019) - Bombus ternarius

June 15th was a busy day for me.  I had to be in Tustin, MI at the Kettunen Center for a meeting of the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (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 (Bombus impatiens), instead its the orange-belted or tricolored bumblebee (Bombus ternarius).  I rarely see this species as it is not common in the southern half of the lower peninsula.

Day 89 (16 June 2019) - Emerald Spreadwing

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 (Lestes dryas) such as this one, but there were several other species mixed in.

Day 90 (17 June 2019) - You Talkin' to Me?

Another day, another damselfly.  This ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) 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.

Day 91 (18 June 2019) - Hungry Hungry Caterpillar

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.

Day 92 (19 June 2019) - Hive Mentality

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.

Day 93 (20 June 2019) - Last Day of Spring

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 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.