Ice in trees (25 March 2016)

My original plan for today was to go do some "spring cleaning" at several native pollinator gardens.  The snow and ice of the last few days ruined that plan for me. 

Instead, the ice and today's clear skies offered up a photography opportunity.  These photos were all taken in the area around the conservation district office this afternoon.  As the sun warms the branches, the ice is quickly dropping off.

Despite this weather setback, Spring is here to stay.  While taking these photos, I could hear Western Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris triseriata triseriata) calling from a nearby wetland.

Winter Storm Pictures (23-24 March 2016)

In the past 24 hours, Mid-Michigan has been hit by a winter storm that dumped as much as 5 inches of snow and half an inch of ice on the region.  All local schools closed for the day and many automobile accidents have been reported.  As ice-covered branches begin to fall, several areas have lost power.

I finally got out of the house this afternoon, in a steady rain, to take a few pictures in the park just down the street from my house in Alma.

Every tree is covered by a layer of ice.

Smaller plants such as this burdock are also covered.

Despite the weather, wildlife has been active.  I found two sets of deer tracks near the river

Man-made objects are not immune to the ice.

 

Looking back toward home, I could see every tree glistening with the icy coating.  A few branches have begun to come down under the extra weight.

Besides deer, other wildlife had been around.  I found tracks from squirrels, small songbirds, and these tracks from a Canada Goose.

This park is one of several in Alma that can be found along the Pine River.  The city's Riverwalk Trail connects several of these parks.  A pedestrian bridge connects the Euclid Ball Fields to the trail.  Crossing over the Pine River I found a pair of geese and about a half-dozen Mallard Ducks along the trail.  The geese slipped into the river before I could get close, but the ducks let me get close enough to take several pictures before flying the short distance to the river.

By this time, rainwater had soaked through my gloves and my camera was getting wet so I decided to call it a day.

Sunburst and Lighthouse - A Photo from Northeast Michigan

Just a photograph for today. 

This picture of the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse was taken in 2009.  Old Presque Isle Light is located in Presque Isle Township in Presque Isle County.  Presque Isle County is located along the northern Lake Huron shoreline of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.  This light was originally constructed in 1840.  It was replaced in 1870 by the New Presque Isle Lighthouse. 

The words presque isle originally come from the French language and translate to "almost an island".  They are used to describe a peninsula that is connected to the mainland by a very narrow neck of land and is therefore "almost an island".  Presque Isle is one of many French place names in Michigan.  For approximately 150 years, Michigan was part of New France (Nouvelle-France).  Although Michigan was lightly settled by the French, it very important for control of the Great Lakes fur trade and fur trading posts/forts were established at strategic locations such as Detroit, Sault Sainte Marie, and the Straits of Mackinac.  Although the French ceded control of Michigan (and the rest of Nouvelle-France) to Great Britain in the 1760s, many of the place names have passed down to us today.

To learn more about these lighthouses visit the Presque Isle Township Museum Society website.

Old Presque Isle Lighthouse (July 2009)

 

Vernal Equinox 2016

Early Spring iris blooms in my garden (16 March 2016)

Yesterday at 12:30 AM (EST), Spring officially began for the Northern Hemisphere.  The date of the switch from Winter to Spring is known as the Vernal (Spring) Equinox.  On this date, the sun crosses over the celestial equator and begins to strike more directly on the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere.

If you were to rise each morning and observe the location of the sunrise from the exact same spot, you would find that the sunrise takes place in a slightly different location from one day to the next.  On the first day of Winter the sun would appear to rise far south of due east.

As winter progresses, the sun's position moves northward along the horizon a little bit each morning.  It will continue to move northward until the first day of Summer.  At that point each sunrise will move south along the horizon until the first day of Winter arrives again.  On the first day of Spring, the sun rises midway between these northern (Summer) and southern (Winter) maximums - the sun also rises at the midpoint on the first day of Fall (Autumnal Equinox).  Sunsets follow a similar pattern in the western sky. 

This shifting of the sunrise (and sunset) is due to the fact that the earth's axis is not directly perpendicular to the plane of its orbit.  If the earth's axis were perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, the sun would rise and set in the same location each day.  Instead the earth's axis is tilted approximately 23.5 degrees from the vertical - this is why globes are tilted.  For part of the year the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun (Spring and Summer) and for part of the year the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun (Fall and Winter).  Conversely, while the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing Summer the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing Winter; while the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing Winter the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing Summer.

Not only are the locations of the sunrise and sunset shifting, but the amount of daylight and darkness is also shifting.  On days when the position of the sun moves further north the amount of daylight grows slightly longer.  On days when the sunrise shifts southward the amount of daylight decreases slightly.

There are only two dates on which neither the Northern nor Southern Hemisphere is tilted more toward the sun.  On the equinoxes, both the poles line up with the direction of the earth's orbit and both hemispheres receive approximately equal amounts of daylight and darkness.

We are expecting snow later this week, but it officially Spring.  Get out there and enjoy it!

Snakes - A St. Patrick's Day Tradition

It's time for my St. Patrick's Day tradition - sharing a photo of snakes.

A Northern Water Snake training for the future invasion of Ireland.

Legends says that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick chased them off of the island.  The story is that St. Patrick was involved in the middle of a forty day fast when he was attacked by snakes.  This angered Patrick so greatly that he chased the snakes into the sea and banished them from the island forever.  To this day, Ireland has no native population of snakes.

The truth is that there were never any snakes on Ireland for St. Patrick to chase away.  Ireland has been covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  During the last glacial maximum, which occurred about 11 thousand years ago, three-quarters of Ireland was buried under a thick layer of ice.  The remainder of the island was too cold and inhospitable to support snakes and most other species of wildlife.

When the glaciers retreated, Ireland was temporarily connected to Great Britain and the rest of Europe by a land bridge.  This connection allowed some species to repopulate Ireland, but snakes did not make it across before the connection was severed by rising sea levels.  This isolation is the true reason for Ireland's lack of snakes, not an angry fifth century saint.

Michigan was affected by the same glacial periods as Ireland.  It also was scoured clean by a thick layer of ice.  However, Michigan remains attached to the rest of North America and snakes have repopulated both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas in the past 11,000 years.  A total of seventeen snake species currently call the state home.  I am glad that they are here.  They play an important role in the ecosystem as both predators and prey.

Upcoming Event - Bluebird Nest Box Build (Saturday 19 March 2016)

This Saturday (19 March 2016) at 9:30AM, members of the Chippewa Valley Audubon Club will be building nest boxes for Eastern Bluebirds (and other small cavity-nesting birds) at the Mt. Pleasant Parks maintenance shop at Nelson Park in Mt. Pleasant.  We will be building the same type of box that I wrote about in my post from February 22nd.  Materials for these nest boxes  cost approximately $16.

I am the leader for this event.  If you live in the Mt. Pleasant area and are interested in building a nest box, please contact me before noon Friday (18 March) to reserve a place.  My email information can be in my profile to the right.

More Woodworking for Bees - A Bumblebee Nesting Box

I am an old hand at creating homes for native bees.  It is easy to make a nesting block that mason bees, leafcutter bees, and small carpenter bees will love.  Other bees are satisfied if you leave a bare patch of soil or hollow stems for them to nest in.  However, there is one group of native bees for whom I have never tried to create a nesting site - bumble bees.

Not any more.

My new bumblebee nesting box - waiting to be placed in its new home

On Sunday (13 MAR 2016), I built my first bumble bee nesting box.  Bumblebees have different nesting requirements than other native bees.  Like the European Honey Bee, most  bumblebee species form colonies with a queen and workers.  Unlike the honey bee, these colonies only last for a single year.

Each fall new queens are born.  They mate and then seek a place to hibernate.  In the spring those that survived winter emerge from hibernation and begin seeking a place to establish a colony.  She often searches out an abandoned rodent burrow or some other underground cavity.  Sometimes she will nest in a cavity in a tree or even simply at the base of a clump of grass.  Once she establishes her nest, she will continue to forage for nectar and pollen until she has enough sterile daughters (workers) to take over foraging.  Late in the summer she will lay eggs that will become fertile queens and drones (males).  After the young queens and drone have left the nest as adults, the colony's work is done and the remaining bees will eventually be killed by cold temperatures.

Many species of bumble bees have recently undergone severe population declines, with one or more species having actually gone extinct.  Part of the reason for this decline may be related to habitat loss as many former nesting sites in fencerows and field margins have been converted to crop production.

My gardens at home always seem to have a healthy population of bumblebees.  I am hoping that by adding a nesting box to the garden I will be able to attract a queen and be able to observe the growth of a colony.

The nesting box that I constructed is made from cedar lumber, left over from other projects.  The sides of the box are made from 1x8 lumber and the bottom and lid are pieces of 1x10 lumber.  The edges of the lid were ripped down to 2 inches from a piece of 1x10.  Overall the dimensions of the box are approximately 15 inches long x 9.25 inches wide x 9 inches tall.  The lid measures 16.75 inches long x 11 inches wide x 2 inches tall.  I used both wood screws and construction adhesive to assemble the box.

Front dimensions of nesting box

Lid dimensions

Outside length and width of the nesting box

The interior of the box is divided into two chambers by a scrap of 2x6.  A piece of 3/4 inch (inside diameter) PVC pipe provides access to the first chamber from the outside.  A 3/4 inch hole drilled into the 2x6 divider provides access to the second chamber.  Ideally, bees will nest in the inner (second) chamber.  This chamber should be lined with some sort of soft nesting material for the bees to begin nesting on (wood chips, cotton, straw, etc.).  I added some paper rodent bedding and will probably add some grass clippings as I do spring cleaning on the garden.  This second chamber also has several ventilation holes drilled near the top.

Inside dimensions of the nesting box

I plan on placing this box on the ground in a corner of the garden formed by an angle of the house.  This site is under the eaves so it is somewhat protected from rain.  The location is also shaded for much of the day with full sun only in the early morning - this is important so the box (and its occupants) do not overheat.

I am going to wait a coupe of weeks before I place this in the garden - there are not really any flowers as of yet.  In the meantime, I plan on taking it in to the office and displaying it with the hope that it will inspire others to think about native bees.