Upcoming Event - Wildflower Association of Michigan Annual Conference (Sunday 04 March and Monday 05 March 2018)

On Sunday March 4th and Monday March 5th I will be attending the Wildflower Association of Michigan (WAM) annual conference.  This year's conference theme is Growing in a Post-Wild World.  This conference is held at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center (219 S. Harrison St., East Lansing, MI).  Early-bird registration for the WAM conference closes in two week (February 22rd), after that you can do a walk-in registration at the conference.  Walk-in registration is $80 for Sunday or Monday and $150 for both days - Early-bird registration is $70 for one day or $125 for both days.  Membership to WAM is required to register and costs $15 for an individual.  A buffet style lunch is included in the registration cost.

Even though it is a bit pricey, this is the one conference that I make sure to attend every year.  The keynote speakers are usually great and I learn a lot at the concurrent sessions.  It's a great place to pick peoples' brains if you have any questions about wildflowers and wildflower gardening - I make new connections and renew old connections every year.  There is also a room for vendors (books, jewelry, photography, pottery, art prints, etc.) - I always end up spending more than I should on wildflower and gardening books.


While planting native plants seems to be a new(er) movement in gardening, it has had its advocates for years as this article from the April 1941 issue of Nature Magazine shows.  Nature Magazine was published between 1923 and 1959 by the American Nature Association before being absorbed by Natural History.

A Peregrine Falcon in Mt. Pleasant

I have said repeatedly in the past that I am not a birder, but I seem to have spent a fair amount of time lately looking for specific birds.  In January I shared photos of several Snowy Owls from around Mid-Michigan.  This is not the only uncommon bird to show up in the area this winter.  For the past month, there has been a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) hanging out in Mt. Pleasant.  This is only the sixth Peregrine Falcon reported on eBird for Isabella County all since 2014. 

This bird has chosen to hang out on the City of Mt. Pleasant water tower located north of Pickard Road, between Mission Road. and Kinney Avenue.  When I saw the Falcon it was perched on a metal seam along the center of the tower.  Others have seen it perched on the railing above the catwalk at the base of the tank. 

Good luck searching for this bird.  I saw it on my first attempt, but I know of one birder that has made at least four unsuccessful attempts to find it.

Upcoming Event - Quiet Water Symposium (03 March 2018)

 

On Saturday March 3rd I will be attending the 2018 Quiet Water Symposium.  The Quiet Water Symposium (QWS) is a gathering dedicated to non-motorized transportation in the outdoors including biking, sailing, backpacking, and especially canoeing & kayaking.  QWS takes place at the Michigan State University Livestock Pavilion at 4310 Farm Lane Road in East Lansing.  Tickets for adults are $10, $5 for students with an ID, and free for kids 12 and under.

This year there are over 160 different vendors/exhibitors setting up at QWS.  In addition to the vendor there are thirty-three presentations scheduled over the course of the day.  QWS is a great event whether you are new to paddling and hiking or if you have been doing them for decades.  

This year I can be found in one of three places - helping sell axes and other outdoor equipment at the LeValley Outdoors booth, manning a table for the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy (CWC), or at the booth for the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE).

It's Woodchuck Weather Prediction Day!

Happy Marmota monax Day!

Or you might know it better as Groundhog Day.  On Groundhog Day, communities across North America drag a sleepy Groundhog (Marmota monax) out of hibernation to see if it casts a shadow.  If the groundhog sees its shadow, this means that six more weeks of winter will follow; if it does not see its shadow, spring will supposedly come early.

No matter what the groundhogs "predict", winter is scheduled to end approximately 6 1/2 weeks from now at 12:15PM EST on March 20th.

Given the lack of forecasting accuracy from groundhogs, perhaps we should give some other ground squirrel species auditions for the job?

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille!

Event Reminder - Winter Animal Tracking Hike (Saturday 03 FEB 2018)

 
Join me this Saturday February 3rd at 10:00AM at the Halls Lake Natural Area as I lead a Winter Animal Tracking Hike for the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy (CWC).  During this hike we will search for tracks, scat, and other animal signs.  For more information and to preregister visit this event page.  This hike is free, but donations to the CWC are always welcome.

Heat doesn't come from the furnace...

 

    There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm.  One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other is that heat comes from the furnace.

    To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to    confuse the issue.

     To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside.  If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.

              - Aldo Leopold

                   "The Good Oak"

                                 A Sand County Almanac

Waxing gibbous moon (27 January 2018)

On Saturday (27 JAN) shortly after sunset I went outside and noticed a gorgeous waxing gibbous moon.  To say that a moon is waxing means that the illuminated portion of the moon is growing - the moon is getting closer to being full.  The opposite of waxing is waning.  A waning moon is a moon that is past full and its illuminated percentage is decreasing.  Gibbous means that a moon is more than 50% full - the moon last night was at 83%.

I took about 30 images of the moon in all.  Here is one of the original images.

For the photo geeks out there - this image was shot on a Canon 60D with a Canon 100-400 lens (at 400mm), shot at f/11, using an ISO of 100 and exposed for 1/100 second.


I decided to crop this image in a couple of different ways.  First as a horizontal image...

Then as a vertical image...

I'm not sure which of these crops I like better.  In both I intentionally placed the moon slightly off-center.  I like the expanse of black extending further from the lit face of the moon.  This is the same technique used in portraits to give the subject somewhere to look or in photos of animals to give them space within the frame of the photo to look or move.