Author: Jeanne Church

I am a 78 year old retired teacher with an avid interest in hiking and photography. I am not a professional photographer, but spend almost every day exploring the natural world, taking pictures and honing my skills. When I review the pictures I have taken, I love researching information about the things I have found-- and then sharing my results with others. The time I have spent walking in the woods (including 4 months on the Appalachian Trail at 68) has always been somewhat therapeutic. When I added photography to the mix a few years ago, it quadrupled the therapeutic effect! Opening pictures on my computer at the end of the day is like opening presents. There are always surprises! It allows me to see so many details that were not visible to my naked eye! I have learned so many new things about birds and bugs, reptiles and mammals that I never knew before--and I have also found, that when I share with others, I invariably learn something new!

For the Love of Dragonflies!

I love dragonflies! But I didn’t know this until I started taking pictures. Without my camera, and without the ability to bring up pictures on my computer, I had no idea that dragonflies were so beautiful, that they came in such a wide variety of sizes and colors, that their wings were such masterpieces of engineering, or that there were so many different kinds!

**Twelve-spotted Skimmer** **Dragonfly**

Over the course of my photography journey, I’ve found almost every color dragonfly imaginable including red, white, blue, green, purple, orange, black, brown, and pink! These little creatures are not just candy for the eyes, they’re amazing acrobats as well; flying deftly in all directions like miniature helicopters!

For clarification, there are both dragonflies and damselflies. Collectively, they are known as Odonata. To the casual observer, dragonflies and damselflies probably look the same. They both have 6 legs, a head, and an abdomen; both have two pairs of transparent wings, bulgy eyes, and stick-like bodies. But there are a couple of features that help differentiate the two: body shape and wing position.

Dragonflies have bodies that are much thicker and bulkier than damselflies and because of their heftier size, it’s more likely that you’ll notice a dragonfly long before you’ll ever see the tiny, delicate-looking damselflies. When dragonflies are at rest, they hold their wings perpendicular to their bodies like an airplane. Damselflies, on the other hand, fold their wings up and hold them together across the top of their backs.

I much prefer the dragonflies to the damselflies, mostly because they’re bigger and much easier to photograph, and because I can more readily capture the details in their wings. Had I been around 300 million years ago, when dragonflies were first evolving, it would have been even easier to get a picture! Those early insects had wingspans of two feet or more! Today’s dragonflies have wingspans of less than five inches!

Common Green Darner Dragonfly recently emerged

Over the years, I’ve found so many different dragonflies that I’ve lost track of how many. Worldwide, there are at least 5000 different species, with dragonflies being much more common than damselflies. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. Here in the United States, there are about 450 different kinds of dragonflies and damselflies. In my home state of Michigan, we have about 165 different kinds, and I’m pretty sure I’ve found most of them!

What is most interesting to me is their life cycle, and their peculiar sex lives! Dragonflies have three life stages: egg, nymph, and adult. The female lays her eggs in the water throughout the summer where they hatch and grow into nymphs. Some of those nymphs will remain in the water over the winter and emerge as adults the following summer. Some will remain in the water for years! While underwater, the dragonfly nymph will eat just about anything it can grab —tadpoles, mosquitoes, fish, other insect larvae and even each other!

**Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly depositing eggs in the water**

When the nymph is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it stops eating and makes its way to the surface of the water where it climbs up a reed and crawls out of its larval skin or exoskeleton. Once it emerges from its exoskeleton, the dragonfly becomes a skillful and prolific predator. Nearly every minute of its day is spent devouring the insects that annoy us —like mosquitoes, gnats, cicadas, and flies! One dragonfly alone can eat hundreds of mosquitoes a day! Predators that like to eat dragonflies include birds, fish, frogs, bees, bats, spiders, and other dragonflies!

**Eastern Kingbird feeding dragonflies to her babies**

Dragonfly sex is a rough-and-tumble affair. Their sexual coupling requires the flexibility and acrobatic skill of a “Cirque de Soleil” performer. During mating, the male grasps the female at the back of the head, and the female curls her abdomen under her body to pick up sperm from the male’s secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen, forming a “heart” or “wheel” shape. In the process, females get bitten, males get scratched, and sperm winds up all over the place! After the deed is done, mama dragonfly lays her eggs by tapping the surface of the water repeatedly with her abdomen, or by shaking the eggs out of her abdomen as she flies along, or by placing the eggs on vegetation.

**Halloween Pennant Dragonflies mating (male at the top)**

**Female Shadow Darner Dragonfly depositing eggs**

Unfortunately, loss of wetland habitat is a big threat to our dragonfly populations around the world. At least one in ten species of dragonfly are threatened with extinction, according to the first world survey of their numbers. The loss of a dragonfly population threatens the loss of other creatures in that food chain. Ultimately, the loss of any one species is a loss for all of us.

**Dragonfly Eyes**

Nearly all of the dragonfly’s head is eye, so they have incredible vision that encompasses almost every angle except right behind them. Their compound eyes have up to 50,000 individual lenses, and they can see a wider spectrum of colors than humans. (photo by Mel Church)

Morning Surprises

June 18, 2024

Whenever I go out on a picture walk, I never know what I’m going to find. Sometimes it’s a new dragonfly or a new butterfly. Sometimes it’s just a robin with a mouthful of worms. Sometimes it’s a rare bird, like this black-billed cuckoo, or a shiny, iridescent dogbane leaf beetle. Almost everything captures my attention, no matter how small. Today, it was a tiny barn swallow.

Black-billed Cuckoo, one of my biggest surprises ever! I didn’t even know we had cuckoos in Michigan!

Roseate Skimmer dragonfly, one of my surprise dragonflies I found in Florida. I had never seen a pink dragonfly before!

I was on an early morning ramble through the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery when I spotted this little ball of fluff sitting on a railing near one of the overgrown ponds. From a distance, it was barely noticeable, but with the help of my 600mm lens, I could see that the ball of fluff was a baby barn swallow, a fledgling. There were no adult birds nearby that I could see, but I knew that mom or dad would be back soon to feed their hungry little offspring, so I planted myself in a good spot for pictures, but not too close, and I waited. It wouldn’t take long for mom and dad to return with provisions.

I was totally focused in on the baby, but every time it opened its mouth, I knew mom and dad were flying around in my periphery ready to deliver food. What surprised me, though, were the ‘fly by deliveries,’ where mom and dad never landed; They flew in, hovered for a moment, stuffed the food in their baby’s gaping mouth, and flew off! It happened so quickly that I never really saw what was happening, I just kept taking pictures as quickly as I could. It wasn’t until I brought the pictures up on my computer that I could see how mom or dad rarely landed. I was also able to zoom in and see what they were feeding this little one. My favorite shot was the parent bird shoving in a mouthful of blue damselflies!

Barn Swallow parent delivering blue damselflies!

As I walked away an hour or so later, I was left wondering how this baby bird, with its underdeveloped wings and tail feathers, even made it to the top of this railing in the first place, and how it would return to a safe spot once evening set in. By the time I had to leave, that baby barn swallow had already been out on the railing for well over an hour. I hope it eventually made its way to safety.

Here are the most notable shots from today’s barn swallow surprise– with captions:

Parent bird: “Hold your horses!! I’m coming!”

Parent bird: “Here you go!! Down the hatch!”

“Where’s my food?? Why are you ignoring me???

Parent bird: “Here you go!! Quit yelling at me!!”

Parent bird: “Here’s some tasty blue damselflies! Are you full yet??”

Parent bird: “There, there!! That should be enough!”

Just Outside My Back Door

We’ve been back to our home state of Michigan for well over a month now after a three-month hiatus in Florida. I haven’t returned to my usual photography routine of taking pictures every day like I did in Florida or like I did through most of the pandemic years when all my regular routines were put on hold and I had time to pursue this hobby full time.

My picture taking days have taken a nose dive since returning to Michigan. It’s not that I’ve lost interest, or sustained an injury, or had a spate of bad weather. It’s pickleball. I’ve been distracted by pickleball.

There are pickleball courts right next to our condo, and there’s a whole community of pickleball enthusiasts nearby who are readily available to play. It’s impossible for me to stay home if I know there’s a pickleball game going on. As a result, I haven’t gone on any ‘field trips’ this spring or gone for many picture walks.

A male Grackle enjoying my peanuts and seeds

Mostly, I’ve been finding an hour or two here and there to stand outside our back door with my camera in hand to take pictures of all the usual suspects: woodchucks, woodpeckers, chipmunks, squirrels, white-tailed deer, and a wide variety of colorful songbirds. They’re all back there carrying on with their busy, productive lives even when I’m not there to document it.

The most interesting critter in our backyard has been the local woodchuck. I was standing outside our back door taking pictures of all the different birds landing in the nearby trees when I noticed movement about 50 feet from where I was standing. When I zoomed in on the mystery creature, I discovered it was a mama woodchuck transporting her little babies, one by one in her mouth from point A to point B. I’m not sure why she was moving them, but it was so much fun to watch! By the way, did you know that those little babies are called chucklings? I loved learning that little bit of trivia!

Mama woodchuck with one of her several babies

Then, the other day a red-headed woodpecker showed up! I rarely ever see them, and I’ve never seen one in our backyard! Getting a picture of a red-headed woodpecker was almost as exciting as getting one of a pileated woodpecker, but the pileateds are regular visitors to our yard, and the red-headed woodpecker was definitely not! So it was a great find!

The cutest little visitors are the chipmunks and the squirrels. They’re everywhere out there eating the fallen birdseed, digging holes everywhere in the grass, and constantly trying to steal birdseed from our second story feeders. But, they’re so darned cute and so photogenic I’m inclined to think of them as entertainment rather than irritating pests.

Among the most stunning creatures in our backyard are the wood ducks, the Baltimore orioles, the white-tailed deer, the yellow warblers and, perhaps, even our resident turkey. In all fairness, though, all the creatures I photograph are beautiful to me.

Wood Duck on Cherry Creek behind our house

I feel quite lucky to have such a wide variety of interesting creatures right outside my back door and I treasure all the opportunities I have to photograph them.

White-tailed Deer wondering what I’m up to

There’s no need to travel far to be amazed.

White-tailed fawn at the edge of the small wooded area behind our row of condos

Birding Days in the Sunshine State

March 22, 2024

Most of the year I’m out taking pictures in my home state of Michigan, but I always look forward to our change-of-pace visits to Florida during the winter months where I can go looking for all the beautiful birds that I rarely, if ever, find in Michigan. This was our first trip back in three years; a welcome change after more than two years of COVID, and the deaths of our two very old dogs.

Brown Pelicans on the pier waiting for a handout from the fisherman

One of my favorite Florida birds to photograph is the brown pelican. It is both charmingly elegant and absurdly acrobatic. I have found them posing stoically on a pier waiting for a tasty handout from the fishermen, and I have watched in amazement as they soar into the air, contorting their bodies like pretzels, and then plunging head first into the water. What a fun bird to watch and photograph!

By comparison, Florida also has the American white pelican; an equally fun bird to photograph, but without the acrobatic skills of its cousins, the Browns. White pelicans are scoopers not divers. They glide gracefully along the water and scoop up fish, often working cooperatively with their peers to herd a school of fish into a dense ball or toward shallow waters where it’s more difficult for the fish to escape. Cooperative herding catches more fish!

American White Pelicans sharing a funny joke in the early morning hours

A much smaller, less obvious shorebird that scurries about on the Florida coastlines is the willet. I’ve found at least one willet, usually more, on every one of my beach walks. They skitter tirelessly in and out of the waves searching for crabs, crustaceans, and mollusks in the water-soaked sands, and provide endless entertainment for me as I amble along the shore.

Willet hoping for a tasty snack to show up in the receding waves

Running around with the willets at an even faster pace, are the tiny, two-ounce sanderlings. It doesn’t seem possible that these little birds can run as fast as they do! Their little black legs are a blur as they race back and forth along the beach like cartoon characters, stopping only for a millisecond to probe the wet sand for crabs and other invertebrates left by the receding waters. Rachel Carlson, in her book Under the Sea Wind, poetically described the sanderling’s breakneck run as a “twinkle of black feet.” What a perfect description!

Mixed in with the willets and the sanderlings, I might also find the ruddy turnstone; a smaller bird than the willet but bigger than the sanderling. Its name aptly describes both its appearance and what it does! This is a stocky, reddish-brown shorebird that flips over stones, shells, and seaweed looking for food. Sometimes there are dunlins in the mix as well; a little shorebird that looks similar to the sanderling but is slightly bigger and has a longer bill.

Then there are all the gulls, terns, and skimmers either flying overhead or taking a break along the shore! I took hundreds of pictures the other day of the Forster’s terns soaring above the ocean waves, then plunging into the water to catch a fish; and hundreds more shots of the black skimmers gliding just above the surface of the water with their lower beak barely touching the water as they scooped up fish! It’s always a fun challenge trying to catch these birds in flight!

Another bird in flight that’s fun to catch is the Osprey. We have osprey in Michigan, but I rarely find them. In Florida, you can find them everywhere, hovering over both large and small bodies of water, preparing to plunge feet first into the water and grab a fish with their sharp talons! I like to catch them as they emerge from the water, a good-sized fish in tow, lifting into the air with a thousand beads of water spinning off their feathers in all directions.

When I’m not walking along the ocean beaches looking for birds, I’m stalking the smaller bodies of water in search of herons, egrets, ibises, storks, and the mostly elusive roseate spoonbills. On this particular visit to Florida, my first wood stork and spoonbill were standing at the edge of a retention pond, behind a locked fence along a busy roadway near a strip mall! It was not an easy picture to get! The herons, ibises and egrets, on the other hand, have been much more cooperative!

Then there are birds that I’ve seen on previous trips to Florida, but have yet to find here in St. Augustine; birds like the black-bellied whistling ducks, black-necked stilts, crested caracaras, glossy Ibis, gallinules, painted buntings, and sandhill cranes with their babies. To find some of those birds, Mel and I took road trip to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida.

Merritt Island is one hundred miles south of where we are now and is billed as “one of Florida’s premier birding sites.” It was established in 1963 for the protection of migratory birds and provides a wide variety of habitats including coastal dunes, saltwater marshes, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks. It is home to more than 1,500 species of plants and animals!

Black-necked Stilt at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

To get to Merritt Island, we left before dawn and arrived by 8:00 a.m. Mel and I wanted to have the entire day to wander around the refuge –and take a ridiculous number of pictures! We found black-necked stilts, common gallinules, reddish egrets, glossy ibises, roseate spoonbills, and a variety of other delightful birds. It was a day well spent!

In less than two weeks we’ll be heading back to Michigan; just in time for the daisies and the daffodils, the chatty red-winged blackbirds, the rose-breasted grosbeaks, and the comforting sounds of the spring peepers drifting through the screens on a warm April evening; all the sights and sounds I love to welcome me home!

Sandhill Crane and colt from our last trip to Florida in 2020

Hello Sunshine!

January 15, 2024

It’s been a long, long three years since we last visited Florida for the winter. Our last extended visit was in the winter of 2020. We had a few weeks left in our three-month stay when the pandemic hit. The first news reports were so dire that we worried about whether to remain in Florida or return to Michigan. If we returned, our doctors, family, and friends would be near at hand in case we needed them. If we stayed, there would be no one close by to help, and we had our two old dogs with us to consider. Who would take care of them if we both became seriously ill?

Ultimately, we chose to stay in Florida until our lease ran out in April, but we stopped going out to eat or spending time in our favorite coffee shop. Our niece, Holly, kindly sent us her homemade cloth masks, and we avoided others as much as possible. When it came time to leave, Mel and I drove straight through to Michigan with our two dogs in tow, and only made stops to get gas and use the bathroom. It was a long, grueling two-day marathon of driving.

While the pandemic was still running rampant in 2021 and 2022, we avoided going back to Florida, preferring instead the safety net of family, friends, and our local physicians. In 2023, we stayed home once again because our very old dog, Brandy, was in her last days. She died in April of 2023. Our other dog, Corky, had died the previous year. As the winter of 2024 approached, we were both extremely ready for a change of venue.

It’s not that I don’t like Michigan winters. I love the snow, especially if there are beautiful pictures to be had! What makes me weary, though, are the seemingly unrelenting overcast skies and intermittent rainy days. By January, I am more than ready for sunnier days and new birds to photograph!

Mute Swan in a beautiful Michigan snowfall

Mel and I checked into our rental home late in the day on Monday January 8, 2024. On Tuesday, a huge storm blew through, but Wednesday arrived with an abundance of sunshine and bright blue skies! We both grabbed our cameras and headed out the door to the nearby Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, to see what we could find.

My first subject was a tiny, solitary shorebird called a Sanderling. It was running along the beach hither and yon like someone had flipped a switch in its brain to fast forward. It was a bird possessed–and hilarious to watch!

Sanderling on a Florida beach in January

After taking hundreds of pictures of the little Sanderling, I wandered down a nearby trail and stopped at the edge of a deep saltwater marsh where I could see Brown Pelicans diving for fish. They flew low across the water then rose gracefully into the air before plunging like a torpedo into the water for fish. The force of that impact stuns the small fish in their path and allows the pelican to scoop them up. It was amazing to watch them go through their acrobatic moves. First, they tucked their heads in, then they rotated their bodies to the left. This maneuver is believed to cushion the trachea and esophagus from the impact of the pelican’s dive. Both the trachea and the esophagus are located on the right side of their neck.

I stood in the same spot for an hour or so just watching all the different birds search for food. There was a Great Egret, a Snowy Egret, a Little Blue Heron, several Ibises, a Tricolored Heron, Piping Plovers, a Ruddy Turnstone, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loons, and a very magnificent Osprey that landed on a post less than 20 feet from where I was standing! I’ve never stood in one place for any amount of time and had such a variety of birds visit! It was mesmerizing.

After taking more than 600 pictures, I thought, perhaps, it was time to move on, but it’s never easy for me to do that even when I already have many more pictures than I’ll ever need or use! I always think there will be one more incredible shot that I don’t want to miss. On this particular day, there was!

I had walked a little farther down the trail and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a large beak and a big yellow eye peeking up from the weeds. Oh, my goodness, I thought! It was a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron! I rarely ever see them! I quickly took a few pictures and then quietly backed away so I wouldn’t disturb him.

The juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron that was my favorite catch of the day!

Having fully satisfied my picture-taking appetite for the day, I happily returned to our car, totally rejuvenated by my time outdoors and my camera full of pictures.

It doesn’t get much better than that.

Morning Light

November 19, 2023

Note: Most of the pictures in this post were taken on earlier picture walks

I was sitting in my favorite chair at 5 a.m. on this cold November morning, enjoying a toasty fire, drinking a hot cup of tea, and contemplating the day ahead. Every once in a while, I’d look out the window to see if the sun had come up.

By 7:45, I could see just a hint of light on the very top of the trees along the far side of the creek behind our house. I wrestled with my choices for the day– stay warm and cozy inside the house, or go out into the cold November air and take pictures. The conditions were perfect: early morning light, no wind, and clear skies. I thought maybe a northern shoveler would unexpectedly drop by, or that a few wood ducks might swim out from the reeds as they sometimes do, or that a great blue heron would be scouting for fish along the opposite bank. I might even see a rare mink scurrying by. Anything was possible!

There was no choice, really; whether to stay inside or to go outdoors. The morning light beckoned. It would be impossible for me to stay home on such a beautiful day! There was such promise in the air! But, it was only 32 degrees! I wasn’t ready to face the cold! And getting dressed would be a challenge– because cold weather photography, where I might not move for hours on end, takes careful planning. Should I wear two layers or three? Do I need mittens or gloves? Boots or shoes? There were too many decisions to be made this early in the morning!

**All bundled up for the cold on an earlier picture walk**

By 8:15, though, I was out the door. The sun had risen a little higher in the sky, the water in the creek was perfectly still, and I planted myself in the very best spot I could find where the sun would be at my back.

**Cherry Creek in the early morning light**

I stood quietly and waited. The squirrels were scampering through the leaves behind me and running across the branches overhead. Now and then, I’d hear a red-bellied woodpecker tapping on one of the nearby trees. A handful of birds were greeting the new day with their joyful song while a solitary goose flew by.

Not far from where I was standing, I could hear the familiar sound of the male red-winged blackbirds as they flitted among the cattails. They have a short, one-second song that starts with an abrupt note and turns into a musical trill. The females usually respond to the singing males with a chit-chit-chit sound, but I never heard their replies. Perhaps, the females have already flown south for the winter.

**Male Red-winged Blackbird in the reeds along Cherry Creek**

After about an hour of standing and waiting, I took a seat on the bench next to me; my hopes slowly dwindling. There had been no signs of any shovelers, wood ducks, or herons. I would have been happy at that point if even a mallard had floated by!

Eventually, the cold air settled into my bones, and I had run out of things to talk to myself about. I tried, instead, to concentrate on all the different birds I could see or hear in the trees around me, like the chickadees, tufted titmice, cardinals, robins, cedar waxwings, woodpeckers, sparrows, and blue jays. They provided a symphony of songs and a bit of entertainment as I sat watching for the elusive ducks and herons to appear on the creek.

By 9:30, I was ready to throw in the towel and go for a walk in the sun so I could soak up some of its warmth. Before leaving my temporary roost, though, I moved closer to a nearby bush where I had been watching the cedar waxwings gobbling up berries, hoping I could maybe get a picture of them! With all the foliage obstructing my view, it was more of a challenge than I expected!

After managing to get a few waxwing shots (and one fat robin), it was time to move on to more promising grounds. I headed over to the business park next door thinking I would find a red-tailed hawk, a migrating duck, or maybe even a bluebird. All I found were pigeons.

Where was everybody??

It was almost noon and the temperature had climbed from a chilly 32 degrees to a toasty 50. I was so HOT! I had taken off my hat, mittens, and scarf and stuffed them into the pockets of my coat; the pockets that were already jammed full with two rechargeable hand-warmers, one cell phone, and a set of keys. Eventually I had to take off the coat as well and tie it around my waist or I would totally disintegrate from the heat! It was time to head home.

**A big fat Robin enjoying the same berry bush as the Cedar Waxwings**

In the end, I didn’t have much to show for all my efforts: no wood ducks, no hawks, no shovelers, no mallards. It’s always disappointing when this happens, but I just can’t force the birds to show up when I want them to– or to get them to sit still in the right light while I adjust my settings.

On a particularly slow picture day, like this one, I have to remind myself that the most important thing is the walk itself, not the pictures. At my age (76), spending the day outdoors traipsing about is a gift; one that I treasure. Having my camera along, just makes all that exercise more interesting.

And that’s what keeps me going out the door–even on the least promising of days.

Down the Rabbit Hole

October 21, 2023

‘Down the rabbit hole’ is an English-language idiom which refers to getting deep into something, or ending up somewhere strange—or wonderful. Lewis Carroll introduced the phrase in 1865 as the title for Chapter One of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

I tumbled down the nature photography rabbit hole quite by accident and I fell in deep. It all started about seven years ago when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas. It took a while for me to come up with something I really wanted, but eventually I hit upon the idea of a camera. I wanted a better one than we had. My request came when we had two small grandchildren and I thought if I had a better camera, I could take better pictures of them. But that’s not what happened!

We went to Florida for the first time that winter and visited some of the most amazing preserves with incredible wildlife. It gave me the opportunity to use my new camera for the very first time. It wasn’t a fancy camera, but it did have a built-in zoom lens and I could get much better shots of birds and other wildlife than I ever had before! I was hooked! (The pictures below were taken with more recent cameras.)

Within a year or so, I was already yearning for a better camera and a longer lens; a camera with a quicker shutter response time, and a lens that could capture birds that were even farther away. Once I had the newer camera and the longer lens (thanks to my husband’s diligent research), I spent more and more time outdoors taking pictures, totally immersed in my own little world.

It wasn’t long before I had exhausted the shutter life of that second camera, with well over 100,000 pictures, and started looking for yet another camera and an even longer lens!

To date, I’ve gone through four cameras in seven years, mostly because I exceed the recommended shutter life of each of them. My current camera is a Nikon D500 with a shutter life of 200,000 cycles; I’m well over 127,000 after only a couple of years! The lens I use most often is a Sigma 150-600mm. The D500 camera and the Sigma lens have been the perfect combination for me and for the things I like to photograph.

Nikon camera with Sigma lens on a monopod

I go out almost every day in all kinds of weather, even if ‘going out’ means just standing on our deck or in our backyard. Some of my favorite shots have happened right outside our back door where I have a ‘designated tree stump,’ placed in the yard, and a ‘designated tree branch’ attached to the deck for bird and mammal ‘portraits’. Plus, we have a beautiful bank of trees nearby and a small creek behind the house, both of which are attractive to a variety birds and mammals.

Red-breasted Nuthatch on the ‘portrait branch’

I love going on picture walks! I love looking for interesting things to photograph, whether it’s a bald eagle or a green bottle fly! It’s all quite fascinating, especially when I bring up the pictures on my computer and can see so many amazing details—like the individual hairs on a fly, or the tiny red mites on a dragonfly!

Male Monarch (males have two distinct black spots on the lower wings)

One of the things I also enjoy doing after taking all those pictures is finding interesting facts about the creatures I’ve photographed and then sharing what I’ve found on Facebook, our local newspaper, or this blog.

Two male grackles on my ‘designated stump’ engaging in ‘bill tilt’ behavior to establish dominance. Whichever bird can maintain this posture the longest wins!

The name ‘picture walks’ started years ago when I first fell down this rabbit hole and was heading out the front door for a walk. If I was leaving the house without my camera, I’d tell my husband I was going on a ‘regular walk’, which meant I’d be home in an hour. If I was leaving the house with my camera in hand, I’d say I was going on a ‘picture walk,’ which was code for “I won’t be home anytime soon!”

White-tailed Deer in our backyard only a few feet from where I was standing

Some of the rabbit holes we fall into can be disastrous.

This one has been quite delightful.

Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve

September 27, 2023

A few weeks ago, my husband and I made our first trip to the Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve in Arcadia, Michigan. What a wonderful place to walk and see a wide variety of birds, plants, and butterflies at relatively close range! Over 250 species of birds have been identified at the marsh (17 of which are considered endangered or threatened) and at least 200 different species of plants have been recorded. Best of all, there is a wide, well-maintained ¾ mile boardwalk through the middle of the preserve that makes it easily accessible for everyone.

**Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve Boardwalk**

Arcadia Preserve is one of only a few remaining coastal marshes along Lake Michigan’s Lower Peninsula shoreline. Sadly, most of all the original Great Lakes marshes have been destroyed, making restored marshes like this one extremely important ecologically. Thanks to the extensive restoration efforts by the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC), countless volunteers and dedicated partners, this beautiful nature preserve is healthier than it has been in decades. As a result, Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve has become known as one of the best birding locations in the entire state of Michigan!

In my short, two-hour visit on September 15^th, I was able to photograph eleven different birds, two of which I rarely ever see, one of which I have never seen in Michigan, one I’ve never seen anywhere, and one that’s usually so elusive that I rarely get to photograph it at all!

Rusty Blackbird

Up until about two years ago, I’d never even heard of a Rusty Blackbird and had no idea what they looked like. A fellow-birder/photographer had seen a few of them at one of our local birding spots, the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery. Not long afterwards, I went searching for them. When I happened upon a small group of birds I’d never seen before, I thought, this must be my mystery bird! It was the last time I’d see a Rusty Blackbird– until this visit to Arcadia Marsh.

According to the Cornell Lab’s website, All About Birds, “The Rusty Blackbird has undergone one of the sharpest and most mystifying recent declines of any North American songbird.” Some researches speculate that the severe hunting of beavers across hundreds of years has contributed to the reduction of suitable habitats for Rusty Blackbirds. Fewer beaver ponds mean fewer Rusty Blackbirds. Some attribute their decline to the loss of habitat caused by human ignorance or indifference. Others report that Rusty Blackbirds, particularly from the northeastern areas of North America, have been found with unusually high levels of mercury contamination; a contributing factor in all likelihood.

Savannah Sparrow

Not far from where the Rusty Blackbirds were perched, I watched a much smaller bird dart back and forth across my field of vision. It looked like a fairly nondescript bird from where I was standing on the boardwalk, but when I zoomed in, I could see a tiny bit of yellow above its eye. That got my attention! But it wasn’t until I returned home that I was able identify it as a Savannah Sparrow, a bird I’d never seen before!

Surprisingly, Savannah Sparrows are one of the most numerous songbirds in North America! They don’t visit backyard feeders, but they may come to your yard if you have open fields nearby. Or, if you keep a brush pile on your property, you might be lucky enough to see a small flock of them swoop down and take cover in the pile during migration or over the winter depending on where you live.

Cedar Waxwing

Also flitting about in the same trees as the Rusty Blackbirds and the Savannah Sparrows, were the Cedar Waxwings. These are such beautiful birds! Cornell Lab’s website All About Birds came up with one of the best descriptions I’ve found so far, “…the Cedar Waxwing is a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, rakish black mask, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers.”

The one I found at the marsh was doing what waxwings do best, catching dragonflies out of the air and bringing them back to a nearby tree to eat.

**Cedar Waxwing with a tasty dragonfly**

Northern Harrier

Not far beyond the trees where I had been enjoying the Rusty Blackbirds, the Savannah Sparrows and the Cedar Waxwings, there was a large bird of prey flying low over the marsh, periodically diving into the vegetation and then reappearing. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it looked a lot like a Northern Harrier I had once seen in Florida a few years ago. I had never seen one in Michigan, but the Northern Harrier is a distinctive looking bird even from far away. It’s a slim, long-tailed hawk that likes to glide low over marshes and grasslands, holding its wings in a wide V-shape. Northern Harriers are mostly looking for small mammals and small birds, but they can also capture larger prey like rabbits and ducks!

Great Egret and Great Blue Heron

Wading through the shallow marsh waters on the opposite side of the boardwalk as the Northern Harrier, I could see a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron in search of their next meal. I have way too many pictures of Great Blue Herons, but very few of the Great Egret, especially here in Michigan. The Great Blue Herons can be found all over Michigan throughout the year, but the Great Egrets only pass through during migration.

The Great Egrets and the Great Blue Herons are both impressive looking birds, but the Egret is slightly smaller and more graceful looking. These two herons hunt by standing motionless or by wading ever so slowly through shallow water to capture a fish using a deadly jab with their large bills.

Great Egrets were hunted nearly to extinction for their feathers in the late nineteenth century, sparking some of the first laws to protect birds. The National Audubon Society, one of the oldest environmental organizations in North America, uses the Great Egret as its logo.

Green Heron

Just below the boardwalk where I was standing, there was a beautiful, little Green Heron who was also waiting patiently, like his much bigger cousins, to catch a quick lunch. All three of these birds are masters in the art of patience. They can stand motionless seemingly forever waiting to stab or grab an unsuspecting fish, frog or tadpole with their dagger-like bills.

Most interesting is the fact that the Green Heron is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species! It often creates fishing lures with things like bread crusts, insects, or feathers, dropping them on the surface of the water hoping something tasty will take the bait!

Belted Kingfisher

Most of the time, this is the bird that’s hardest for me to ‘capture.’ It is very skittish, and I swear it knows that I’m on my way to take its picture long before I even leave the house! At the Arcadia Marsh, though, the Belted Kingfishers seemed oblivious to humans. I’m guessing these kingfishers are acclimated to all the foot traffic on the boardwalk and have learned to just ignore the movement. As a result, I was able to take a dozen or more pictures before this particular bird decided she wanted to go elsewhere to fish.

Belted kingfishers are one of the few bird species where the female is more colorful than the male, sporting a chestnut or rust-colored band across her chest. Males are all blue-gray and white. In the pictures below, the kingfisher on the left is female and the one on the right is male.

Red-winged Blackbirds

Red-winged blackbirds are one of the most abundant birds across North America. Wherever there’s standing water and vegetation, you’ll most likely see or hear a Red-winged Blackbird! In late February or early March, it’s the familiar sound of the returning Red-winged Blackbirds that warms my heart and foreshadows Spring’s impending arrival.

Song Sparrow

The Song Sparrow is a relatively plain looking, little bird that can be easily overlooked and underappreciated, but every time I see one belting out a song from the top of a tree or a nearby bush, I can’t help but call them endearing. Song Sparrows seem so earnest in their attempts to sing a beautiful song, that they can make any ordinary day feel happier!

Black-capped Chickadee

Last, but certainly not least, is the affable little chickadee. I never grow tired of trying to capture them. They are almost universally considered “cute” thanks to their oversized heads, tiny bodies, and insatiable curiosity about everything– including humans. Black-capped Chickadees are one of the easiest birds to attract to your feeders and one of the first birds to come to your outstretched hand for seeds.

**Feeding a Black-capped Chickadee by hand (taken at a different preserve)**

Even if you’re not a birder or a photographer, the Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve is worth putting on your bucket list if you just want a nice place to enjoy a little slice of nature with an easily accessible trail. Before your visit, check out this website for directions, rules, maps, and more detailed information:

Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve (UA)

Waning Days of Color

September 2023

A few days ago, I visited the Paw Paw Prairie Fen Preserve in Mattawan, Michigan, one of our local nature areas. It’s a beautiful preserve with a well-maintained 1.5 mile trail that meanders through wild flowers, trees, ponds, and tall prairie grasses. The land is owned and maintained by The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit organization.

**BOTTLEBRUSH GRASS**
Bottlebrush grass is a perennial grass native to the eastern United States and Canada. Bottlebrush Grass gets its name from the spiky seed heads that look just like the brush used to clean bottles,

“In 2004, this site was slated for a housing development. Topsoil had been removed, road routes had been laid out and neighborhood landscaping was being installed. The Nature Conservancy was alerted to rare wetland communities here and began negotiations to acquire the land. Today The Nature Conservancy owns 106 acres along the east branch of the Paw Paw River, including rare prairie fens, and a beautiful array of prairie plants and wildlife.” (from the descriptive sign at the entrance of the preserve)

**JOE PYE WEED**
This plant was likely named for Joseph Shauquethqueat, a highly-respected Mohican sachem or paramount chief, also known to white neighbors as Joe Pye, who lived in the Mohican community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s. Joe Pye weed has a long history of medicinal use, including as a diuretic, for easing urinary tract issues, joint stiffness, and gout. It is also used to treat reproductive issues and diabetes.

I started my picture walk at 2:30 in the afternoon hoping to eventually catch the late afternoon sun. For the first hour and a half, I saw virtually nothing to photograph, except for a few random plants, and an untold number of autumn meadowhawk dragonflies. I had been hoping for butterflies and birds, and a much wider variety of dragonflies. I had even hoped to find a praying mantis or two. But there were only the meadowhawks, and a few interesting plants to entertain me.

**AUTUMN MEADOWHAWK**
The autumn meadowhawk is a bright red or yellow dragonfly that has yellow legs. It lingers longer through the summer season than most dragonflies.

Autumn meadowhawks, as the name implies, are most active from late summer through fall, and are abundant in open meadows or prairies like the one I was in. They are often the last dragonflies you will see as the colder weather sets in. If there hasn’t been a hard freeze, it’s even possible to find them in November!

**AMERICAN GOLDFINCH**
Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.

At the ninety minute mark, I finally spotted something other than a meadowhawk– a praying mantis! There were probably hundreds of them hidden in the grasses all around me, but praying mantids are particularly well-camouflaged and extremely hard to find! I was thrilled that this one was out in the open and clinging to the underside of a stalk of goldenrod. The most fascinating thing about this insect is its ability to rotate its heads 180 degrees! No other insect can do this, and it’s particularly creepy to zoom in on one and find it staring back at you from over its shoulder!

**PRAYING MANTIS**
The praying mantis is so named because when waiting for prey, it holds its
front legs in an upright position as if they are folded in prayer. Don’t be fooled
by its angelic pose, however, because the mantid is a deadly predator!

While I was watching the praying mantis, a small bird flew across my peripheral field and landed in a distant tree. It wasn’t close enough for a good picture, but I took a few quick shots anyway so that I could identify it later. The bird turned out to be an Eastern Wood-Peewee; an olive-gray bird with dark wings and an off-white belly. It’s bigger than a Black-capped Chickadee but smaller than an Eastern Bluebird.

**EASTERN WOOD PEEWEE**
The Eastern Wood-Pewee’s plaintive song of three sliding notes (*pee-a-weeeee*) is distinctive and easy to learn. (This photo was taken on a different walk.)

Thirty minutes later, I came across my best surprise of the day, a ruby-throated hummingbird! They are usually on the move and hard to capture, but this one landed on a branch and sat for a spell.

**RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD**
The extremely short legs of the ruby-throated hummingbird prevent it from walking or hopping. The best it can do is shuffle along a perch.

Once the hummingbird flew off, I continued down the path and found my first and only monarch for the day perched on a lovely stand of deep purple ironweed—the perfect plant for a monarch photo! Later, a great spangled fritillary came along and landed on the very same plant! Ironweed is an absolute butterfly magnet! The clusters of hairy purple to pink flowers are irresistible to pollinators, especially swallowtails and monarchs.

**MONARCH BUTTERFLY ON IRONWEED**
White spots on monarch butterfly wings may help them fly better during long migration from Canada to Mexico, new research shows. These spots are believed to alter the airflow patterns around the monarch’s wings, enhancing their flight efficiency. Remarkably, monarchs are the only insects known to embark on such an extensive journey.

**GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARY ON IRONWEED**
Great spangled fritillaries are relatively large butterflies with a wingspan of 2 to 4 inches and a length of 3.5 to almost 4 inches!

I had a hard time pulling myself away from the butterflies, but there was a small pond nearby and I had noticed cedar waxwings there earlier in my walk. They had been flying back and forth across the pond catching insects. This time of year, cedar waxwings supplement their fruity diet with protein-rich insects like mayflies, dragonflies, and stoneflies, which they often catch on the wing.

**CEDAR WAXWING**
The name “waxwing” comes from the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the secondaries of some birds. The exact function of these tips is not known, but they may help attract mates.

Three hours into my slow, rambling walk, I was ready to head back to my car, but there was one more surprise waiting for me– a very, very tiny American copper butterfly that only flies about two feet above the ground. The upperside of its forewings are a bright copper color with black spots and a gray border. The hindwings are grayish-brown with a copper border. It’s quite a pretty little butterfly when you can see it close-up.

All through the fen, I kept thinking about the changes that were taking place around me; all the beautiful flowers that were already fading away, all the colorful birds and insects that had already left or would soon be leaving, and all the green, leafy trees that would soon be barren.

**FEMALE EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL**
There was one eastern tiger swallowtail that flew by but it didn’t stop for a picture. This one was taken on a previous picture walk.

It’s not that I dread the changing of the seasons or the coming of winter; I’ll still be traipsing about in the snow looking for a another pretty picture. But I’ll miss the rich variety of birds and insects, and the huge palette of colors that spring and summer throw across the landscape. I always have.

**GRAY CATBIRD**
The catbirds were chattering in the trees around me but never came out for a picture. This picture is from a previous walk.

In Pursuit of Wonder

July 21, 2023

Every time I set out on a picture walk, I wonder what I’ll find. I wonder if I’ll see something new, or something interesting, or something particularly beautiful. It doesn’t need to be a bald eagle, or a rare insect, or a breathtaking sunrise —although those things are certainly welcome; I mostly enjoy the pursuit of wonder, and the challenge of capturing just the right photo at just the right moment. I am as easily excited about finding a tiny snail on a stalk of a dead plant as I am about finding an exquisite bird I rarely see. It’s the pursuit itself that never grows old, and pushes me out the door every day.

A small Eastern Heath Snail that could easily go unnoticed

Not long ago, I was house-sitting for a friend in a part of our state that I rarely visit. She lives on a seldom-traveled, unpaved country road that quietly meanders into the beautiful and expansive Manistee National Forest. I ventured out on that road early one morning wondering what I might find. The deep shade along the forest road was a welcome relief from the heat, but I wasn’t sure that it would be a good place for pictures. There just wasn’t much light peeking through the trees, except for small patches here and there where the occasional butterfly would land, and the columbines struggled to find sunlight.

The narrow gravel road into the Manistee National Forest

I was captivated by the sound of all the birds singing throughout the forest; their voices echoing melodically through the giant cathedral of trees. One of those birds was louder and more insistent than all the others and I wondered who it might be. Fortunately, Merlin* came to my rescue and identified the mystery vocalist as an ovenbird!

I had never seen or heard an ovenbird before, so I stood quietly on the edge of the road, waiting for any movement in the trees, hoping to get a glimpse of one. It didn’t take long, but the setting was so dark, and the bird moved so quickly, that I didn’t think I’d get a decent shot. Eventually, though, my patience paid off.

When I did some research on this elusive little bird, I was fascinated to find out that ovenbirds are smaller than sparrows, and they will only breed where there are large, undisturbed expanses of mature trees and a closed canopy. The forest canopy needs to be so dense that it severely inhibits underbrush from developing on the forest floor, and allows for a deep layer of leaf litter to accumulate. Ovenbirds spend most of their time foraging in that leaf litter looking for things to eat like crickets, caterpillars, ants, spiders, slugs, and snails. They also need leaf litter to build their nests. This task is left to the female ovenbird who creates a comfy home on the forest floor using dead leaves, grasses, stems, bark, and hair. The finished dome-shaped nest, at 9 inches wide and 5 inches deep, has a squat oval side entrance and resembles a primitive outdoor oven, which is how this bird got its name!

An Ovenbird in the leaf litter with a tasty snack

Halfway through my walk, I came to a wide-open field at the edge of the forest, where an odd-looking bird flew overhead and landed on the top of a utility pole! Even from a distance, it didn’t look like a bird that would normally land on a tall, skinny pole! With long legs, a long neck, and a thin, straight bill, it had the appearance of a fairly typical shorebird. Luckily, the bird on the pole was singing its heart out and Merlin* quickly identified it as an Upland Sandpiper. This particular shorebird, however, loves the prairies, pastures, and croplands rather than the wetlands where its cousins like to hang out! It is also a shorebird that loves to perch on fence posts and perform memorable flight songs over its territories! This bird was behaving true to form!

The long-legged, long-necked Upland Sandpiper on a utility pole!

On my return trip through the forest, I had one more surprise waiting for me– a barred owl! It landed on a branch not far from where I was walking and posed for a few pictures before flying off. Even though barred owls are plentiful in Michigan, this was my first!

In between these discoveries, there were butterflies and wildflowers quietly going about their business in the random patches of sunlight, waiting patiently to be noticed, and I obliged.

It was just another ordinary day of small but incredible wonders that, more often than not, go completely unnoticed.

*Merlin is a free bird identification app