July 19, 2022

I almost didn’t go for a picture walk today. It was already beyond hot and well beyond humid. It was also the middle of the day and not the best time for pictures — or for humans. But, I was restless, and eager to be on the move, so I grabbed my camera and off I went. As I left our cool air-conditioned home and stepped out into a steamy summer day, I comforted myself with the thought that I might find lots of dragonflies and butterflies!

I headed out at 11:00 a.m. and photographed almost everything I saw for three enjoyable hours. It was just one walk, but I took so many pictures and observed so many creatures getting on with their lives, that I felt a bit like a teensy-weensy Jane Goodall or Diane Fossey out doing field work. All I had to do was swap out the chimpanzees and mountain gorillas for dragonflies, butterflies, birds and frogs and I was good to go! It was a huge stretch of the imagination, but it made for a more interesting walk! Here are my field notes!

Field Notes:

Date: July 19, 2022

Location: Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery, Mattawan, Michigan

Weather Conditions: 90 degrees Fahrenheit, 45% humidity

Time of day: 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

11:04 a.m. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly When I spotted this beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flitting among the lavender-colored Bee Balm, it took my breath away! The conditions for getting a good picture were perfect–light shade, no harsh shadows.

11: 24 a.m. Calico Pennant Dragonfly, male The dragonflies were plentiful today! Before taking up photography, I didn’t realize there were so many different dragonflies in so many different colors! Worldwide, there are about 7,000 species of dragonflies. Here in Michigan, there are about 160. This Calico Pennant is very common in our area.

11:34 a.m. Halloween Pennant Dragonfly, male I seem to see male dragonflies much more frequently than I do females. Perhaps because the males are generally more colorful and easier to spot. Halloween Pennants look very similar to Calico Pennants, but instead of small spots they typically have larger dark bands on their wings. Adult males have orange and black bodies, while females (and young males) have bodies that are yellow and black.

11:37 a.m. Viceroy Butterfly The Viceroy Butterfly is often mistaken for a Monarch. The main visual difference between the Viceroy and Monarch is the black line across the viceroy’s hind wings, which monarch butterflies do not have. The viceroy is also smaller than the monarch. You can also tell them apart when they are in flight. Monarchs have a more floating flight pattern, while viceroys fly more quickly and more erratically.

11:39 a.m. Blue Dasher Dragonfly, male This is a very small and a very common dragonfly. The male has a bright blue body with a dark tip, while the female has a black and yellow striped body, and tends to be browner in color. Males have green eyes while females have red eyes. They really look like two entirely different dragonflies, which is often true of other dragonflies.

11:52 a.m. Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly, male The Male Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly is almost the same chalky blue color as the Blue Dasher pictured above, but it is noticeably bigger than the Dasher and doesn’t have the same dark tip on its tail. The Pondhawk is 1.5 to 1.7 inches long while the Dasher is only 1 to 1.5 inches long. The female Eastern Pondhawk is green.

11:55 a.m. Twelve-spotted Skimmer, male I wanted to call this a Twenty-spotted Skimmer but, apparently, you’re only supposed to count the dark spots not the white ones! The twelve-spotted skimmer is a common North American dragonfly, found in southern Canada and in all 48 of the contiguous U.S. states. It is a large dragonfly at 2.0 inches in length.

12:01 p.m. Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly, female Male and female dragonflies often look completely different from one another and the Eastern Pondhawks are a good example of this. The male (pictured above) is a dusty blue color, while the female is green and black.

12:06 p.m. Great Blue Heron The Great Blue Heron is the largest of our North American herons weighing in at around 5 pounds. They will eat nearly anything within striking distance, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, insects, and other birds. Great Blue Herons can stand patiently like this for what seems like forever waiting to impale a fish with their dagger-like bills.

12:14 p.m. Widow Skimmer dragonfly, male This is my very favorite dragonfly to photograph! It makes for such a beautiful picture. The Widow Skimmer gets its name because the male dragonfly leaves the female by herself as she lays her eggs, thereby ‘widowing’ her. This behavior is unlike some other species where the male guards the egg-laying female.

12:16 p.m. Halloween Pennant dragonflies mating Dragonflies and damselflies both create what are called “mating wheels” when they mate.  The male (upper dragonfly) grasps the female at the back of her head with the terminal appendages at the end of his abdomen and the female curls her abdomen forward until the tip of her abdomen reaches the male’s sex organs. (Notice the slight difference in coloration between the male and the female. The wings of the male are orange and brown, the female’s are yellow and brown.)

12:19 p.m. Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly The silver-spotted skipper,  with its large white spot on the underside of each hind wing, is one of our largest, most widespread and most recognizable skippers. The silver-spotted skipper is found throughout most of the United States and into southern Canada. In the West, it is more restricted to mountainous areas.

12:22 Monarch Butterfly I was saddened, but not shocked, to learn that North America’s iconic Monarch Butterfly, after suffering from years of habitat loss and rising temperatures, was placed on a list of endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as of July 21, 2022.

12:49 p.m. Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly, male The Eastern Amberwing is a tiny species of dragonfly that only reaches about 1 inch in length. It is one of the smaller dragonflies in North America. Males have clear amber wings, so it is easy to see how this dragonfly got its name. Females have blotch-patterned wings. I usually find these dragonflies perched on lily pads or other plants along the edges of small ponds.

12:53 p.m. Eastern Kingbird The Kingbird gets its name from the aggressive behaviors it exhibits towards other kingbirds and other species. When defending their nests, kingbirds will attack much larger predators like hawks, crows, and squirrels. They have been known to knock unsuspecting Blue Jays out of trees.

12:56 Willow Flycatcher Flycatchers don’t learn their songs from their parents, as many other birds do. Instead flycatchers hatch knowing their songs. Scientists tested this by raising Willow Flycatchers in captivity while letting them listen to only the Alder Flycatcher song all day long. The Willow Flycatcher chicks grew up to sing their own species’ song!

12:57 p.m. Canada Goose The Canada Goose was nearly driven to extinction in the early 1900s. Programs to reestablish the subspecies to its original range were, in many places, so successful that the geese have become a nuisance in many urban and suburban areas.

1:30 p.m. Slaty Skimmer Dragonfly, male The Slaty Skimmer has a body that is about 2 inches long. Each of the four wings has a dark spot on the outer leading edge. Older males are all slate blue with black heads and eyes. Young males and females have brown abdomens and a dark stripe running down the back.

1:34 p.m. American Bullfrog This is my very favorite amphibian! I love their big, bulgy eyes, and funny looking faces. I’m always looking for a new frog to photograph, hoping for a funnier face. Bullfrogs are the largest species of frog in the U.S. growing up to 8 inches long and weighing over a pound! Bullfrogs usually spend 2 winters as tadpoles and live around 8 years.

2:06 p.m. Barn Swallow The Barn Swallow is the most abundant and widely distributed swallow species in the world. It breeds throughout the Northern Hemisphere and winters in much of the Southern Hemisphere. I can’t help taking a picture every time I see one!

2:09 p.m. Red-winged Blackbird, female The Red-winged Blackbirds are my harbingers of spring. When I hear them calling from the trees and the reeds along the ponds, I know that spring is not far away. I also know that when a male Red-winged Blackbird bombards me, his babies are nearby, but out of sight!

2:10 p.m Wood Duck, female Wood Ducks usually nest in trees near water, but can sometimes be found nesting over a mile away. After hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way. The ducklings may jump from heights of over 50 feet without injury.

2:12 p.m. Hooded Mergansers, female The Hooded Merganser is the second-smallest of the six living species of mergansers (only the Smew of Eurasia is smaller) and is the only one restricted to North America.

It was just one walk, but there was so much to see!

May 5, 2022

I love going on picture walks! When I’m out on the trails looking for something beautiful or interesting to photograph, I am totally engrossed in what I am doing. Sometimes, though, my very best picture walks, aren’t walks at all. I just stand in one place for the longest time until I become invisible; no longer noticeable to birds or other nearby creatures: Hidden in plain sight.

One of my favorite places to ‘hide’ has been my own backyard. There’s a quiet, inviting creek just down the hill where the wood ducks, mallards and geese come to swim and the white-tailed deer come to drink. There are tall, mature trees on both sides of the creek that provide both shelter and a place to nest for a wide variety of songbirds, and a small contingency of squirrels. Most days, there’s a delightful cacophony of birds singing and wild turkeys gobbling as they try to attract a mate. Interspersed with all the singing and gobbling, you will hear the rat-ta-tat-tat of the woodpeckers and, in early spring, there will be the soothing chorus of tree frogs.

When I’m not on my home turf, my favorite hiding place is anywhere I can find a source of water, no matter how small. This past winter, when the creek was mostly frozen over, there was a very small opening in the ice where three thirsty robins had gathered for a drink. It made for a great shot! A few days ago, I was standing quietly among the cattails along the mucky edge of a very tiny pond, when a red-winged Blackbird landed directly in front of me! Another great photo opportunity!

As much as I enjoyed getting that close-up of a Red-winged Blackbird, it is not the most interesting or challenging bird I’ve attempted to photograph. The real picture prize for me has been the Belted Kingfisher. It’s virtually impossible for me to photograph unless I’ve been standing inconspicuously for a very long time! If the Kingfisher arrives before I do, I don’t stand a chance! It knows I am coming long before I even leave the house!

My best ‘hiding in plain sight’ shot was not a Kingfisher or a Red-winged Blackbird, but a Bald Eagle! I had been standing in the tall grass along the edge of a lake when an impressively large Bald Eagle swooped down out of nowhere, grabbed a fish from the water in front of me and quickly flew off! Luckily, I was able to get in a few shots before he totally disappeared! It was the best catch of the day—at least for me!!

The secret to hiding in plain sight is simple: be quiet and be ready! It also helps to have your camera mounted on a tripod or a monopod so that the act of lifting the camera to your eye doesn’t scare away your subject. Once you find a place to stand, check your camera settings, take a few practice shots, and then be still!  If you’re lucky, you’ll soon blend in to the landscape!

I never know what surprises await me, but I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I’ve been able to hide in plain sight and photograph all the critters who might otherwise disappear at the very sight of me!