All the things I did not know

July 18, 2026

There are so many things I didn’t know before falling into this nature photography hobby that it’s actually impossible to cover them all. Here is just a sampling of some of my favorite discoveries!

**Out on a Picture Walk with a Nikon D500 camera, a Sigma 150-600mm lens,**
**and a monopod holding everything up!**

It’s never been enough to just take a picture and move on. It’s never been enough to just know the names of the plants and creatures that show up in front of my lens. I’ve always needed to know what makes them special and why they do the things they do. Why do dragonflies point the tips of their ‘tails’ toward the sun on a hot summer day? Why do some birds flail around on the ground? Why do grackles puff out their chests and point their beaks upwards? Almost every picture I’ve taken needs an answer.

Did you know that there are more than 5,000 species of dragonflies? That they were some of the first winged insects to evolve 300 million years ago and that they used to have wingspans of two feet or more? I had no idea!

It wasn’t until I started taking pictures that I learned dragonflies and damselflies come in multitude of colors; red, pink, blue, green, yellow, gold, purple, black… almost every color you can imagine. I had barely paid them any notice before going on picture walks!

When I found a dragonfly pointing the tip of its tail toward the sun on a hot summer day, I wanted to know why. What I found out was fascinating! This is how dragonflies regulate their body temperature and prevent overheating! Their handstand-like posture is known as an ‘obelisk pose’. By aligning their tails directly with the sun’s rays, a dragonfly minimizes the surface area of its body exposed to solar radiation!

**Male Blue Dasher** **dragonfly in the ‘obelisk pose’**

**Female Blue Dasher dragonfly in the ‘obelisk pose’**

When I first saw a bird flailing around on the ground like this Black-capped Chickadee, I thought it was injured. When I approached to see if I could help, it flew away! Why was it on the ground in the first place??

The behavior this chickadee was engaged in is called “anting.” Birds will intentionally cover themselves with ants in order to benefit from the formic acid that ants release when they’re disturbed. The acid helps with controlling parasites, soothing irritated skin, and serves as a natural insecticide or fungicide!

Before photography took over my life, I didn’t know that grackles could be so beautiful or that they could establish dominance, attract a mate, or settle a dispute by merely pointing their beaks in the air. It’s called ‘the grackle stance’, ‘sky pointing’, or ‘bill tilting’. Grackles tip their bills straight up, extend their neck as far as they can, and puff out their chests to look as large and as intimidating as possible. The one who holds that stance the longest, wins the dispute! If they’re trying to impress the females, the grackle who lasts the longest or looks the most fit, takes home the girl!

**Common Grackles demonstrating the ‘grackle stance’**

American Bullfrogs are my favorite amphibians and I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of them over the years. It wasn’t until recently that I learned you could tell a boy frog from a girl frog by the size of their ears! Look for a circle next to the bullfrog’s big, bulgy eyes. It’s called a tympanic membrane, a tight patch of skin that acts like an eardrum. If that circle is bigger than the frog’s eye, it’s a boy!

**Boy Bullfrog with a very big tympanic membrane!**

Some butterflies, like monarchs, also have ears! They don’t look anything like our ears or a frog’s ears, but they do have specialized, drum-like membranes called tympanal organs located at the base of their forewings that allow them to ‘hear’ the vibrations of fluttering wingbeats made by approaching predatory birds!

You can’t tell the sex of a butterfly by its ears like you can a bullfrog, but you can tell a boy monarch from a girl by two black dots. Male monarchs have two prominent black spots (scent glands) on their hind wings that are used to attract mates. Female monarchs do not.

I had never seen a turtle like this one before (with its bright yellow neck) until I took a picture. It has a interesting life history, a threatened existence, and a compelling reason for us to protect it.

This is a Blanding’s turtle and, unlike most other creatures, it shows virtually no signs of biological decline as it ages. A 90-year-old turtle remains as healthy, active, and reproductively viable as a 20-year-old! Researchers who have been studying this ‘fountain of youth’ feature of the Blanding’s turtle are looking for ways to delay age-related diseases in humans, such as hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, cataracts, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s.

Unfortunately, the Blanding’s turtle is listed as Endangered, Threatened, or a species of Special Concern in most of the areas where it resides. Sadly, it faces the same or similar threats as many other species with whom we share this planet: habitat loss and fragmentation, predation, climate change, and pesticide use. So many plants and animals that we destroy hold the secrets to a better life for us. What harms them, harms us.

One of my favorite plant discoveries has been ‘bee balm’, also known as monarda. Given the right conditions, bee balm grows abundantly in the wild, but can also be grown in your garden. It’s a wonderful little plant for attracting hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. But there’s another insect that loves bee balm just as much: a hummingbird moth! This fascinating insect is a little bigger than a bee but smaller than a hummingbird, and has been mistaken for both. It likes the same flowers as bees and hovers in front of them like a hummingbird to gather nectar.

**Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Bee Balm**

Before taking pictures, I didn’t know that some robins stayed here all winter. I thought, like everyone else, that they were the true ‘harbingers of spring’. But, on my wintertime picture walks, I discovered them up in the trees eating berries! If robins can find enough berries over the winter, they won’t migrate. We tend to think of them as just spring and summer birds because that’s when we are more likely to see them; out on our lawns pulling up worms!

**American Robin enjoying winter berries**

**American Robin enjoying juniper berries** **in the winter**

Surprisingly, Robins and other berry-eating birds, like Cedar Waxwings, can become intoxicated if the berries they’re gulping down are fermented!

**Cedar Waxwing enjoying Juniper Berries**

One of my biggest bird surprises was finding cuckoos in Michigan! I didn’t even know we had cuckoos anywhere in the United States, let alone Michigan (at least not the feathered kind)! My only ‘cuckoo’ experience had been in Scotland years ago! But Scotland and Michigan host completely different species. Scotland has a Common Cuckoo; Michigan has the Black-billed Cuckoo and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Even though we rarely see these birds, cuckoos are good to have around. Our Michigan Cuckoos love eating spongy moth caterpillars (formally known as gypsy moth caterpillars) which defoliate our trees and kill the weakener ones.

In just a few weeks I’ll be on the hunt for one of my favorite insects, the Praying Mantis. I love finding them and taking their picture because, unlike any other insect on the planet, a Praying Mantis can turn its head 180 degrees and look me straight in the eye! How weird is that?

There seems to be an infinite number of plants and creatures that I never knew about before walking out my door ten years ago, camera in hand, to go on my first picture walk—and I expect there’s an infinite number left waiting to be discovered!

**In search of another interesting subject!**

I learn something new every time I go out!

Collateral Benefits

November 4, 2022

This time of year, when all the beautiful summer flowers have died back, when many of the birds and most of the butterflies have already left for the season, and when my favorite amphibian, the American bullfrog, sits in the muck at the bottom of a pond until spring, I’m often hard-pressed to find things to photograph.

**My favorite amphibian, the American Bullfrog, before hibernating for the winter**

**An Eastern Phoebe and a Common Buckeye**

On a recent picture walk, for example, I trudged around for hours with my heavy camera equipment slung across my shoulders hoping for at least one tiny bird or one late-season dragonfly to land nearby. But all I managed to capture that day was a chipmunk, a fungus, and a fern!! The fungus and the fern were mostly desperation shots (for lack of anything better to shoot), and the chipmunk, well, chipmunks are just cute. I had hoped for so much more!

**Just one of a bazillion adorable chipmunks running around the woods!**

As the world is slowly being drained of color, and the weather vacillates wildly from blissfully pleasant to bitterly disgusting, it takes a lot more motivation, and a whole lot more creative thinking on my part to go for a picture walk. It’s so much harder to find things to photograph! My slow deliberate rambles become even slower as I take more time to investigate whether some nondescript plant has any ‘picture potential’. I ponder the possibilities of a curled-up leaf, or a milkweed pod, as well as a host of other ubiquitous things, like mushrooms, mallards, and geese, to see if something ordinary can look extraordinary—or at least interesting! Usually, if I look hard enough and long enough, I’ll find something!

**Interesting leaf patterns and designs**

**Milkweed Pod bursting forth** **with seeds**

**Apples and Pears at the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market**

To keep the boredom from setting in, I rotate through a variety of different nature preserves, both near and far. They may have the same birds, and the same dying plants that I have near to home, but the setting is new! I also go out at different times of the day, in different kinds of weather, with one lens or the other, just to mix things up and to keep myself from losing interest.

**A Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a Yellow-rumped Warbler**

Since I started this hobby several years ago, I’ve taken well over 200,000 pictures! I don’t really ‘need’ another mallard, goose, or chipmunk, but I do need all the collateral benefits that come with every walk in the woods, every amble through a field of goldenrod, and every contemplative moment I’ve spent beside a pond watching a bird glide effortlessly along, or a great blue heron stand motionless for hours waiting for lunch to swim by. When I’m out on a picture walk, totally immersed in the task at hand, there’s absolutely no room left in my head for anything else. It’s the perfect antidote to life’s worries.

It’s those collateral benefits that keep me going back for more.

Strange Blessings

September 25, 2022

There are many things I am thankful for in this life; the love of family, our good health, food on the table, a roof over our heads, and a multitude of other blessings. Near the very bottom of that list, but certainly not last, I am thankful that flowers don’t fly! It may seem like a very strange thing to be thankful for, but I am a nature photographer, and things that don’t fly are so much easier to photograph than things that do!

A beautiful Purple Coneflower with a crown of jewels!

Great Willowherb– which happens to be a very tiny flower!

I’m always a bit anxious when I photograph things that fly because there is just the tiniest window of opportunity to get things right before the winged creature disappears! Once I spot the bird, butterfly, or dragonfly, there’s rarely enough time to adjust the focus, let alone change the ISO, the f-stop and the shutter speed before they disappear!

Female Mallard who was gracious enough to let me take her picture and not fly away!

An American Goldfinch and a Cedar Waxwing.

A Great Spangled Fritillary and a tiny Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly

The other difficult thing about winged creatures is, they never let you know when they’re leaving! I remember the first time I was trying to take a picture of a butterfly. It was years ago, but it still comes back to me every time something flies away without a sound. For some reason, I kept thinking that the creatures I was taking pictures of would make some kind of noise when they left, like people do when they shuffle their feet, shut the door, or say goodbye. You definitely know when humans have left. Most of the time, you even know exactly where to find them! But not so much with birds and butterflies! They just silently flutter away without a sound and, most of the time, I have absolutely no idea where they’ve gone. I wish they all wore bells!

A male Slaty Skimmer dragonfly and a female Indigo Bunting

Eastern Carpenter Bee that can also be difficult to capture!

A few bigger birds, like the great blue heron and the little green heron will, on occasion, let you know they’re leaving by blurting out a raspy squawk or two. Sometimes, I can even get a decent picture as they depart. Or, consider the lowly bullfrog, who doesn’t exactly have wings, but will at least let me know when it’s leaving by yelling, “YEEP!” as it jumps into the water. Unfortunately, by the time I hear the “YEEP”, it’s too late for a picture!

A Green Heron and a Narrow-headed Marsh Fly

American Bullfrog that will leap in fright if he notices me coming!

If turtles hear or feel my footfalls, or if they see me coming, they will dive under water as fast as they can!

That’s why I’m thankful for flowers. They don’t fly off and they don’t leap in fright when they hear me coming. I can walk right up and take a picture! I can take a hundred pictures if I like. I can change my settings a million times, take a break for lunch, make a phone call, and come back later. They never fly away!

A Black Gloss Snail and a Chinese Praying Mantis– almost as good as a flower for not moving!

An elm leaf and bottlebrush grass only move in the wind, but don’t fly away!

In a world where everything else disappears without so much as a polite goodbye, it’s a total luxury to photograph flowers –as well as anything else that doesn’t leap, fly, dive, or run away in fright!

Three Gifts

June 4, 2022

I have a mental checklist that I review every time I leave the house for a picture walk: Is my camera battery fully charged? Is my memory card inserted? Do I have an extra card and an extra battery? Do I have my phone and is it fully charged? Do I have my monopod? But, after what happened yesterday, I should probably switch my mental list to an real list!

I was off on another picture adventure and eager to see what surprises awaited me. My destination was a favorite nature center about an hour away from home. Whenever I go on a picture adventure, I feel an immediate sense of calm wash over me once I arrive. Yesterday was no exception. I drove into the parking lot, took a deep, relaxing breath, and prepared for my three-hour escape into nature’s arms– until I realized there was no memory card in my camera!!

Canada Goose on a nest and goose parents with their goslings

I had made this mistake before and had come prepared with an emergency back-up card! Perfect! Once the card was inserted, I happily set off into the ‘wild’ hoping for a day filled with beautiful little creatures and colorful flowers. My joy was short-lived.

Female Mallard and a Semi-palmated Plover

Forty-five minutes into my walk, after taking only three measly pictures, my memory card said ‘full’!! What??? How could that be?? I tried every ‘high tech’ solution I could think of to remedy the situation: pull the card out and put it back in; turn off the camera, turn it back on, and re-format the memory card–repeatedly. Nothing worked! It was time for plan B! Look for the nearest store!

I hustled back to my car as fast as a marginally nimble 75 year-old can hustle on an uneven boardwalk with an expensive camera, a 600mm lens, and a 5 foot monopod! Once in my car, I drove as quickly as was legally possible to the nearest store to find another memory card– and hope that it worked. It didn’t. But I had already driven back to the nature center before I found out!

At that point, I could have just thrown in the towel. I could have just gone for a ‘regular’ walk and not taken pictures. But it was completely impossible for me to do that! This particular nature center had a butterfly house. It was the perfect place for close-up shots of stunning and unusual butterflies. I had to stay!

White Peacock Butterfly in the Butterfly House at the Nature Center

Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly and a Hobomok Butterfly

Garden White Butterfly in the Butterfly House at the Nature Center

Monarch Butterfly in the Butterfly House at the Nature Center

So, I went back into town to a different store and looked for a different memory card. While standing in the aisle reading the descriptions on each of the various cards, I suddenly realized why the first card hadn’t work and dashed out of the store. Back to the nature center for my third and final attempt at trying to salvage what was left of an otherwise lovely day!

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly in the Butterfly House at the Nature Center

Zebra Longwing Butterfly in the Butterfly House at the Nature Center

I had first arrived at the nature center at 9:00 a.m. It was now noon. The soft morning light was long gone, as was the cool morning air. It had been a frustrating start to what was supposed to have been a calm and relaxing day. I was totally frazzled.

But, keeping things in perspective is everything. The day was still young. The weather was still great and, most of all, I was very much alive and well, doing something I dearly loved— three priceless gifts that not everyone gets to enjoy. It was all I really needed to remember and off I went…

Walk Slowly, Stop Often, Stay Focused

April 1, 2022

Oftentimes, when I’m out taking pictures, I think about all the things I’ve learned along the way– about photography, about the critters I’ve seen, and about myself.

There are so many things I didn’t know at the beginning of this photographic journey that I know now, and so many things I do differently as a result. When I first started taking pictures, I didn’t really have a plan and not much of a clue about what I was doing. I’d be walking along, see something pretty, and take a picture. Click! Now, I am more likely to plan ahead, to anticipate where a bird or a butterfly might land, or where the frogs and turtles might be hanging out—rather than just being surprised by random events!

Song Sparrow and a White-throated Sparrow in my backyard

Fox Sparrow and a Northern Cardinal in my backyard

While I’m out on a picture walk, I’m also thinking about the settings on my camera and whether I’ll be ready for the next shot. I walk more slowly, more quietly, and more deliberately than I used to, and pay closer attention to the all the sights, sounds and shadows around me. When there’s a faint rustling in the grass or the bushes nearby, I stop. It could be a baby bird– or it could be a giant turtle. When a small shadow passes by me on the ground, I look up in the sky to see what bird is on the wing; it could be an eagle, or it might be a red-tailed hawk. There are so many interesting things out there to photograph, but finding them and capturing them in pictures does take a fair amount of patience, and a good deal of time!

Female Mallard and a Male Northern Shoveler

Eastern Fox Squirrel high up in a dead tree

After years and years of picture walks, often to the same local places, I’ve also gotten much better at noticing changes or ‘aberrations’ in the environment. The other day, for example, there was just the slightest hint of something small and round and ‘out of place’ across the pond. It caught my attention because it had a bluish cast to it. Blue isn’t a color I usually see this time of year and I wondered if it was just somebody’s litter—or something else. When I zoomed in, I discovered that it was a turtle—the first one I’d seen since last fall! A few days later, I saw a small ‘bump’ protruding from the top of a very tall, very dead tree. It looked out of place and it grabbed my attention The little ‘bump’ turned out to be a squirrel peeking out ever so slightly from a small hole in the tree where I would have expected to see a bird. There are surprises everywhere!

Over the years, I’ve also learned the art of standing still. Many times, my picture walks have become ‘picture stands’. I’ve learned that if I stand still long enough, I become invisible. The birds go about their usual business, and chipmunks scamper by so closely that I could almost touch them.

American Tree Sparrow and a Black-capped Chickadee

When I’m not standing still, I’m barely moving; hoping not to disturb any of the creatures around me. Most of them, however, are hyper vigilant; worried that I might be a giant predator. Even the slightest movement on my part will send them scampering off. The belted kingfishers are particularly adept at knowing when I’m in the area, no matter how slowly I walk or how far away I stand. I swear they know I’m coming even before I leave the house!! The only reason I have any kingfisher shots at all is because I arrived on the scene before they did and never moved!

Turtles also know when I’m on the way, but they’re not quite as nervous as the kingfishers. Still, they can be twenty yards from shore, sitting on a log and jump overboard if I even start to lift my camera to my eye. Frogs, surprisingly, are much less ‘jumpy’ than turtles and will let me come in for a closer shot–but only if I move very slowly!

In my non-photography life, I’m often rushing around quickly trying to do two or three things at a time thinking that I’m saving time or being more efficient. I am not. When I’m out taking pictures of birds, turtles and frogs, though, speed does not work. Speed scares the animals. Speed ruins pictures. I’ve learned to walk slowly, to stop often and to stay focused, usually for hours at a time. It’s a type of meditation, I think, and it has helped keep me on an even keel– especially during these difficult years of political upheaval and pandemic isolation.

Everyday Surprises

November 5, 2021

Over the last several years, I’ve gone on hundreds of picture walks and taken thousands of pictures. I often visit the same preserves and nature centers over and over again and take pictures of the very same plants and creatures that I did before. On the surface, this might seem like an extremely boring thing to do; that I would run out of things to photograph that were interesting or novel or fun. The truth is, it never stops being fun. Every day is different and every walk brings new surprises —even if the subject matter is the same.

On rare occasions, the surprise will be a brand-new bird or a brand-new insect! More often than not, I photograph things that I’m already quite familiar with. The surprise comes when that familiar thing is in an unexpected place or shows up at an unexpected time of year. For example, I’ve taken an embarrassingly high number of bullfrog pictures. By any reasonable standard, I don’t need another bullfrog! But a few days ago, on a cool October afternoon, I was surprised to find a big green bullfrog perched comfortably on a log soaking in what little sun he could find. It was barely 50 degrees! I thought all the frogs would be hunkered down staying ‘warm’ under water! So I took his picture– to remind myself that frogs can tolerate much cooler temperatures than I had expected.

Last winter, in late January, I was surprised to find an Oregon Junco sitting in a tree not far from our back deck! Oregon Juncos aren’t usually found this far east, but there he was! After doing a little research, I discovered that on very rare occasions Oregon Juncos will show up in the western lower peninsula of Michigan! I learned something new!

Sometimes, the surprise I find is as simple as getting a picture at all!! Belted Kingfishers, for instance, are notoriously skittish birds. It is impossible to sneak up on one. They always see me coming no matter how carefully I approach. Whenever I’m lucky enough to actually get a picture of one, it’s because I had arrived first and the Belted Kingfisher came by later, totally unaware of my presence!

The secret to finding so many surprises, I think, is to stay curious and to expect the unexpected. Even the most ordinary things can yield extraordinary surprises.

All of the pictures here represent a surprise of one sort or another.

This is the American Bullfrog I found on a cool October day when it seemed much too chilly for any sensible frogs to be out and about!

This is the Oregon Junco that came to our backyard last January. Typically, these birds do not wander this far east. On rare occasions, though, Oregon Juncos will show up in the western lower peninsula of Michigan!

Here is one of the best pictures I’ve ever gotten of a Belted Kingfisher. He didn’t see me because I had gotten there first!

This injured Barn Owl was in an enclosure at a nature center and easy to photograph. The surprise was that the picture turned out at all– there were cage wires between my camera and the owl, but they didn’t show up in the picture!

This injured Juvenile Turkey Vulture was also at a nature center and behind cage wires. I was surprised that the wires didn’t show up in the picture and that I could see such fine detail in the Turkey Vulture’s Face.

This Virginia Giant Fly was a surprise for two reasons: I had never seen one before and it’s such a beautiful insect!

Eastern Bluebirds still surprise me because, for the longest time, I didn’t realize that many of them stay here in Michigan all winter, especially in the lower peninsula where I live.

I was really surprised to find this Monarch Butterfly out and about on a late October day. I thought they had all left!

These Common Mergansers took me by surprise because I rarely see them and they are such beautiful birds!

I always look for Praying Mantises in the late summer and early fall, but they are usually so well camouflaged, that I’m actually quite surprised if I find one– especially if it’s in a good position to photograph!

Dark-eyed Juncos are usually on the ground foraging for food and are hard to notice. This one surprised me by landing up in a tree with colorful leaves in the background making him much easier to spot!

Milkweed pods can disperse a surprisingly large number of seeds–sometimes as many as 200!

The Common Grackle, a bird many people dislike for its aggressive behavior,
is surprisingly beautiful bird in the right light.

I was surprised to learn that White-throated Sparrows sometimes cross-breed with Dark-eyed Juncos!

This Yellow-rumped Warbler was a very pleasant surprise when it landed right where I wanted it to– on this brightly colored stem of a Pokeweed plant.

Even though we see these beautiful Fall colors every year in Michigan, they never cease to surprise and delight me!

When you maintain a sense of curiosity and wonder about the natural world, there will always be surprises!

The Peace of Wild Things

September 19, 2020

This poem by Wendell Berry was posted recently by a friend and it really resonated with me, especially during these very stressful and troubling times. It speaks volumes about the peace we can find in nature and of the comfort it can provide.

There’s nothing more that I can add to this beautiful poem, so here are a few of my wild things to enjoy vicariously…

Virginia Ctenucha Moth and Male Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

Cabbage White and Common Buckeye Butterflies

House Sparrow and Black-capped Chickadee

Eastern Phoebe and White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-legged Grasshopper, White-faced Meadowhawk Dragonfly, Familiar Bluet Damselfly and a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly

Painted Lady Butterfly and Spotted Spreadwing Damselfly

Silver Linings

September 1, 2020

I love going out in the cool morning light for a picture walk, especially during these hot summer days when the afternoon temperatures have been well into the 90s! But our lovely summer days are quickly coming to an end, a bittersweet reminder that fall and winter are close at hand. I am looking forward to the cool, crisp days of fall, but am acutely aware that they will come at a price– all the colorful butterflies, dragonflies and frogs that I love to photograph will soon be gone. Come winter, the world will be even more monochromatic.

***Autumn Meadowhawk and Eastern Pondhawk***

***Common Jewelweed and a Redbud leaf***

That said, my walk the other morning was a perfect blend of Summer and Fall. It was deliciously cool in the morning, sunny and warm by the afternoon; much too cold for the frogs and dragonflies as the day began, but plenty warm a few hours later for all my favorite creatures to be out sunning themselves!

***Differential Grasshopper and a Widow Skimmer***

***Black Saddlebags and a Blue Dasher***

Knowing full well that colder weather is nipping at my heels, I’ve been out nearly every day for at least a couple of hours trying to capture what’s left of summer. Because of the pandemic, we haven’t traveled far and I’ve been limited to visiting the same preserves and natural areas closest to home many times over. When I’m in the midst of taking my 700^th picture of a monarch or a blue dasher or a bullfrog in the same preserve I’ve been to hundreds of times, I stave off the potential monotony of it all by telling myself “It’s all practice, Jeanne, It’s all practice”– It’s a different day and a different light, every shot I take is a new challenge!

***Common Buckeye and a Silver-spotted Skipper***

The silver lining to going back to the same places over and over again is that I really get to know its inhabitants; a case in point is the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery. I’ve been going there at least twice a week for years—and even more so during this pandemic. It’s a wonderful place to explore with dozens of ponds and lots of wildflowers. I’ve been there so many times that I know the best places to look for frogs; the most likely places to find the swallows perched on limbs, and which ponds the kingfishers favor most. I thoroughly enjoy this knowledge and this familiarity —but I am still longing for a change of venue.

***American Goldfinch and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird***

**Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Starling**

Hopefully, by this time next year, the world will be open again and we can all feel safe in our travels—however small those travels may be.

A Photography Journey

August 4, 2020

As I pondered what to write today, I was thinking back on my short but immensely gratifying photography journey.

**Barn Swallow and a Belted Kingfisher**

**Eastern Kingbird and Willow Flycatcher**

It started innocently enough in the fall of 2016, when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I had no idea! But, he likes finding things that surprise me, so I gave it some thought. What I came up with was “a better camera”. For many, many years, all I had was a very small, pocket-sized, Canon Powershot.

**Brown Thrasher and Female Red-winged Blackbird**

Once I told Mel about my ‘better camera’ idea, he went to work researching it. What he came up with was another model of the Canon Powershot –but a bigger, better version with a built-in zoom lens. I now refer to this camera as my ‘gateway drug’! As soon as I realized what was possible with a better camera, I was hooked!

**Eastern Giant Swallowtail on Bull Thistle and a Great Spangled Fritillary** **on Coneflower**

**Eastern Tiger Swallowtail** **on Butterfly Bush**

**Monarch on Butterfly Weed and a Red-spotted Admiral on Queen Anne’s Lace**

It wasn’t long before I was outdoors nearly every day taking pictures of birds, butterflies, frogs, turtles– anything I could find that grabbed my attention. Eventually, though, I started musing about what I might be able to do with an even better camera—one that could capture the birds that were even farther away, and would also have a faster response time.

**Blue Dasher and a Twelve-spotted Skimmer**

Since Mel enjoys doing the research and I do not, he’s the one who went to work looking for another camera, one that would take a detachable telephoto lens. What he came up with was a Nikon D3400 and a 75-300mm lens. Once it arrived, I was out the door!

Snowberry Clearwing Moth **(aka hummingbird moth)** **on Spotted Knapweed and Bee** **Balm**

I think another year went by, maybe less, and I found myself wanting to capture creatures that were even farther away. Mel took off on another search and came up with a 150-600mm lens from Sigma that would probably do the trick. But it was much longer and much heavier than the one I currently had and I was hesitant. When it arrived, I was still hesitant. It just seemed too big and too heavy for me to handle comfortably. But I was eager to take close-ups and quickly overcame my reluctance. I have not put it down since!

**Spicebush Swallowtail on Butterfly Weed and a Viceroy** **on Button Bush**

Eventually, the constant lifting and focusing with a lens that size made my back ache and I reluctantly added a monopod to my set up. It’s a bit of a bother sometimes to have the monopod attached, but I can now focus on a subject for an indefinite amount of time without having to give my back a break.

**This insect was a huge surprise! It’s a female BOTFLY laying an egg on a blade of grass. I’ve never seen one before and didn’t know we even had them in the U.S.!**

After the Nikon D3400, came a Nikon D5600, which is what I have been using for the last couple of years. This camera and I have gone on a picture walk together nearly every day and I have taken hundreds of pictures with it on each of those walks. Periodically, I have checked to see how much ‘shutter life’ it had left.

**Juvenile Great Blue Heron and Halloween Pennant Dragonflies mating**

My D5600 had been given a shutter life of 100,000 shots. When I last checked, I had taken well over 151,000 pictures! I felt as if we were on borrowed time and decided to start looking for a new one.

**Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (dark morph) and a Pearl Crescent Butterfly**

Once again, Mel returned to the drawing board to find a camera that was well suited for wildlife photography. What he found was a Nikon D500. It arrived a just a few days ago and we have already become fast friends!

**Red-spotted Admiral and a Silver-spotted Skipper**

With a shutter life of 200,000 shots, I’m looking forward to many years and many pleasant journeys with my newest walking companion!

Treasure Hunts

Every time I pick up my camera bag and head out the door, I feel like I’m going on a treasure hunt. The treasures I find might be as simple as a single flower with the sunlight shining through, an intricate dragonfly wing, a reflection of a bird on the water, or a baby bird waiting to be fed. It’s all good– and it all serves as a powerful antidote for what is not so good during these troubled times.

Here are my favorite treasures from the past few weeks. I’ll let them tell the story…

This Bullfrog is one of my favorite treasures from the past few weeks. First of all, I love bullfrogs! They have such expressive faces and funny little bodies! This particular bullfrog was one of many at the Spirit Springs Sanctuary in Marcellus, Michigan.

When I arrived at the sanctuary shortly after dawn, the whole pond was an orchestra of bullfrog voices– a deep baritone ‘galumping’ sound that echoed all through the nearby woods. It was music to my ears!

What surprised me about this frog was that he was perched at the top of a four foot tree stump in the middle of the water. All of his friends, however, were playing it safe along the shore. What a maverick!

Another treasure was this Black Swallowtail Butterfly that conveniently landed right in front of me on a beautiful milkweed blossom. Well, it only became ‘convenient’ after I had traipsed through high weeds and brambles, risking ticks and scratches, to at least be in the vicinity of the few butterflies I saw flitting around! After that, it was a convenient shot!

I love the way sunlight plays with the flowers. This picture was originally over-exposed. I was shooting into the sun and my settings weren’t right. So, I experimented with it while I was editing and just kept making it darker and darker until I had this. I just liked the way it looked.

In the early morning light. when there’s absolutely no wind, it’s fun trying to get a perfect reflection! This Canada Goose wasn’t the least bit interested in my picture taking goals and I had plenty of time to experiment with my settings.

I must have taken a hundred pictures of this Tawny Emperor Butterfly trying to get a decent picture. It was so windy that this little emperor had all he could do just to hang onto the leaf and I had all I could do to snap a picture at just the right moment when there was a nano-second of calm. I also had my shutter speed set really high!

Snowberry Clearwing Moth (aka hummingbird moth)

For me, finding a Hummingbird Moth like this one is always a treasure. Normally, it’s hard to capture a picture of one of these moths because they flit around so quickly and their wings are a blur, but this one decided to rest for a minute or two and I was able to get a clear picture.

Dragonflies never cease to amaze me. They are not only beautiful, they are engineering marvels.

“Dragonflies are like helicopters. Or, it might be more accurate to say helicopters are like dragonflies because helicopters were designed to mimic dragonfly abilities. Dragonflies can fly in any direction (up, down, forward, backward) or simply hover. All four wings move independently and can rotate on an axis for incredible flight control. They can make hairpin turns mid-flight, changing direction instantly–and they can fly upside-down.”

As soon as I saw this insect I knew I’d never seen one before (or noticed may be a more accurate word). It looked kind of like a bumble bee but some things were quite different– like the smooth black back and the fuzzy yellow underside. The head didn’t look quite right for a bumble bee either. When I got home and used my iNaturalist app to identify it, I found out that it was probably a Silver-tailed Petal-cutter Bee. These bees cut petals off of flowers to line the walls of their nests (There are also Leafcutter Bees.)

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is such a beautiful insect and butterflies, in general, are incredible creatures– having the ability to transform themselves from caterpillars to butterflies.

“In Chinese culture, butterflies often symbolize having a long and healthy life. In Russia and in Ireland, butterflies are sometimes seen as the souls of departed loved ones waiting to pass through purgatory. In Greek mythology, butterflies are meant to show the souls of loved ones. In various Native American mythology, butterflies symbolize the human spirit.”

This stunning little plant has a rather ugly little name– Spiderwort! It is a very hardy North American native perennial with quarter-sized flowers that only last a day. As the petals fade, they become almost translucent, giving Spiderworts their other common name, Widow’s Tears.

This scrawny little bird was clinging to a spindly branch when I first saw him. I thought maybe he had fallen from a nest. I kept waiting for a parent to appear and come to the rescue.

Eventually, the little bird flew up into a nearby pine tree where Dad came to the rescue and brought his little offspring a bite to eat. (Bird ID: Cardinal)

Last but not least was this little treasure– a baby bird floundering around in a bush wondering what to do. I thought it had fallen from a nest but after 20 minutes or so, it flew up to a nearby pine tree where it was eventually fed by its very attentive Dad (a Cardinal).

So, if you’re looking for the perfect antidote to a stressful day, or the perfect complement to an otherwise happy one, go on a treasure hunt!

Outtakes: