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.
Great Blue Heron
There’s nothing more that I can add to this beautiful poem, so here are a few of my wild things to enjoy vicariously…
Pied-billed Grebe and Great Blue Heron
American Bullfrog
Virginia Ctenucha Moth and Male Widow Skimmer Dragonfly
Cabbage White and Common Buckeye Butterflies
Carolina Wren
House Sparrow and Black-capped Chickadee
Eastern Phoebe and White-breasted Nuthatch
Male Monarch Butterfly
Red-legged Grasshopper, White-faced Meadowhawk Dragonfly, Familiar Bluet Damselfly and a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly
Cicada and a Purple Coneflower
Praying Mantis
Painted Lady Butterfly and Spotted Spreadwing Damselfly
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.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Autumn Meadowhawk and Eastern PondhawkAmerican Bullfrog
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!
Blue Dasher
Differential Grasshopper and a Widow SkimmerMonarch Butterfly
Black Saddlebags and a Blue DasherBlack Elderberry
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 700th 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!
Barn Swallow
Common Buckeye and a Silver-spotted SkipperPainted Turtles
Female Baltimore Oriole
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.
Female Red-winged Blackbird
American Goldfinch and a Ruby-throated HummingbirdEastern Kingbird
Bull Thistle and Sneezeweed
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.
I have been on so many picture walks since I last wrote that I’m having a hard time choosing which pictures to post and which ones to cast aside. At this time of year, there are so many beautiful things to photograph that it’s hard to stop taking pictures! The woods and the fields are bursting with new life, and so many colors!! I take hundreds of photos every time I’m out on a walk because almost everything grabs my attention!
Flowers currently in bloom: Lupine, Lance-leaved Coriopsis, and Clover
Spiderwort
Blackberry, Clematis and Deptford Pink
Sometimes, my husband, Mel, and I go on picture walks together. He often shoots with a close-up lens, while I almost always use a 600mm telephoto lens. When we go out together, it’s nice to have a mix of shots—he finding the tiniest of bugs or the finest of detail, and me zooming in on creatures well beyond the tip of my camera. We see the world around us through a different lens—both literally, figuratively!
Left: Mel’s close-up of a Baltimore Checkerspot Caterpillar, Center: Mel’s close-up of a Canada Thistle Bud Weevil, Right: My shot of a Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly
Mel’s close-up of a female Blue Dasher
Left: Male Widow Skimmer Dragonfly, Right: Spatterdock Darner Dragonfly
Female Blue Dasher
Left: Female Slaty Skimmer, Right: Male Slaty Skimmer
The pictures here were gleaned from 14 different photo shoots at seven different locations over the course of about two weeks. All these pictures were taken in relatively close proximity to where we live: Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery (10 miles), Western Michigan University’s Business Technology and Research Park (.5 miles), West Lake Nature Preserve (10 miles), Chipman Preserve (14 miles), Pierce Cedar Creek Institute (35 miles), Kalamazoo Nature Center (10 miles) and downtown Kalamazoo for a Peregrine Falcon watch (2 miles). We’re lucky to have so many natural resources so close at hand!
Two of the juvenile falcons whose nest is on the 13th floor of a bank building in downtown Kalamazoo
Left: American Goldfinch, Right: Tree Swallows
Female Red-winged Blackbird
Wherever I take pictures, I tend to walk as slowly and as quietly as possible so that I don’t overlook anything, and so I don’t scare anything away! Surprisingly, even turtles out in a pond, far from where I am walking, will know that I’m coming long before I arrive and slip quietly into the water from wherever they are perched! Bullfrogs, sitting hidden in the grass along the shore, will leap in fright if they know I’m on my way. I’ve been startled out of my skin on more than one occasion as they catapult themselves into the nearby water and let out a loud ‘squawk’! When I do happen upon an animal or an insect that hasn’t noticed my arrival, I feel as if I’ve really accomplished something!
Left: American Bullfrog, Right: Common Snapping Turtle
Snapping Turtle making a run for it as I approached!
Shooting Butterflies in the wind!
No matter where I go or what I find, my picture walks are making this pandemic bearable. There is comfort in knowing that I have places nearby where the cycle of life quietly ambles on and the birds still find reason to sing.
A cheerful little House Wren with lots of songs to sing!