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!”

Waiting for Spring

February 22, 2023

On February 12th, I saw my first red-winged blackbird for the season! It seemed too early, I thought. I didn’t expect them to return until March. Within a week, though, I heard a whole chorus of red-winged blackbirds singing in the cattails down by the creek behind our house. It’s the quintessential sound of spring and I love it! I wanted to throw open all our windows and soak up that first glimmer of hope that spring would soon be here in earnest.

**Backyard Blue Jay in the early morning light**

But as I write this, I’m snuggled up in front of a fire, with a hot cup of tea close by, hoping we won’t lose power during the upcoming ice storm. All the schools are closed, and so are many businesses, hoping to avoid disaster. The ice storm might materialize, it might not. Such are the vagaries of winter in Michigan: one day it feels like spring, and the next day it feels like we’re living in Antarctica.

**Canada Goose making a dramatic landing on the ice!**

I basically have a love/hate relationship with winter. I love the snow, but hate the long overcast days that bring the snow. I love getting pictures of all the winter birds that migrate through Michigan, but hate all the layers and layers of clothing I have to wear to get those pictures. I love a bright, sunny winter day as an antidote to all the gloomy ones, but it’s hard to get a good picture on a brilliant sunny afternoon against a snowy background.

**A happy looking female Mallard on a cold winter day in Michigan**

Most of all, I miss the colors and all the warm-weather critters I love to photograph, like the big yellow butterflies, the swampy green frogs, the multitudes of colorful dragonflies, and the iridescent blue swallowtails that nest under the bridge in a nearby park.

**Male Hooded Merganser on a layover through Michigan**

Before the pandemic and before we had an aging, incontinent dog to care for, we went to Florida for a few months where I could soak up all the colors and all the interesting critters we never see in Michigan. I have taken pictures of the majestic roseate spoonbills, the brilliant purple gallinules, the pastel pink dragonflies, and a million different Florida flowers! It’s a wonderland of color that I had come to depend on to get me through the drab days of a Michigan winter.

In the meantime, I have been out looking for whatever beauty I can find wherever I can find it, and taking lots of pictures. Whether it’s a chickadee in a snowstorm, a woodpecker on a sunny day, a snow-covered deer in our backyard, or a ubiquitous brown fox squirrel peeking out around a tree in the early morning light, it’s all good, and it’s all fun.

**White-tailed deer right outside our back door**

I just wish winter didn’t last so long!

Red Saddlebags with Mites

March 26, 2020

In the midst of this global pandemic, I feel grateful that I can still go out for walks. No matter how anxious or stressed I am by all the heartache and suffering this pandemic has caused, if I can get out for a while and take pictures, I always feel better when I return.

Green Heron and a Louisianna Waterthrush

I enjoy going to a wide variety of places in hopes of finding a wide variety of interesting things to photograph. But, when I’m limited in the number of choices I have, I just change the time of day that I go– which changes the light as well as the creatures who might be out and about. In the past ten days, I’ve been to nine places, two of which were repeat visits. No matter how many times I go, I always manage to find something that surprises or delights me. If nothing else, it’s all good photography practice. When I do find something unusual, it’s fun to do a little research later and find out more about it.

Great Blue Heron and a Black-necked Stilt

One thing that has really helped my research endeavors is an app called iNaturalist. When I don’t know the name of the bird or bug or plant I’ve photographed, I enter the picture into the app and, within a few seconds, I get back several suggestions as to what it might be. Once I am reasonably certain that I have correctly identified my subject, I go online for more information. That’s how I identified this dragonfly called a Red Saddlebags.

“ The red-mantled saddlebags or red saddlebags is a species of skimmer dragonfly found throughout the eastern United States. It has translucent wings with red veins, and has characteristic dark red blotches at their proximal base, which makes the dragonfly look as if it is carrying saddlebags when flying.”

One interesting thing that you can see on this dragonfly are tiny red dots. A few years ago, this phenomenon surprised me. You can’t really see them with the naked eye (unless, perhaps, the dragonfly is in your hand), so, I was quite surprised the first time I saw the red spots on a dragonfly when I had enlarged a picture on my computer. They’re called mites.

“…these bright red mites, from the tick family, are hitchhikers that feed on body fluids. They jump off when the host drops down over a new pond or wetland.”

Apparently, these mites have little or no adverse effect on their host dragonfly, unless you happen to be a male dragonfly with a body full of them, in which case, you might not be as successful as your friends during the mating process.

White Peacock Butterfly and a Tri-colored Heron

Anhinga and Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Wherever you are in this world living through this pandemic, I wish you good health. If you are able, take a restorative walk outside now and then and look for something that surprises or delights you. If that’s not possible (or not particularly fun for you!), I hope these virtual walks serve a similar purpose!

Stay well.