exploring nature’s infinite connections
One year ago, I wrote about a bit of a rabbit hole I stepped into regarding the name of a local city-owned nature preserve and confusion over some naming on the maps of a couple of streams that run through or around the Plum Brook Nature Preserve (aka. Sterling...
Autumn colors are coming to a peak (edit: now past) here in Southeast Michigan, about right on time this year. They dissipated a bit faster than I would have liked. I took an opportunity to visit a nearby 90-acre nature preserve. Places like this are far and few...
It's been a bit of a rare occurrence lately where I go to let our dogs out in the morning and am instantly struck by how beautiful it is outside. Like - run inside and grab your camera beautiful out. Even though there have been some nice sunrises this time of year, I...
The vernal equinox is upon us again and that means it is a great time to pay attention to the often-overlooked flooded areas in our forests and even small woodland areas. What some consider to be "just puddles" - many creatures call these places home and essential to...
Walking one of our dogs this morning when it was 19°F (-7°C) certainly made it perfectly clear that winter is coming, by the calendar date anyway. Of course, meteorological winter already arrived 7 days ago. We've already had our first snow, first snow that sticks,...
While sitting in my yard this past week on a breezy, warm spring day, I was hearing a lot of objects falling to the ground, much like you would expect in a hail storm. My first assumption is usually an angry squirrel throwing things down at intruders, but the quantity...
Blue ice is in the headlines of various news stories about Great Lakes winters over the past 5 years or so. While it is often referred to as "rare," I haven't found any substantiating studies explaining why that is other than articles trying to gain attention in...
Earlier this year in April, my wife and I took part in a Vernal Pool volunteer training workshop that enlists citizen scientists to help a monitoring program underway by Michigan State University and the Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI). This was,...
Everytime I take a walk in our woods, I feel like it is a conversation catching up with what is going on lately. In these transition times of the year, quite a bit is happening! Bird songs are in the air, and it won't be long now before the frogs join them in chorus....