Thinking about warmer times

I’m sitting across from our wood stove at Whitefish Point in a warm room looking outside where the temperature is currently 7F. Tomorrow we’re heading into eastern Chippewa county in search of some winter birds. Who knows how that will go?

But I am also thinking about last week when Susan and I visited Gallup and Furstenburg Parks in Ann Arbor and then Nan Weston which is also in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

The new bridge at Gallup Park on the warm day that we visited in search of waterfowl.

Looking at the Huron River to the west from the bridge.

Mute and Trumpeter Swans dominated the waterfowl. There was also at least 1-2 Tundra Swans, as well as a lot of Canada Geese and Mallards.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found a Wood Duck.

There was a small flock of Hooded Mergansers, which are always nice to see.

Heading over to Furstenburg Park we were able to get close looks at the cones of European Alder (Alnus glutinosa). But we also found two Cedar Waxwings feeding on buckthorn.

The next day, which was also quite warm we headed west to Nan Weston, south of Chelsea.

Skunk cabbage was up as was waterleaf.

Beechdrops are always nice to see.

New York Scalewort was the second liverwort that we found. Liverworts are closely related to mosses.

Bitternut hickory and leatherwood are both easy to identify in winter.

But what we were really looking for was puttyroot, and orchid with leaves that are present all winter. The main site that we find them had none that were visible, perhaps they were under the leaf-litter.

But finally, there was a glowing green leaf sitting above the leaf-litter. This is a puttyroot leaf, our first orchid sighting of the year.

More tomorrow…