I Am Not Hamlet

 Here's the first one for the year. What's cool is it's being picked up by the Planet Detroit newsletter . Anyway, this piece is a bit of a love letter to my friendly-neighborhood river.

The following photos were taken on 10 April 2020 at Crosswinds Marsh in Wayne County, MI. That day was the first warm day this spring as evidenced by the insect and reptile activity. I had been to the marsh before, but I had only explored some of it by water as my son was earning his canoeing merit badge with his BSA troop there. I was impressed with the size of the property, though work is needed to rid it of massive amounts of phragmites and to a lesser extent, common buckthorn and autumn olive. The marsh only exists because when Detroit Metropolitan Airport expanded they drained some wetlands that were located on the proposed expansion. So, in a wise program of replacement, Crosswinds Marsh was created about 10 miles SE of the airport. Given that it was the Friday before Palm Sunday, and not expecting to have any palms for the celebration, I found many salixes growing around and cut about two dozen branches for their pussy willows in solidarity with the Eastern European tradi...

This moss and the deer fur images were taken in Grand Ledge, MI This prickly cucumber husk and the images that follow were taken at Crosswinds Marsh in Wayne County, Michigan.

We're still on lock-down, and while I don't want to downplay the economic devastation this is wreaking, some people like to throw around totalitarian state metaphors. Please, talk to someone who lived under the Soviet regime or other dictatorial states and then tell us how this is like that. Anyway, we are free to enjoy the outdoors. Given that this is spring, much emerges: plant life, insects and amphibians, and the call of reproduction. Frogs and toads call (when the weather isn't too cold) and birds defend territories and put on displays of virility. This group of photos is from 3 April 2020 at Sterling State Park, which is Michigan's only state park on Lake Erie. Get outside before you miss the sounds, the smells of spring. And the ephemerals...don't miss their show. Sterling State Park is part of a delta for Lake Erie so there are plenty of waterfowl, like the scaups above. Last year's investment The American robin is so common I d...

Greetings during the Plague Spring. Most of you probably have Stay-At-Home orders of some kind, but allowances are given to go outside and enjoy the emerging life. Here are some photos from the first phase of this lock-down. The first set are from a visit to Kensington MetroPark in Milford, MI. People may have to slow down and refrain from normal economic activity, but nature does not. This photo and the next two are from the Bishop Lake unit of Brighton State Recreation Area in Brighton, MI, very near the edge of SE Michigan. The Huron River How often have you gone out? What are you noticing that you have never noticed before because you were working? I'll be posting more as I process my photos.

It's spring (in the northern hemisphere)--so that means about a billion different things.  One thing it means to me is garlic mustard is sprouting again; soon to stretch to adult heights.  So, on Thursday, 4 April, we trekked off to the Martin Hollow to survey that damned plant.  The bad news?  It's still around.  The good news is, thanks to two years of intensive pulling there is a heck of a lot less on our property this year.  In fact, we weren't very diligent, but we only pulled about a half pound or so of that stinking weed.  One of my areas of concern only had about 20 plants in it--that's good considering each adult can contain about 900-3,000 seeds depending on whom you consult.  Now, we make forays on to the neighbor's land--the person is absentee, so you can grumble about trespassing all you want, but he or she is NOT stewarding the property, and if I don't do it, it'll only be back on my land soon enough. public domain photo This s...

autumn olive berries     What does cutting down the invasive shrub autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) on a cold Saturday in January have to do with the Gospel?  Quite a bit, it turns out.      My family has been trying to figure out a way to incorporate community service (a bland phrase, if ever there was one) into our monthly schedule.  So, for our first attempt I took my wife and children to Island Lake State Park in SE Michigan to help restore (in a very small way) an oak savanna.  An oak savanna (or as the old timers called it "oak barrens") was one of a few landscape types found in lower Michigan prior to European/American settlement.  Essentially, it's a prairie with some oaks scattered here and there.  The Indians maintained prairies by setting the land afire occasionally to keep them relatively treeless.  Thus providing habitat for the largest food source available--the American bison.  The Western way of farm...

Last Sunday the Martin family took another step in securing our small homestead: we had a prescribed burn in our woodlot.  The purpose was to kill young exotics, stimulate the nutrient cycle, jump start a natural process, and frankly burn stuff.  Smokey the Bear is a great marketing tool, but he has unwittingly contributed to huge forest fires by creating the idea of a fire regime as some horrible and cruel act of nature (or man) that is to be avoided like taxes.  Perhaps moreso.  Regular burns in natural areas helps to cut down on titanic conflagrations as they burn up combustible fuel that collects regularly in forests and other ecosystems.  Additionally, fire creates a check on invasive, opportunistic species (mostly plants) that are not fire adapted.  All in all, an occasional fire is a good thing.      The first thing the crew did was prep the area.  This is accomplished by a quick survey and then blowing or raking leaf litt...