Eliza Howell Nature Walk

In early July in Detroit’s Eliza Howell Park, Wild Bergamot begins to bloom. For nature watchers, it is an important and exciting time, a signal that the summer buterfly season is here. As is evident from this recently taken photo, Wild Bergamot attracts a variety of other insects in addition to butterflies. My focus here, […]

One of my annual projects is to make note of all the Bald-faced Hornet nests that I am able to spot in Eliza Howell Park (most years, about 10). I usually start seeing them in early September and continue to find more as leaves fall. They are large, but often placed in the thick of […]

In mid-June in Detroit, Summer meadow wildflowers are just beginning to bloom and butterflies are becoming active. Among the flowers now blooming, one is clearly attracting more butterflies than others: Red Clover. Other flowers that are butterfly magnets — like Wild Bergamot, Purple Coneflower, Joe Pye Weed — usually start blooming in July. So, for […]

When I first spotted the large Snapping Turtle in the field during my walk in Eliza Howell Park this morning, I immediately suspected that it was on a mission to find warm friable earth for laying and burying eggs. The Common Snapping Turtle has a carapace (upper shell) that is over a foot in length. […]

While most of my attention is focused on nesting birds prior to the June 11 Detroit Audubon field trip here, Eliza Howell Park is increasingly looking more like summer (that is, more evidence of meadow flowers and of insects). Here are a few images from my walk in the park in the morning of June […]

The marvelous month of May has arrived in Eliza Howell Park and it is bringing out nature lovers. The forest floor is alive with small ephemeral flowers and some of the elusive colorful warblers are pausing briefly on their 3000-mile annual spring migration from Central America to the North Woods. One of the marvels of […]