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Bald-faced Hornet Nest Construction: Starting Small
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…
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Red Clover and June Butterflies
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…
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Snapping Turtle Lays Eggs: This Morning in the Park
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.…
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A June Morning: 8 Images
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…
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When Young Praying Mantises Emerge
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…
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First Spring Wildflowers: The Season Begins
It is always a challenge picking the dates, weeks in advance, for early spring wildflower walks. The challenge is in selecting a time when the short-lived blooms are visible. They are called “ephemerals” for a reason. This year Spring has been colder than average here in Detroit and first flowering is later than normal. But,…
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Hemp Dogbane: Extended Seed Dispersal
One of the advantages of walking in the same park regularly — and of taking pictures in different seasons — is that I have the opportunity to see and to review later the ways in which different species develop over the months. As I approached a patch of Hemp Dogbane in Eliza Howell Park this…
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Cavity Nesting Birds: The Season Begins
As I indicated in the last post, April is a month for checking the forest floor, looking for and admiring the emerging spring wildflowers. April is also a month for checking dead trees or limbs as well as holes/cavities in live trees. There are approximately 14 bird species that (always or usually) nest in tree…
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Focus on Forest Floor Flowers: April Watch
One of the annual field trips offered by Detroit Audubon is a spring woodland wild flower walk in Eliza Howell Park. In winter, I select a date for that event, long before I have a sense of how quickly spring will progress. Based on past records, this year’s date is April 23. It’s a cold…
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Mourning Cloak: An Unusual Butterfly
The last week in March was warmer in Detroit in 2021 than it is this year. On March 27 a year ago, I saw the first butterfly of the year in Eliza Howell Park, a Mourning Cloak, definitely one of my favorites. Because it is one of the few butterfly species that spend the winter…
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Eliza Howell Nature Walk 