Dowagiac Woods Nature Sanctuary

 Monday April 25 2022

Dowagiac Woods Nature Sanctuary in southwest Michigan ~ 85 miles south from my home.  Spring is said to travel north about 100 miles per week, so Spring comes earlier to Dowagiac Woods than Grand Haven.

It was a mostly cloudy day with a few sprinkles of rain and the temperature was in the low 50’s.  It has been a cooler Spring than most years, and some plants have been a bit slower too.

Here is some of what Marie and I saw on our 1 mile walk that  took us 4 hours just because there is so much to see at Dowagiac Woods.

                                           Double Hepatica on one stem

It was a wonderful day! 

Aman Park in Ottawa County Michigan - April 16 2021

    Aman Park looking down to the creek from the parking area.

Spring Wildflowers!  My sister Marie and I had an adventure at Aman Park on April 16 2021.  It started around 9:40am, it was cold, 38 degrees, and cloudy.  We spent five hours meandering along Sand Creek, we sat a few times, pretty much identified a certain buttercup, I took pictures and Marie took notes.

By the time we got back to the car, it  was sunny with a blue sky and temps up to 60 degrees.  I would have guessed we were out there 2 hours but I was wearing a watch and it said 5 hours and 10 minutes.  We had walked two miles.  Wow!   

     The south bridge over Sand Creek

      Sand Creek from the south bridge

This is the buttercup Marie identified, using Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and Peterson's Field Guide.

I think she settled on Early Buttercup (Ranunculus fascicularis).  Maybe, actually I don't remember  now... only one day later. 

Trout Lily was closed up tight.  

Bloodroot was done blooming.  We saw only a few hepatica blooming.

We started seeing a few patches of blue sky.  Some flowers will only open if it is sunny or at least bright.  Some don't seem to mind about the brightness, like the buttercups.

There were hundreds of Purple Cress blooming with their heads down, a very pretty little plant.

Many places the ground was covered with green plants.  Most of this green is Wild Ginger.

   This is the flower of Wild Ginger, most Wild Ginger plants were still in bud.

This is Dutchman's Breeches just starting to flower, later we saw more and they were fully blooming.

   Dutchman's Breeches
 

There are many Paw Paw trees at this park and they were in bud.  The flowers will have six petals and be a maroon color when they bloom.

We saw Blue Cohosh flowering.

There was one blue berry-like fruit left from last year on a dry stem of a Blue Cohosh.

   A mighty sycamore tree white against the blue sky.

   Spring Beauty 

 Spring Beauty started to react to the warmth and sunlight!  Some of the Spring Beauty were almost white and right next to them were  these very pink ones.

    Trout Lily (sleeping)

    Trout Lily lifting their heads

Virginia Bluebells were just barely blooming

I wasn't sure the trillium would be blooming yet, they usually bloom more around the end of April or early May.  We had seen a few along the way but not actually blooming.  Then we saw them!

   Large flowered Trillium

I would say we have several more weeks to see these blooming.  We are having more cold weather for another week or so but as long as they don't hard freeze they should be okay.  I really think they just started blooming recently.  

It was a perfect spring day.  I am so glad we got to spend the day outside.  I hope you enjoyed the day too.