Ross Coastal Plain Marsh and Farview Park

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh in Van Buren County, Michigan is where Marie and I were able to go for a long walk, through the woods, on the first day of October 2013.  I had my eye out for Autumn Coralroot, which is an orchid and blooms into autumn, I have seen here before.

Parking on 44th avenue it is about one and a half miles  to  Mud Lake which is the largest lake at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh.  There are some house foundations here from the previous owners.

Remnants of a house at Mud Lake.

 At first I thought this vine was Poison Ivy but a closer look showed it was Virginia Creeper.

Then we saw an odd tan pile of something on the ground.  Directly above this pile we noticed hundreds of aphids on the branch of an American Beech tree.  Closer inspection told us it was a big pile of  aphid secretion.  We saw these piles a few times always under American Beech trees.  I guess these aphids are even called Beech Woolly Aphid or Beech Blight Aphid. I wonder why I never noticed this before? 

  

 We did find some nice looking Beechdrops.

We walked more than 3 miles, got back to the car and drove north.  In Allegan County, Laketown Township, we visited Farview Nature Park.  Another couple miles to walk, bringing our walk total to ~five miles for the day.

 Farview Nature Park

 That was it for this adventure, another fun time.

Hemlock Crossing

The day after Christmas we visited Hemlock Crossing, an Ottawa County park.  This is a great park, miles of trails, the Pigeon River, many wetlands, natural springs, and woods, also several scenic overlooks of the river, a pedestrian bridge, a kayak/canoe launch, and an impressive Nature Education Center.  It connects by foot trails to Pine Bend, another Ottawa County park down along the Pigeon River.



We had a wonderful day (4 hours) exploring almost every corner of this park.  This is what we saw ...   

  

 I would like to know what this "plant" is, moss or fern?  What kind?

 We were able to walk in this creek, that was fun.

 This is the kayak/canoe launch.

We found this maple bud/flower?  This is December so it is probably a bud.  Red Maple or Silver maple?

Train bridge over Pigeon River just outside the park.
Hemlock Crossing is located in Port Sheldon Township, along the Pigeon River, at 8115 West Olive Road, West Olive, MI 49460.  This is south of Grand Haven and north of Holland.


This is the Ottawa County site for this park,

http://www.co.ottawa.mi.us/ParksVI/Parks/hemlockcrossing.htm

I miss that blue sky.

Hawthorn Natural Pond Area and Farview Nature Park and Horse Trail

2011 11 01 Back to Hawthorn Pond Natural Area, a 40 acre site, south of Adams Street on Black River Court in Holland Township.  It contains a five-acre freshwater pond that is ringed with a path, also has lookout sites, a kayak launch ramp and fishing stations.  
We were here on August 22 of this year, then there were machines working to make this place into a park.  Things are still scarred from the machines but next spring it will look better. 

We walked counterclockwise part way around the pond until we came to a bit of a trail heading over to the Macatawa River.  I have to say I'm not overly impressed by this river, the water is brown and cloudy. 

Of course we came to a deer trail and continued on it along the river, heading south then west towards highway
US 196 also known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, near exit 52.  Along the way we found some great trees, sycamores, paw paws, maples, oaks.

We walked north toward the pond and went through some very wet woods.  We even found smartweed blooming.

We came across this old car, Marie did some research and found out it is probably a 1955 Pontiac Chieftain.
Here are some maps, first map Hawthorn Pond is at the number 1.

The red line is where we walked, sort of, about 1 mile total.
Next we drove down the road southwest 13.5 miles to Farview Nature Park and Horse Trail (6257 138th Avenue Allegan County Michigan).  We were here last on August 23, 2010.

               Horse trail sign.

                More signage.

Historic Wait-Station for Electric Interurban Railroad.

Entrance to Farview Park

Bench at the pond.

Through the woods...

to the lake, Farview Lake.  The shrub with red berries is Winterberry (or Michigan Holly).  We found Nodding Ladies' Tresses but the petals were brown, far past their prime.

A few wildflowers still blooming!  Queen Anne's Lace, goldenrod,  and Spotted Knapweed  were blooming yet, along with this aster.

At the "top" of the lake we rested in a sunny, sandy spot.  Did some research in the tree books, Marie had a red dragonfly land right on the open book.  Nice.

Walking around the lake, we saw a Common Buckeye butterfly, a pintail duck, a yellow butterfly, Bayberry bushes, Blue Jays, and sunfish.

Top is the first Common Buckeye we saw, then 20 minutes later down the trail, another one.

Back to the car at 2:12, it was 62 degrees beautiful day for this late in the fall.