Dowagiac Woods, our first visit of 2014

April 11, 2014 was a bonus adventure day for my sister, Marie and me!  It has been a slow warm up this spring, I can still see snow piles along my driveway.  The day started out cold, mid 30's but with a promise of sun and 50's by noon.

Harbinger-of-Spring was blooming in my woods so we decided to go to Grand River Park in Ottawa County, Michigan - since in years past we have found Harbinger-of-Spring and other early spring wildflowers here. 

 Grand River Park entrance

Harbinger-of Spring

We went to Grand River Park and we were not disappointed.  Many Harbinger-of-Spring plants were blooming!
So that was nice, but we both decided we wanted to check out Dowagiac Woods in southwest Michigan.  That's about 100 miles to drive, one way.  Dowagiac Woods is owned by Michigan Nature Association and is well-known for its beautiful display of spring wildflowers.

 Old sign from 2008, and below the new sign.

We made it to Dowagiac Woods, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the temperature had risen into the 60's!  How could we not come to Dowagiac Woods today, why not.  Maybe there would be nothing blooming.  We were excited.
The woods were quite gray and brown, but what a great day to be in the woods.

And then we saw wildflowers.  Many Harbinger-of-Spring, hundreds!  One Spring Beauty.  Then Hepatica!  We heard frogs!  Saw a toad.  We sat, and listened to Spring.

 Sharp-Lobed Hepatica

 Hepatica in so many colors.

 

 

 

 

  

Toad

 Hepatica

 Hepatica

 

 

I'm so glad we made the trip.  The hepatica were lovely and we had the whole place to ourselves, except of course for the wildflowers, and frogs, toads, butterflies...

Thanks again Marie for your excellent driving skills, and  enthusiasm! 

Early Spring at Hepatica Hill

Find a sunny south facing slope, in April, somewhere near the Kalamazoo River in Allegan County, Michigan.  Then look closely at the brown leaves, gray twigs, black dirt.  You might just find Hepatica blooming!

Do you see them?

Round-Lobed Hepatica

 Round-Lobed Hepatica buds.

These wildflowers were the high point of our adventure but there was so much more.
First we stopped in Hamilton at the trestle bridge and saw the falls.

Down the road to Happy Boots Corner!  Nice wet woods!

                                             Skunk Cabbage

We walked far to the west coming to Sand Creek.  Along the way we found many interesting things.







Sand Creek, Allegan County, Michigan

Marsh Marigold buds, in a week this will blossom into big beautiful yellow flowers! 

I don't know what this plant is, a moss, liverwort, or something else.  It was quite small.  But it was green in a brown woods so we noticed it. 

And we found rocks.  Big rocks, and they looked different from each other.  This one was gray and white with a bit of pink.

The next one looked totally different, with a flat bottom and round top.

We found wood with trails etched in them, and according to Marie, "That's the S-shaped trails of the Emerald Ash Borer which only eats the inner bark of Ash trees!" 

For a few years we have been noticing trees with the bark damage and wondered what it could be. Here are two examples below.

Damage resulting from woodpeckers, searching for a meal on an emerald ash borer infested tree.  "Woodpecker flecking"

We saw these neat stumps left in a pile...

So much to see!



Then on the opposite bank of Sand Creek I saw liverwort!  Well the creek was just a bit too deep and a bit too wide to cross, so we went back to the snowmobile bridge and crossed there. 

There the creek bank was full of my favorite liverwort.

Later Marie and I did cross the creek on a log but no pictures of that...no pictures.  I took pictures as Marie crossed but no I shouldn't post them.

While we were at Hepatica Hill (named by Mark Cassino) we walked all the way to where Bear Creek meets the Kalamazoo River.  It was a couple miles there and back, and it was a great spring day for a walk.  Like I said earlier, lots of gray and brown, and even some snow on the ground, but as we walked we saw some color flitting about?  It landed maybe 20 feet from us. I zoomed in on it with the camera, trying hard to hold still, and find that bit of orange.

Can you find the butterfly in the picture below?

There it is, circled in black.

It was beautiful, but we couldn't get closer.

 It was not easy to find this Eastern Comma - Polygonia comma  butterfly to get his photo.  We also saw our first Mourning Cloak butterfly of the year.  And a pretty Red Maple tree with flowers.





Looking down at the Kalamazoo River.  So we walked maybe 4-5 miles on this lovely spring day.  It was 37 degrees when we started out in the morning and 8 hours later the temperature was 21 degrees warmer. 

What a great way to spend a day.