Category: Seasons
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Sunrise Nature Walk (October 5, 2024)
Judy and I walked to the pond at 7:10. We were later joined by Michael and Peter. I saw the pond, pale orange sky, ducks, geese, egret, raccoon, squirrels, reflections on the pond, small amount of fall colors, light on the trees, poison Ivy, leaves drifting down, … A gorgeous egret circled over the pond…
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Exploration of Scarlett & Mitchell Rain Gardens Nature Walk (September 7, 2024)
WHAT: End of summer Nature Walk Featuring Solidago & Sunflower/Pollinators & Predators WHEN: 10:00am Saturday, September 7, 2024 WHERE: Meet at the main entrance showcase (kiosk) to Scarlett Mitchell Woods. We’ll explore the rain gardens at Scarlett Middle and Mitchell Elementary schools. WHY: Solidago is the scientific name of Goldenrod. If the weather is right,…
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Impromptu Clearing Downed Tree from Loop Trail
On Thursday, July 18, 2024, we discovered that the main loop trail in the woods had been blocked by the fallen crown of an oak tree. Later that evening, we discussed the tree at our monthly Friends of Scarlett Mitchell Woods meeting. We decided to tackle the problem the next morning at 10:00 am. Thanks…
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Traveling Cherry Millipede
In 2023, I started seeing these millipedes that I had not noticed in the past. The iNaturalist site said these are the Traveling Cherry Millipede (Pleuroloma flavipes). One can see these little guys from North Dakota, to Connecticut, to northern Louisiana and even southern Texas. The traveling cherry millipede does secrete toxic cyanide compounds to…
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Northern Blue Flag Iris
Last year I photographed the irises on the west edge of the pond, but I never saw them in bloom. This year I did the workday on June 1st and the irises were in bloom. Now, one can identify them as northern blue flag irises (Iris versicolor, which means “variously colored”). The iris has 6 petals,…
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Spring Beauty
The Spring Beauty (Claytonia) is one of the spring ephemerals. It is a low plant with loose clusters of 5 petals white or pink flowers, striped with dark pink. It has a pair of slender leaves This picture was taken on April 4, 2024, on our first Spring Serendipity Walk. In the morning at 10:00,…
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Spring Ephemerals in Scarlett Mitchell Woods
e-phem-er-al something that lasts for a very short time : ‘fashions are ephemeral’ The word is derived from the Greek ephemeros, ‘lasting for only a day’. To read more about spring ephemerals see this article by Robin Sweetser. This article will talk about the following 10 ephemerals:
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Spring 2024 Serendipity Walk – Path Less Taken
The last of four Spring Serendipity Walks took place on May 18, 2024. This time we focused on Scarlett Mitchell Woods – West, sometimes referred to as the Korschak section after the previous owners. It took 25 years to procure this section with funds from the City of Ann Arbor, a grant from the State…
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Spring 2024 Serendipity Walk – Creatures of the Pond
Michael led us on a walk to the pond and looked for bugs, larvae and nymphs in the water. We found a red water mite, water fleas, a blood sucker and a variety of larvae. The pond was not teeming with bugs and larvae as was expected. The bugs and larvae are food for other…
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Prickly Ash
Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) has a long litany of common names including toothache tree on Wikipedia. The oil extracts from the bark of the prickly ash have been used in traditional medicine and studied for antifungal and cancer killing properties. This was photographed along the path to the pond.