Herron Rookery Trail | MC^2 Nature Photography

The image above is a closeup of the very bottom of a Dutchman’s Breeches flower, which I was able to capture using a Nikon 200mm Macro lens.

It never ceases to impress me how quickly the switch flips once nature decides the time has arrived to begin the spring bloom. It may take a while to arrive in NW Indiana, but when it does it is always pretty awesome. The Heron Rookery trail in the IDNP always puts on a great display of wildflowers at this time of year. The trail itself is unremarkable as it simply runs in a straight line alongside the Little Calumet River for about a mile and half. But it is situated in a floodplain with nutrient rich soil that the wild flowers love. In addition to the river the surrounding area holds a lot of standing water, which the mosquitos really love. They have not come out in force yet, but soon this trail will be swarming with the little buggers.

Here are just a few of the photographs which I collected while out on the trail.
As always, just click on any image to see it full size.

White is a dominant color early in the spring bloom. Most of the wild flowers on this particular day were white. Dutchman’s Breeches, False Rue Anemone, Blood Root and Trillium galore. My understanding is white and yellow flowers predominate in the early spring because the early pollenators are flies, which color blind and so they identify flowers by contrast and brightness. Bees and other pollenenators use color to find flowers.

White wild flowers in direct sun are very difficult to photograph without blowing out the highlights. I find that letting the camera set the exposure typically leads to a lack of detail in the bright white areas. This is one example where switching to manual exposure and intentionally under exposing the image allows me to preserve detail in the pedals of the flowers.

*Of course not all of the wild flowers are white. There are more than enough blues, yellows and reds to spice up the landscape.*

Well you knew it was going to happen. It is june and the mosquitos have emerged and are in fine biting form. Hiking river trails for the next few months is going to be a bloodbath, so to speak. But being outside is still better than being inside, so I hit up the Heron Rookery trail. Perhaps not the easiest choice as this trail runs along the little Calumet river in a flood plain, so I was slogging through swarms of the little bloodsuckers. Totally worth it though.

Most of the ephemerals have bloomed and faded away by now. However the remains are still beautiful in their own right.

Some sort of beetle larva emerging from a tree by the river. Kinda sad (for the tree), kinda gross. But nature is what it is and in that sense it is still beautiful.

Getting a good shot of a bugs face involves a lot of patience and luck. These macro shots have a very narrow depth of focus, and the leaf is bobbing all around even when you cannot feel a breeze. The key is to be patient and wait for that brief moment when everything is still. Challenging under any circumstances, but even more so when you are being swarmed by mosquitos.

I’d managed to photograph this same insect with a long snout for a face before and learned that it is a Weevil. I have found that once you come across something interesting like this little fella, something clicks in your brain, new neural connections are established and all of a sudden you start noticing them all over the place. The human eye-brain detector system is pretty amazing.

Ok. One of these guys is NOT having a good day, and it is not the spider. This is a good example of the extra value that this kind of close up photography adds to a hike. I only saw the spider when I took the photo, it is quite small and its meal is even smaller. Totally did not know what I had captured until I was looking at my images back home after the hike.

This spider is still patiently waiting for his meal to come along. Spiders both fascinate and creep me out.

The body on this one was easily a couple inches long. I have no idea if it stings or bites, but with the black-orange-red color scheme he looks totally badass.

The spectacular blossoms are long gone, but the beauty is not diminished one bit.

MC^2 Nature Photography

Category: Herron Rookery Trail

Boom, Spring Is Here

Another Buggy Day