Some of my favorite pics from the first two weeks of December. So far this month I’ve visited the Tolleston Dunes, West Beach, Long Lake and Cowles Bog trails. Typical Great Lakes late fall weather, a bit cool, wet and windy. Most of the wild flowers and mushrooms have long since faded, but there is still plenty to see if you look for it.
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I think I almost knelt on this Garter snake while setting up for photo of some fungi on a dead branch. I heard something moving away through the leaves and there he was. It was a cool day and he didn’t have a lot of energy, so I was able to get some really nice and close images. Just about 20 further down the same trail I came across another one.
There is a lot of habitat restoration work being done at the Indiana Dunes, including prescribed fires. It is pretty common to find blackened logs and branches. The dark, almost metallic colors highlight the lines marking where the bark cracked and split.
This is part of the Cowles Bog trail very close to the Lake Michigan shoreline. Many parts of the park you would be hard pressed to notice that you were hiking through sand dunes because they are covered with mature forrest. Close to the shore however the sand is still quite loose and the trail has worn away at its edges so that you can see the thin layer of ‘soil’ atop the sand.
As these Prickly Pear cacti decay they have developed some beautiful hues of red-orange-yellow-green. To see things like this you really need to revisit the same area multiple times. Back in summer these were popping gorgeous yellow flowers, a couple weeks ago they were still their typical uniform green color, in two more weeks these colors will be pretty much faded away.
I usually find these large shelf bracket fungi on the larger downed trees. Usually they are pretty close to the ground so it is difficult to get a shot of their undersides which are jam packed with tube like structures for dispersing spores. In this example however the tree had fallen in a small bowl and there was plenty of room to get my camera underneath.
I love autumn sunsets.
At this time of the year you mostly come across dead and decaying remains of summers foliage. But even in December you can still find fresh life pushing up out of the sandy soil.
Black Lichen is really cool.
It had rained heavily the night before this outing. The lichen on this branch really perked up in response to the fresh moisture.
This is where the Cowles Bog trail terminates at Lake Michigan. It was a cool day with a fast approaching warm front moving which led to increasing fog throughout the afternoon. About two hours after this shot was taken it was raining moderately heavily and quite windy.
Shifting sand has exposed the roots at the base of this otherwise healthy tree. The orange, yellow and blue-green lichen put on quite a show.
A lot of the shelf bracket fungi were looking like this specimen. I don’t know what causes the holes all over the top of it, perhaps birds or insects. They are very uniform in size and almost seem to follow the lines of the growth rings. I love the vibrant greens.
Birch bark peels off in sheets. This was an unusually flat and square piece. I like the subtle pinks and blues in this one.
It was the day after a long soaking rain and this branch was buried deep in the leaf bed, down among the water soaked mulch of decaying leaves where the lichen was having quite a good time of it.
Sunset over the Long Lake in the West Beach area of the dunes.
These fungi have been growing for years, some of them were easily 12″ across.
One healthy and vibrant fungi next to a couple, well lets just say a whole lot less healthy and vibrant looking specimens.
Decay has revealed a honeycomb like structure in this piece of wood.
