On day number three of this camping trip we went to the trail at Miller Woods. Specifically the southern portion of the trail that circles a wetland area which is created by water that gets trapped between successive dune ridges. This trail and the Great Marsh trail are both wetland ecosystems, but the variety of plants and insects are very distinct and I knew we would see plenty of things at Miller Woods which we had not seen the day before. Of course the two trails still have a lot in common, as the closeup of the Grasshopper above shows.
This has been one of the most intense years I can remember for mosquitos. Few things can make being out doors more miserable than mosquitos, I hate em. I also love them. This is a male mosquito I captured on some Goldenrod. Two things make it clear that this is a male mosquito. One is the antenna which look like fuzzy antlers. The other is the fact that it is feeding on nectar rather than my blood. It is the females that feed on blood. So on the one hand mosquitos are awful, but as you can see above they are also quite fascinating and beautiful.Here we see a couple more male mosquitos feeding on a Boneset plant. Unlike many pollinators, these are relatively cooperative when it comes to taking photographs because they stay relatively stationary when feeding.This is a Net Winged Beetle. Usually when I see beetles like this they have their wings closed. This one was slowly opening and closing its wings which would have made for a unique photograph if I could have caught it with them full opened. Alas it was swaying back and forth in the breeze and I was not able to get a clear photo of it with the wings extended. This was one of those times when Nature decided to taunt you, letting you get oh so close before saying “Nope” over and over…A view down into the wetland area which this trail circles. Depending on the time of year and amount of rain this area can look very different. It is not uncommon for it to be half to three quarters full of water. Earlier in the year we had some pretty good rains and now it is quite lush. It never looks the same from year to year and season to season. But it is always beautiful.This Soldier Beetle appears to be on lookout duty, guarding over the Flowering Spurge plant.Rough Blazing Star. They are beginning to pop up all over the park. A great attractor for Butterflies.I will admit I am pretty much obsessed with the ambush insects; Crab Spiders, Praying Mantis’s and now Jagged Ambush Bugs. Saw my first one of these maybe a month ago, now I am finding them everywhere. This one (look close just above and to the left of the wasp) has snagged a wasp. Nature is just so amazing and cool. You may have to click on the image and view it full size in order to make out the ambusher, absolutely fascinating little creature.My Day 1 and Day 2 posts both showed examples of different types of Galls. Here is yet another example of them. Not sure what insect created these, but they are spiky little red balls attached to the leaves. You can click on the image to see it full size.Rattlesnake Root, one of my favorites this time of year. The colors are subdued compared to many other plants, but that makes them stand out even more in my mind.I believe this is a Cuckoo Wasp. The rough texture and unmistakable blue metallic color are characteristic of that species.This Bumblebee has most of its face shoved down into the flower. They crawl completely into the larger ones. Despite being large, Bumblebees are one of the more difficult ones to photograph. They are in constant motion, always twitching and moving all over the place. A Paper Wasp grabbing a quick snack atop some Godenrod.
I find there are three ways to do the Miller Woods trail at the Indiana Dunes National Park. First is to simply take the trail all the way out to Lake Michigan and back, a second way is to take the abandoned railroad spur over to the US Steel Gary Works.
A third way is to do just the shorter loop around the pannes next to the Nature Center. This results in a much shorter hike of about a mile, and avoids going up and down the dune ridges in soft sand which can be surprisingly taxing. Late spring is a great time to do this short loop as it is packed with a nice variety of wild flowers, especially Wild Lupine which turns whole swatches of the land blue. A later post will be devoted to just the Wild Lupine, but for the moment I want to highlight some other other actors in this beautiful scene.
Lily of the Valley is prevalent at the start of the trail near the Nature Center.As with most of the park this time of year, Wild Columbine is all over the place. Unlike most wild flowers, Columbine points downward towards the ground rather than upwards toward the sun.Because of it’s downward orientation, it can be challenging to get shots of the inside of the flower of Wild Columbine. On this sunny day I took advantage of the sun to create a strongly backlit shot. One of my guiding principles for doing nature photography is that you simply have to work with what nature decides to give you on a given day. Under the conditions I knew it would be difficult to try and get a well balanced shot of the inside of the flower, so I went with the backlit composition which is what was on tap this day.Another example of taking what nature is giving. The leaves here are still covering up the flower within but by using a fast aperture, f4 in this case, I was able to render it against a wonderfully smooth and creamy background that I find very appealing.The flowers of Black Huckleberry are tiny, numerous, a lovely reddish-pink color, and present in large dense patches through out the whole park.It can be difficult to bring out the subtle colors of Pussy Toes on a bright sunny day due to their largely white color which is easy to blow out if you are not careful with your exposure.I have been coming across these quite a bit lately. Still have not figured out what the plant is, which is half the fun of doing nature photography. You are always coming across things you have not identified yet.Blue Eye Grass. The flower is really tiny which makes it a nice subject when using a macro lens.I said I would leave the Wild Lupine for another post, but it would be a shame not to include one shot of it. Not quite in full bloom yet, but it will be soon.Where you find Wild Lupine you will usually also find Wood Betony as they both like the same sandy soil conditions.Even though I focus on up close photography, I do take the occasional bird shot. This Sandhill Crane was just hanging out most of the time I was here. I see these birds quite frequently in the Great Marsh over on the east end of the park. This is the first time I caught one on the ground at Miller Woods.
