Category: Spring

Tick, Tick, Ticking….

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To the casual observer the Great Marsh at the Indiana Dunes does not look much different from winter. But if you look close, you can see the beginnings of Spring emerging here and there. And if you stand still, quietly looking and listening… you can almost sense the impending spring bloom ticking… soon, very soon, there will be an explosion of colors all over the marsh. On this day, you could feel it.

(Click on any picture to see it full size.)

It had rained the night before I hit this trail. I always look for mosses here, they respond so quickly to the moisture and the way they hold on to the water is always fascinating.
The hairy edged leaves of emergent Lupine hold the water in the form of beautiful droplets.
Pussy Willow blossoms add small touches of intense color to the largely muted pallet of early spring down in the marsh.
Earlier in the year I watched a controlled burn being conducted in this part of the marsh. Now we see the first vibrant shoots of green and orange rising from the burn.
This particular area reminded me of “leafy greens” you buy at the grocery store.
Not everything green is soft and inviting. These things are every bit as nasty as they look, trust me on this.
Earth Star fungi are as beautiful as they are odd. This one has already released its spores and has disconnected from the rest of the fungus.

And More…

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In my previous post Spring Is Here… I focused on the early blooming wild flowers I saw on the Heron Rookery trail in the Indiana Dunes National Park. I went to this trail specifically because I wanted to see if the spring ephemerals had begun to show themselves. And the answer turned out to be yes.

But blooming wild flowers were hardly the only things to catch my eye. There was more, so much more to see.

Virginia Waterleaf is plentiful along this trail and is one of my favorites to photograph. So much color and detail in the leaves.
I find the forest floor to be particularly interesting this time of year. Plenty of greenery, but it has not yet expanded to the point where everything just melds together into one continuous mass.
I really like the appearance of the early stages of Hepatica on a wet day. The way that the fine hairs on the stems and the outer surfaces of the flower capture the water is always fascinating.
More emergent flowers…
Cool, overcast days with light rain make everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, so much better. Not only does the water coat everything, enriching colors and providing a nice sheen, it also collects into wonderful droplets on leaves. This is not accidental. The shape and surface of these leaves and blades of grass are designed to hold and ultimately funnel water to the plant for nourishment.
And of course the focus is not just on plant life. Typically I am not aware of the presence of frogs until I hear them plopping into the water as I approach. They are a tad skittish, though this is perfectly understandable considering how many things out there like to eat them. This particular one was very still and never budged while I positioned and setup my camera.
You just know that the spiders must be out as well. I mean where you have blooming flowers you have pollenators, and where you have pollenators you have spiders looking for a meal. This is my first spider of the season, but there are many more to come.
That thing I said earlier about water making things better. Oh yeah…
… so much better!
Emergent Mayapple.
I really enjoy getting down close to the ground for this perspective.