More Ottawa County Places

2011 06 06 Fillmore at the Bend, Grand River Ravines, Grand River Park. 

We started at Fillmore at the Bend.

In the field we saw...

Showy Goat's Beard

                                     Fistulous Goat's Beard



See the difference between the two Goat's Beard?  Showy, the involucral bracts are equal to the petal rays.  Fistulous Goat's Beard, the involucral bracts are longer than the petal rays.  I never paid much attention to this and just call them
Yellow Goat's Beard.                          

                                     Orange Hawkweed

                   Ox-eye Daisy

     

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Maybe a Northern Crescent?  I'm not sure although I did just get a new field guide, Butterflies of Michigan.

We wanted to check out the new Ottawa County property, Grand River Ravines.  There is no parking available for this place yet but it is just north of Fillmore at the Bend so we walked north. 

              We came to a farmed field, we headed a bit east to make sure we weren't trespassing.  As we walked along we came to many intersecting trails or small two-tracks, and several small bridges,  Hm, are we still on the Grand River Ravines property?  I hope so.

  We spotted this American Bald Eagle fishing the Grand River.  Now we are close to the river and there I spy beautiful For-Get-Me-Nots.

When I look at them again I found this insect on one of the plants!  I learned he is a Weevil!  Isn't he interesting?  I wonder if he is a "bad"  bug?

 

We started off south for Fillmore at the Bend and came to these stairs going up the hill. 

 We found this curious plant on the way back, what is it?  We got to the car and drove a few miles down the road to Grand River Park.  There was flooding on the trails.

We saw a Green Dragon.

Green Dragon from the top.

                                       Green Dragon Arum Family


We also visited the Paw Paw trees.  They were just getting done blooming.  This is the back of the flower.



Well again this Blogger is having issues!!!  It can be fun to blog if the site works correctly!  This one is not and I lost my followers?   Any body out there have any suggestions?  Maybe a different blog site?  Please send help.  We will end the day there and see if this will post.  Really any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Grand River Ravines North in November

2011 November 07
Grand River Ravines North

The new entrance on 42nd Ave (just south of Luce St and south of Grand Valley State University) is open, parking is about 1/2 mile from the Grand River.

We walked the .5 miles on a paved drive, to the left of us was a deep ravine,

to the right was a field full of dried wildflowers.  And Tulip trees!

                    Leaf of the Tulip Tree

As we neared the river we veered off to the north, up over the hills to a wonderful ravine where we found Paw Paw trees!  Up maybe15 feet off the ground we spied the brown fruit of the Paw Paw. 

We managed to knock it free to examine it.  It was very ripe.  We found the seeds are quite large, well it is a big fruit.  I think this is about as far north as Paw Paws grow in the wild.

 Eww!

                        Paw Paw seed

              Leaf of the Paw Paw tree
We headed up over the next hill into another ravine, no Paw Paw here.  This property is part of GVSU I think, but there are no signs to indicate that.   At some point we went a bit inland along a creek, and admired more ravines and hills.  Then we went back to the main part of the park which has a house and pole barn on it.  Grand River Ravines North is ~ 1.25 miles south of M-45 along the Grand River.

    Grand River


We walked through the small covered bridge near the edge of the river, and found mustard plants blooming. 

We also found  goldenrod, asters, and  Chicory with flowers.  This was in November, that's late for wildflowers to be blooming in Michigan.


We walked south of the house and saw an American Bald Eagle high up in a tree next to a nest. 

We wandered through the woods then walked to the van.

          Cool Tree

                        Dried Asters

House and barn at Grand River Ravines North
Here are more signs...

It was 59 degrees at 1 pm on November 7!  Beautiful day for a walk.