Riverside Park and Aman Park in Ottawa County, Michigan

         Spring Beauty  (Claytonia virginica)

This week our adventure was to Riverside Park, then Aman Park.  It was cold, cloudy, and wet at Riverside.  There were just a few Bloodroot, Spring Beauty, and Purple Cress blooming.

 Purple Cress (Cardamine douglassii) Mustard family

 Riverside Park in Ottawa County, Michigan



Down the road to the east, still in Ottawa County, we drive to Aman Park.  At Aman the parking lot is near the edge of a steep ravine, it doesn't look like much until you take a peek over that hill.

Aman Park looking down at Sand Creek. 
There wasn't much blooming along the first part of the trail, just Periwinkle.  But as we walked on we began to see Spring Beauty, Large-flowered Trillium, Purple Cress, and a few Hepatica.  It was still cloudy, so not many flowers were open.  We walked to the northern bridge, then over to a large patch of Paw Paw trees, here we found Bloodroot but their blossoms were closed up tight.  Just then the sun popped out so we sat down and waited for those Bloodroot to open, and they did!

 Bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis)  Poppy family

Well that was fun.  While Marie sat keeping an eye on the Bloodroot, I wandered around and took more pictures.

 Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)  Fumitory family

 Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)  Borage family, in bud.

Close-up of  Virginia Bluebells buds.

 Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)  Barberry family

 Looking down on Blue Cohosh.
The Spring Beauty started to open, another favorite spring wildflower of mine.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) Purslane family
Time to move on.  We decided to walk the trail along Sand Creek to the southern bridge.  This is a wonderful trail that winds back and forth, several times.

Some Large-flowered Trillium were open, and there were thousand of these plants just starting to show buds.

 Large-Flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) Lily family

We also saw  Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)  Lily family

We also saw a Wood Frog,

and a blue butterfly, perhaps a Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon).

We made it to the southern bridge, and started up the hill to the car when a gentle rain began.  We learned something on the way home. Stay away from dark clouds.  The gentle rain turned into a downpour, next pea sized hail started pounding on the car.  Before the hail stopped it was marble size, pelting the windshield, hood, and roof of the car.  Amazingly no damage was done.  It was so loud, and hitting so hard I thought for sure Marie would have a pock-marked vehicle.

What it looked like on the drive home,
and below hail, but I didn't get out and put a quarter next to it!  Again we had a great day and made it home just fine.

Fred Russ Forest and Dowagiac Woods in April 2014

April 17, 2014 

An adventure to Fred Russ Forest in Cass County was the start for our day.  Here is some info on this park, "Nestled along the Volinia Creek, Fred Russ Forest and Newton's Woods County Park, is a nature lovers paradise with its old growth forests, acres of wildflowers and abundant plant life. Located on Marcellus Highway, one-half mile east of Decatur Road near Volinia, Russ Forest offers two picnic shelters with electricity, potable water, equestrian and hiking trails, fishing (designated trout stream), horseshoe pits, and much more. In cooperation with Michigan State Univeristy, Russ Forest is also considered a national landmark with 737 acres of virgin black walnut and white oak. It is also home to one of the largest standing Tulip Popular trees east of the Mississippi River. Beautiful landscapes and peaceful natural settings are the rule rather than the exception at this very popular county park."

We saw a few more wildflowers blooming this week.

          Trout Lily

              Dutchman's Breeches 



                 Marsh Marigold

                 Harbinger-of-Spring

               Thyme-leaf Speedwell

            Spring Beauty



This was an interesting plant that we found, Golden Saxifrage!

 I should have put the quarter in this shot - the flower on the Golden Saxifrage is only 1/4 inch in size, petals absent, anthers orange to red-orange.

         Face Tree

                  Tulip Tree

We walked about 2 1/2 hours in the park.  It was a perfect day to be in the forest.  Then we drove eight miles west to Dowagiac Woods!  We were here 6 days ago and we could see the difference in the plant growth.  The plants hadn't gone crazy, they might have with a bit of rain. 
We saw Marsh Marigold, Spring Beauty, Hepatica, Trout Lily, False Rue Anemone and

Bloodroot, all blooming.   We saw more Large-flowered Trillium, and Dwarf Ginseng but both were just in bud.
We did see many beautiful Sharp-Lobed Hepatica blooming, they are my favorite.

A maple tree had fallen down, some branches had flowers on them yet.

And we saw this Eastern Box Turtle.

 So that was our day, a very nice day.