All about trees and plants: Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve

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Kamis, 22 Oktober 2015

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve

Mud Lake at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve

We explored Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve two weeks in a row. Parking at the south lot on September 26, we traipsed for 5 hours. First down the main trail then to what we call Meadow Beauty Corner, called that since we found Meadow Beauty there in 2010.

Meadow Beauty Corner

We found a special plant in this area, it's called Coastal Plain Flat-topped Goldenrod. I was on the look out for Autumn Coralroot, a wild orchid. We found it here in 2010 but on the last day of August, so I wasn't sure it would be around. It was!

Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza)

We saw a frog and a toad. A caterpillar fell out of the trees near Marie, I haven't ID'ed it yet.

Puff Balls.

We have been seeing these tiny pinwheel mushrooms with a white parachute collared cap, and a dark wiry stem, growing on fallen oak leaves. I think it might be Marasmius capillaris.

Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana ) with Cobweb spider, maybe Theridion frondeum.

We followed the trail west toward the nearby highway U.S.196/31 here we found some clay tiles so we now refer to this spot as "clay tiles corner" and here the trail goes north but we, like the crazies we are, turned south to follow a deer trail.
Up and down we went on the non path, it wasn't easy but we were exploring new territory. Finally we came to a point where we had a creek on our left and a highway wire fence on our right. Oh Oh! We didn't want to go back the way we came, no fun, and I wasn't going near the highway. Then it got worse the creek crossed in front of us to go toward (and under?) the highway.

We found a narrowing in the creek and a bit of a sandy spot, we had our boots on so it was just a few steps through the stream and up the bank on the other side. Whew.
Now we were close to the road we started on (44th Avenue), we had to go a half mile east and some of that was through the "Ancient sand dunes from the shores of preglacial Lake Nipissing".

The next week (October 3rd) went to Ross and walked ~5 miles, we were out there almost 5 hours. We headed north on the main trail then west to Meadow Beauty Corner, we found lots of branches and some trees across the trail, it had been quite windy this past week. And most of the pretty colored leaves were gone at Meadow Beauty Corner.

Both weeks we found the orchid, Nodding Ladies' Tresses. The first two photos are from September 26th. The third photo is the same plant one week later.

Nodding Ladies' Tresses September 26

Nodding Ladies' Tresses on October 3

This time we kept to the trail and went north at clay tiles corner, we walked all the way past Mud Lake and to the east, to 38th Avenue.

Along our hike we found Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blooming!

There is another entrance to Ross here but it is much less traveled. In 2009 we came to this 38th Ave. road end and under the tall grass found a wooden sign for Ross, now three years later the sign was up against a tree.

Now we turned back to head west to Mud Lake, here you can find the old partial foundation from the Ross family home. There is also a map sign of the trails here.

We sat in this scenic place and had a snack while watching a Mourning Cloak fluff its wings. After skirting the lake a bit we went back on the main trail (one and a half miles) back to the car. Total hike according to my pedometer 4.16 miles! According to Bing maps 5 miles, I think it was definitely, at least, 5 miles! A beautiful day!

Turkeys hogging the road.

Senin, 19 Oktober 2015

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh and Farview Park

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh in Van Buren County, Michigan is where Marie and I were able to go for a long walk, through the woods, on the first day of October 2013. I had my eye out for Autumn Coralroot, which is an orchid and blooms into autumn, I have seen here before.

Parking on 44th avenue it is about one and a half miles to Mud Lake which is the largest lake at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh. There are some house foundations here from the previous owners.

Remnants of a house at Mud Lake.

At first I thought this vine was Poison Ivy but a closer look showed it was Virginia Creeper.

Then we saw an odd tan pile of something on the ground. Directly above this pile we noticed hundreds of aphids on the branch of an American Beech tree. Closer inspection told us it was a big pile of aphid secretion. We saw these piles a few times always under American Beech trees. I guess these aphids are even called Beech Woolly Aphid or Beech Blight Aphid. I wonder why I never noticed this before?

We did find some nice looking Beechdrops.

We walked more than 3 miles, got back to the car and drove north. In Allegan County, Laketown Township, we visited Farview Nature Park. Another couple miles to walk, bringing our walk total to ~five miles for the day.

Farview Nature Park

That was it for this adventure, another fun time.

Senin, 31 Agustus 2015

Finding Meadow Beauty and Autumn Coralroot!

So this very hot August day (92 degrees), we decided on a road trip to Brown Sanctuary along the Paw Paw River in the northern section of Berrien County.

Sign for Brown Sanctuary

Paw Paw River from Brown Sanctuary

Paw Paw River

After Brown we went south to Grand Mere State Park and Natural Area.

We were driving north just into Van Buren County and stopped by Barvicks Dunes Nature Sanctuary. But what I thought was the best part of the trip was a stop at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve, where we found two plants I have been wanting to find. First was the Autumn Coralroot!