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Tag Archives: butterfly

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Pollinator Week (2020)

words and images Posted on June 24, 2020 by dlschirfJune 23, 2022

I almost missed Pollinator Week. I think I’m going to make last year’s posts evergreen. Enjoy.

Untitled
Posted in Blog, Nature | Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, wildlife | Leave a reply

Hungry monarch caterpillar on milkweed

At Bartel Grassland in Tinley Park, Illinois
June 19, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Adventure, Blog Tagged butterfly, FPDCC, nature, video, wildlife Reply

Parker Mill Park and Lyft

words and images Posted on July 4, 2019 by dlschirfMarch 1, 2020
June 25, 2019

Lyft is my new favorite thing — as long as I can afford to use it once in a while. I love creeks (even more than Lyft) and while in Ann Arbor had a hankering to visit Parker Mill on Fleming Creek. My left leg has been protesting lately, and I don’t have to walk far there to see the creek and a little bit of the woods. I discovered it’s only a little more than four miles from the bed & breakfast, which in Chicago would get me only halfway to downtown. I fired up the Lyft app.

The driver mentioned he takes his dogs to Parker Mill Park. “You feel like you’re in the country but you’re not at all.” I asked him if I’d have a problem getting back. “No, this is a main road between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. I live in Ypsilanti.” I asked him what kind of dogs he has. “Shiba Inus,” he answered. One of the few breeds I know a little about. He told me about his, a dominant female and a rescue male.

As he left me in the parking lot, he pointed out what looked like typical exurb apartment blocks going up next to the park. Look in that direction and you won’t feel like you’re in the country anymore.

Apartment block
There goes that rustic feeling

There have been a few changes at the mill. There’s a new Bison pump (for filling water bottles?). Two slides descend from it, and before I left someone pumped water for their dog. He looked like he wondered why he couldn’t get his usual dish, but made a half-hearted attempt at a few slurps.

Some rocks may have been rearranged, with new concrete forms (seats?) added. A new set of steps with a red handrail to match the pump has been added. These steps and handrail made it easier for me to get down to the creek, although they aren’t exactly rustic.

Bison pump
Bison water pump
Concrete stones
Pretty concrete

I headed under the overpass, where the water seemed deeper than I remember. When I turned my head to the right, the water sounded faster, more urgent. When I turned my head to the left, it sounded deeper, like the flow had decreased. I did this a few times with the same results. Since the creek’s flow didn’t change every time I turned my head, it must have been me. My hearing loss is mild to moderate in the left ear, moderate to severe in the right. I heard more, higher frequencies when my left ear is turned toward the creek. It’s a disturbing feeling, especially since the first ENT I saw (almost 15 years ago) said the loss will progress. It doesn’t help that usually fluid sloshes about in my right ear, partially blocking it.

Fleming Creek under the road
Fleming Creek

I continued along the creek under the road until I reached the footbridge over the creek into the woods. Two women, not middle aged but not young, ran toward me, screaming. I briefly looked for the ax murderer who must have been pursuing them. I didn’t see one, and the women slowed down, laughing breathlessly. “A HUGE bumblebee! HUGE!!!” If I could arch my eyebrows like Spock, I would have. Just then, an average-sized bee buzzed by. They fled in terror, half screaming, half laughing. The bee, unimpressed and uninterested, wandered off.

After that, I didn’t see anyone as I wandered through the woods along the creek. I went mainly in the direction that reaches a dead end at a wire fence. I didn’t have steam to go the other way, especially since in late June the weather had finally turned hot, which drains me of any little energy I have. My Osprey ultralight stuff pack, water resistant and not letting any air through, either, was glued to the sweat soaking my back.

Fleming Creek
Fleming Creek
In the woods
Woods to myself

I spotted one flitty red admiral that wouldn’t stay still for a photo, and a tree with picturesque mushrooms that weren’t going anywhere.

Flitty red admiral
Flitty red admiral
Fleming Creek
Fleming Creek
Mushroom stand
Mushroom stand
Mushrooms
More mushrooms around the corner

At last the creek drew me back, although no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find crawdads. I wondered if the water flow had changed and disturbed them, or if I couldn’t spot them in the deeper water.

This side was more populated, especially as the afternoon progressed. Cyclists, hikers, dog walkers, even a man on a bike accompanying a woman who was trying to manage the downslope behind the mill on old-school roller skates. She was young (20s) and fit, and it cheered me to see her grasping the wooden fence, stiffly and awkwardly taking baby rolls forward, finally crashing in slow motion into the grass where there was a break in the fence. This wasn’t her first rodeo; she was wearing thick knee pads.

A sloppily dressed man, smoking and yelling (presumably into a headset, although I didn’t see it), came along, unclear on the concept of a relaxing walk in the park. Maybe his doctor told him he should walk more.

A very old man came along, slowly and gingerly making his way down the steep paved walkway the roller skater hadn’t mastered. He was moving faster than I had.

As on my previous visits, ebony jewelwings flew around, sometimes landing to rest and sun on the rocks near the water. An eastern comma glowed with color when its wings opened, then disappeared when its wings closed.

Ebony jewelwing
Ebony jeweling
Eastern comma
Eastern comma

Near the mill, a big, much-injured tree shelters a picnic table. I half expected a druid to emerge from its trunk and wondered if some of its wounds had been lightning strikes.

Druid tree
Druid tree

I hated to leave and hope to return.

Parker Mill (larger = grist, smaller = cider)
Annoying tourist near the cider mill and mill
Posted in Adventure, Blog | Tagged Ann Arbor, butterfly, county park, Michigan, photo, wildlife | 1 Reply

Pollinator Week, day 7

Finally, what would Pollinator Week be without a bee covered in pollen?

Pollen-drunk bee

Thanks for stopping by.

Bee waving
June 23, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Nature Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, wildlife Reply

Pollinator Week, day 6

We’ve had the eastern tiger swallowtail. Here’s a female black swallowtail, equally colorful in her own way.

Female black swallowtail

Here’s video of a persistent male.

June 22, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Nature Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, video, wildlife Reply

Pollinator Week, day 5

Sadly, this painted lady butterfly was killed by a crab spider or assassin bug shortly after I took this photo.

Painted lady butterfly
June 21, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Nature Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, wildlife Reply

Pollinator Week, day 4

Eastern tiger swallowtails.

Tiger swallowtail
Tiger swallowtail
June 20, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Nature Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, wildlife Reply

Pollinator Week, day 3

What would Pollinator Week be without a monarch?

Monarch butterfly
June 19, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Nature Tagged butterfly, Chicago Park District, Hyde Park, insect, photo, Pollinator Week, wildlife Reply

Butterflies on lilacs

Before the tornado warnings started and the tornado sirens went off, I went for a morning bike ride, when it was still a sunny, pleasant, even perfect spring day. My main objective was lilac bushes. I love the scent of lilacs. They remind me of home, probably because a couple of lilac bushes at the front of the trailer park bloomed a few years.

When I got there, someone walking toward me caused a mini-swarm of insects to rise — many of them butterflies. Red admirals, American and possibly painted ladies, monarchs — well, one monarch, anyway. I managed to take some photos, although they were skittish, and I didn’t want to disrupt their breakfast too much — they must have tremendous energy needs just now.

Monarch
Monarch
American lady
American lady (note white spot on forewing), already missing a piece of hindwing
Red admiral
The red admirals seemed especially flighty, although I’ve had several land on me1
Red admiral
Face-off
Painted lady
Funny face with a nice proboscis

1 Per Wikipedia:

 It [red admiral] is known as an unusually people-friendly butterfly, often landing on and using humans as perches.

May 27, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Photography Tagged butterfly, Hyde Park, insect, photo, wildlife Reply

Monarch butterfly with shadows

I love how the plant casts shadowy bars among the monarch’s wing bars.

Monarch butterfly

Today is 13 September, and I saw no large butterflies or clearwings. The summer I anticipated for so long during an unremarkable winter is already past, and I feel I hardly experienced it.

September 13, 2018 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Photography Tagged butterfly, Hyde Park, nature, photo, wildlife Reply

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