Plains Puccoon, impending storm, and Kirtland's Warbler

 

As always, click the photo to enlarge

A storm rolls into the jack pine plains of Oscoda County, Michigan. This is a magical place, with the most famous denizen being the Kirtland's Warbler. While the large pine in the center is a Red Pine (Pinus resinosa), a sprawling stand of young Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) is in the backdrop. I could hear the rich songs of Kirtland's Warblers from this spot.

That's Plains Puccoon (Lithospermum croceum) in the foreground sporting copious yellowish-orange blossoms. The sandy soils support all manner of interesting and often specialized flora. The plains are, essentially, a well-vegetated desert.

A male Kirtland's Warbler strikes a pose on a Jack Pine branch. This bird was in the immediate area where I made the shot above. Extensive stands of Jack Pine, roughly between the ages of 5 and 20 years old, are required for this extreme habitat specialist. Kirtland's Warbler now could be referred to as "conservation-reliant". If people stopped managing the pines (cutting/replanting) for their favored growth stages, the warbler would soon disappear. Wildfires used to create the successional habitat for them, but fire suppression has mostly put an end to natural management. Kudos to the Michigan DNR and the US Fish & Wildlife Service for all of their management efforts.

Over the years and many visits to Kirtland's Warbler country, I have seen them in all their required age classes of pines. Best are the very young stands - about the size of Christmas trees. It's very easy to observe them in such places.

Male Kirtland's Warblers are anything but shrinking violets, and often rather inquisitive. This bird approached us so closely that it got inside the minimum focus range (19 feet) of my big lens. One time, on a solo trip, I was near a singing male and decided to lay down in the mats of Pennsylvania sedge and just soak in the scene. The curious warbler approached to within five feet of me, singing all the while. At that range, I almost needed earplugs! I thought he was going to hop on my leg at one point!

Oscoda County, Michigan, July 9, 2026.

The magical Twinflower, Linnaeus's favorite plant

 

One of the botanical delights of the summertime North Woods is this stunning little wildflower: Twinflower (Linnaea borealis). It is not rare in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where I made these images on July 7, 2026. It often forms small colonies via its trailing stems adorned with tiny round leaves.

Twinflower is, believe it or not, a member of the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae). The flowering stems rise but two inches or so in height, and it's more than possible for a careless observer to walk right by a colony without taking notice.

A diligent plant photographer will spend much time on the ground, ear to the soil, to properly portray elfin species such as Twinflower. I was fortunate to spot a few plants at the crest of a small hummock, which allowed me to put the camera nearly on the ground below the flowers, and shoot up at them.

A number of tiny insects - bees, wasps, flies, beetles - are said to provide pollination services, some of them no doubt lured by the blossom's sweet fragrance.

This was the favorite flower of Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of binomial nomenclature and hierarchical classification. Fittingly, he is immortalized in the scientific epithet of his beloved Twinflower: Linnaea. Linnaea is also a monotypic genus: Twinflower is the only species placed in it.

The Mackinac Bridge

 

As always, click the photo to enlarge

The Mackinac Bridge, as seen the night of July 8, 2026, from the Upper Peninsula. The famous Michigan bridge is a marvel of human engineering. It spans the Straits of Mackinac (mak-in-aw) which separate lakes Michigan and Huron and connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas.

Opened on November 1, 1957, the bridge is five miles long, and those twin towers are 552 feet tall. The straits regularly experience gale force winds, and the center lanes are an open grid of steel mesh to allow air flow through and minimize lift of the deck during gales. The center span can laterally shift a remarkable 35 feet during high winds.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority offers a driver's assistance program, as some drivers are too frightened to drive across (motorcycles, too). I do not know what the drivers do - hide in the trunk? 

Looking for an exciting job? All of those lights on the cables (42 thousand miles of wire in the main cables) are replaced by hand. Workers (steeplejacks) climb the cables to reach the fixtures.

I've been across this bridge many times, and it never grows old. If you want to walk across, the bridge is closed every Labor Day, and anyone that wants to walk across can do so.

PHOTO NOTE: I think the bridge photographs better at night, and not just because the lights are visible and create a cool effect. During the day, big as it is, the bridge can get a bit lost in the mass of water around it. Probably, with certain early morning or late day lighting it could look great, but I've not yet had the fortune to be there at such times. But the Big Mac certainly pops at night.

A wide-angle, such as my go-to Canon 16-35mm f/4, is too wide in my opinion. Even at full zoom, it leaves too much blank water space around the bridge. This is a case where a moderate-range zoom lens is great, and I used my 70-200mm f/2.8 for this shot. I zoomed a bit - to 145mm - to cut off much of the long approach on the left that is on a built-up earthen berm rather than a proper bridge (even though it counts as part of the bridge). Once the camera rig is set up, it is just a matter of zooming and composing to position the bridge so that it looks good to you.

A tripod is an absolute must in order to photograph the Mackinac Bridge properly, in my view. Especially at night, due to the long exposure that will be required. I made this photo at f/22 (lots of depth of field), and ISO 400 (a low ISO is always desirable for clean files, and I could have gone even lower. But the R5 handles higher ISO's very well, and 400 is hardly a high ISO). The shutter speed was a turtle-like VERY slow 4 seconds. But who cares about that - shutter speed is essentially irrelevant if your camera is on a stable platform (tripod) and the subject is not moving.

As almost always when making such long exposure images, I use the two-second timer delay that is built into the camera's drive mode menu. Once I activate the shutter button, I move away from the rig while the camera beep beep beeps... and two seconds later the shot is fired. That ensures that the operator can't accidentally wiggle the rig while depressing the shutter.

Northern Cardinals feeding their offspring

I've been remiss in posting this video I made of the Northern Cardinals that had a nest less than three feet from my kitchen window. I could peek around the blind and watch activities - and make photos and videos - at close range without the birds knowing that I was there. 

While the female did all of the nest construction work, and egg incubation, the male was very supportive and an active participant. He would bring her food when she was on the eggs and constantly sing to her. Female cardinals sing very well, and she would frequently duet with him.

When the chick hatched - there was only one - he would help feed it, as the following video shows. This would certainly be a second nesting, given the lateness of the season, and second broods can be smaller than the preceding brood. But a Brown-headed Cowbird laid an egg in this nest shortly after the first cardinal egg appeared. The cowbird egg somehow disappeared, but that may have dissuaded the female cardinal from laying more.

I had to leave for a trip to northern Michigan about 5-6 days before the young cardinal would be due to leave the nest, and it was gone by the time that I returned. Hopefully the little fellow/girl is doing well. I will keep my eyes open for it.

UPDATE: The little fellow is doing fine. I glanced out the window a bit ago, to see the adult female cardinal with a big beetle in her bill. I knew she'd lead me to the little guy, and she did. He's in the same trumpet-creeper liana where the nest is, well concealed in its foliage. Both adults are delivering food to him, and all looks good!

Anyway, enjoy the video (sorry for the mediocre quality, the uploaded version is fairly low-resolution).

COPYRIGHT ©Jim McCormac. Shot on June 29, 2026, with my iPhone 14. Worthington, Ohio.

 

A northern bog

As always, click the photo to enlarge

We just got back from an epic week-long trip through northern Michigan, from the jack pine plains of between Grayling and Mio to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Lots of interesting stuff and I'll probably be sharing some more of it here.

Here's a few photos of a gorgeous tamarack bog near Grayling in Oscoda County, from this morning. This one is far along in ecological succession and no longer has open water. The pale whitish (glaucous) plants in the foreground of the first image are Bog Rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla). It was once found in five NE counties in Ohio but is now considered extirpated. The leafy green shrublet with it is Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata). 

This scene is dominated by Virginia Chain Fern (Woodwardia virginica [perhaps now best placed in the genus Anchistea]). The robust fern is common in such places.

More to follow...

Update on my nesting Northern Cardinals

An update on the cardinals nesting less than three feet from my kitchen window. Her lone egg hatched this morning, and in this photo (taken from my kitchen window this morning) the female is brooding the lone chick. While a clutch of two eggs is apparently not that unusual, at least for second nestings, one egg is. However, I think a cowbird may be the reason. I saw a female cowbird go to the nest - first time I've ever caught one in the act - but she didn't drop an egg then, as the cardinal had not yet laid any eggs.

However, at some point, probably after the cardinal laid her second egg, it returned. Cowbirds are known to shove a host species' egg from the nest and replace it with their own. That would have left one cardinal egg. However, something happened to the cowbird's egg, and it somehow disappeared. Hopefully the cardinal chick will now flourish.

This has been very interesting to watch at less than arm's length. While she did all the brooding, the male was quite attentive and brought her food. He also sings to her constantly, often from right above the nest. Female cardinals sing very well, and she would duet back and forth with him while incubating her egg. Now that the chick has popped out, he will be an equal partner in feeding it. While adult cardinals are primarily vegan, they feed nestlings an insect-rich diet - babies need the protein to grow. I saw both adults feeding the baby masticated insects this morning, even though it is a brand-new hatchling.

I live on a typical suburban lot, just over one-third of an acre. But my yard is awash in native flora - this nest is in a trumpet-creeper liana - and there are lots of shrubs and trees. It is an oasis in a sea of lawns mowed in diamond patterns that are overly treated by Chem-lawn and filled with nonnative species in overly manicured gardens. Thus far this year, in addition to the cardinals, I have hosted nesting Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmouse (probably), House Wrens, Carolina Wrens, Gray Catbirds, Eastern Bluebirds, American Robins (probably), Song Sparrows, Eastern Towhees (probably), and possibly other species. And scores of other species, including migrants and other species nesting elsewhere locally, use my yard frequently.

North Carolina's famous "vertical bog"

In mid-July of last year, I was fortunate indeed to get to attend the 2025 Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, which began about 40 years ago. It is a humdinger of a natural history conference, one of the best that I have been to. I was there to speak about moths and their over-sized role in food chains, based on THIS BOOK.

Many experienced botanists attend this conference, and it wasn't long after arrival that I started hearing about the "vertical bog" or "hanging fen". It's only an hour or so away from the conference site, right along the Blue Ridge Parkway and near the highest elevations to be found in the area. Following the conference, I beat feet up into the mountains.

This marker isn't too far from the vertical bog. We're over a mile high at this point.

Here's the viewscape from the vicinity of the vertical bog. Dramatic scenery at every turn, and scads of interesting plants.

The vertical bog in all its glory. I prefer the term hanging fen, as that's what this interesting ecosystem is. Constantly flowing groundwater creates constant moisture, and alkaline conditions. Those rocks are full of interesting plants, including many species that an Ohioan fen enthusiast would be familiar with.

Another view of the fen. This spot made for fascinating botanizing, and I highly recommend a stop if you're ever in the area.

It didn't take long to spot familiar fen plants from the Midwest, such as this Grass-of-parnassus (Parnassia glauca). I wish this place were closer, as it would be interesting to visit it at different times throughout the growing season.

False Asphodel (Triantha glutinosa) was thriving on the seepy cliff face. This interesting lily was recently documented as being truly carnivorous. Its upper stem is very glutinous/sticky, and small insects adhere to it, die, and their soft parts are digested by the plant.

Another better-known botanical carnivore is also common here, the Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia).

A number of beautiful Club-spurred Orchids (Platanthera clavellata) grew in damp mossy spots. I was lucky to be there when this species was in full flower. Like many (most? all?) Platanthera orchids, this one is moth pollinated. Each flower is appendaged with an elongate nectar spur. Moths are probably the only pollinators that can a) hover in place in front of the flowers (which lack landing pads), and b) have proboscises long enough to plumb the depths of the nectar spur and in the process pollinate the flowers.

I was pleased indeed to see this small member of the St. John's-wort family (Clusiaceae). It
is the Canada St. John's-wort (Hypericum canadense) which is endangered in Ohio. It was only the 3rd or 4th time I had clapped eyes on this species.

This little shrubby St. John's-wort formed patches of showy ground cover, and it was completely alien to me. It turns out to be Appalachian St. John's-wort (Hypericum buckleyi). This species is a true rarity and extremely localized. It occurs in a smattering of sites in only eight counties, high in the mountains, where North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia meet.

One last species from my all too brief excursion, Michaux's Saxifrage (Micranthes michauxii), which was another "life" plant for me. This one, while not as rare and local as the previous Appalachian St. John's-wort, is largely limited to the same Appalachian highlands, although the delicate little saxifrage extends north into Virginia.

I'll look forward to another visit here someday, hopefully in July when there would be a whole new cast of botanical characters to ogle.