Wildlife Tag

Afternoon at B.D. White

The following post is from Preserved! artist Justin Kellner. You can see more of his work at justinkellner.com. Learn more about the Preserved! art program here. My intention going into Preserved! this year was to focus exclusively on the Prairie Warbler, a species with niche habitat requirements

Walking on Sunshine

The following post is from Preserved! artist Kathy Mohl. The post was originally posted at https://kathymohl.com/blog where you can see more of her work. Learn more about the Preserved! art program and purchase tickets to the Grand Rapids gallery opening here. The first step of plein air painting is

Fight for Virginia Snakeroot

If you’re lucky enough, you’ve seen Virginia snakeroot in bloom. If you’re like me, you almost passed it by. You may have bent down to part the goldenrod and geranium to find the little nondescript plant there on the ground, its curvy tubular flower hidden beneath

A Good Meal and a Place to Rest

The following post is from guest blogger Jill Henemyer. Jill is an avid birder and long time member and volunteer for the Land Conservancy of West Michigan. *** Here in West Michigan we are privileged to live next to the Lake Michigan shoreline, an important link along

Skunk Cabbage

Early Emergent Recently I was on the banks of the Pere Marquette River and noticed a familiar plant crawling from the earth – skunk cabbage. It’s one of the early risers from the banks of rivers and wetlands in West Michigan and beyond. The plant actually

Spring Arrivals

This morning I stopped by Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve to prep for some upcoming fieldwork (we’re restoring more than 7 acres of prairie and savanna this year). As I stepped out of the truck, a primordial squawk from just overhead led me to pick

How are Piping Plovers and petri dishes connected?

In the game “Six Degrees of Separation” players are challenged to find the links between two seemingly unrelated people or things with the fewest steps possible. In west Michigan, there is a very strong connection between petri dishes and plovers – and the Land Conservancy is