Tuesday, Remi and I hiked a section of the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail in Montcalm County west of Vestaburg. The early morning weather was sunny with a temperature of 60 degrees and no wind. We entered the trail where it crosses Berry Rd. and began following it southwest when it became apparent that I was walking through a type of habitat referred to as an Alder thicket. On both sides of the trail, I noticed lots of Tag Alder trees; some had branches with female catkins while others had male catkins. Up ahead, I spotted some white fuzzy stuff on an Alder branch that turned out to be the secretions of Wooly Alder Aphids made to defend themselves from predators. Continuing on the trail, I saw large patches of Ostrich ferns as well as several Swamp Thistle plants. Next, the trail entered the Vestaburg State Game Area where I looked out at extensive, open wetlands. After about a mile on the trail, I turned around and began retracing my steps when, in the vegetation next to the trail I observed what I thought were several tiny dandelion seeds being blown around. Looking more closely, I was surprised to see they were tiny living insects flying around and landing on leaves as if they were miniature Tinkerbelles from the Peter Pan movie. Nearly transparent, these fascinating creatures, called Fairy Flies were amazing to watch but impossible to photograph. Continuing east back toward the car, I noticed some lovely, late-blooming Turtlehead flowers. Finally, we arrived back to the car for our trip home.
Eyes are wide open to see
Glimpses of nature here for me
It maybe a flower, maybe a tree
Maybe a hawk flying free
I look around on land and sea
Beauty surrounds, I do agree
I search again on bended knee
Behold a bug! Behold a bee!
Earth’s treasures, found the key
More of this, I hope it will be
D. DeGraaf
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