December 13

The noontime weather is mostly sunny with temperatures in the mid 20’s and a gentle west wind as Riley and I begin our hike at the 14-acre, Stearns Preserve in the village of Riverdale. With an inch of overnight snow covering the landscape, we head east on the Meijer bike trail that transects the preserve. Officially called the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail (stock photo), this 42-mile paved pathway stretches between Alma and Greenville passing through farmlands, forests and a half-dozen rural towns. From the bridge, I gaze south as the sun glistens off the flowing Pine River. Within the last few years, after the state declared this section of the river highly polluted with human-based E coli, a dedicated group of Riverdale citizens successfully updated septic tanks and drain fields to clean up the water. Continuing along the snowy trail, I spot tracks of the small American Red Squirrel (stock photo). Unlike other squirrels that store their winter food caches in multiple locations, this one creates a central stash called a midden (stock photo) which it defends with its life. Over the course of the fall, it ascends conifers and cuts green cones from treetops. After dropping them to the ground, they are collected and carried them off to the midden. With Riley leading the way, I notice his tracks and reflect on how they differ from a coyote that often hunts in this area. While dog prints are often staggered and wander all over, coyotes typically run or walk in a straight line, with each paw print almost directly in front of the next (stock photo). Regarding individual footprints, dog toe pads are bigger with less space between them while the coyote have a lot of space between the individual toes, and between the toes and the pad (stock photo). Turning around, we pass through a corridor of leaning Box Elder trees where I spot a feeding Hairy Woodpecker. Approaching the trailhead, I pause by a dense colony of horsetail. These tough evergreen stems were used to scour pots, pans, and floors during pioneer days, hence the common name, Scouring Rush. These plants are closely related to ferns and both were common during the Carboniferous period (280-345 million years ago), when tree-sized horsetails and ferns occurred. Present day coal deposits were formed in large part from the ancestral plants of today's horsetails and ferns.

 

On the edge of autumn

Snow clouds of gray

Who will survive?

Predator or prey

Hungry raptor

Scans the field below

Perhaps a bird or mouse

Waiting for one to show

Sudden swoop 

From a leafless tree

Missed the mark

One goes free

 

D. DeGraaf