White Breasted Nuthatch

Linked to Wild Bird Wednesday. 

A Few Song Birds

The exciting news around here is that my husband surprised me with a new camera--a Canon 7D and two lenses--an 18-135 mm and a 75-300 mm. I've had it for about a week and have been having fun trying to use it. I haven't gotten past the auto setting, but a photographer friend is supposed to be coming today to show me how to  use some of the other settings. 

I've never owned anything but a small point and shoot until now.  I'm thrilled to finally be able to take photos of the many birds that come to our feeders. If any of you have tips on taking photos of birds I would love to hear them. This is all so new to me. 

Nuthatch

Female house finch

Cardinal

Hairy woodpecker

Snow Glitter

Fluffy snow sparkles in the gravel driveway. 

Morning on Ice

 Photos taken earlier this week at the little marshy pond down the road from us. 

Leaf Patterns in Frost

The thermometer dropped into the single digits last night and we woke up in the morning to some pretty  frost patterns on the kitchen window. 

Insect Art

Pattern in a dead tree made by an insect...

Edited to add this comment from Susan Sawyer, one of my readers: 

"These are the galleries of bark beetle -- or, I should say, a bark beetle mama and all her offspring. She made the big tunnel in the center and laid eggs along it --the little larvae then each made its own tunnel, the radiating lines. They start small and as they eat cambium and innner bark, they grow. They never meet each other in the tree, but after they pupate (usually over the winter), they tunnel out and fly around to find the right kind of new tree. Mating usually occurs in the beginnings of a new gallery. And that's the real story, but don't they look supernatural?"

Linked to Macro Monday. 

Silver and Gold

The day started with silver frost on the windshield...

...and ended with a golden sunset reflected in the little pond across the road from us. 

Mossy Macros

A few photos from my walk in the woods this morning. 

Emptiness

Emptiness

Some days my heart is empty

for no reason at all

or for several reasons that 

my mind can find no words for

and the only answer is to go 

and wander alone 

in the quiet of the woods

until my heart is filled again. 

Melting Snowflakes and Little Goats

We had our first snow a few days ago. It wasn't much, and most of it melted as soon as it touched the ground, but I did manage to snap a photo of one of the flakes that landed on my Explorer, before it completely melted. 

And a little of the snow did apparently stick in shady places. I went for a walk in nearby woods today and was surprised to find several small patches of snow still on the ground. 

It has been a colder than usual November, but this is all the snow we've had so far. 

In the barnyard, my two little boys have decided they are finally going to eat their hay, instead of standing all day looking out mornfully at the grass outside their pen. So hopefully I won't have to worry about them starving to death this winter after all!

Linked to Macro Monday. 

If you haven't yet entered my giveaway for a chance to win this basket I wove from willow and dutch iris from my garden and a grapevine from my woods, click here to go over and enter. (Basket comfortably holds 4 dozen medium size free range eggs--but does not come with them!)

Bundled

Bittersweet vine on a foggy morning. 

Linked to Macro Monday. 

In a Fog

This morning I started the day with a foggy walk...

Linked to Skywatch Friday. 

Fairy Dragon

There is magic in the forest floor

dampness hangs in the air

with the lingering earthy perfume

of moss and moldering leaves

treasures to be found

enchanting to a little girl

acorn caps and gold thread roots 

vines of princes' pine

to weave into garlands for her hair

mossy rocks and slippery snails

and here a magic feather from 

a  great hooting owl

but the greatest spell of all

is cast by a little lizard 

a fairy dragon--

the little Red Eft as he scurries

from mossy rock to moldering leaf

on his magic fairy mission. 

Linked to Real Toads--where the challenge today is write a poem about animals of the temperate forest.  Red Efts are a fond memory from my childhood. I spent hours upon hours of my childhood playing in the magical and magnificent hardwood forest of upstate New York. (The photos in this post were taken in Vermont two years ago. Sadly, I have never seen a Red Eft in Michigan, though I am told they do exist here.)

November Morning

British soldiers

Red oak leaves

Almost leafless trees

A Touch of Fall...

blackberrry leaf

Hickory leaf

Calendula--blooms until the snow flies 

Pitcher Plant

(photo taken at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids last weekend)

Linked to Macro Monday. 

Saugatuck Dunes State Park Beach--Lake Michigan

Today I am sharing a few more photos from our mini vacation to the western side of Michigan last weekend. Our first stop was Saugatuck Dunes State Park, which has 2.5 miles of secluded sandy beach with freshwater sand dunes that some of which are over 200 feet high. The beach is about a mile hike through a hardwood forest that is filled with several miles of hiking trails. 

The beach was quite, pristine, and felt a bit barren to me. It was my first time visiting sand dunes in the summer. (I've hiked them in the winter when covered in ice and snow, and that is a totally different experience--you expect barren in the winter.)

I mentioned afterwards to my husband when reviewing my photos of the dunes that sand dunes don't seem to be very photogenic, his reply was the sand usually isn't.

After all a sand dune is a giant pile of sand with some grass and maybe a few trees on the top. 

In any case, the sky and beach was beautiful, and you couldn't have asked for more lovely weather for the last two days of September. 

The only problem with short weekend trips is that when you leave, you feel you just have to come back again, because you know there is so much more to explore--there are trails on the other side of these dunes that we didn't get a chance to hike... 

For more photos of another beach along Lake Michigan that we visited last weekend, click here.

Pier Cove Beach--Lake Michigan

This weekend we took a trip to Saugatuck, Michigan on the west side of the state with some friends. Lake Michigan was too cold for swimming, but it was plenty warm enough to enjoy some nice strolls along the beach, and we were lucky enough to get to watch both the sunset and the harvest moon rise over Lake Michgan on Saturday evening. On the way home we stopped in Grand Rapids at the Meijer's Gardens. Lots of photos coming to both Dandelion Haven's facebook page and the blog!

One of our stops was to a pretty little beach along Lake Michigan in Saugatuck.

The beach was littered with hundreds of thousands of zebra mussel shells. While zebra mussels may make for a pretty photo, they are very harmful to the native species that live in the lake.

Seagull down.

Zebra Mussel shells.

Lake Michigan and Pier Cove Beach.  

Linked to Macro Monday.