On Tuesday, November 11th, we pause to remember our brave veterans. Veterans Day is a day to honor all our military personnel who have served, whereas on Memorial Day we only honor our war dead. In today’s post I want to recognize the military personnel that did not return home in a casket, but sadly took their own life, after suffering from PTSD due to trauma experienced during their respective tours of duty.
This is the third year I have participated virtually in the annual Running to Honor 5K walk/run event at Heritage Park. Running to Honor was organized by a local veteran, Aaron Bartal, who served in the U.S. Army for six years and in 2019 created the first Running to Honor event, not only to memorialize comrades he lost on his Iraq tours, but also those military personnel that have died by their own hand after returning home. It may surprise you to learn that the U.S. loses 22 veterans daily to suicide, due to PTSD, some many years after their time served.
How I chose to honor the fallen.
This post is a bit more subdued than my usual posts about this venue …
… so, I’ll refrain from poking fun at the chickens that cross my path, or photographing the proud Canada Geese and Mallards with their young, or even telling a tale like the wily Seagull that swiped a fish right from under the noses, er … bills of the Cormorant and Heron.
Instead, I will fill this post with flowers, most of them red, white and blue and add in some photos taken by the event organizers on the day of the race.
However, I do confess I peeked in the rafters of the covered bridge for baby Barn Swallows and shaded my eyes from the sun to peer across Coan Lake for Mallard ducklings skimming across the surface of the water, but found neither. I did “double dip” on this walk to find a solitary Swallowtail Butterfly that flitted about the pinkish-purple Coneflowers in the perennial garden near the Old Log Cabin. I took some shots of that beautiful butterfly and will save those pics for mid-Winter when we will need a dose of Summer to soldier on through the balance of that season.
Running to Honor – 2025.
The event took place on Saturday, July 25th and, as in the past, I visited Heritage Park the day before to walk the course and take photos. This is a well-run event and there were many virtual participants from other states per Aaron Bartal’s Facebook posts.
Our swag arrived several weeks before, including the tee-shirt, finishing medal and bib with number.
First, I meandered over to the Francesca’s Heart sculpture found on the Conservatory grounds and, along the way, I dodged the automatic sprinklers that were on, something new that I have written about recently. I miss chatting it up with the friendly volunteers that were always hand watering and now I find myself shielding the camera with my hands, should a sudden burst of water from a nearby sprinkler drench us.
Francesca’s Heart sculpture was flanked by flowers.
It was sunny and the sun bouncing off the metal sculpture and the large, waxy Canna leaves had me taking a second shot from another angle to ensure at least one photo came out fine.
The red Cannas were vibrant and even though Cannas are considered Hummingbird magnets, there were no tiny visitors stopping by to sip from the blooms on that day.
At the sculpture were messages from the heart, or maybe I should say “heART”.
This sculpture was dedicated to Francesca Weatherhead, (née Vitale), a 25-year-old newlywed, tragically killed in 2014 by a parolee that was fleeing the police and broadsided her car.
In swerving and veering down another path to get from Point A to Point B without the camera or me getting wet, I found these red, white and blue flowers scattered in and around the Conservatory, the perfect accompaniment for this post.
The beautiful Snowball Bushes were not ready for primetime just yet.
Photos posted on the event’s Facebook site by Aaron Bartal.
There were many photos of the event, but I’ll just include a few here, like Aaron Bartal reading the names of the fallen soldiers that you will see pictured in the Field of Honor.
The Field of Honor, i.e. the flags and signs that honor the local soldiers that died, is arranged on the park grounds the evening before and an honor guard watches over them.
On the date of each fallen soldier’s death, Aaron Bartal also posts their photo and a remembrance on his Facebook site. On October 22nd, as Veterans Day neared, this message was posted:
I realize that I’ve inundated my blog with posts about this venue and, in reviewing my log of places visited/photographed in 2025, Heritage Park definitely topped the list many more times than Lake Erie Metropark, my usual frequent stomping grounds from Spring through Fall. But, by late July, there were lots of warnings on the news about ticks and an influx of visitors to the E.R.s, (some 61% more), to have embedded ticks removed. After getting the tick in my ear last year, even though I was lucky enough that it did not attach, I decided to play it safe and avoid the woodsy and rustic trails for a while, so tootling along the paved pathways here and at bigger parks with asphalt trails just made sense to me.
Event organizer Aaron Bartal reported that there were 700 in-person and virtual participants in this event and the number of youngsters participating grows from year to year. The oldest participant was 88 years old. The fastest runner was 16 years old with a time of 17 minutes and 6 seconds. The race registration fees and donations yielded $11,675.85, distributed to various local charities for veterans. I think this is a worthwhile endeavor and I plan to participate next year as well.
Note: I am not participating this week in Terri’s Photo Challenge: Leaf Peeping.
Instead I wanted to do this post for Veterans Day and Wednesday I will do a Wordless Wednesday post (pics) to remember the crew of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald that sank in Lake Superior during a bad storm 50 years ago tomorrow (11/10/75). I watched this documentary, a “backstory”, on this freighter, the storm and the crew and found it very interesting, so I thought I’d share this YouTube link. I’ve already shared it with my fellow Michigander bloggers over the weekend. It is a little over an hour long. Click here.
As Fall finally settles in and Winter looms large, how I long for Spring.
I will eagerly anticipate that morning walk in late March when I hear the first calls of the Red-winged Blackbirds as they return from their warm weather vacation. They will cling onto dilapidated cattails, their song pealing throughout Council Point Park and every marshy venue where I walk. This Red-winged Blackbird, sporting plumage that resembles dapper military attire, was in between songs, but he had been singing his heart out, with high hopes of landing a mate.
Sometimes, when it is cold, as those birds hit the high notes, tiny rings of condensation form around their beak, so their breath from a song looks like they are blowing smoke rings. When the Red-winged Blackbirds return to Southeast Michigan I know that soon the “early bloomers” will push through the still-cold soil and grace us with their pastel presence and the Forsythia bushes will compete with the dandelions, each vying for the title of “Most Vibrant Yellow”.
It’s been quite a year for me, from weathering the wiles of Mother Nature, to appreciating my wild and untamed fine-feathered friends, many which you’ve already met in this blog in 2025, with some adventures and photos that will continue to roll out in the coming months.
I’m sure the birds wish they could similarly turn back the hands of time and begin anew, like this Baltimore Oriole that was plucking plant fibers to start a nest back in late Spring.
I’d love to transport myself to that lovely Spring walk and extend it … forever – sigh.
While I want to say that I will quit whining about the weather, now that the long-range forecast predicts lots of snow for our region, that stat does NOT make my heart sing. I’m sure my feathered friends that choose to tough it out by overwintering here in Southeast Michigan will likewise not be singing their hearts out about that predicted plentiful precip.
Back on July 27th, I did a post entitled “Color my world” in which I told you how I began a long-awaited hobby, sketching and painting in watercolors, a pastime I dreamed about for decades, a hobby I intended to begin after retiring.
I have shared with you that my retirement aspirations changed a lot through the 50 years I worked, mostly because I could never have predicted the advent of the World Wide Web and just how it would impact my life. While working, I squirreled away lots of potential hobbies to do in my so-called “Golden Years” – most are still downstairs in Rubbermaid tubs … books, jigsaw puzzles, art materials, just to name a few.
When I was in my teens, one Summer I took a free charcoal sketching class offered by the City and decided this would be a fun hobby. My parents bought me some sketchbooks, charcoal pencils and pastel crayons, all which I have kept all these years …
… along with some how-to-draw books they bought to encourage that budding interest. My basement is a treasure trove of hobbies started throughout my life.
But, once school started and weekend chores got in the way, my time and sadly my enthusiasm for drawing dwindled.
Years later, after purchasing some Hallmark Christmas ornaments and greeting cards by Dutch artist Marjolein Bastin, my interest was again piqued to someday draw and paint similar nature scenes and creatures, but once again, I thought of this as a retirement hobby.
Fast forward a half-century + or – later.
I retired March 29, 2024 and I finally decided to take that sketching/painting plunge. I’d followed German artist Julia Bausenhardt’s blog and viewed her online tutorials on YouTube for several years, biding my time when I would start my own projects. I registered for an online class with Julia that included feedback on the assignments and it began April 28th. I loved that class and took another, then another. Those classes and the paintings prompted my July 27th post.
In that July 27th post, I showed you a drawing of a Blue Jay and said this would be my next painting after I learned more about sketching.
However, I have not returned to watercolor painting … just yet. No, I have not lost interest, but instead, when it finally cooled off a little, making long walks more tolerable, I seized each day and walked with the camera as much as possible. Winter will bring me more leisure time and I will once again pick up the paintbrush.
Yes, the Summer of 2025 was a pain!
For this walker, the seemingly endless days of heat, humidity, storms and wildfire smoke, wreaked havoc with my walking regimen. Undoubtedly, I could have been more productive inside the air-conditioned house, but inwardly I pouted about missing out on long walks with my camera.
Instead, over the course of a week or so, during those dreaded “Dog Days of Summer” I occupied my time sketching.
Julia offered these two tutorials.
So I sketched to my heart’s delight, hunkered down in the cool kitchen, various step-by-step tutorials up on the computer screen. I focused on learning details like feather formations, head shapes/profiles, bird anatomy, gestural movements, even how the shape/size of their feet affect how birds perch.
Happily, all my finished bird sketches did NOT look like the same bird – I hope you agree.
There are always new things to learn about any subject.
I found it interesting to learn there was a distinction between sketching and drawing, I know I’ve used these two words interchangeably long before my renewed interest in this hobby. Through Julia’s tutorials, I have learned that drawing is something that’s more focused, that you take your time with so your final product is much more refined, whereas sketching is looser and much less precise.
We began by drawing various circles and ellipticals, since basically bird shapes all begin there, plus we sketched a few odds and ends … hopefully you can distinguish the mushroom from the garlic.
In the “Posture and Proportions” and “Defining Angles of the Bird” portions of the course, Julia made it sound and look easy by having us sketch birds based on shapes, i.e. she told us when sketching a bird, you create a round ball for the head, an elliptical shape for the body, then a triangle for the wing(s), (especially if it is a side profile). The tail is a thin rectangle. There you have it, but there are details … there are always details, right?
Julia made a surprising statement early on in a sketching video. She said sketches should take no more than five or ten minutes to complete and stressed that such a lack of precise drawing might include squiggles, wavy lines and hash marks that would suffice as markings in the bird’s plumage. Hmm. I know my sketches took longer than five or ten minutes.
I have to admit two things: Julia’s squiggles, wavy lines and hash marks look much more realistic in her renderings than mine. I was reminded of the whimsical paintings that I shared with you in my July 27th post, because some of those paintings looked whimsical, though they were NOT intended to be whimsical at all. 🙂
Since the course covered bird anatomy, Julia gave us detailed illustrations of the eye, feather structure, even how a bird’s skeleton looks. I previously assumed all bird’s feet were similar, but learned differently in the videos.
Something I never noticed before, not only in conjunction with birdwatching, but also having parakeets and canaries as pets through the years, is that a bird’s back toe has only one bone, as opposed to the other toes, thus that back toe and its claw never curl around a branch or perch. Who knew?
Julia draws the feet of a perching bird.
Julia’s illustrations of bird foot anatomy.
Soon we were into the nitty-gritty of bird sketching.
Kingfishers are beautiful birds. I’ve only seen one and it was so far away, the camera captured a tiny blob on a branch. Kingfishers are adept at catching fish as you see in the slideshow below.
When we finished the Kingfisher series, Julia suggested doing another drawing, this time in colored pencil. Note: our North American Kingfishers do not have this coloring.
You’ve seen pictures of the Double-crested Cormorant from my shoreline walks. Yes, they are not the prettiest water birds, but they sure are easily identifiable by their hooked bill and wide, webbed feet. And, if those two attributes don’t identify a Cormorant at a glance, its stance with outstretched wings, looking like a vampire (or a flasher), will be a clue in identifying this bird
The Downy Woodpecker is the tiniest of our Woodpeckers.
Behold the lowly Sparrow, a bird of which we have plenty here in Southeast Michigan. There are 20+ species of them in this state, but the most common are the Song Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow. Many people refer to Sparrows as “Brown Bombers” so here are a few of my Brown Bombers. Imagine them singing their sweet song.
After I finished Julia’s classes, I decided to kick it up a notch.
I paged through the Charles Tunnicliffe book Mom bought me, which has been sitting on the living room coffee table for eons, … well twenty years to be exact.
Mom’s intention with this 2005 Christmas present was helping me to reinvigorate that interest, but as usual, work and other obligations crowded into that passion.
Well, the author makes the simple sketches look so easy here … a couple of pencil strokes, a dab of color here and there …
… and, because there were many simple sketches throughout the book – I tried a few of them – back to the ol’ drawing board as the expression goes.
I tried to replicate the artist’s sketches but did not do so well. I have a way to go yet.
I have a few larger drawings I now need to paint once the snow flies.
I’m going to continue to learn more with Julia. I do prefer the step-by-step tutorials with a little guidance.
I saw this quote awhile back and tucked it away – it’s perfect as we ease into the gray and gloom of Fall and Winter.
I am joining Terri’s Challenge this week which is“Hooves and Claws”. And, I will also have a photo for the “Hooves” portion on Wednesday, so please stay tuned.
October stretched before me, my favorite month and favorite season. What’s not to like about October? You have the wee nip in the air, the tastes, the smells, abundant colorful leaves, even the sound of the crumpled-up leaves crunching under the soles of my walking shoes as the month wears on.
And another bright spot that I discovered a few years ago is the concept of Walktober, where anyone and everyone can embrace walking or simply basking in all that October has to offer. Do you want to take photos, write about the experience and post it on your blog – well that’s even better!
So, on Friday, October 3rd, off I went, in full Walktober mode, eager to do a “round robin” at three large woodsy venues.
It was blessedly cool, sunny, with a flawless blue sky – a perfect day in my opinion. To be honest, my expectations were not all that high for a colorful walk, as Southeast Michigan had endured moderate drought the entire month of September. Days stretched into weeks without a drop of rain. The no-rain part helped boost my sagging steps count and kickstart my walking regimen into high gear once again, but, what was good for me was not good for the trees which were faring poorly, stressed from lack of moisture, dooming their leaves to lack color and simply fall to the ground, brown and brittle.
Not surprisingly, Council Point Park’s trees were still cloaked in green, with the exception of a few Maples that were tinged with yellow but were not really “showy” yet. So, admittedly I had some trepidation about which venue would become my Walktober post.
First up – Lake Erie Metropark.
Well, this was a first for me. I’m sorry to say I never even parked the car as I rolled past the marshes and saw dried-up reeds, low or non-existent water levels with each marsh devoid of waterfowl and shore birds. A few Egrets were perched in the trees. Where was everyone hanging out this morning? I shook my head and drove to the park exit.
Next stop – Elizabeth Park.
I drove the perimeter road, a/k/a Elizabeth Drive, at this lovely island park and decided I would make Elizabeth Park my Walktober venue. I spent about two hours walking around, racking up almost four miles as I happily clicked away at the Canada Geese with their near-perfect reflections in the Canal and then watched Ring-billed Seagulls swoop and alight along the boardwalk railing, just begging to be photographed. However, with the exception of a few trees with hints of yellow illuminated by the sun’s rays, I realized I would need to return in two or three weeks to capture the Maples’ flaming red hues and the Oaks’ brilliant gold tones. Thus, the post recounting the beauty of this walk will be in the Wintertime when we need it most.
I didn’t even try for a third venue as planned and decided to just call it a day, but, I knew where I would go next ….
I headed to Heritage Park on Sunday, October 5th and …
… here is where I found my Walktober. 🙂
As I crossed the parking lot enroute to the historical area I checked out the trees and knew that color-wise I would fare no better here, but my main intent was to visit the aftermath of “The Scarecrow Stroll” festivities held the day before. I’ve been here in the past to photograph the scarecrows displayed around the Botanical Gardens.
But first I paused for a photo at the lamp post with its festive flag.
When these Mallards waddled over to see me, I told them they were “Halloween-ready” with their bright-orange webbed feet.
See how this Mallard drake is almost back to normal plumage colors with its head feathers? The last time I was here they were still in eclipse phase where males and females are all a drab brown.
While rounding the bend at Rosecrans Picture Perfect Photo Studio, a small black critter scampered across my path. It scared, startled me as I didn’t recognize it was a squirrel right away, a poor squirrel which was minus a tail!
The Petting Farm’s rooster was crowing repeatedly, but was nowhere to be seen – momentarily I wondered if its voice carried throughout the nearby residential neighborhood?
Two other residents of the Petting Farm greeted me, first Binx, the black barn cat which studied me as he guarded the Farm’s fence …
… then Binx came over to see me, …
… followed by Minnie, this pretty white and gray barn cat. I’m glad they decided I wouldn’t bite and soon both began nuzzling my legs.
Whew – no hissing black cat with an arched back crossed my path, so the moment was merry, not scary.
I continued wending my way to the Botanical Gardens, site of yesterday’s event.
There was definitely a harvest vibe going on.
I guess I should have known when there was a bicycle rack positioned across the entrance to the Conservatory that something was going on, but I saw no signs about an event closing the area to visitors as is usually done, so I just bypassed the rack and began meandering around and taking some harvest decor photos.
Look at these carved pumpkins – how unique are these?!
Here are some close-ups.
The Snowball bushes were still hangin’ in there …
… however, much more impressive was this beautiful Mum.
Now it was time to look for the scarecrows. I scanned the Gardens’ grounds and didn’t see any scarecrows, so I stopped someone that was bustling around and toting a brown cardboard box. I asked if the scarecrows were in a new location and she responded “we put them away as there is a wedding today that will last until 10:00 p.m.”“Thank you” was my response, but as I walked away, I muttered under my breath “good thing it is early in the month – today won’t be my Walktober either!” I was wrong though as you’ll soon see – patience is indeed a virtue sometimes.
Yes, “Your Roving Reporter” has a nose for news!
In the distance, by the Woodland Trails, did my eyes deceive me or did I see a couple of witches wearing pointy hats with wide brims? It was sunny, so I shaded my eyes with my hand and hustled over for a closer look, lest these witches be whisked away to the same holding area as the scarecrows were.
Then I noticed the Woodland Trails were decked out with lots of spooky beings – so join me on this spooktacular stroll, won’t you?
At the beginning were some skulls on a rock ….
Once I passed under the archway, I feared there was no turning back!
I was bewitched by these witchy things along the way, like big, pointed hats that bobbed on a wire overhead …
… and even lacy hats like this one …
… and, of course, the witches themselves.
There were black cats with green eyes that might have “done me in” in the dark …
… but I really would prefer an encounter with Binx, a black cat that is NOT scary.
There were friendly ghosts gathering along the pathway and, …
… for a fleeting moment it became a nod to my youth and “Casper, the Friendly Ghost” with me remembering a Casper costume donned many moons ago.
A few spooky-looking skeletons were thrown in for good measure.
All too soon my scary stroll was over and I was in the bright sunlight once again.
So, was this stroll merry …
… or scary? I’ll let you decide.
If you’re disappointed you didn’t see a scarecrow on this stroll, no worries, just click here!
As mentioned in previous posts, on July 21st I returned to Lake Erie Metropark after a six-week absence due to the heat, humidity, stormy weather and wildfire smoke. On July 21st I visited this venue, not once, but twice. The first time was early morning, as I stopped at the marina to get some shots of the Osprey family in their platform nest, but evidently they were gone fishing, so I drove right to the DNR Headquarters at Point Mouillee where I knew there was also an Osprey platform nest. Happily, I had success photographing that family and the DNR Headquarters’ bed of flourishing American Lotuses.
Several hours later, I arrived back at Lake Erie Metropark. In last week’s post, I told you how I was wowed by the beautiful Mute Swan family near the Offshore Fishing Bridge. Well, I wanted to make that post all about them, not me. So today’s post is like the late, great Paul Harvey’s feature “The Rest of the Story” because following my encounter with the swan family, I went off to explore, albeit on a relatively short walk as temps were already creeping upward – it was 71F/22C at high noon.
At the parking lot near Cove Point I was surprised to see this new pollinator garden and I wondered aloud “so, when did all this happen?”
After all, I always park at the same spot on that side of the park and a mere six weeks earlier it was just a ditch, like several other ditches around this venue – nothing special, except a place to collect rainwater and, if you’re lucky, you will get a Springtime serenade by the singing frogs.
Hmm – so, did someone plant some native flower seeds back in the Spring and the abundance of rain we had in June and July caused a proliferation of blooms?
Or, were those tiny native flower seeds whisked around the park on all those many windy days we experienced all Spring? This was the more likely reason, as those featherlight Black-eyed Susan seeds went airborne and ended up in the moist soil and began to grow.
In pursuing more photos of the Monarch, I whirled around and saw another pollinator garden in the distance.
The pollinators paused here while sipping nectar.
As I zoomed in on a few flowers, I saw this Monarch butterfly gracefully flitting from one Ironweed (a/k/a Vernonia) plant to the next. The featured image shows this graceful creature and here are two more shots of it, including alongside a bee, before it eventually moved on.
A wasp or hornet decided to take a dainty swig of the Ironweed.
There were a few other wildflowers with shades of purple like Chicory and Loosestrife, as well as this somewhat faded, bedraggled Wild Bee Balm (Bergamot).
A Cabbage White butterfly nestled into some greenery.
The fuzz was flyin’ from the Creeping Thistle, its downy-looking fibers …
… glomming onto the sticky leaves of this still perky-looking Black-eyed Susan.
On this Queen Anne’s Lace plant, several flies and other winged insects appeared to be sunning themselves on the lacy-looking blooms.
I spent about 15 minutes there, hoping to see a few more pollinators, but there were no more, so I headed to the wooden overlook to find and photograph a few Barn Swallows. I had no luck back on June 1st and similarly no luck today either. The old dead tree where they often perched for a breather from their exhausting in-flight insect grabs had become quite dilapidated – so much for that perfect photo op location.
The overlook is quite long and there were several anglers hunched over the railing, seemingly with high hopes for catching “a big one” by the looks of this large net.
I didn’t see any fish in pails, so maybe these were catch-and-release guys? I chatted with a couple of these young anglers as I searched the shoreline for a glimpse of any Lotuses in the usual two beds – there were no blooms and the plants were nonexistent as you see below.
All I saw was some seaweed, duckweed and some mottled-looking Pond Lilies.
Good thing I had gotten my “Lotus fix” earlier that day.
I left the anglers, intending to extend my walk, but there was really nothing more to see beyond that point and it was full sun – ugh, so I crossed back over the overlook. You know me – if I’d seen a doe and fawn, I’d have pursued that photo op, but I was a weenie, wilting with this increasing heat, having traipsed around for four miles already.
As I started back onto the overlook, one of the fishermen I had chatted with moments earlier, pointed to a Great Blue Heron that was just landing in the marsh, all the while squawking and screeching its head off.
This Great Blue Heron enjoyed posing.
I thanked him and soon focused on capturing some images of this wading bird after it settled, its stunning reflections in the surprisingly clear water on this side of the marsh.
I think this Heron likes what it sees as it peers into the marsh water.
As I focused on the Heron, the Heron focused on fishing and soon it was more successful than the fishermen, having downed a fishy snack, a fact I did NOT point out to the fishermen. 🙂
I decided to leave and head home, having secured enough photos for several posts at this park alone. The heat had now turned my walk into a trudge.
As I passed the “two-mile” sign …
… I glanced at the pedometer – a little over 8,200 steps and soon I would call it a day.
Ever since I was a little nipper, I have been fascinated by swans.
Was I captivated by their majestic beauty in the images found in my fairy tale books?
Or was it because when we still lived in Toronto, my parents often bundled me up, plunked me into my stroller …
… and off we went to visit Toronto’s High Park. I thought the swans were the prettiest of the waterfowl at High Park – sure there were geese and ducks along the shorelines too, but in my mind – swans ruled!
After all, what’s not to like about that graceful, curved neck, black “mask” around the snowy-white face and bright-orange bill? Many a prize-winning photographer has captured images of two swans, their bills touching and necks arched in the shape of a heart. This hobby photographer has not captured such a beautiful photo … yet.
That early fascination with swans (and geese and ducks too) never waned and here I am, almost seven decades later, still appreciating and photographing these beauties.
Part of my Labor Day weekend 2025 was spent going through my old albums to digitize some photos and scrapbook items not included in my four-day scanning marathon over Thanksgiving weekend 2017.
As I flipped through, paused and reflected on the items on those pages, I gleaned many images I had deemed necessary for future “Stir the Memory Pot” posts and happily, I also located my Mute Swan photos taken many years ago.
Mute Swans at Hidden Lake Gardens circa June 1983.
In 1983, my grandmother spent most of the Summer at our house. If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you already know that Nanny loved her flowers, whether she grew them, or just admired them, so my parents thought she might enjoy a Sunday drive and stop at Hidden Lake Gardens, a botanical garden and arboretum in Michigan’s Irish Hills.
Visitor Center & Conservatory, Hidden Lake Gardens (1983)
The day before we visited that venue, I had returned from a three-week vacation in four Scandinavian countries and Russia. I had not used up the last roll of film, so I toted my 35mm camera along to finish off the roll.
Of course, there were the usual poses by family members in and around Hidden Lake Gardens and a Mute Swan family captured my attention that day.
Mute Swan, Hidden Lake Gardens (1983)
Mute Swan, Hidden Lake Gardens (1983)
Mute Swan, Hidden Lake Gardens (1983)
Mute Swan and Cygnets, Hidden Lake Gardens (1983)
Flash forward 42 years ….
I have seen plenty of Mute Swan pairs, some with their cygnets in tow, since that Summer day back in ’83 and my joy was renewed as I followed a swan family and watched the cygnets growing in leaps and bounds throughout the Summer/early Fall of 2025.
In retrospect, had I ventured to Lake Erie Metropark more times than I did this past Summer, I may have been able to document the cygnets’ growth spurts in less-dramatic fashion, but, over the course of five visits, they went from tiny fluffballs struggling to keep up with their parents, to sleek-looking cygnets mimicking their parents’ graceful demeanor.
In September and October, they had positioned themselves in the same location where I’d found them previously, but unfortunately, even though the cygnets were almost full grown, the reeds had grown so high and thick, all I could glimpse was white images interspersed with green.
While standing at the edge of the marsh, hoping the family would move on and nibble some reeds elsewhere, a woman came over near me and we chatted about this Mute Swan family. It turned out that Vicky was similarly monitoring the family, only on an everyday basis, as she lives near the park and walks here daily. Just as I observed, they always stayed in that area of the marsh.
Together we marveled at the beauty and grace of the young cygnets that mimicked their parents in how they dipped their heads to sip water, nibbled on reeds and even turned upside down to explore and find more reeds beneath the surface of the water.
After Vicky left, I stayed a short time for a photo op, but, whether the Mute Swan family was merely camera shy or content to remain in the shelter of this little island and tall reeds, they did not budge, so I have no pictures from the last two sightings, but I have some to share from previous meanders.
My first cygnets sighting was on June 1st.
I first saw the family when the cygnets were still fluffy young’uns wedged in between their parents.
My second cygnets sighting was on July 21st.
Due to the heat, humidity, rain/storms in July, not to mention occasional wildfire smoke, I did not visit Lake Erie Metropark from June 1st until July 21st, but, when I returned, I headed straight for the North Shore Fishing Bridge to look for the Sandhill Crane pair (MIA since Spring and Vicky concurred with that observation).
On a tiny “island” of marsh nesting materials and nestled in the tall reeds, clear across the marsh, I saw the swan family, clustered around Mama, with Papa “patrolling” nearby.
Even from afar, it is easy to distinguish between the male and female Mute Swan by the predominant black knob at the base of the bill; it is not as predominant in the female. Notice Mama and Papa switched places for this photo!
I liked this photo the best of the bunch that day.
My third cygnets sighting was on August 28th.
My, how those babies had grown!
Lucky for me, the cygnets strayed from Mama and Papa’s watchful eyes, so I got this shot.
I finally got a clear shot of the nest as some of the reeds were gone. The cygnets were nearly full-size and it looks like Mama was enjoying a little “me time”. 🙂
I returned to Lake Erie Metropark again on September 8th, but as stated previously, no cygnet pics were taken.
On my last visit, October 3rd, it was still shorts and shirt-sleeves weather. There was NO swan song as to our Summer-like temps! This time I only saw one swan in the usual hangout and I think it was Mama basking in the sun and enjoying some more “me time” but there were some other sights to see and photograph – you will see them in next week’s post.
Will I see the family this Fall or Winter? I hope so, because, unlike the Trumpeter Swans and Tundra Swans that only spend a portion of the year here in Michigan, the Mute Swans stay year-around.
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 