Michigan Forest Life - April 6, 2025

Good morning, nature lovers!

'Tis a beautiful morning at Winterfield Pines Nature Sanctuary. An east-facing window from the Treehouse porch through the white pine branches never loses its lovely view of the sunrise (Photo 1). ...And a forest breakfast is always a pleasure (Photo 2): two eggs, semi-scrambled in the cast iron skillet; two thick slices of bacon; treehouse baked bread, sliced to order and toasted over the flame on the Coleman stove; and strawberry preserves.

A colorful pair of wood ducks paddled about in the pond this morning (Photo 3). They cruised the pond's surface begging for my attention, each with a colorful twin reflecting on the water's glassy surface. Of all ducks, wood ducks are my favorite. These two seemed to know that.

The ducks explored the pond as I explored the shore and inspected the steep sandy walls of the gravel pit.

An amazing fossil lay in the sand, washed

clean in this week's rain (Photos 4 -7). Is this a large tube of coral? I am not sure. Is it a segment of a giant cephalopod? Unlikely. What is it? It is a larger and more defined cylinder than fossils we normally find in the gravel pit. We have found many fossils: Petoskey stones, shells, various corals, etc., but we have only turned up one other fossil that matches this one in size and basic shape. If any of you know what this fossil is, please write me with your thoughts. I would like to know more about this.

Heavy rains that exposed this fossil also filled the river close to its brim (Photo 8). Winterfield Pines Nature Sanctuary missed the destructive ice that knocked most of northern Michigan to the mat last week and closed the Mackinac Bridge with large sheets of falling ice. At times

like this we can only step back to look with awe on the power of Mother Nature, surrender to

her mercy, and consider the relative insignificance of our own human ways.

The pond is also at its high water mark. As I circled it, I came across a small sapling at the pond's edge (Photo 9.) It is already three years old. Count the whorls. I was surprised to see this little fellow because I had not noticed him

before. There are thousands of startups like this in the forested parts of this property. They make up a big part of the forest's understory. But this one stands alone in the grass by the pond?

"What are you doing here?" I asked the tiny tree.

"I am rewilding the gravel pit," he seemed to answer. "I am just one part. A tiny tree now. The grass here helped me start. It took more than fifteen years of grass growing and decaying to make the soil I needed next to this pond. So much gravel around. And the deer have not noticed me or nibbled on me because the grass has hidden me so far. But I hope to grow into a mighty tree. Like the big ones on the banks of the river, my kin. That will take at least two hundred years, and I will need a lot of luck to survive. But look closely. There is another sapling twenty yards to the south, my sister. If I don't make it, maybe she will. And there will be more. Help us by leaving us to the natural order of things. Let us grow. You can be our friend. I am so excited."

"Yes, my friend," I softly answer. "Mother Nature will take care of things."

I wish you a lovely day in the spring sunshine, and a sapling for a friend.

Until next time,

Dan