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woodland wildflowers

Photo essay: A misty morning at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center

September 16, 2019  |  Topics: Places, Spotlight


By Eddee Daniel

The Schlitz Audubon Nature Center has a well-deserved reputation for its education programs and its exemplary collection of living raptors. The main building also sits on 185 acres of forests, wetlands, restored prairies, ravines, bluffs and Lake Michigan shoreline. Six miles of trails wind through it all. I saw quite a lot of it during a two-hour walk on a misty morning recently. And until the very end, when I happened upon a class of sixth graders learning how to canoe on Mystery Lake, I had the whole place to myself.

Here is a little of what I saw.

grasses and wildflowers bending in the breeze
Restored prairie
Black-eyed Susan and blue vervain
Black-eyed Susan and blue vervain
bullfrog sitting on a log over a pond
Bullfrog
Drooping blazing star flowers
Drooping blazing star
Blue bottle gentian flowers viewed from the side
Blue bottle gentians
Blue bottle gentian blossom viewed from above
Bottle gentian, another view (unretouched colors!)
birch tree grove with goldenrod
Birches and goldenrod
The end of the boardwalk in a wetland with cattails
The end of the boardwalk
A palisade of blue vervain in bloom
A palisade of blue vervain in bloom
a ravine with lush green foliage
Ravine
radiating goldenrod atop spreading leaves
A goldenrod explosion
Woodland panorama
Woodland panorama
gray dogwood with bright red and green leaves and berries
An autumn tapestry of gray dogwood
six canoes launching from a boardwalk
Canoeing 101
Autumn fireworks

For more information about Schlitz Adubon Nature Center, click here.

Eddee Daniel is a board member of Preserve Our Parks. Schlitz Audubon Nature Center is a partner organization to A Wealth of Nature.