Everybody[1] loves spring crocuses[2], because they pop up and bloom first thing in the spring, usually while the snow is still in the process of melting. For us, this means that they bloom around mid-April, but by that time most of the rest of the country has been seeing them for a month or more.
Previously, I posted pictures of ants that had taken up residence in one of our old, partially-hollow apple trees. They had stuffed the trunk with bits of grass, wood chips, and similar debris, and taken up residence in it. I had thought that the nest had died after some bluejays used it for an “anting” site, but on July 9, 2016, we saw that it was still a vigorously going concern.
On June 12, 2016, the girls and I were on our way back from releasing the snapping turtle that I’d rescued from beside the road the previous day, when they found this lovely little garter snake:
We found these on an oak tree when we visited Lake of the Clouds on June 14, 2015. They are almost perfectly spherical, and around two inches in diameter.
They look like a fruit of some sort, but they aren’t. The fruit of an oak tree is an acorn, which looks nothing like these.
This is one of the cherry trees in our front yard, photographed at the height of its bloom on May 26, 2016. Since the tulips growing around its base were at full bloom as well, I just think it is a nice picture. You can click on it to see it at higher resolution if you like.
While we were camping at Traverse City on June 18, Sandy found this big black beetle trundling about[1]. It was pretty big, the body was around an inch long (about the size of the first joint of my thumb).
On our trip downstate, we stopped by to visit Sandy’s brother in Whitmore Lake on June 15, 2016. There was a little park just down the street from his house, and while we were walking down there with the girls, somebody noticed that one of the houses had something unusual in their yard. At first we thought it was a lawn ornament, but then realized that it was actually a pretty big turtle. Not wanting to be trespassers, Sandy and Sam went up to the house, rang the bell, and when the owner came to the door asked him, “Can we come into your yard to look at the turtle there?”
He looked rather taken aback by this question. “The what?”
We took a trip to southern Michigan and part of Ohio from June 14 to June 22, 2016, and on our way back we stopped to visit the Grand Traverse Butterfly House and Insect Zoo[1], which is just outside of Traverse City
The butterfly house portion is a simulated tropical rainforest, with a nice waterfall and flowers everywhere.
On the evening of June 11, 2016, I was driving our little pickup truck back home along Canal Road, and kind of casually noticed what looked like a rock beside the road. And as I passed it, suddenly realized, “Hey, that rock looked like it had a head! And a tail!” So, I immediately pulled over, ran back, and saw this fine individual getting ready to unintentionally commit suicide by trying to cross a busy road:
There are a number of species of small crane flies (about half an inch long) that are commonly found flying around even when the temperatures are barely above freezing. Here are some of them from November 5[1], 2015.
