Tag: April

Beneath the Cliff Stairs II

Periwinkle

Source of life-saving drug

MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

A broad, fertile flat between gorge walls supports a dense growth of invasive creeping myrtle. Springtime there is a sprinkling of small blue flowers, this may be the source of another name, periwinkle, or lesser periwinkle.

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Beneath the Cliff Stairs I
Beneath the Cliff Stairs I

Periwinkle is an evergreen and in early times vinca vine (another name we call it, from the scientific name Vinca Minor) was planted in graveyards and cemeteries. The isolated growth of vinca vine in this section of the gorge maybe from such a planting on a lost grave.

Beneath the Cliff Stairs II
Beneath the Cliff Stairs II

Today, the park practices leaving fallen trees in place, here they are covered in years of moss, a memory of headstones. Lesser Perriwinkle is significant for the living as the source of vincamine, from the leaves. A synthetic form of this compound is a potent vasodilator, a therapeutic treatment for stroke and other brain disorders.

These shots were hand held. I used a Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a variable “zoom” lens, great for framing compositions.

Robert H. Treman New York State Park.

Source: Wikipedia, “Vinca Minor.”

Click for a slideshow of this Fertile Flats sequence.
Beneath the Cliff Stairs I
Beneath the Cliff Stairs I
Beneath the Cliff Stairs II
Beneath the Cliff Stairs II
Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine
Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine

Ephemeral

Amphibian haven, breeding place

MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Melting snow, spring rains, gather in hollows of the forest floor to form ephemeral pools important for the development of amphibian life.

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Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine
Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine

Also named vernal pools, from the Latin word for spring or the time of the equinox. The pools are ephemeral in the sense of being temporary, disappearing in the warmer, dryer late spring and summer months, a characteristic important for amphibian live in being devoid of predatory fish.

Here the pool forms on a flat beneath the walls of Enfield Gorge. Here is another photograph featuring the ephemeral winter theme, “The Cave.”

These shots were hand held. I used a Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a variable “zoom” lens, great for framing compositions.

Robert H. Treman New York State Park.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Vernal Pool” and Merriam Webster online.

Click for a slideshow of a few photographs published recently.
Gully I
Gully I
Gully II
Gully II
Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine
Vernal Pool with Vinca Vine
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Gully II

Gully vs. Ravine

I love the early spring light filtering through the hemlocks.

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Rim trail traverses gullies. These creases in the gorge walls were formed by small streams flowing to Enfield Creek.

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Gully I
Gully I

Some passages require a wade, others have elaborate walkways with bridges. I initially wanted to call these ravines. Upon researching the term discovered while ravines are formed by erosion, the scale here is much smaller. I could rename Enfield Gorge, to Enfield Ravine.

Gully II
Gully II

These shots were hand held. I used a Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a variable “zoom” lens, great for framing compositions.

Robert H. Treman New York State Park.

Click for a slideshow of this Waterfall of the Old Mill sequence
Rim Trail Ascent
Rim Trail Ascent
Rim Trail icicles
Rim Trail icicles
Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.
Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.
Gully I
Gully I
Gully II
Gully II
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.

Icicles!!

Key words: steep, icy

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Water drips steadily from seeps, places water follows hidden cracks to emerge from the darkness. In warm seasons these may be a patch of moisture enabling the growth of ferns, only becoming evident when air is cold enough to freeze slowly running water.

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Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.
Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.

These macros capture the Moss, Fern and Lichen. These thrive in this environment.

Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.

These shots were hand held. I used a Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a variable “zoom” lens, great for framing compositions.

Robert H. Treman New York State Park.

Click for a slideshow of this Waterfall of the Old Mill sequence
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Place where Fish Kill was harnessed to power the Old Mill
Place where Fish Kill was harnessed to power the Old Mill
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Fish Kill Waterfall at the Old Mill.
Sedimentary Walls
Sedimentary Walls
Icicles hang over Fish Kill
Icicles hang over Fish Kill
Rim Trail Ascent
Rim Trail Ascent
Rim Trail icicles
Rim Trail icicles
Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.
Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.
Rim Trail icicles with lichen, moss and fern.
This macro captures the Moss, Fern and Lichen. These thrive in this environment.
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Icicles hang over Fish Kill

Of Rocks and Seeps

Step into an early spring morning where sudden frosts adorn the Waterfall by the Old Mill with fleeting icicles, capturing nature’s delicate balance between freeze and thaw.

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

New icicles formed overnight from seeps through the sedimentary walls around the Waterfall by the Old Mill. On an early spring day, after a sudden frost, we walked the Rim Trail to capture the moment.

Here icicles formed during the quick April freeze hand above Fish Kill. Kill is an old Dutch word for creek.

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Sedimentary Walls
Sedimentary Walls

Here a mix of frost and lichen mottle the rock layers.

Icicles hang over Fish Kill

These shots were hand held. I used a Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a variable “zoom” lens, great for framing compositions.

Robert H. Treman New York State Park.

Click for a slideshow of this Waterfall of the Old Mill sequence
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Place where Fish Kill was harnessed to power the Old Mill
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Sedimentary Walls
Icicles hang over Fish Kill
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Falls by the Old Mill, early spring

Three Views, Falls of the Old Mill

Join me on a frost-kissed journey along the Rim Trail, capturing the transient beauty of falls freed from winter’s grip, where nature’s power remains untamed and vividly alive.

MichaelStephenWills19 Comments

A day the falls run free of ice. On an early spring day, after a sudden frost, we walked the Rim Trail to capture the moment. Here are three captures of the same waterfall, the first visitors to the upper park encounter and the most visited and photographed right off the parking area.

Fish Kill was captured at this point to provide power to grind grain. Today neither nature nor man control the flow. Kill is the old Dutch word for creek.

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Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring

I have never counted the waterfalls from this one to the grand sweep of lower falls. The falls are uncountable because no two people could agree on how small a fall to credit.

Place where Fish Kill was harnessed to power the Old Mill

Of these three versions, i prefer this one for the foreground inclusion of the enormous limestone blocks set to protect visitors from the drop. This scene is challenging photographically, bifurcated as it is by the bright sun over the fall brink. I prefer to shoot these falls early morning, for this reason, before the sun illuminates the area at all. Long exposures required demand a rock solid tripod, as it is just off the parking lot I use my studio Manfrotto for the work. Here all shots were handheld.

I used a Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a variable “zoom” lens, great for framing compositions.

Falls by the Old Mill, early spring

Robert H. Treman New York State Park.

Click for a slideshow of this sequence of the Waterfall of the Old Mill
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Place where Fish Kill was harnessed to power the Old Mill
Falls by the Old Mill, early spring
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Lucifer Falls, early spring evening

Sense of Scale

Come in and experience how humans are dwarfed by the eons

MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Continue reading “Sense of Scale” →

Fern Frond with Early April Snow

Frond in Snow

Green Promise

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Continue reading “Frond in Snow” →

Mesquite Flowers and Seeds

desert survival

MichaelStephenWills

Mesquite is the Sonoran Desert smell carried by distant rain, omnipresent and humble, a survivor with tap root extending 190 feet down to draw on the water table.

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Prosopis is the scientific name for about 40 species of leguminous trees. Present in North America since the Pliocene era, mesquite wood has been dated to 1300 BC.

I found this flowering mesquite bush in Finger Rock Canyon of the Catalina Mountains outside Tucson, Arizona.

They are thought to have evolved with megafauna in the New World. The loss of North American megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene era gave way to one theory of how the Prosopis spp. were able to survive.

One theory is that the loss of the megafauna allowed Prosopis spp. to use their fruit pods to attract other organisms to spread their seeds; then, with the introduction of livestock, they were able to spread into grasslands.

The plentiful legumes that develop from these flowers are edible when cooked. The shape and color of the seeds can be understood from this empty seed pod that happens to lie near a tarantula burrow.

Click me to read more about the uses of mesquite.

References:
“Mesquite,” Wikipedia

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Cottonwood Shade in Pima Canyon

The cottonwood’s deep roots draw water from a mountain stream.

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Looking back down Pima Canyon on a spring morning plenty of green under the unrelenting sun.

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A large Fremont’s Cottonwood Offers shade and protection along the Pima Canyon Trail.

In the shade, a grapevine, offers a vain promise of grapes.

The cottonwood’s deep roots draw water from a mountain stream.

Native Americans in the Western United States and Mexico used parts of Frémont’s cottonwood variously for a medicine, in basket weaving, for tool making, and for musical instruments. The inner bark of Frémont’s cottonwood contains vitamin C and was chewed as an antiscorbutic – treatment for vitamin C deficiency. The bark and leaves could be used to make poultices to reduce inflammation or to treat wounds.

The Pima people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico lived along Sonoran Desert watercourses and used twigs from the tree in the fine and intricate baskets they wove. The Cahuilla people of southern California used the tree’s wood for tool making, the Pueblo peoples for drums, and the Lower Colorado River Quechan people in ritual cremations. The Hopi of Northeastern Arizona carve the root of the cottonwood to create kachina dolls.

Reference: Wikipedia “Fremont’s Cottonwood.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills