Five Star High-Rise Apartment!
all photos by Jonathan Schechter
Bear Creek Nature Park,  January 3, 2012 Oakland Township, Michigan

NOTE: These photos are a supplement to my hiking column on the Bear Creek Nature
Park  now on-line  on The Oakland Press website www.theoaklandpress.com and to
 be in the print edition on Sunday, January  8th.
My hiking columns appears every Sunday in The Oakland Press.

Bear Creek Nature Park, a unit of Oakland Township Parks, is not wilderness by
 any  streach of the imagination. But these 107 acres of rolling glacial terrain,
woodlands, wetlands and fields in Oakland County are  rich in nature's way.
All you need do is look. And be patient. Sometimes very patient.

ABOVE:  The oak tree above is more than a tree with "a big hole in it".
 A watchful  person may spot the inhabitant, a raccoon that considers this a
high rise luxury apartment. And for the raccoon it is just that.

BELOW:
 #1 The upscale raccoon at rest.
#2 A not so empty cattail marsh: many creatures under ice.
#3 A muskrat lodge in the marsh.
#4 Now frozen vernal ponds are spring breeding areas for amphibians.
#5 A windthrow is perfect winter shelter for many small species.
#6 A red-tailed hawk, back to the wind and me waits for a rabbit or vole.