kettle moraine oak opening is very much what it sounds like, though there’s plenty of oak woods too. another sna in the interlobate moraine area between two fingers of the last glaciation (the lake michigan lobe and green bay lobe), the rolling and tumbling topography between steep ridges and kettle holes is always a delight to meander thru. maintaining the oak opening and small prairies on the knobs takes some doing, and we visited (it looks like) a week or two after a prescribed burn. the smell was fertile.
saw our first round-lobed liverwort too—the hairs on the scape don’t come across in the photos, but they were thick with white hairs, and heavy-laden with pollen.
a.
char and ash dust the ground
below a cardinal’s rapid song
the gravelly knob’s singed scent
b.
belly-splayed
on bald bluff
sun basking
c.
a great relief of land
mossed arms of oak
reach out over liverwort
Jacob Riyeff 