For the last half of December our social media feeds and emails were inundated with individuals and organizations sharing recaps of their year. I’m a little behind the times but it’s still not to late to share some of my favorite photos of the past year. Like every year, I took thousands of photographs in 2025 both with my camera and on my phone. With a lot of my time spent working on surveys of the species found on CWC preserves, many of these photos were of a purely documentary nature but I still managed to capture some images that I loved. Here are a few of them broken down into very rough categories. -Mike
WILDLIFE WITH BACKBONES
Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) at Starks Preserve. 20 June 2025.
Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 09 June 2025.
Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 09 May 2025.
Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) at Audubon Woods Preserve. 09 June 2025
WILDLIFE WITHOUT BACKBONES
Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) at Mill Pond Natural Area. 20 August 2025.
Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina) at Peterson Natural Area. 09 August 2025.
Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) at Peterson Natural Area. 09 August 2025.
Eastern Whitelip (Neohelix albolabris) at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 19 May 2025.
WILDFLOWERS
Ragged Fringed Orchid (Platanthera lacera) at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 30 June 2025
Showy Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium reginae) at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 20 June 2025.
Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) at Williams-Blackburn Preserve. 14 May 2025.
FUNGI
American Yellow Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria var. guessowii) at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 29 October 2025.
Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) at Mill Pond Natural Area. 25 September 2025.
Sharp-scaly Pholiota (Pholiota squarrosoides) at Sylvan Solace Preserve. 08 September 2025
American Yellow Morel (Morchella americana) at Audubon Woods Preserve. 16 May 2025
LANDSCAPES & DETAILS
Early November snowstorm at Sylvan Solace Preserve. 10 November 2025.
Big-leaf Aspen leaves at Sylvan Solace Preserve. 28 October 2025
Maple leaves in the Chippewa River at Ball Preserve. 15 October 2025.
Waiting for darkness. Moth hunt at Hall’s Lake Natural Area. 25 July 2025.
Frost crystals on the frozen Chippewa River at Sylvan Solace Preserve. 21 January 2025.
Full Moon Hike at Sylvan Solace Preserve. 04 December 2025.
