Friday, 6 August 2021
The smoke-haze and the dawning sun made the buildings copper and gold. I’m in the city again.
Scale switch. Bumble bee on Joe-Pye weed. Capitalization of the plant name varies. Use of hyphens varies. Or just call it Eutrochium purpureum. Native to eastern North America, from Lousiana/Florida to Ontario.
Tuesday, 20 July 2021
This venerable maple is quite the host. The berry bushes, loaded with fruit are perhaps five feet above the ground. And I think that pileated had a mate (or offspring?) around the backside of the trunk, based on the abundant bird-chatter I overheard.
Saturday, 17 July 2021
I had thought this pair had moved on; today the (I assume) fella serenaded me with their rough call. They had moved on when I returned ten minutes later, perhaps flown to a nearby pond.
We boarded the pick-em-up and headed down the road. A couple of the rivers we crossed were the Sturgeon and the Little Smelt. Yay for fish.
This is the mouth of the Escanaba Marina channel; it opens into Little Bay de Noc. I proposed to the Guru that there must be a good Little Bay de Noc Noc joke, but I couldn’t think of one. [puh-dump] And, yes, there is a Big Bay de Noc.
We returned through the woods and got out on the bridge over the West Branch of the Manistique.
Friday, 16 July 2021
I made squirrel cage in ATL when I caught squirrels stealing my almost-ripe tomatoes. But, in reality, the yard’s too shady for tomatoes to thrive. With a pickup, you can move a screen cube (minus one side) a thousand miles and not sweat it.
Last evening I spotted a black-capped chickadee fluttering around the cube, perhaps somewhat distressed, and then realized another was INside the cube. Oops. I tipped it over and released the trapee, then righted it again. I probably should have shored up the bottom with soil so that can’t happen again. Turns out it is no longer a SQUirrel cage?
Also, while I was listening to the coffee maker wheeze and spit, and waiting for it to finish, I watched a deer stroll by the south side of the cottage, not terribly worried about danger, and perhaps unable to hear the coffee maker.
BTW, the water barrel is full for the first time this summer (I think), proof we received considerable rain a day or two back.
Monday, 5 July 2021
It was raining, and the sun was out. Until I got outside, camera (aka phone) in hand. Then, where the rainbow I’d hoped for would have been, just this as the sun had departed with its magic capabilities. Pretty, sure, yet NOT the same.
I managed to catch this beauty with the wings fanned. Such vividness.
Saturday, 3 July 2021
We had to go to town for grocs for tomorrow’s scaled-down party, and on the way, look what we found in the road. Shell was maybe a foot long. I think the black color is from algae or other growth. Meet a small-to-medium sized snapping turtle. I stood around until s/he turned around, and I stayed behind her/him until I saw him/her disappearing under a bush. In the shade. Until then anyway, a happy ending.
For various reasons, like it was hot hot hot, I took my walk late (for me), and the sunlight was in ray form, and just stunning. I tried to capture how magical the ferns looked, but they just look meh.
Tuesday, 8 June 2021
Another foggy morning.
With sandhill cranes (center, on hill).
Later, much later, a teeny storm was threatening from the northwest, and this merganser mom lead her brood away from our par-tee. The storm did get to us, a wee bit of wind and not even enough rain to moisten the soil around the mint on the ringfort.
Tuesday, 1 June 2021
Always love the effect when there’s a quiet night and plenty of dew, which together create a mist when the sun-heat arrives.
Pair of sandhills in the field on the opposite side of the road from previous sitings/photos. If I’d been quicker to snap the shutter, you could see both their bodies (instead of two necks/heads and one body). I heard that the farmer may put some feeder cattle in the field (no sign of that so far*), so they better take special care in selecting a nest location.
* Since the nutritional quality of the grass will soon drop precipitously—it’s almost going to seed—I’m not sure if it’ll be worth the effort of shipping the beasts in and out, and upgrading the fencing.
Thursday, 27 May 2021
We are back in northern Michigan early spring—frost overnight, and probably tonight, too. Apple blooms look okay (so far).
Offshore breeze means quiet waters (here).
Herd of deer by tree. If you can discern two dark shapes just a bit closer to me than the deer—those are a pair of sandhills…I’ve been hearing them and previous years I’ve seen them in this field…good to find them here again.
Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Yeah, that title is the prediction for overnight in the clear-sky dark-hours. Lots of blooms in danger. And if the apple blooms are hit, well, no apples come autumn.
Look immediately above the right tree and on the far left. Two sandhill crane souls captured. Two more were in the air, although I did not manage to capture their images/souls.