Thursday, February 6, 2020

Not too much exciting going on in the Schools’ household. The highlight this past week was our annual Eastern Upper Peninsula birding trip. Going North is always fun. Once you get above about the 45th parallel, things get different and people think differently. Where else are you going to see a sign reminding you not to take your snow plow through the car wash or establishing the world office for the Furnace Guru in a motel.

Birding wasn’t so great, but we did get in some major friend time. On the way up to the U.P we spent the night in Okemos with our friend Val. Lucky for us she had just cancelled a trip to Arizona and could put us up. On short notice she arranged a little dinner party, so we got catch up with some old Okemos friends. Several that were heading out of town in the next day or two. Had we waited a week we wouldn’t have seen them.

When we had decided to head north, we contacted Joanna, our friend in Marquette. We got lucky and she was available, as was her friend Jean who we had birded with once before. Jean had just come in from Minnesota the night before. Then, in one of those weird coincidences, as we just pulled out of our driveway heading north, Lise got a text from our friend Sarah. Sarah and her husband Wil had recently moved to the Eastern U.P. Sarah asked if we were planning to come up to the U.P. for some birding this winter. So, even though we decided on really short notice to go north, we had four good friends join us for birding.

Then our friend luck held out as we headed back south. Again, we stayed with our friend Val in Okemos. On the drive back to Okemos I contacted Phyllis, a friend and former coworker. Luckily, Phyllis was available, and she invited her neighbors and our friends Ned and Evy. Who were also miraculously available. So, we got an evening out with three normally incredibly busy friends.

While we got in some major friend time, the birding was lackluster at best. Normally the Eastern U.P. is a hotspot for winter birding. Northern species drop down into the U.P. looking for winter food. Apparently, there was a good seed and pinecone crop in Canada this year, so the birds decided to stay. We did see at least 20 bald eagles and around ten snowy owls. One of the classiest bird there is.

Lise birding at the Dafter Post Office in the snow.

Snowy owl, one of the classiest birds going.