We spent last weekend with our friend Phyllis at her family
place near Charlevoix. The house is on a cliff overlooking Lake Michigan.
Complete with gin and tonics while enjoying beautiful sunsets from the deck. So
colonial and so pleasant.
This is a nice part of Michigan. Unlike where we live
there’s big water, some topography, and vistas.
This is Michigan’s wine country so we had to do the tour. Drove out to
the tip of the Mission Peninsula, then worked our way back doing wine tastings.
The whites were OK but Michigan isn’t the place to be growing red wine grapes.
Wine tasting overlooking Lake Michigan.
What happens when you do the wine tasting before going to the Mission Point lighthouse. This was not anyone in our party.
The trip was successful for birding too. We combined the
trip north with our annual quest for Kirtland’s warblers in the Grayling area.
We were successful, getting the Kirtland’s, upland sandpipers, and Brewer’s
blackbirds. We also hit Hartwick Pines State Park where we got Canada warbler,
Blackburnian warbler, and blue-headed vireo. At Phyllis’s place we got a winter
wren, right from the driveway.
While we were up in the Charlevoix area we got out to a new
place, the Sand Lakes Quiet Area. No surprise, the area has a bunch of small
lakes connected with trails. We hiked about a mile out to one of the lakes. There
were people camped on the lake and they actually carried kayaks the mile to the
lake. Unlikely these were Trump voters. At the lake, I got to do my first
odonating of the year. There was a whole
lot of food chain in action.
Eastern forktail eating a bug.
Four-spotted skimmer eating a calico pennant.
Spider nailing a four-spotted skimmer.
Spider nailing a four-spotted skimmer.
Spider nailing a four-spotted skimmer.
Male calico pennant.
Female calico pennant.
Female calico pennant.
Dot-tailed whiteface.
Back here at home things have been pretty quiet. I’ve been
doing a little woodworking and resurrecting an old floor sander that weighs the
same as a small truck to prep our basement floor. The woodworking was a lot
more fun. Yesterday we drove to near Ann Arbor to the Conservancy Farms to
chase a couple bird species missing from our list. We got a Henslow’s sparrow,
vesper sparrow, and dickcissel for the year. That brings my total to for the
year to 237 and Lise’s to 229.
Today is the traditional Memorial Day which was changed to
the last Monday in May so we could have three day weekend. This is also my folks’ anniversary. As kids we
were led to believe that the Memorial Day parade through town was for their anniversary.
On our way back from Delaware we stayed for a couple days
with my sister Lynn. She lives a couple miles from Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
Dad is buried there and Mom’s ashes interred with him. A number of other
relatives are there too. My Mom’s cousins Bep (Cyril) and Shirl are both there. She was raised with them and we always called them our uncles. Lynn’s husband Jack has his ashes interred there and
his brother Ronnie is buried there too. The cemetery isn’t just for those that
have fallen in combat. It’s open for any ex-serviceman or service woman. When
it’s time for me to be checking out the wrong side of the grass I could be planted
there if I wanted.
Being Memorial Day weekend there was a display of over 7,000
small American flags, one for each active duty serviceman and servicewoman that
has fallen since 9/11.
Dad. Notice the birds have slightly defiled his side of the gravestone.
Mom. Notice the birds have not defiled the side belonging to the person that fed them.
Jack.
Ronnie.
Uncle Bep.
Uncle Shirl
Some of the many who have served.
Some of the many who have served.
Thanks.
So now we are back in Okemos, leaving behind the land of
scrapple, bacon, and many things dipped in butter. I would so fail a cholesterol
test right now. We had a good trip. Time with friends and family, lots of good
eating. Lots of play time, and being near the ocean. Tough to beat that
combination.
I got 61 bird species for the year and Lise got 68. That
brings me to 226 for the year and Lise to 217. Saw some other cool critters
too.
Lise kayaking in the northern most cypress swamp in the U.S.
Just a quick
update. We are in Delaware, doing some birding and eating good. I could get
really fat here. Not much for internet connectivity though, unless I can get to
a Starbucks. I’m hoping they don’t mind me uploading a bunch of photos as I
suck down a large cup of caffeine.
Me, Lise and Joanna at Sambos in Lepsic, DE.
(Anita photo)
The view down the Lepsic River towards the Delaware Bay from
the dock at Sambos.
This trip is
split into two phases. First, Joanna spent a week with us. She left last
Saturday, to be replaced by Stefan. Always fun to show off a place you like to
people you like. We took Joanna to several of our favorite places and help her
get several life birds. We did the usual round of places here in Delaware and
took the ferry to Cape May, NJ, for a day trip. I was really hoping for some
sea birds on the ferry but we had to settle for dolphins and a hump-backed
whale.
Joanna in
the cypress swamp at Trapp Pond State Park. .
Lise and
Joanna in the cypress swamp.
Anita,
Joanna, and Lise birding from the ferry.
Storm over the ferry breakwater in Lewes.
Clouds over
Henlopen.
A rain storm from the ferry.
We found out
that West Cape May is home to the Lima Bean Festival. Talk about desperation.
This is sinking pretty low even for the festival circuit. Our guess is that they
waited too long to get any of the good festivals. “You want a festival buddy,
sorry, all we have left is the Lima Bean Festival.” I guess it could be worse. As
Anita said, just thank god there isn’t a head cheese festival.
Home of the Lima Bean Festival
So now with
Stefan we are revisiting places and hitting some new ones. It’s a good life. I
could make a habit of this.
Stormy beach
at Assateague.
Stormy beach
at Assateague.
Someone reading on a stormy beach.
Birding has
been good. I’m not sure of the count right now but we have over 140 species for
the trip. We will not know how may are new for the year until we update the
list. Photography has been so-so since we have been focusing on birding. Can’t
really do both.
As I start
this posting Lise and I are driving across Ohio, headed to Pennsylvania and
Delaware. Hopefully to be posted from Lynn’s house in Jonestown. Kind of
telling that I only have time to update the blog when I’m away from home.
I haven’t been
posting because of a couple reasons. One is that Okemos just isn’t that
exciting. Unless you want to hear about the nuances of pulling carpet tack
strips out of a concrete basement floor. There’s just a whole bunch of things
are more exciting than that.
Another
reason is that we have been pretty busy. Lise has been bust with her work. I
even had a couple paid gigs, doing some training sessions for a local
non-profit. I’m catching up on some of the home maintenance work that has been
neglected for a number for years. We’ve gotten in some birding too, getting out
for the new migrants coming in and chasing a yellow-headed blackbird up at
Maple River. The blackbirds usually pop up a couple hours from where we live,
so having one 40 minutes away was kind of nice. Birding wise we’re doing OK
this year. I’m at 165 so far and Lise is at 149. These numbers should go up
with a couple weeks in Delaware.
One of our
time sinks has been helping with a neighbor’s dogs. This person has three largely
untrained golden retrievers. One untrained dog should be enough for anyone but she
has three of the beasts. And the two boys still have the family jewels in
place. So the problems aren’t multiplicative, like three times the problems of
just one dog. They’re exponential, more like nine times the problem of caring
for one dog.
The whole
situation is a great example of poor planning. I’m continually stunned how
little thinking most people put into any kind of planning. It’s not hard. Nothing
ever works out like you think it will. Assume the worst is going to happen and plan
as such. Because that’s usually what happens. That little bit of realistic
planning prevents an unfortunate situation from becoming a crisis situation. If you do plan for the worst, and it doesn’t
come about, you and everyone else involved are way ahead of the game. I can’t
count the number of times I’ve seen someone rely on naive assumptions, only to
suddenly be in a crisis situation. Then they lose control of the situation and control
of the outcomes. Hoping or expecting everything to go all right is a pretty
lame strategy. If you want to maintain some control of a situation, never,
never, never expect things to work out the way hope they will. All it takes is
something as common as a car wreck to turn the world upside-down.
This person
with the dogs has added another complication. She brought her mother with
Alzheimer’s here to care for her. So, she has three unruly dogs, a cat, and a
mother with Alzheimer’s, all depending on her. I’m pretty sure thoughts like
“what happens if I don’t come home” or, “what happens when I can’t take care of
myself”, were ever part of the thought process. If these thoughts were ever
considered, they probably fell into the “nah, it’ll never happen to me”
category.
So back in
January this person ended up with a rather nasty cancer diagnosis, and has been
put on a rough drug routine. Luckily, before the cancer diagnosis, the mother was
put in a care facility. We, and some others, started walking the dogs. We take
them on a mile loop around our neighborhood. The dogs used to do this loop two
or three times a day. Now they’re down to one. Recently, there has been a slide
in the owner’s ability to take care of herself, yet alone the dogs. She has
ended up in the hospital with no idea when she may be released. Given her
condition, she could easily end up at a convalescent center. So now the dogs
are stuck in a house by themselves, having little human contact. A neighbor
lets them out in the yard and feeds them and we do the daily walk. The rest of
the time these poor animals are by themselves, essentially stuck in a large
crate. We can tell a very distinct negative change in their behavior when we take
them for their walk. There is no Plan B. No matter how much she may want these
mutts, there is no way she will be able to give them the care they need. Even
if she decides to give up the dogs, being so untrained there isn’t much
likelihood of them ever being adapted. Her lack of planning, or unwillingness
to consider potential scenarios, is not going to do well by these poor dogs.
On a
brighter note, we got in a quick trip to Middle Creek Game Area, in
Kleinfeltersville, PA, not far from Lynn’s house. We’re over 40 species for the
trip with the promise of better things to come. A good start to a vacation.
I can’t believe how long it is since I’ve written. We have been on the go and I just haven’t had the time to sit back and collect my thoughts or the connectivity to post something.
I was in Delaware and Pennsylvania from March 16 through March 29. Photography was only so-so but I was at the ocean and the birding was good. I got 25 new species for the year on the trip.
Missisilpin River
Great horned owl nesting on an osprey nesting platform
One of the last days I was in Delaware the weather was cool and misty with a strong wind coming in from the Northeast. Not a pleasant spring day. I was on the beach at Gordon’s Pond, part of Cape Henlopen State Park. The park was once part of Fort Miles, a coastal artillery fort designed to protect the Delaware Bay from German warships. The fort had a range of artillery, including some 18” inchers similar to the ones on the large battleships. These guns could throw a Volkswagen beetle 25 miles. Accurately. There was a corresponding fort on the Cape May side of the Delaware, effectively covering the entrance to the Delaware Bay. This was pre-radar, so there are a series of cement lookout towers used to spot enemy warships. So I was standing on the beach in a cold wet wind by a couple of the lookout towers thinking, “being in these towers in this weather would have been one miserable watch to stand.” Then I realized that my Grandfather, Ted Livering, very well may have been in one of those towers. He was in a coastal artillery battalion and came through Fort Miles before heading to Europe. Ted, thanks for being there.
Lookout towers on the beach. You can barely see to the surf, let alone to New Jersey.
Some of the remaining buildings from Fort Miles. With the ocean in the background That would be very expensive real estate right now.
A bunker on Great Dune, highest sand hill between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras. A whopping 75′ above sea level. This held a 16″ gun.
A hidden bunker. From one side it looks like a sand dune. Many people have walked up it not knowing it was a bunker.
Looking at Jersey in the fog.
Looking at Jersey in clear weather.
16” gun.
16” gun.
Anti-aircraft gun.
Right after getting back from that trip Molly had a two-day water polo tournament over by Grand Rapids. It was a fun tournament and Molly played a good bit, despite being sick. MSU fielded an A team and a B team, and both teams played three games. I took over 1600 pictures and posted just under 1600 of them.
Molly under pressure.
Molly getting a pass off while being double teamed.
Molly taking a shot.
Carly showing the proper application of an elbow to an opponent’s face. This one was called as a penalty.
A few days after the tournament Lise and I headed to St. Louis, via West Lafayette, to visit Stefan and Kasey. We left in a snowstorm that dumped about five inches of snow and melted the same day. More on that later.
Had a good time, just hanging out and chatting. St. Louis is quite interesting. It’s a city with some problems, but there’s some great history and some really interesting neighborhoods. I could spend a bunch more time there, just poking around. We did a couple road trips to historic river towns like St. Charles and St. Genevieve. Something I never knew was that the Spanish had a claim to that whole area. The French got the claim from the Spanish, and then sold it as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Stefan took us down to Hawn State Park where we did a lovely six-mile hike. The weather was great, the terrain was great, and the company was great.
Leaving Lansing in the snow.
Tulips blooming in St. Louis.
Crossing the Missouri River on a car ferry.
Barge traffic on the Missouri.
We got 17 new species for the year during the trip. One species, Eurasian tree sparrow, was a lifer for Lise and me. It’s an Old-World species that was released in St. Louis in 1870 but never spread from that area. If you want to see it you must go to St. Louis. Which means anyone doing a real Big Year has to pass through St. Louis. We happened on it by chance. We stopped at Horseshoe Bend State Park, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi on our way back. While drifting through the park some sparrows flew up, which we pretty much ignored thinking they were house sparrows. Luckily Lise was thinking and said, “wait, check for Eurasian tree sparrows.” We popped up our binos and sure enough, Passer montanus, a lifer.
Eurasian tree sparrow.
Eurasian tree sparrow.
While we were gone, Lindsay was watching the house and feeding the lizard for us. She called to let us know there was “a lot” of water in the basement. Well, she was correct, it was a lot.
Between the snowstorm and some high rain days, this area is saturated and flooding. This is the wettest I have seen this area. We’ve had a couple basement moisture intrusion incidents but this one was the worse. To make it even more fun, the previous owner decided it was a good idea to carpet the basement of a house sitting in a floodplain. That was about as bright as saying, “Clinton’s a shoe in, I don’t need to vote.” Thanks to that stroke of genius I’ve spent the past few days pulling out sopping wet carpet and padding, and watching YouTube videos on how to prep and paint a cement floor. In the past couple weeks we’ve been hit with high winds crashing our tree into the neighbor’s fence and water in the basement. As I sit here waiting for the charcoal coals to get hot I can’t help but wonder what other natural disaster will hit.
All I know is, it ain’t my fault.
Greetings from Delaware. I came back to drop my sisters Lynn
and Anita off for a Caribbean cruise, maybe help out a bit in some other ways,
and play around a bit. I dropped them off at the pier in Baltimore on Saturday.
After dropping them off, I was heading down the highway and realized I didn’t
know when to pick them up. Never occurred to ask them. I just waved them off and went on my merry way. Cell phones can be a
very handy thing.
It is always fun to be back near the ocean. I’m planning on
fresh fried oysters for dinner tonight. Anymore you can get oysters anywhere, but here they were in the water yesterday. Throw in some Yuengling lager and life is good.
When you live in a sterile Midwest subdivision it’s easy to
forget the power of the elements. Sure, there’s the occasional wind knocking out
your power, but that’s more an irritation. You don’t get that in your face
connection. Here by the ocean, the elements smack you right in the face. Literally. Yesterday
a right wicked northern wind was blowing all day. It started before dawn and
lasted until after I went to bed. This was as strong or stronger than the wind
that took our tree out, blasting constantly all day. So naturally I had to play
in it. Being on the beach was like being in a sand blaster. A couple times the
wind would stop me dead in my tracks or push me sideways. It’s the kind of connection that needs to be experienced now and then, just to remind you that you’re part of the planet. It was great.
The birding has been good. Got a razorbill and a Eurasian
widgeon, species I’m not likely to get in Michigan. Photography on the other hand
has been kind of so-so. Either the light, the weather, the critters, or some
combination of the above, have not been cooperating. Plus, you can’t be birding
and do photography at the same time. Unless you have a Sherpa to carry
equipment.
After what seems a long, unproductive, and downright bad week, comes some
good news. We chased, and found, an ivory gull. A lifer for both of us. In beautiful
downtown Flint, MI no less. Flint isn’t the most ideal birding location. In
fact Flint isn’t the most ideal location for just about anything. In Costa
Rica, a third world country, we could safely drink water right out of the tap. Not
so in Flint, thanks to our Republican Governor and legislature.
The ivory gull is a circumpolar arctic bird, usually found
on pack ice. It has never been an abundant species and its population has
dropped dramatically the past few years. Quite possibly due to the drop in pack
ice brought on by climate change. Which isn’t happening according to Trump and
his cronies.
The ivory gull is an American Birding Association Code 3
species, meaning you chase it when it’s reported nearby. For us it was about a
45 minute drive, then about an hour of driving up and down the Flint River,
stopping in any abandoned lot with a view of the river. We finally found it
where it was initially reported on the U.M. Flint campus. We were in a parking
lot looking at the river when a security person drove up and said, “The bird
you’re looking for is down by the spillway. Just follow the sidewalk and look
for the crowd.” We did and sure enough, there was the crowd and the bird. There
were people from all over Michigan and Ohio with lots of optical equipment to
behold. People were hugging each other when they saw it.
This bird was initially found by a 16 year old neophyte birder
and U.M. Flint student. What is really cool is that someone set up a gofundme
site to help her with tuition and to buy a good set of binoculars. They set a
goal of $1,000 and went over $1,600 in short order.
Ivory gull in the Flint River. Apparently not concerned with lead poisoning.
I’ve had a
better couple days. Yesterday, while drying off from my shower, I lifted my
left leg and my back made a very loud and very painful pop. The pain was both instantaneous
and sharp. Trouble enough, but to add to the fun I was getting ready for a workshop
I had to teach an hour later. While I was gutting through the workshop, a right
wicked windstorm blew into the area. Right after I limped home from the
workshop, our power went out. Hundreds of thousands lost power in Michigan and
we will not get it back until at least Sunday. Bad, but not quite bad enough. What
we didn’t notice until later today is a tree in our back yard toppled and
crushed our neighbor’s fence. This is the fence that keeps his pit bulls in
check. Everyone wants free range pit bulls in their neighborhood, right. Our
insurance says they don’t pay for fence repairs because it was an act of god. Who’s
god let’s pit bulls roam free? Not mine.
Nailed it right good.
The storm
and subsequent damage was bad enough but Tuesday we took our Subaru in for some
problems. Which turned out to be $3,000 worth of problems. And they will not
have the parts in hand for several days. Audible sigh. I’m not real happy about
all of this but what really, really irks me is Lindsay went for blood work and
ended up being admitted to the hospital. On her Spring Break and her birthday
is tomorrow. That just ain’t right.
It hasn’t
been a completely horrible all week. Monday, we got in a little hike and saw
our first brown creeper and our first basking turtle of the year. Molly went to
Orlando for Spring Break and got to ride an air-boat. Gotta be more fun than running
from free ranging pit bulls.
Yellow-bellied slider, I believe an introduced species.
Rolf Aquatic Center. Came back from Marquette on Thursday, outrunning a
weekend snowstorm. Did laundry, refueled, and headed here.
Marquette was great. Barb and Ellen came up for a visit.
Always fun to show off a place you like.
Barb and Ellen
Marquette has no lack of winter outdoor activities. Got in some
snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Watched the start of the U.P. 200, a 200-mile
dogsled race starting from downtown Marquette. Any sport where the ideal
conditions include a base of snow and a zero degree Fahrenheit air temperature
is not a sport for wienies. The temperatures during the race this year were
unseasonably warm and there was some real concern for the dogs overheating. Nobody
really cares about the mushers of course. There were actually two races that
started from downtown. Right after the U.P. 200 mushers leave, the smaller
sixty-mile Midnight Run starts. Fun stuff.
Mushers
The stars of the show.
We got some birding in too, although this was not a good
winter finch year. The seed crop up in Canada was good this year so most of the
winter finches stayed up there. We did get some snowy owls but no close up
looks this year. Saw lots of eagles too, eight of them on the trip home.
Snowy owl – white on white.
Some quick grab shots from the car of a bald eagle.
We always like visiting Marquette but this trip was a little
different. Marquette has been on our retirement list for some time. So, this
time we wanted to view it for long term living, not just spending a quick
visit. Since winter is a major part of living in Marquette we really wanted to
view it under winter conditions. And I would say the answer is yes, we would be
quite happy retiring there.
Jean Kay’s in Marquette. Best pasties in the U.P.
Marquette, and the whole Upper Peninsula for that matter, is
technically part of the Midwest. It’s not hard to question the Midwest association
though. And it isn’t just the lack of corn fields. Maybe it has something to
with being above the 45th parallel. The U.P. has some rugged country
and open spaces, with a healthy dose of public land thrown in. Plus, it’s
surrounded by some major waterbodies. So, you end up with people living there that
thrive on that kind of landscape. That in turn creates an atmosphere that you
don’t find just anywhere. Like people fishing from kayaks when air temperatures
are in the 20s or swimming in Lake Superior when temperatures are in the 40s.
Dangerous area so naturally there is a snowshoe trail going to the cliffs. Unofficial, of course,
Some pictures from the ice shelf at Little Presque Isle Park.
A frozen Peshekee River in the McCormick Tract Wilderness
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 