Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: birds


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Unexpected

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I had my whole day planned out yesterday.  The 2 mile run, some job searching stuff, then off to the grocery store for Aunt V,  deliver the groceries to her and visit a bit, then on to donate my old cell phone to a woman’s shelter, then maybe a bit of shopping just for fun.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans.

I got the 2 mile run in, and completed a job application for a library job nearby.  I was crabby because I had suffered a lack of sleep the night before.  I was hanging onto my plan somewhat desperately –  all I really wanted to do was head back to bed – when the phone rang and husband said it was my Ann Arbor Aunt.  For a moment I thought “DRATS!  I can’t fit anything else into my overly planned day!”

And it’s true she DID want to get together to do something.  In the beginning I wasn’t feeling very gracious, but reason overcame my illogical crabbiness.  She wanted to meet me and Katie down at our favorite park, which is halfway between where we both live.  And it was sunny out!  AND I’d been thinking I should take Katie to that park someday soon, it’s so beautiful in the spring.  So I revamped the plan and agreed to meet her.

I packed up Katie and all her stuff (you know the drill; water, bowl, leashes, treat bag, poop bag) and me and the camera and off we went.  I could feel the morning’s tension seeping away.  Especially when we crested a hill and I noticed the beautiful clouds.  I just had to stop and capture them.  Good thing I left the house early for our 2:00 p.m. meeting…lots of time for pictures!

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Then about half way to the park I realized I had forgotten the poop bag!  And Katie ALWAYS does her job almost as soon as we start our walks in the park.  It’s like she saves it up for a public place.  SIGH.  So I did a little U-turn and stopped at the bank to get some cash, then a bit later on we stopped in at Colsanti’s, a little grocery store.  It’s kind of a plant nursery, gourmet groceries and produce market complete with a bird aviary.  I’d been there once before a long time ago.  My plan was to find something to buy that I actually needed and which would require them to give me a plastic grocery bag.  Which I could use as a poop bag.  Good thing I left home early….lots of time for grocery shopping!

As I was contemplating purchasing white potatoes or strawberries I heard a strange sound directly overhead.  I glanced up and saw a large toy train chugging along on a suspended track.  Strange I thought, but then as I looked around, the whole place was quite eclectic.  Mounds of fruit and vegetables, a gift store with cute little things, pots of plants, a wonderful deli, and a train circling overhead.

I bought some potatoes, a few scones and some crunchy cheese sticks and headed back to the car and Katie.  As I stepped outside something made a terrible screeching sound.  The noise was coming from a huge outdoor bird aviary.  Peacocks!  Dropping off the groceries, checking on Katie who was waiting patiently in her crate in the car, I grabbed the camera and went to investigate the birds.

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They were beautiful!  Several blue peacocks, and a giant white peacock who was showing off.  Plus some turkeys all puffed up.  I watched them for a few minutes then realized I needed to get to the park!  Good thing I left early…

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When Katie and I arrived at the designated meeting place deep in the park (at exactly 1:59) my Aunt was already there, and soon Katie, she and I were off on a walk.  The place was beautiful, swans out on the water, wildflowers tucked into the trees, dogwoods in bloom, the redbuds were splashes of bright fuchsia among the lime green new leaves of the larger trees, huge patches of wild purple violets smudging the ground.  Gorgeous.  You won’t see pictures of this because the camera battery died right about then.  So you’ll have to imagine it yourself, which in reality is sometimes better anyway!

We walked 2.4 miles, and Katie did really well.  And that poop bag that I went so far out of my way to acquire?  We never needed it.  Of course.

So the lesson learned is this.  When you’re crabby, when you feel like you need to get certain stuff done, when you’re not feeling creative or adventurous, let it go, take the road presented to you, keep your eyes open and I bet you’ll see some beautiful stuff.

When you’re least expecting it.

Katie 2541


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Still

Northport March April 2010 344 I went for an inland walk today, away from the mesmerizing lake into the sunlit woods looking for a bit of stillness.  And of course photo opportunities.  There were signs of spring everywhere, even way up here.  I was surprised to realize the pussy willows are blooming already.  The sun was shining, there was a light breeze.  It was good to be outside after the past couple of cold windy days.

There was a  faint smell of wood smoke hanging in the air which took me back to another life in another place where people heat with wood and life was simple.  Funny how you look back at times in your life with nostalgia, refusing to remember the whole picture, like the 6 foot snowdrifts and the often lonely isolation.  You remember instead the beauty of Lake Superior, the rolling mountains, the moose glimpsed from the highway.

Northport March April 2010 377 So today I notice the robin eating last years wild grapes high in a tree, the way sun glints off of white birch, the fat chickadee swooping past.

There’s a land preserve down the road and I ventured in to see what was there.  When I was a kid we used to play in the woods all the time, and this felt a bit like home to me.  I found lots of signs of the impending spring, there was green everywhere. Northport March April 2010 345

I sat on a log, trying to be quiet – trying to find the stillness inside of me.  The log was cold.  And bumpy.  I put my gloves under me for padding and tried again to find the stillness inside.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the woods and quiet on my own.   It took a bit of time to settle in.  Such quiet.  I thought that I could still hear the lake which made no sense as it was quiet this morning.  Then I realized I was hearing the bit of breeze blowing through millions of tree tops.  It quietly rustled the dry leaves on the forest floor, and occasionally rattled last year’s dogwood leaves still on their branches.  A squirrel chattered for a moment somewhere. Far away a bird drummed.  Nearby a  bluejay screamed.  Then relative silence. Northport March April 2010 360

Yet I couldn’t get my mind to settle down, to empty.  Everywhere I saw photographs, shapes and color, texture and light.  So tempting to get up and tramp around making noise, interrupting the natural way of things.

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So I sat.  “This is what the forest sounds like when I’m not here,” I thought.  How interesting.  How wonderful.  How peaceful.  And so I sat some more.  Finally my mind emptied and I just enjoyed.   And then I wandered back.

And on the way I wondered about the young man whose parents fought to keep this land preserved in his name.  He must have been pretty special.

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Amazing sight…I just had to share it with you!

Sitting at the living room window, on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan I am watching the waves build up as a weather front passes.  And then suddenly, from the hillside just to the left of me a huge bald eagle rises with a squirrel in his talons.  He’s rising slowly, into the wind and I get a good long look.  Then he sort of hovers just above the edge of the bluff, right in front of me  for what seems like forever before he slowly turns and flies downwind.

It was amazing.  Though I feel sorry for the squirrel.

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A challenge accepted

Frozen frost walk Jan 17 2009 016 I woke expecting to write about a wonderful concert I attended last night in Ann Arbor.  And I  still plan to write that blog.  But the combination of another blogger’s challenge to take a walk with a camera and find those beautiful things generally overlooked along with this morning’s beautiful frozen fog made me eager to head outside.  So this morning instead of walking my four miles at the mall, I walked “around the block” here at home, a hilly four miles through woods and wetlands with endless possibilities for creative photography.

You can read about the challenge and enjoy my blogger friend’s walks in the Upper Peninsula here:  http://upwoods.wordpress.com/

As it turns out the challenge for me was to limit myself to showing you only six photos.  She challenged us to take a walk around the block; I did and ended up with 120 photos!  I’m trying my best to show you a little bit of everything in the following six.   (I cheated somewhat by not counting the initial picture of tree along the side of the road that someone had decorated with a few red ornaments and a red star.  Out in the middle of nowhere.)

The fog froze in tiny jagged shards of ice that clings along every twig and weed.  I was wishing that I had a SRL digital camera so that I could show you how fascinating it was.  But my little point and shoot did a pretty good job.  I didn’t take my reading glasses along, so I had no idea what I had actually captured until I downloaded at home.

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It was tempting to focus on the minutia everywhere, to see all the tiny artwork that had been sculpted overnight.  But the bigger picture was beautiful as well.

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Sometimes I thought that I should have been doing black and white photos.  But there were subtle colors everywhere.

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Still, some of the most interesting sights were those small places that told a story.  Like this pile of broken nut shells at the base of a tree.  Some squirrel has cleaned house!

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And the sad art in the trunk of a dead ash tree, the paths of the ash borer that killed most of the ash trees in our state.

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And finally on my way back through town a little bit of civilization; the woodshed in someone’s backyard.  Complete with piles of wood inside.

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I have so many other interesting photos, but I accept the challenge of showing you just six.  I wish I could also share with you the sounds and smells along the way.   The scent of a skunk nearby, the woodsmoke from the chimneys of the homes I passed.  The sounds of a cardinal high in a tree, the chickadee chirping nearby, crows flying high calling to each other.  And the church bells, ringing as I came down from the high hills to walk across the wetlands just at the edge of town.

It was a wonderful walk, and I thank my UP blogger friend for challenging me to get outside and walk.  Such a gift.

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A funny

funky art 033 This morning  Katie and I were wandering around the house picking up the last bits of holiday party trash.  We both kept hearing a sound that sounded like ice scraping down the roof.  But we didn’t have ice on the roof.  Katie would bark, I’d check out the windows.  Nothing.  We’d start working again.  Then the same noise would happen and off she’d go to bark.  We’d look out all the windows.  Nothing.

Eventually we were in the kitchen and I heard the noise again.  As Katie ran off to bark I looked up.  And there, on the kitchen skylights were several mourning doves, eating birch seeds that had fallen on the glass which was covered in ice.  They were sliding down the window as they ate, then they’d flap their wings and get back to the top, then slide down again.  Silly birds!

Even more silly was the dog, who has no concept that something might be up in the ceiling!  I couldn’t get her to look up.  She just ran around growling and barking each time a bird slid down the window.  Finally I picked her up, held her chin up and when the birds flapped their wings she finally noticed.

Now she’s sitting in the kitchen staring intently up at the skylights.  On guard.   If those terrorist birds arrive again she’ll be ready!  Can’t get anything past a vigilant sheltie girl!  No siree!

Katie 1395


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A weird walk in the park

Katie 1833 Katie’s as wound up as a spring lately.  Too many rainy days, or days when I’ve got to work, or both.  We haven’t been to the park in a long time, no doggy school, no long walks anywhere.  She’s out of control with energy.  So today, given I’m not working and it’s not raining, we went to a park.

She was off and running as soon as her little feet hit the ground.  We were in a park that has softball fields, soccer fields, a water playground and picnic areas.  Of course we had to explore all of it, which was easy as there had been a cross country race earlier, and the white line on the ground used by the cross country team went by all the interesting places.  I’d just say; KATIE!  Walk the line and she’d run down the white line.  Well.  Sometimes.  Once she chased the shadow of a hawk that was soaring overhead.  Silly girl.

We were exploring all the nooks and crannies of the park when she came across this big piece of ash.  Katie 1834 I read in the paper yesterday that there was a big house fire nearby, and this ash was from that fire.  Once I noticed the first piece I noticed a lot of other pieces of ash on the pristine ball fields.  It made me sad, as it represented the loss of someone’s home and probably all their belongings as well.

Along the way we came to a big sledding hill.  Hmm…I thought, being my father’s daughter, I wonder what you can see from up there?  Well, Katie wasn’t interested in the least to climb up that hill after walking all over the park!  She looked at me as if to say:   That hill?  Not going up there Mom.  Katie 1835

And then she laid down to make her point.   I guess I’ll have to climb the hill another time, probably by myself.

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I loaded her up in the car and we went exploring, to see if we could find the house that had burned down.  It wasn’t far away, and this is what is left.

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I bought the paper, and found a picture of it taken while it was burning.  It looked like a nice house.  I’m feeling so sorry for the family that lived there.  Lukily no one was home when it burned.  Still…

Trees 1102 Pulling into our subdivision after our adventures we saw a whole big flock of young turkeys along the side of the road.  There were 8 or 9 of them.  Can you see them in this picture?

Katie and I are thanking our lucky stars this afternoon after our weird walk…she’s off to take a nap and I think I’ll mow the grass and think some more about how lucky I am to have her and a house and a family.  All safe and sound.

Dawn 094


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Darn! It's almost fall already!

Seems like I haven’t really gotten around to noticing summer this year, what with all the rain and cold.  Finally we’re getting typical hot muggy days and nights filled with thunderstorms, but it’s only a couple weeks till Labor Day!  Kids around here are getting ready to go back to school; some districts are already back in the classroom!  How can this be?  I look around for evidence that it’s still summer, but I found these things that are convincing me fall is just days away:

Farmers are rolling hay into bales…

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…and milkweeds are forming pods.

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The goldenrod is blooming everywhere…

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and the fields of grass are drying to a toasty brown.

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The grocery store looks like a flower market in Italy with all the mums for sale out front….

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…and today, as I was driving home from a rural library across the fam land, taking pictures of beautiful clouds…

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I noticed off in the distance this flock of sandhill cranes.  I’ve never seen so many, there were almost thirty of them close together in one field.

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I guess they’re getting ready for a flight to warmer digs.

I will be sad to see them go.


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Bird dog?

Katie and I went to the park yesterday afternoon.  There was a new sign there that said we weren’t allowed to train bird dogs for several months during bird nesting season.

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Good thing we were warned about that, because you know Katie is such a bird dog!  But we did have several incidents along our walk that involved birds.  Right at the beginning of our walk I noticed two families of Canadian geese near the pond.  One family’s babies already had the markings of adult birds, the other family’s little ones were still fuzzy balls of fluff.  I decided we’d take a route that totally avoided them as Sheltie + parent geese do not make a good mix.

We headed into the mowed paths of a big hilly field.  Katie enjoyed sniffing along the edges, at the flowers and traces of other dogs, who knows.  Suddenly she went stiff, then lunged and up out of the tall grass right next to us flew a fat brown partridge (or something like that).  Katie leaped straight up in the air and I screamed.  Guess we weren’t meant to be bird hunters!  Good thing Katie was on a leash.

We moved on down the path, and Katie went into her bird dog alert mode again. katie-16541 Holding tight to her leash I let her explore a little, and there was a turtle!  Way less frightening (at least to us) than the bird.  I eased Katie away so as not to disturb it and we moved on.  katie-16552

Just a bit further along the way we began to be dive-bombed by tree swallows, as we were passing their nesting boxes.  I kept ducking and urging Katie to “come on” as they swooped low over my head, making clucking noises just inches away from my hat.  We rushed through that section of the path!

katie-1656 Eventually we arrived at a resting spot, and Katie had a bit to drink.  I’ve been working on getting her not to be afraid to drink out of this contraption that allows me to carry water on my belt as well as serves as a bowl for her.  She decided yesterday that she was thirsty enough not to worry about the funny shape.

We also got to see a bluebird couple.  They were sitting on the fence that surrounds the softball field.  A game was in progress but that didn’t seem to bother them.  The male and female were swooping down into the outfield to catch bugs.  There was another bird hanging out on the fence, a little brownish bird that I thought was a sparrow or house finch.  On our way back to the car the blue birds were back on the fence, as was the little brown bird.  Turns out the little bird was a baby bluebird.  As Mom and Dad got bugs they’d fly up to the fence and feed the youngster!  How cool!  We watched for a bit and then wandered past.

And then, on our drive home we saw a wild turkey along the road near the house!  Katie didn’t notice it, but it was the last bird in our bird filled experience of walking in the park.    Maybe I should get Katie a set of binoculars so she can watch the birds more closely.

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Sittin on a Sunday

katie-1643 Katie and I spent some time weeding this morning.  Well to be truthful I weeded and Katie napped on the warm black asphalt of the driveway.  She’s the only Sheltie I’ve ever met that likes to be really warm.  After awhile I got too warm myself and we retreated to the rocker on the shady deck.  She’s being very good, intently watching the birds at the feeder, but not (yet) lunging off the deck to attack.  I keep telling her what a good girl she is, but I’m sure as soon as the resident chipmunk arrives all bets will be off.

Meanwhile the most beautiful wonderful thing just happened.  As I’m sitting here on the deck reading email (got to love that wireless!) and listening to a neighbor’s country music while sipping on iced tea, there is a ruckus in the trees just above the bird feeder.  And then down swoops a blue jay being chased by a Baltimore oriole!  The oriole chased the blue jay up and down through the trees for quite a long time, so I got to watch the sun flickering off of its bright orange back.  Then they both landed on the ground and the oriole continued to chase the blue jay until the jay left with a big squawk.  Sadly I imagine the cause of all this is that the jay tried to raid the oriole’s nest.  Or something equally traumatic.  But I only see an oriole maybe once a summer and never for as long as I got to watch this one.  I’m hoping he (she?) is around more this summer.  I have a feeder for them somewhere in the basement.  Guess it won’t do much good down there; I should find it and try to entice them to visit me again.  Last year an oriole tried to eat from the humming bird feeder, which is why I bought the oriole feeder.  Of course I never saw the orioles again after that first appearance.

So now it’s just Katie and I, one neighbor’s country music, another’s lawnmower, my backyard wren singing her heart out, and the frogs across the way joining in on the summer’s symphony.  Can’t say I’ve heard better .

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

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Need a funny story?

Tonight as I drove home through our subdivision I noticed a Canadian goose sleeping alongside a driveway a couple of doors down. I thought it was odd, but then again the driveway is a single car width dirt drive, with ponds on both sides.

This spring I’ve witnessed the territorial aspects of the pair of geese that appear to live in the bigger pond.   They consistently and with intensity chase away any other pairs of geese that happen to land on their pond. So it was with laughter that I watched the homeowner try to come home from work this evening. They pulled into their drive; the goose was still sitting in the middle of the driveway.   The SUV stopped. It’s not like they could go around the goose, with water on both sides. Suddenly, with great noise and a very wide wingspan the mate of the sitting goose rose out of the water and attacked the stopped SUV. Then the goose on the driveway got up and flapped it’s wings at the vehicle as well. With both geese honking and flapping their wings in front of the SUV, the homeowners finally backed up and drove away.

Eventually the geese settled back into their pond, the homeowner circled around and successfully made it up their driveway and into the house.  Obviously there’s a nest somewhere near the driveway.  I have to wonder how they’re going to get out tomorrow morning.