Every summer we are lucky enough to have orioles visit our feeder. They never stay long enough, many adults leave sometime in mid to late August which seems too early.
This lady serves gormet grape jelly!
The juveniles stick around a couple more weeks, eating the jelly as fast as they can.
What do you mean I have to feed myself?
Even though the youngsters are pretty, I always miss the adults.
You’d think the lady would put a roof over our lunch!
But last year and this year, after quite a long break without seeing any adults, I’ve had adult males and on occassion an adult female stop by the feeder in late August!
You shut up! No YOU shut up!
I’m always excited when, long after I think they’re gone, they show up for a few more days.
I need to grab a snack before those two come back!
I guess they’re fueling up for their trip south to Florida, or Central America. That seems like such a long flight I can’t imagine.
I thought I’d check out the finch food. Not as good as jelly.
And it seems even harder to imagine the youngsters being successful at the trip on their own. I wonder if families reunite once everybody is down there or if once they leave they’re leaving their family forever.
You’re not my mom!
I know they’re gearing up to leave me. But I bought a big jar of jelly this week, hoping they’re around long enough to finish it all.
Sometimes I go camping just to have a few days away from everyday responsibilities. Time to nap and read and snack and daydream.
Just one exit up the road from home.
Sometimes I go camping with a specific goal in mind. I’m hoping to get that perfect Milky Way image, or find a new bird to photograph, or see a part of the state I haven’t seen before.
My favorite site at this campground.
Last week, at the last minute, I got to reserve 3 nights in my favorite campsite at the local state park. It’s a spot where Katie and I camped many times. This trip I hoped to introduce Penny to campground noises.
“Did I hear something over there, mom?”
She’d been there for a couple visits last year, but it was all overwhelming to her, and even with her dad and me right there she was pretty nervous about all the people and cars and noisy trucks with trailers driving by.
“Hey! What’s my tent doing out here in the woods, mom?”
This year she’s older and wiser and a little bit calmer. Though she still looked when noisy things including people with their dogs walked by, she didn’t automatically come undone.
“I’ll just stay real close, OK mom?”
She was only visiting me for a few hours each day, and while she was there we took plenty of walks around the campground, letting her sniff the vacant spots…
“I approve of this one, mom.”
…and moving swiftly past those occupied.
“Nothing to see here, just protecting my bikes.”
She even got to walk past a couple of pitbulls and their flustered dad. She was a rockstar.
See them coming around the corner up there? Penny’s tail was already up in alarm and I didn’t notice them until they were much closer. She knew right away. She never barked, she just heeled with me right by them.
We spent about an hour on her second visit inside the tent as evening fell. I think she would have been fine spending the night in the tent if I had insisted. But she was a little restless after an hour and if I’m honest, I wasn’t looking forward to packing up in the morning with her on site.
“I guess this is OK mom. But daddy has air conditioning and a bed. Just sayin.”
It takes me an hour to pack up without the distraction of a curious dog. But next time, if she’s willing I think we’ll spend the night in the tent. Maybe she’ll begin to understand it’s all an adventure and mom’s got her back.
“Umm, excuse me mother, let me be clear. I’m not taking a shower.”
The other reason I jumped at a chance to camp at this site is the opportunity to photograph birds. Every time I’ve been at site 16 there have been birds flitting around. Their images are hard to capture, they’re not like Kensington birds, posing for treats.
A really poor image of a cardinal that swooped in and then out.
These birds are never happy when they stop by and you’re at their site. I sat for hours, still in my chair, camera ready, and didn’t catch a good look at one bird, though I heard redstarts and vireos and wrens all around me.
Mostly I got bird imposters like these brown leaves.
Then this guy bounced out of the underbrush.
A gorgeous brown thrush.
After looking at me he hopped up on a vine with his back to me. In a moment, though, he turned his head to make sure I got the shot, and then he took off.
“Did you get my good side, lady?”
I smiled, at least I got one decent image of a bird!
And then I noticed this little red squirrel looking a bit worse for wear. She skittered around the campsite and then disappeared.
A skinny little red squirrel.
While I’m looking for her, tossing a few blueberries in the direction she ran, a opportunistic chipmunk showed up, very happy with the blueberry offering.
“Hey lady! You got anything to spare?”
Meanwhile Ms. red squirrel, apparently a tired mom, was up in a tree at the edge of the campsite, happily chowing down on a nut.
Nom, nom, nom…
She was happy until she noticed the chipmunk was feasting on blueberries.
A special treat!
That seemed to make her very unhappy. She watched the chipmunk more carefully. I tossed a few more blueberries. She was conflicted.
“Wait! Those blueberries were for ME!”
And then she ran as fast as she could down that tree and back out into the site where she scored a blueberry of her own.
“That chipmunk got one, but he’s not going to get the rest!”
It all made me smile.
Camping generally makes me smile, even when it rains, which it inevitably does at least one day on every camping adventure. At least this time it was overnight. And in the morning the sun rose again.
Another beautiful morning.
Time to get packing and head home. A little fuzzy girl was waiting for me to provide her next adventure. She’s kind of demanding that way. I don’t mind.
Another adventure in the books.
Till next time, site 16. Thanks for the new memories.
A long time ago I promised to show you the shenanigans going on in my backyard. Or should I call it backyardigans?
Waiter! I need a napkin!
These are self explanatory, but if the participants had anything to say I’ll add that as comentary under the offender’s image.
My morning abdominal workout might be offset by my morning snacking.
You will note there is one pictured here that is not like the others. She knows who she is.
I have to ask the help to fill this feeder every single day.
Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done in the house, given all the entertainment just outside my window.
I emptied out that birdfeeder, now my tummy doesn’t feel so good.
Oh wait. I really don’t get much done inside. Please don’t look at the dust covering everything or the dog fur rolling across the floor.
Somebody come help me with these two hooligans!
But I ask you. Which would you rather do?
I’m just going to sit here and watch the crazy in real time.
I thought so.
Me too.Me three.Not me, I’m eating while I can. A mom gets so little time to herself around here!You are so right! Eat while you can I always say!I see you lady with the camera! Could you please leave us more peanuts?She always puts the peanuts at the bottom. Good thing I have short legs.Seriously, I’m going to go crazy in .2 seconds.
This time last week I was in northern Michigan at one of my favorite places (You may have noticed I have quite a few favorite places in northern Michigan) intent, once again, on getting the perfect Milky Way image.
Esch Beach, near Empire MI
I had a walk-in site at Platt River Campground, reserved weeks ago, and high hopes that at least one of the three nights would be clear.
My perfect camp site.
The site was beautiful. I knew it would be because I’d camped there once before a few years ago. It’s at the end of a trail, about 1/4 mile into the woods. Along the way are three other campsites, but mine was the last one.
This was my first camping trip of the season. It took me forever to get this tent up.
The good thing about a walk-in site is that there are no RVs near you running their air conditioning all night. (Though I wouldn’t have minded having air, it was 98 F inside my tent most of the first night.) The bad thing about a walk-in site is that you have to carry everything in. So I stayed pretty minimal.
Anyway. I had high hopes for Monday night, thinking it should be clear. And it was hot and sunny when I first arrived.
Before I even went to the campsite to set up the tent I drove the Pierce Stocking drive that provides a number of opportunities to stop and explore.
It’s almost mandatory that you take this image while you’re there.
But gradually, by late afternoon, clouds had moved in and that evening there were no stars to be seen. It even rained late Monday night, which brought the temperatures down. I was conflicted, grateful for the temperature relief but disappointed that I wasn’t out under the stars with my camera.
Looking toward Sleeping Bear dunes from Empire Beach on Tuesday.
Tuesday I explored a few beaches looking for possible places to shoot the Milky Way, if the sky ever cleared. But it didn’t clear that day.
Not very promising for star photography.
So I did the next best thing. I hiked a loop through the woods where there was the possibility of lots of birds. You know how I love taking photographs of birds. I had high hopes again of capturing something special.
Because I was covered in bug spray this was a fun hike.
About 2.5 miles, the trail was supposed to be filled with song birds, particularly warblers.
I took a close up picture of the map with my phone, and I’m glad I did. The trail wasn’t always obvious.
I heard lots of birds, none of them identified by my Merlin app as warblers, but I only saw one bird for a slight second, hidden in the trees, and I have no idea what it was.
I don’t suppose any of you know what this brownish bird is, hiding behind leaves and out of focus.
Tuesday night it rained again. I don’t mind a little rain on the tent, but it meant there was no star shooting that night either.
Wednesday was predicted to be overcast as well, so I made plans to drive about an hour north and meet a couple friends in Northport, another of my happy places. It was time to spend a little bit of time in civilization.
Scenic route through Pierce Stocking park.
That was definitely fun and had a lower mosquito to human ratio, but it deserves it’s own post, so stay tuned.
It’s been two, maybe three weeks since I was in Alabama. And you know that I took a few photos while I was there.
Arriving after 2 days of driving.
Maybe you’d want to see a few of my favorites?
Every morning I’d take a picture of the lake. Most of the time it was so quiet.
Of course who really defines the term “few?”
That red soil is a dead giveaway you’re in the South.
As it turns out most of the images I took this time revolved around birds. Why do you think that is? And are the birds much different in Alabama than they are in Michigan?
Maybe a king bird, maybe something else. Was sitting at the top of a young oak tree on an island in the lake.
But we weren’t always birders, we also took a couple boat rides on my brother’s lake. One in the middle of the day where we saw the bird above and one to see the sunset.
Sunset from behind the mimosa tree
And on our boat rides we did, of course, see birds. This was a big bird. This is the Osprey that builds a nest every year in the very tall power towers on my brother’s lake.
Osprey parent taking a sunset break from the demanding babies up in the nest.
There were very noisy babies in residence when I visited. They cried all day for mom or dad to feed them.
What are you looking at, lady?
And there was a bluebird couple remodeling the nest for their next brood, hovering around just over our heads as we sat on the back patio.
I keep telling him it’s a total gut job.
They didn’t seem worried about us at all as long as we didn’t move too quickly.
I think it’s fine the way it is. The kids will just poop all over it anyway.
And a brown thrush singing away and then scuttling along the lake shore looking for something good to eat.
I’m pretending to be a speedy roadrunner bird!
And, back at the cabin’s lake, we climbed the mountain and then the fire tower to view the large expanse of Lake Martin.
A small part of Lake Martin.
Actually, you can, even at that height, only view a small portion of this giant lake.
A fisherman was having a quiet moment when suddenly jet skies zoomed by.
And of course I went out in the kayak a couple times, not going too far, just down to the end of this bit of water, or that bit over there.
I spent a long time in the kayak trying to get these two glowing trees.
We have martin gourds at Lake Martin and this year the birds have taken up residence in at least one of them.
Incoming!
Babies there too.
You’re not my mama!
So all in all it was a good trip. I’m glad I went and I’m hoping to get down there again before this summer is over.
An orchard oriole in my brother’s back yard.
We’ll see.
Home away from home.
Oh…you ask…on my trip back to Michigan did I see anything interesting?
Keeping in the theme of birds enjoying a bath, one afternoon this week I noticed two orioles in the bird bath.
By the time I got my camera and returned there was one in the bath and another observing. As you can see, Daddy was busy out on the feeder stuffing his face with grape jelly.
I don’t know if these two are this year’s juveniles or last years young ones, or maybe two females just enjoying a relaxing spa day.
But it was sure was fun to watch the one in the bath splash around.
So I’ll share the rest of these without comment. Enjoy.
I have other photos of this week’s shenanigans in my back yard, but those will have to wait for another day.
Edit: I was just outside to hang the oriole feeder up after cleaning it and refilling it with grape jelly. One of the two bathers was back, standing on the railing. He (or she) started flapping it’s wings at me, supposing that maybe I had something to feed it. So I think these two really are juveniles, and not adult females. So cute!
Change Is Hard 