Wordless Wednesday
Tag Archives: birds
Searching for the stars. Again.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
About 2.5 miles, the trail was supposed to be filled with song birds, particularly warblers.
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.
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.
That was definitely fun and had a lower mosquito to human ratio, but it deserves it’s own post, so stay tuned.
Favorite Alabama images
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.
Maybe you’d want to see a few of my favorites?
Of course who really defines the term “few?”
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?
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.
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.
There were very noisy babies in residence when I visited. They cried all day for mom or dad to feed them.
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.
They didn’t seem worried about us at all as long as we didn’t move too quickly.
And a brown thrush singing away and then scuttling along the lake shore looking for something good to eat.
And, back at the cabin’s lake, we climbed the mountain and then the fire tower to view the large expanse of Lake Martin.
Actually, you can, even at that height, only view a small portion of this giant lake.
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.
We have martin gourds at Lake Martin and this year the birds have taken up residence in at least one of them.
Babies there too.
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.
We’ll see.
Oh…you ask…on my trip back to Michigan did I see anything interesting?
Well…what do you think?
Bird bath part deux
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!
The heron baths
Have you ever seen a great blue heron? (I feel like I should capitalize the heron’s name, anything with “Great” in it’s title seems like it should be capitalized, don’t you think?)
We have lots of them around here, and I’ve taken you out to Kensington to see the heron rookery more than a few times, so of course you’ve all seen a Great Blue.
But have you ever seen one take a bath? (I think this would make a great children’s book title; Have You Ever Seen One Take a Bath?)
I was sitting, a couple of weeks ago, on my brother’s patio looking out over his lake. He has a wonderful view down the lake, but what I was focused on was the tip of his peninsula where a heron appeared to be standing or sitting up to his chest in water while flapping his wings. Or her wings I suppose. But I’m going to assume this was a he.
I had my camera in my lap so I started shooting pictures, trying to figure out what he was doing. Was he fishing? Was he caught in fishing line? Was he dancing to some song only he could hear?
No, he was taking a bath! Unfortunately many of my images are terribly out of focus, but I’ve found you the best of them so you can enjoy what we wittnessed.
He flopped around and preened in the chest deep water for quite a long time, and then he moved over to a sunnier spot and did what all well behaved herons do.
He stood, spread his wings and dried himself in the sun.
Because there’s no nicer way to end a warm bath than to dry off in the evening sunshine.
At last, the little birds
I took myself out to Kensington, a favorite park for bird photography, on Easter Sunday morning because I figured it would be empty.
And, in some ways, it was. There were no families enjoying barbecue, and no busloads of school kids enjoying a field trip.
No one was feeding the little birds.
But photographers? Oh yea, photographers with their long, heavy lenses are not going to let a beautiful spring morning get lost in a holiday!
Still I bet most of us out there that morning managed to get at least a few (dozen) great shots.
And long ago, on a previous post I promised I’d show you more birds.
So here you go. I’ll try to limit this to some of my most favorite from that early morning walk in the woods a month ago.
But it’s hard. I have so many favorites.
As I study each of these I’m transported back to that cool morning, surrounded by hungry birds, the deer watching from further back in the trees, the squirrels hurrying so as not to be left out.
The chipmunks hoarding, the sunlight shifting.
It’s always a magical time at Kensington, no matter what part of the park you visit.
But if you want to experience wildlife in a more intimate manner, get there in the morning on a weekday before the crowds and walk the trails at the Nature Center.
Or early on a holiday morning. That works too.
So tell me, which image is YOUR favorite?
Who’s hungry?
Well, I am, for one. I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, and it’s mid-morning on a beautiful day here in Michigan. Lots of garden stuff to do. Places to be. People to see.
But I’d rather be here with you.
Remember when I was out at the heron rookery in Kensington Park on Easter Sunday morning? You didn’t think I’d just leave the park after seeing the herons, did you?
Did you???
Well of course not.
When I could finally pry myself away from those big nests I went for a walk through the woods. And as soon as I was off the boardwalk I heard this cardinal just singing his heart out and enjoying the morning light at the very top of a tree.
Of course when he spotted me, perhaps the first automated bird feeder to arrive that morning, he shot right down to a branch directly in front of me.
Right at eye level.
Now cardinals don’t generally come down to my hand to eat, though one did many years ago. But I think this one might have if I hadn’t accidently dropped some seed on the ground.
He was very interested in that.
So was Mrs. Red Winged Blackbird.
And so was this squirrel.
And this chipmunk.
In the end I dropped some more for all of them and went on my way.
I remember that some of you have requested more bird pictures. Well of course I have some. Coming right up.
Bird spring
I was looking at my most recent posts and realize that almost all of them revolve around birds. Even Penny has noticed my obsession.
But I can’t help it. They’re so beautiful, and interesting, and entertaining. I could watch them all day.
Wait!
Sometimes I do watch them all day! Like Easter Sunday when I went out to Kensington on my own. I figured it wouldn’t be busy because everybody else would be getting ready for church or family dinners or both.
I was wrong. There were plenty of people, mostly photographers, out there. But we all work around each other and it’s fine.
I started out walking on the boardwalk near the heron rookery, an island with huge trees filled with heron nests. Every year the heron couples choose a nest and then have a set of little herons there.
It’s fascinating to watch.
Easter Sunday there was much heron coming and going as the couples updated their fixer-uppers in order to make them meet current esthetics. They definitely favor wood floors over carpet.
I spent a long time out there on the boardwalk watching all the work being done, and then I wandered back into the woods to see what else might be around.
Stay tuned.
Change Is Hard 