A couple weeks ago I introduced a friend to the bird magic that is Kensington. You saw the angst with the red headed woodpecker, but there were other bird shenanigans that morning. For instance there was this grackle dad and teenager who seemed not to agree about something very important.
Soon dad will be busy with a new brood and teenager will get more freedom. But until then, from the looks of jr’s face, there are more ‘discussions’ in the wind.
I was at Kensington last week. We were lucky enough to find the red-headed woodpecker and his friends on this walk.
As usual, spring in Michigan is a mixed bag. Since we had 60 (15.5C) degree and sometimes higher temperatures in February we were owed several days or even weeks of temperatures in the 30s, (-1.11 C) sometimes lower, in March. With wind and snow to make everything feel extra special.
Still, signs of spring persist even here.
The first sounds of spring, the thing that solidifies the concept of spring for me every year, are the red-winged blackbirds. They announce their arrival loudly with a very distinctive call.
I usually hear them before I see them. But a day or so after I hear them singing over in the swamp they will have found my feeder. They come in mass and gobble up everything, much to the dismay of the smaller birds.
They’ve been around for a few weeks now and are disgusted, just as we all were, with that last snow storm.
And when I see my goldfinches start to turn yellow – well – than spring is well and truly on the way. It seems that one day they are all olive drab, and the next day the males are sprouting gold spots.
And then suddenly those show-offs are entirely, brilliant, yellow.
In fact yellow seems to be the color of spring. Between the daffodils, which are the only spring flowers we can have due to our hardy deer population…
…to the forsythia in the back yard…
…to the cowslips in the nearby woods…
…if you see an abundance of yellow around these parts you can almost guarantee spring has sprung.
Almost.
Thanks, Karma, for hosting this photo challenge! I remain hopeful that that last snow was our last snow. If you know what I mean.
Here it is the end of June and I still haven’t shown you everything we did while camping in northern Michigan in early May. I showed you the stars, and the hiking and camping.
But did I tell you about the barns?
On one of the five days I spent near Sleeping Bear my friend and I drove around the very tip of Michigan’s little finger, taking pictures of the barns and orchards.
It was so much fun. The cherry orchards were just finishing up their blooms and the apple orchard’s blossoms were in their prime.
I haven’t been lucky enough to be there in the spring very often, and each time I round a corner and see a hillside in full bloom I’m stunned.
And of course all those orchards require barns, and there are so many beautiful barns in this part of our state, it’s hard to choose just a few to share with you.
I’ve been to visit Northport many times, and every time I’m there I find another barn that I just have to stop and shoot.
Sometimes it’s a barn I’ve taken pictures of every time I’m there. It doesn’t matter, the light or the trees or the angle or even my mood will be different.
The combination of orchards in bloom and barns is always irresistible.
And while we were there we went in search of trillium, which was also in full bloom that week. The famous Trillium Hill was a must stop.
We laughed about how many pictures of trillium a person needed. I am pretty sure the number is higher than I can count.
And of course there were marsh marigolds galore too.
Northport is a place that’s always hard for me to leave.
And though I never want to leave this special part of our state, I know I’m lucky I get to visit it often.
To think I almost didn’t get these images shared! The summer is marching on and soon I’ll be off on other adventures. But I’ll always love my time in Northport!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this abbreviated version too.
Finally. Since my mid-May camping trip to Sleeping Bear in northern Michigan I’ve been working on my night sky images. I’ve also been backing up my laptop, and experimenting with an external hard drive.
You know how new things, especially technical new stuff, flummoxes me. So many days went by when I looked at my laptop, sitting over there on the table and didn’t feel smart enough to try.
But more new photos are filling my camera’s memory card and I have this rule that I can’t download new images until I have finished processing the ones already waiting on the laptop.
Silly rule. I have so many more pretty things to show you and I’m still wallowing through these stars.
I guess that’s not such a horrible problem to have.
So I’ll show you what the night sky looked at back in May. Recognize that you won’t see the sky like this just by looking up wherever you are, even if you’re in a very dark place.
The camera sees much more light than our eyes do, and then I’ve processed them to bring more light out so that you can appreciate the shapes and patterns that hang out up there.
I’ve tried not to process them too much, but I do have to lighten them some because WordPress and Facebook both post images darker than they appear in my work on the laptop.
I hope you enjoy looking at the night sky. I like having company when I’m out there, and I often think of all of you while I’m shooting, hoping you can feel a little bit like you were there too when you see the images.
I can’t wait to get back out there and bring you more.
