Author Archives: makielb

Migration is well underway in the north. The most abundant migrant so far is Pine Siskin. The past few days I have see several thousand every morning. There are also a lot of Red-breasted Nuthatches that are feeding on the seeds of white pine cones. With such a large cone crop I wonder how manyContinue reading “A busy day at Whitefish Point”

Going for a walk as the sun was setting meant that we would get back to the cabin in the dark. That meant that we could enjoy the waxing Moon. But the point of going out as the sun was setting was to see what the UV-flashlight would detect in the shrubs. We were notContinue reading “September evening at Whitefish Point”

We were visiting friends in Petosky and spend the afternoon at a nearby preserve where we wanted to see what we could find on the last day of summer, 2023. Our walk through the woods, as we headed to the shore of Lake Michigan was dominated by fungi. This is a polypore that might beContinue reading “The last day of summer, 2023”

The latest round of Covid-19 is hitting the world currently. We know of a number of friends that had covid in the past 3-4 weeks. They have been anywhere from sick to extremely sick. Right now you can get the latest Covid shot. We’ll be getting ours as soon as we are back in AnnContinue reading “The latest on viruses”

I’m not sure how many more green beans we’ll get. But here’s another meals worth. With the weather getting cooler and frost in the distant future it was time to harvest some of the basil. So six of the eight plants came in. Picked leaves, washed them and Susan magically turned them into pesto. We’llContinue reading “Back to the garden”

A graphic from a few years ago. The rising cost in medical care isn’t due to health professionals. I think that if he was a horse they would have put him down. If it wan’t so true this would be funnier. He is of course pointing to the deep south, perhaps Florida. If you get,Continue reading “Mid-September humor”

For the past few days I have been going through old pieces that I have written and worked at re-writing and editing them. I find it both fun and rewarding to go through old things that I had written. The fun part is just reading some creative piece that might be six or seven yearsContinue reading “Writing and re-writing”

After a few very busy weeks today is a rather lazy day. Some walking with Susan. Picking the last batch of Roma tomatoes (18.5 pounds) and a meals worth of green beans. Shopping at Aldi’s, which is a 3 mile round-trip walk. But at the same time finding some interesting late season things like thisContinue reading “Finally, a slow day”

I did the picking. Still lots of Roma tomatoes waiting to be canned as sauce. It seems that every time I go outside there are more things to pick. This basket includes a couple of days worth of green beans and even a hot pepper. I’ll be sad when we’ve eaten the last of theContinue reading “Back to the garden and canning”

Don and I went to Lake Erie Metropark yesterday to look at migrating hawks. As is typical for this site the hawks were extremely high. This is a dozen Broad-winged Hawks. After a few hours at the park we decided to head down to the headquarters of Pointe Mouillee where we were hoping to seeContinue reading “Hawk migration – 13 September 2023”