Author Archives: makielb

Fascism, the biggest threat to democracy. It took over Italy, Germany and Spain in the 1930s. It almost took over the USA in 2016. Don’t let it happen again. Won’t work here, they’d have to look over their left shoulder. Darth has good taste in music. Frazz nailed it again. Wine for older adults. AI,Continue reading “Monday evening comics”

Why do people always assume that a historical reenactment involves a battle? Sometimes they are so much better. My father and me in 2000. It’s hard to believe that it was 23 years ago. Downtown Ann Arbor, Main Street closed on weekends to car traffic so that the restaurants can expand seating into the street.Continue reading “Father’s Day 2023”

Last night we set up two sites at Barton Nature Area for attracting moths. This was a Natural Areas Preservation event and it seems like over 20 people showed up. This was the site that was across the river and most distant from the parking area. This was the sheet closer to the parking areaContinue reading “Moth night in Ann Arbor”

Before heading back to Ann Arbor, and between rain days we spent the day at the eastern end of Pictured Rocks looking for interesting plants. Needless to say, it’s hard to beat rams-head orchids. We managed to find hundreds of them. We even found a plant with several white ones. Scattered among the rams-heads wereContinue reading “Orchids, more orchids!”

For the past 2-3 days we have had cool weather, not topping 55F with a mostly steady rain. Even before that mosquitoes were at astronomical numbers, with few getting into the house. Tomorrow should be better, except for the mosquitoes, so we should be heading off in search of orchids and other plants (with glovesContinue reading “Reading on a rainy day”

Those pesky Mayans never got to the next page. I always wondered why their calendar had a “last date” some 500 years after their civilization collapsed. Tea parties can really be fun. I’ll have to remind somebody about that. More platypus humor. Never, ever mess with my chocolate! I’ll be fine, but you won’t. SomehowContinue reading “Some rainy day humor”

Took a slow drive from M-123 to The Dancing Crane. We had 17 species of warblers. The most common was American Redstarts (112). Some less abundant species were Mourning (10), Canada (1) and Northern Waterthrush (1). A nice bog along the road with lots of Alder Flycatchers. The view of Whitefish Bay from Naomikong Overlook.Continue reading “Warblers on Curley Lewis Byway”

Every year in early June we take a slow drive into Paradise. Over the 11 miles we count birds that we encounter. This year we had eleven species of warblers and 16 species of other birds, so it was a little slow. we did however have zillions of mosquitoes, but with head-nets and gloves weContinue reading “Saw Mill Park in Paradise”

So, work has continued on the changes to walkways and the parking situation at the “Lighthouse” parking lot. Notice in the map the three areas marked as “protected bird habitat.” The two smaller areas are approximately 100 square feet and the larger one closer to 200. Too bad that the Michigan Audubon Society didn’t haveContinue reading “Latest happenings at Whitefish Point”

Stopped at the rest area south of Grayling on I-75 because we had stopped south of there looking at the fire damage from last weeks fire. One of the highlights of stopping at this rest area are the 13-lined ground-squirrels. Now on to the fire along Stahley Lake Rd. The fire swept through the jackContinue reading “An orchid, a mammal and a fire”