Category Archives: Uncategorized

The CDC just published data (17 September 2021) on the effectiveness of each of the covid-vaccines versus unvaccinated people. With 3,689 people in the study, 45% caught the virus. The effectiveness of each vaccine in decreasing order was: Moderna (88.7%), Pfizer (82.7%) and Johnson & Johnson (67.3%). When eliminating people in long-term facilities these numbersContinue reading “Recent data on the Pandemic”

This morning we decided to take a walk about 6 miles south of our cabin at Whitefish Point in an area that had a recent small (7-9 acres) forest fire. The fire was apparent just in the understory, moving quickly through the already dry bracken ferns and young maples and oaks. Most of the pines,Continue reading “Shelldrake Dam area”

I have been visiting Whitefish Point since the 1978, and we have had a cabin here since 2009. Over the years we have learned a lot about the history of the area (for instance when I first came here what is now the headquarters for the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory was then a general store,Continue reading “Our years at Whitefish Point”

The day started out with high winds and a thunderstorm. Then settled down to a steady rain for much of the morning. Our only moth this morning, since we had the moth lights off for the night anticipating rain, was this little one at the kitchen window – Epinotia septemberana, a moth without a commonContinue reading “Another day in Paradise”

In the late 1980s I had reach what Steve Howell (author of The Birds of Mexico) wrote in Aves Mexicanas about bird migration at the fishing village of Tecolutla. Needless to say I wanted to go there. It was around 1990 that I contacted my friends Jerry, Jody and Sue and asked if they wereContinue reading “My time in Mexico (part-3) – Tecolutla”

We were on the road today, heading to Whitefish Point for the week. But our trip north is rarely a more-or-less straight line. We were planning to stop in St. Ignace to get pasties for dinner and visit Point LaBarbe for fall plants. Neither stop was disappointing. Dinner would be a traditional pasty for me,Continue reading “Point LaBarbe, Michigan”

Last Sunday we had breakfast at the garden with a great friend. This marked the start of a hectic week. Then we spent part of the day in downtown Ann Arbor. We really enjoyed the “Graffiti Alley.” Nickels Arcade has been a favorite stop for many years. The Michigan Theatre was just begging to beContinue reading “The hectic days of fall”

We were basically out on a walk that lead us to a few interesting trees and insects. The above Osage orange is an interesting tree in that southern Michigan is the northern edge of the range for finding it. That said, there are many street and park trees that do not occur here naturally. ItContinue reading “Take a walk on the wild side: a few photos from a morning walk”

The other morning I was disturbed by a story I was listening to on NPR. A person discussing the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (Covid-19) stated that the virus mutated in order to continue to evade antibodies and infect other people. Obviously, the person had no training in medicine, microbiology or physiology. Viruses, like anything that containsContinue reading “What are viruses?”

For the first 40 years of working on my “family tree” all of the information that I gathered was from talking to family members. I was fortunate enough to have numerous relatives who were born in the late 1800s who were willing to talk to me. Shortly after 2000 I discovered the genealogy library inContinue reading “Genealogy work over the past few years.”