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Charles Darwin was born on February 12 1809. He collected finch specimens in the 1830s on the Galapagos Islands. They were one of the critical species involved with his describing the process of evolution. The finches were first called Darwin’s finches in 1936 by Percy Lowe. One of the highlights of my teaching career atContinue reading “Charles Darwin”

A beautiful Moon this morning. Then it was time for birds. The idea that I can photograph birds that are only six feet away always makes me smile. Male Pine Grosbeak on the deck. Juvenile male Pine Grosbeak. I often ignore the fact that we have 10-15 Black-capped Chickadees coming to our feeders. Pine GrosbeaksContinue reading “Winter birds at Whitefish Point”

We drove to Rudyard yesterday hoping to see a few owls and who knows what else. We stopped for gas first and saw a raven diving at something on the Rudyard water tower. Yep – it was our first (of five) Snowy Owls for the day. We also managed to see a few Northern Shrikes,Continue reading “Cruising roads looking for raptors”

A beautiful sunny day at the Upper Falls. What was even better was that there were no other people there when we were. I can never remember this happening before. As we got closer to the falls you could see all of the ice on the other side. As we were even closer to theContinue reading “A winter day at Tahquamenon Falls”

Under our feeders we had a large flock of Pine Grosbeaks – here are 7 of the 17 that were here. Here’s a male Pine Grosbeak at a feeder. A clear warm morning meant that there were good views of the Moon. These photos were taken two hours apart. A poor photo of a SpruceContinue reading “A February morning in Paradise”

Crossing the Mackinac Bridge yesterday we finally saw some ice. It’s still disturbing to see open water in January. Approaching St. Ignace in the Upper Peninsula. Then it was time to head further north to fins some birds. Checked the roads at Rudyard where we found two Snowy Owls, not counting the two on theContinue reading “Back in the snowy north”

We’d better start looking more closely at images from Mars as it is apparently a vacation resort. But here in the Northern Hemisphere on Earth it’s still winter. If you have fewer birds at your bird feeders check for notes with a forwarding address. If you’re our ice fishing be careful! And don’t forget toContinue reading “Gray cool morning humor”

We walked from home to downtown Ann Arbor today. It was sunny and close to 20F. I stopped along the way to photograph iconic Ann Arbor buildings. I haven’t been to the Blind Pig since the 1980s. Grizzly Peak and Café Zola both places that we have enjoyed over the years. Old Town, West EndContinue reading “A sunny walk in downtown Ann Arbor”

Since this morning was relatively warm and sunny we decided to walk to Village Kitchen for breakfast, then to Aldi to shop for a few things. I love this mural at Village Kitchen. The view of downtown Ann Arbor shows what it looked like some 25 years ago. So many of the shops that wereContinue reading “A nice day to walk to breakfast”

Barton Dam and the only open water along this stretch of the Huron River. The temperature when we started this walk was close to 0F. The tree here were covered with hoar-frost, as the mist was rising from the river below the dam. We decided to adhere to the “No swimming” sign. While it wasContinue reading “A cold morning along the Huron at Barton Pond”