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Traveling west across the state we made one rest area stop. There were no moths, but Susan found one butterfly. We each got to photograph what I am pretty sure is a hackberry emperor. We continued west past Kalamazoo until we reached Douglas, about 100 yards south of Saugatuck. We arrived just in time toContinue reading “Visiting friends at Lake Michigan”

We stopped by our friend Edie’s garden today. She has spectacular flower and vegetable beds. Lots of nice tomato plants, eggplants, peas, garlic and lettuce. The two raised beds in front of me were filled with lettuce and arugula that needed picking. We got to take enough with us for several salads. I think theContinue reading “Another garden in Ann Arbor”

Being gone for ten days means that the garden needs attention, cleaning needs to be done and sadly we are “not” outside with birds, insects and plants. But, there are perks. I collected garlic scapes today. There’s enough for a few meals. In fact we had some tonight with dinner. Susan also collected cilantro andContinue reading “Time to get caught up in Ann Arbor”

We were traveling from Whitefish Point to Ann Arbor today and thought why not stop along the way to look for orchids. This is Susan searching for twayblades. Here’s one of the Loesell’s twayblades with a single flower open. These are hardly 75-80 mm tall. Here’s Susan photographing a twayblade. It’s almost impossible to seeContinue reading “What do you do when you have 360 miles to go?”

I was going to stay inside today and catch up on things, But the sunrise was just too nice to avoid the temptation of slowly driving to Paradise and seeing what was around. So we did a slow drive from Whitefish Point to Paradise, taking 2 hours to cover the 11 miles. There were onceContinue reading “Catching up, but also taking time for birds”

We spent the day on the Curley Lewis Scenic Byway, where we have made a slow-paced drive from M-123 to Brimley (about 30 miles) since 2011. It usually takes us about 5-6 hours to make the trip stopping at every spot we can. Typically we find 16-19 species of breeding warblers. This is Naomikong Creek,Continue reading “A day looking for warblers”

This is the new bridge that crosses the Tahquamenon River to the island at the Lower Falls. Now we can visit all five of the falls, rather than just two and seeing a distant third. Prior to the bridge unless you took a canoe or kayak across the river to the island there were threeContinue reading “The new bridge at Tahquamenon Falls”

Since it first appear outside of Africa, a few weeks ago monkeypox has continued to spread. Monkeypox is a member of the orthopoxvirus genus of viruses. This also includes Variola virus (smallpox virus) and cowpox virus. Currently these are states with cases of monkeypox. Here are the number of cases, by state as of 6Continue reading “Monkeypox and more”

A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird, keeping a close eye on our feeder at Whitefish Point. A real warrior. The Aztec god Huitzilopochtli. The name translates as “Hummingbird of the south.” This god of war, battles, gold and the sun was the brother of Quetzalcotl, the chief god of the Aztecs. Hummingbirds were considered the reincarnation ofContinue reading “Hummingbirds, moths and more”

An Arctic skipper and a Dreamy duskywing, two of todays insect finds. We went to Natalie Lake, near Newberry in Luce County searching for some special birds that nest there. We found them – Golden-winged Warbler, Mourning Warbler and Black Tern. But we are always expecting to find a diversity in insects. Two damselflies. TheContinue reading “Insects at Natalie Lake”