At one time, there were geese, a great blue heron, and an egret eating and hunting in the cattails. We also saw something more unusual for our area–a snowy egret.

There was no mistaking his yellow slippers and black bill. He was distinctly smaller than the other egret. They al hunted tadpoles successfully in the creek.

All of the birds were in their fine breding plumage. A true sight to see! This experience is why everyone who lives on a lake must own a pair of binoculars. You’d miss the rare passing migrant to add to your life list of birds.

Birdwatching in the Backyard is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

This time of year, we see lots of migrating geese pass through. Of course, with the warmer weather, it has been a prolonged migration. You can always pick out the migrants. They are the birds that flush at the sight of anything foreign. Spooky things! The resident geese, on the other hand, will practically let you walk on top of them. Not during the nesting season, however.

Today, we witnessed massive flocks flying over the house. The cacophony of honking was almost deafening. The weather is supposed to take a turn tomorrow, so the birds were taking advantage of the time to fuel up. Another thing about migrants–rather than landing in the yard, they landed on the water. With no experience of the area, they have no way of knowing friend or foe.

That’s what cracks me up about our goofy neighbors. They’re not “teaching” the birds to stay away. The next round of birds will be an entirely new set of geese. They won’t “remember” the lesson if they are chased off. The fake coyotes are laughable. I think the geese probably view them the same way. I often see them feeding next to the pseudo-predators.

I enjoy having the geese around. It’s one of the joys of being on the lake. Wildlife is close by. I don’t feel as isolated as I did when I lived in the city. Honk away, migrants! This is definitely friendly territory.

Photo by  Matt

Lake News–Migrating Geese is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

The ducks and geese are also making a reappearance.  Not that they’ve left the area, but rather have sought out the few remaining patches of open water that didn’t include our shoreline.  Melting snow waters are flowing fast down our creek to the lake, threatening to flood the backyard. The bits of water on the ice have attracted the waterfowl back. 
 
There’s sure to be a bit of cabin fever raging this weekend as temperatures are supposed to be approaching the 50s this weekend. The snow will probably be history afterward. These late winter/early spring warm-ups usher in a time of brown landscapes. The absence of the greens is keenly felt and it will seem like forever before the landscape takes on its carpet of color.
Despite the seemingly monochrome landscape, I like to hike these days.

The trails tend to be very quiet.  It’s a good time to enjoy some solitude in the woods and a splendid time to listen and watch for those subtle signs of the earth awakening from its winter slumber. .Photo by wsweet321

Lake News is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

Near the middle of the trail, I came across what was left of a deer, just the spine, one hind leg, and its skull. A victim of the winter? A deer that had been hit yet managed to make its way from the road? Hard to say because this animal wasn’t here yesterday. A coyote or one of the farm dogs must have dragged it here. I felt a little sad for the deer who struggled to make a living. Judging by its teeth, it was an adult deer in its prime. A little farther down the trail there was another skeleton only this one was of a very small deer. Perhaps the adult was a pregnant doe who met her end last fall in which case the summer could have been the culprit.

How well an animal is going to fare the winter depends upon how well it has eaten in the summer and into the fall, building up the stores that will be needed to carry an animal through the harsh winter months. Perhaps things were a bit scarce for this particular deer. There was only one fawn, at least only one that I found. Deer will have twins or even triplets if conditions are well and she has enough stores to accommodate an additional fetus developing. If not, the extra fetus is reabsorbed into the doe’s body and only one fawn is born. If anything is for certain, the area surrounding the trail has a large deer population if the number of tracks are any indication. However, there will be two less deer this spring when the snow and ice give away to the verdure.

The sun was still shining bright as I turned to head back on the trail. I wondered how the other animals I’ve seen on the trail were doing this cold, cold day. Hopefully Nature had equipped them well enough to get through this latest cold streak. Photo by law_keven

winter vengeance, deer

Lake News — Winter With a Vengeance is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

The owner has documentation to authenticate the Thayer IV from movie fame though I don’t recall Audrey Hepburn in the movie as the auction details claim.

Say what you will about the movie, but it struck a chord with me.  In its 109 minute playing time, I relived family vacations, cross country family car rides to a dozen different vacation sites.  I smiled at the collection of trinkets whose value and meaning are either clear or have faded into the misty collective memories of those who cherished them.

I remembered swimming in the lake before the lifeguards and restricted areas with their rules ruined the fun.  I remembered campfires and ghost stories, scaring ourselves on night hikes.  And I remembered my dad.

So, yes, if I had that $35,000 + to spare, I’d be buying a boat full of memories.  Photo by pleasantpointinn

on golden pond, thayer iv

If I Had $35,000 And Change is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

There’s lots of activity on the trails these days. Small migrating groups of finches were fluttering around today, dotting back and forth across my path. I’m going to miss the migrating birds when they’re all gone. The silence that follows their departure is almost deafening.

We’ve been treated to some amazing sights this fall. The eagles are passing through, along with the coots. We don’t see a lot of coots on our bay, but they’re easy to spot, forming such tight clusters. A raft of them were on the water the other day, tight as could be. Two eagles were soaring overhead. One by one the eagles swooped down on the coots in a dramatic show. The coots waited until the very last second before diving under. The eagles didn’t dive into the water, but slapped the water with their wings. Again and again, they tried their luck, but the coots evaded them every time. I’m reminded of how coots like other birds that are prey of raptors instinctively know the shape of their nemesis. They often don’t have an opportunity to learn it, so they must be hardwired, as it were, to spot danger.

We’ve been enjoying a few warm days. It’s nice for some late season boat rides. We don what we refer to affectionately as the “Door County look”, wearing shorts with a polar fleece pullover. Though it seems so practical, we used to find that we only dressed this way when were were up in Door County, Wisconsin on vacation. We’ve experienced temperatures into the 30s in the middle of June, so a warm pullover is just the thing.  

The one bad thing though about these warm days are the box elder bugs and asian beetles. We’ve been fortunate not to be especially plagued, but some have. It’s been declared an especially bad year because of drier weather earlier in the year. Not only the box elder bugs, but the bees have been horrible. We may be sitting in our boat in the middle of the lake. No sooner than we have a glass of wine poured and the bees appear. I know, desperate people (or in this case, bees) do desperate things like flying across open water. No matter. It’ll soon be time to cozy up by the fire and enjoy that glass of wine in peace.

Lake News–Peak Fall Colors is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors

Fall is a great time for prairies too.  The big bluestem and little bluestem are also rich in color, red shafted grasses with seed heads, ripe.  A few prairie plants have yet to bloom, so the prairie color show will last for a few weeks yet.  We didn’t get the bluestem planted in our prairie garden this year, but definitely will next year.  Prairie plants show some amazing adaptations for the harsh life they’ve had to lead.  I never knew how cold winter can truly be until I was doing some conservation work in the middle of a prairie during the winter, with a steady north breeze.  Equally so, a hot summer day in the middle of a prairie is not easily forgotten.  Without structures or trees to divert the wind, prairie plants have adapted to having extremely long root systems, if just to hold them in place.  Bluestem will have roots upwards of 15 foot long.  This could explain the fact that it takes a few years to establish a prairie.  The energy goes into establishing the root system first, then the rest will follow.  We like to think of our prairie garden as our legacy.  Long after we’re gone, the roots will still be there, waiting to take hold again if the garden should be planted over.

The wildlife around seems to be preparing for the change of season too.  Ducks are forming rafts on the water at night.  It’s rather an eerie sight to come upon them all of a sudden as we bring the boat in from our sunset cruise.  They’re so quiet too; no squawking or fussing as we too move silently through the water.  Now speaking of quiet, we’ve also seen flocks of pelicans flying high in the sky.  It’s like seeing a specter during the day.  They seem to hover in small tight groups in the air, hardly moving their wings.  The white of their bodies catches the sunlight.  Their flight pattern is unmistakable. 

We’ve noticed too that the fall warblers are starting to come through.  Warblers can be a challenge to identify in the spring, but during the fall without their showy breeding plumage, they are even more of a challenge to ID.  Well, I guess I’ll have to make sure and spend even more time outside, listening to the the melodious singing of the birds before the resident birds too make their way south.

Lake News – Autumn Is Here is a post from: Exploring the Great Outdoors