The Last Day of Winter---I LOVE WINTER

I can officially say it now.  I LOVE winter in the UP.

I know, all you Yoopers will say that I really haven't seen winter in the UP, because this one was so mild.  In fact, you will probably say that this is the mildest winter that has ever been.  OKAY.

I know how this works.  Because this is something even people from IOWA do, okay?  When you tell your winter stories, you don't tell about the ones that were mild.  You tell about the one where it snowed in October and never stopped until June.  You tell about the one where the snow was three times the height of you cars on each side of the road. You tell about 300 or 400 inches of snow. In Iowa, we tell about 60 below wind chills and ice storms so bad, we didn't have power for weeks.  I can also remember riding to school on a one lane road with snow taller than our car.  I remember LOTS of snow days.

So I know about bad winters.  I also know about mild winters.  Like this one WAS.  You know, the one I just lived and thrived through!

I know it will snow some more yet. I know the cold weather will last a long time.   Last June I woke up a couple of mornings at camp to frost so hard, it crunched under my feet on my way to the outhouse at camp.  But, really...what's not to love?

Yesterday, we took a LONG drive across the Upper Peninsula to see if we could find some migrating Snowy Owls.  On the way, we stopped at Marquette and drove along Lake Shore Boulevard out to Presque Isle.  For the last day of winter, it was a brilliantly sunny, relatively mild day.  And honestly, I could have stayed there all day taking pictures, but we still had miles and miles to go, so I just took a few.

Picnic Rocks (would you have a picnic here?)

Marquette lighthouse

waves

more waves

Presque Isle lighthouse

ice-making waves

sun on the waves

the view from Presque Isle

waves

I mean, honestly, blissful, right? I am wondering why it took me so long to get out there.  We will be back! 

Anyway, we got back on the road and drove and drove, through Munising, through Newberry, all the way to Rudyard, where we were told we'd find the passing-by area for migrating snowy owls.  

Unfortunately, we got there early in the afternoon, which is not a good time to find Snowys, as they will lay low during the day, and become more active late in the afternoon into the twilight. We drove about the area, and saw no owls, and honestly, I thought we would make the long trip home without seeing a single one.  We saw a few good birds, including some Rough-legged Hawks who refused to pose for us, plus a gorgeous male Northern Harrier Hawk...a gray ghost, who was flying too far away for ME to be able to get a decent shot.

really bad pictures

of a beautiful bird....look it up sometimes...other people have great pictures, even if I don't!

I also have a short video of him catching something and eating it, but it's not very clear, either. Plus, you might think it's gross. I have a good tolerance for gross...I live with boys.

 Anyway, I also thought this guy was pretty cute

imagine Cher singing "Little man..."

AND, I learned the totally mod way of tapping maple trees.  At first, I thought some crazy person had run around in a forest with a really LONG plastic jump rope.  

really, really long jump rope

But then I noticed that the trees were tapped, and the light bulb went on (in my head, not in the forest).

this is so cool...I had no idea

It made me wish I had my own big forest to make maple syrup from. 

Anyway, the afternoon went by quickly, and we were planning on hitting the hot spot road ONE MORE TIME before leaving without seeing an owl...when...suddenly...

a snowy!!!

And, while I was photographing this one, I noticed another on the ground next to it.  

this is where they seem to like to hang out the best...in the fence rows, where the grass is taller.  

All of a sudden it seemed like they were everywhere!  We saw and photographed 11 in a very short time within a mile so of each other.

Something I should say about these pics.  Snowy Owls are easily stressed birds.  They don't mind vehicles so much, but don't like being approached by humans on foot. Therefore, I took all my pics from the car, and didn't stick around by any one bird for very long.  And, I won't show you all my pics, since some are from WAY far away.  

it is....a little white male...believe me

And this one...well...

I don't blame you for not believing, but there is one sleeping right there, really

My two faves were a beautiful male out in the middle of the section....I liked him so much I made a movie about it.

pure white and I wonder if he knows how gorgeous he is

and please check out my snowy owl movie!

When I made this movie, my count was all off, and what I thought was my 7th or 8th owl was the 10th. 

By far, the best pictures I took were of Snowy number 7, but I sort of have mixed feelings when I look at them.  She (I'm pretty sure she's a she) was sitting right alongside someone's house in a pile of junk there....you can see some kitchen chairs among other stuff.  Honestly, she was so close, I thought she must be a plastic fake owl until she moved.  

they often sit on piles of junk...I know that's strange

she's gorgeous, but the sun was bright, and she was stoic

Anyway, I said I have mixed feelings, because we were not the only people to see her, and while we stayed in our car and took a few shots, other people got out of their car and approached her with their ginormous lenses to photograph her nose hairs, I guess. One woman was all excited, because it was late in the afternoon, and they knew she would "fly soon."  I knew she would fly soon, because after we left and drove by again later, there were was practically a traffic jam outside of people taking photos and talking loudly, and....well....I just didn't think it was right. 

As we were driving through the traffic jam, I took one more photo, and honestly, I don't feel good about the fact that it was my best photo of the day.  Because she had moved, and was watching the people who were watching her watch them....

God creates such gorgeous creatures

Anyway, I hope she's okay, and that she rests up and catches some mousies or whatever else will sustain her until she returns to the land of lemmings and ptarmigans. 

So...this was the last day of winter for me.  A beautiful, but very long drive (got home after midnight, which is really late for an old fogey like me!). And the chance to experience some of the best (and God has lots of bests) of creation, breath-taking nature and awesome owls.  

I wonder what Spring will bring :)