Daily Eagles and the Rules of the Road

I live in a wonderland of nature.

And mostly everyone around here knows it.

Yoopers are interesting drivers.   They are sort of on-the-road oxymorons.  Don't worry, I don't mean that word sarcastically at all. It's just that they will tailgate you...a lot.  But, they are NICE about it.  Nice tailgaters.  They will tailgate patiently for many miles, through passing and non-passing zones.  They won't rev their engines or gesture at you rudely. Then, when they are ready, they will pass you nicely.  No revving, just gentle, I-think-I'd-like-to-be-first-in-line-now passing.  The only exception is during deer hunting season, maybe.  Then they rev just a little.  Because their CAMP is waiting.  And even though Yoopers LOVE LOVE LOVE to hunt, CAMP is a code word for a lot of things.  It's the home base to coordinate their hunting strategies.  It's their yearly getaway from civilization, a place where if nobody showers, nobody cares.  It's a place where the only fashion statements are in camo and blaze orange. It's a place to drink a lot of beer. What could be better than that!

So anyway, while they are out hunting and camping and drinking, I am doing my usual stuff. Which, in part, involves driving to and fro between Paynesville and Ontonagon.  And I try to watch behind me for tailgaters, but I also have to look around me for photo ops.

For several years, and especially since moving to the UP, my constant car buddy has been THIS:

It is a Nikon Coolpix p510, lovingly used and slightly mangled, complete with tiny wobbly tripod. It's been dropped twice, hence the dent and the loud whirring noise it makes when zooming in or out. Coolpix models are up in the p900s by now, which tells you this one has been around the block a few times.  And to Utah and back.  And all the way around Lake Superior....etc.  It is a fixed lens point and shoot, not a DSLR, so it is limited in what it can do, but what it does for me, it does nicely.

Anyway, it usually sits on my dash, ready to be grabbed.  Fortunately: 1. I am a careful driver.  2. I try to stay on the road less traveled. 3. Yoopers are understanding when they see you pulled off the road in front of them.  Some will offer assistance, others will wave in a friendly manner, but most will look around and try to see what's caught your attention, and is it something they are currently on the hunt for? Since most of them are not hunting for birds, or porcupines or Bald Eagles, which can't be hunted anyway, they go around me without any revving or rude gestures.  Sometimes they pull off with me and grab their cameras off of their dashboards.

Because it is mid-November, most of the migrations of birds are over and done.  There are a few hangers-on, because of nice weather and only one snowstorm so far.  So what I find mostly to take pictures of these days are eagles (and an occasional porcupine).

number 3 of 4 spotted so far

In fact, these days I look for what I call my "Daily Eagle."  What some people don't know is that our National Symbol Bird of Freedom and Glory is for the most part a big vulture with a white head. Meaning that it is a very opportunistic eater of roadkill.  Especially during deer season, when the roadkill du jour is mostly going to be Whitetail Deer.

today's DE

Anyway, I LOVE photographing eagles.  While I am photographing one, I am sure that eagles are my favorite bird (that's how it works....if I am photographing a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, IT is my favorite.

not an eagle

Once you get used to looking at them, you realize that all eagles are unique.  It's the reason why people who watch the famous Decorah Eagle Cam can tell Mom from Dad without a problem.

Saturday's Daily Eagle on a wobbly perch

1

future site of a food fight!

the guy who stayed out of it

the guy who WON

some Iowa eagles who want to be recognized

remember this face for a moment

sleepy eagle

Busy being a mom, and yes, you've seen this face before! The sleepy eagle is Dad. (Old friends from Dunbar Slough in Iowa)

Eagles only get a totally white head when they are five years old or so, so in the meantime, they have lots of different looks.

yearling and adult eagles

might be one or two years old

three

I would guess two eagles from this year's fledge and mom or dad (plus a lot of crows and ravens not sharing well)

The other day, I was fortunate enough to chase these three away from their du jour. 

from the bottom to the top I would guess three, four and five+ years old

Anyway, I could bore you with many more DE (daily eagle) pictures, but unfortunately, I want to go see if I can find a new eagle to photograph.  Is it an obsession?  Maybe a little.  But I think everyone has their own.  I hope whatever you are obsessed with makes you happy, too!

Construction, Destruction--And Other Forces of Nature.

After I have lived in the UP for a year, I will know more stuff.

I am exploring, studying, living the seasons here, in a way I never did in Iowa.

I remember when I was a kid, I was fascinated with nature trails.

You know, like when you go to a state park and there is a sign marking a trail into the forest.  Most parks have one or more.  We used to go to parks often when I was a kid, mostly because Dad loved to fish. He'd come inside in the afternoon after working on the farm and tell my mom we were going fishing. She was always prepared for this by being stocked up on picnic supplies.  She would pull the cold meat out of the fridge, butter, and make some open faced sandwiches on soft white bread.  A jug full of Kool-aid or iced tea, a can of Van Camps pork and beans, and we'd be on our way.

Just like most kids, a quiet summer evening of fishing wouldn't hold my attention for very long. After a few casts, unless the fish were biting ferociously, I'd be done with that and off exploring.  I would usually stop at the sign to the nature trail in whatever park we were visiting, asking to take the tour of mysterious forest beyond the sign, and just as usually, my mom would say no.  Various reasons, I might get lost, it was too close to dark, there were probably ticks, mosquitoes, bees, poison ivy, cockleburs, mud, lions, tigers and bears (not really).  I was always disappointed, because the forest was, and still is, so alluring to me.

As an adult, I have found myself on those forest trails more often.  Sometimes just to sit on fallen log and BREATHE all the respiration from the myriad green things around me, or to listen and wait for the birds to get used to my presence and show up.

Fast forward to present:  Here I am, in the middle of Forest World.  It's like a shopping mall of forests.  What kind do I want to explore today?  There are old growth forests....few areas of them left after the rampages of logging that took place in UP's history.  There are VERY new growth forests, often regenerating aspen trees or small evergreens.  More often it's a mix of hardwoods and softwoods, deciduous and evergreen, sometimes selectively logged, and therefore allowing light to show far into their depths, or not logged, with a dark wild look. Nearly a million acres of forest to be explored.

Everywhere there is an extreme mix of living and dead, healthy, unhealthy, straight, twisted, falling, fallen, dead, decayed, parasitized or partially consumed. You don't have to go far to see the entire circle of  life. Each stage of a tree's life provides something for some THING, and strangely, there is beauty in every aspect, if you and look and really SEE it.

I took a picture recently and titled it "I like lichen," which I thought was kind of clever.  But it's true, I love lichen, and moss and algae, and everything else I see in a forest. There is even beauty in a tree that has been struck by lightning, broken, twisted by wind, even taken over by pests and diseases. You may not agree.  I'm okay with that. Here are my pictures to help you decide.

Even naked trees are beautiful

after their covering fall to the ground.

Pine trees don't like to give up their clothing.

Trees fall prey to other lifeforms for many different reasons...

to build homes...

or dams.

Sometimes they provide homes for other critters...

or they become a restaurant

where many different courses

are served.

They can provide recreational activities, like this climbing wall for woodpeckers.

Even though I love trees, sometimes I think I love moss more,

When it grows on rocks

or fallen trees

AND, are you fascinated by fungus?

I am!

And this whole algae/lichen thing...

intriguing, don't you think?

See, I think there is a metaphor for humans here...that even in death, there is life.  

I also think about, as I look into the forests, all the things I don't see. We hardly ever see an animal, or bird, yet I know they thrive here. And sometimes, I see something that really ISN'T there.

at first glance, I thought this was a man walking through the woods...Mick Dodge-like. 

Then I saw this.  Do you see her?  Graceful woman of the forest.

I saw a commercial yesterday for a TV show that was talking about it's not to late to rescue the natural world from the terrible influences of humankind.  Then I look at the forest and see that in spite of humans, it continues to flourish and recreate itself...all in this little remote bit of Michigan.  And THAT'S the allure.  There is a wildness, growing, flourishing, untamed, untamable, here.

And I long for it. 

An Affair

I fell in love tonight.

With Aurora

I'd heard about her.

I knew she was beautiful, but so elusive.

I've been looking for her.

And this morning, she found ME.

I woke up at 1:30  and looked out my window.  And there she was.

A few days ago, I really didn't know what the Aurora Borealis looks like to the naked eye.  We all see those beautiful, colorful waves of COLOR in the videos and photos people are able to shoot of Aurora. What I didn't realize is that a human's rods, or cones, I forget which one, don't work very well for color at night. Your camera, if it's a smarter one that MINE, can capture the colors more than your naked eye.

What I saw tonight was this:

When I look to the north, normally, since there are no towns or cities directly north of me, it's usually just a starry sky.  Tonight, it looked like there was a huge city of lights, just hidden over the hill. It started with a huge glow covering the whole of the north. I tried to wake Bob up, but he is less than impressed by the fact that Aurora is not a Neon Princess like they show her on TV.  So I watched her for a while, and then invited Jordan (night owl) to come and watch. I found out he has a slow shutter speed app on his iPhone, and he was able to capture this:

 What was amazing is that I had always heard that you had to get far away from every light source (like the big street light right in front of my neighbor's house, and a second one right across the road) or else you might not see the Aurora.  Surprise.  I could see it with my naked, near-sighted-contacts-in-the-case-for-the-night eyes.  It was bright.  And I was thrilled to see the green show up in Jordan's picture.

After that, I tried to go to bed.  I really did.  But, I kept having to check one more time.

Finally, 3:00 AM, I looked and

Aurora. was. DANCING!

Long ripples from the horizon to the top of the Big Dipper and sometimes higher.  Flashes like lightning.  And pillars of light like hidden spotlights over the hill, shining up into the sky for miles and miles!

Okay.

If you are a Yooper, or a random reader who somehow found your way to this blog from Norway or Reykjavik, you may be stifling a little yawn listening to me go on and on about something you see out your back door every night or so.

But if you haven't seen what I am talking about,

Get in your car.

Point it north.

Drive until you almost hit Lake Superior or so.

I dragged a bleary-eyed, but otherwise perfect husband out of bed to see what I saw.

He tottered right back off to bed, without REALLY seeing what I saw.

And Aurora kept dancing.

So I had no choice.

I got dressed.

Went outside.

Scared a deer, who was also watching Aurora.

And danced with her.

Actually, I stood, shivering, on the back patio, in awe.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In the midst of all the dancing, right in the middle of all the lights, there was a fireball from the Taurid meteor shower that is currently the OTHER thing to be watching in the night sky these days.

It made me laugh. And then I clapped for God.

And the dance continued.

Finally, when she showed no sign of stopping, I came inside and tried to download a program onto my phone that would allow me to capture SOMETHING.  The only one I found so far (my only consultant and resident iPhone expert was sleeping) was able to show me colors, but also lots of NOISE in my shots.

Siggghhhh.

You either get it, because you have seen it, or

Well...

Just drive north, please.

Anyway, 3:49, and Aurora is sleeping.

I should be too.  And I will.  After I think about the dance just a little more.