Lake Michigan clouds, photo by karstenphoto
Gotta love film.
View Steven’s photo background big, in his Lake slideshow and see more of his work on Michigan in Pictures.
Red Barn with Trees
Red Barn with Trees, photo by marylea
Some days, it’s just the photo. Here’s hoping you see some beauty in your travels this.
View this bigger and see more in Marylea’s Rural Michigan slideshow.
More barns on Michigan in Pictures.
Last sunset in May…
Last sunset in May – 10, photo by sjb4photos
May 2013 was a horrifying month for weather out in Oklahoma as tornados slammed Moore and then hit Oklahoma City last night. While Michigan has seen nothing to compare with what the folks in the plains have seen, 6 tornadoes touched down yesterday around the state.
I thought this photo might be a great one to put a hopeful period on a destructive May. As for a hopeful exclamation point, check out last night’s northern lights captured by photographer Ken Scott! Bring on sun, summer and starry nights!!
Steve took this shot by Skyline High School in Ann Arbor on May 31st, 2011. Check it out big as the sky and see the whole series in his Michigan sunsets and evenings slideshow.
Michigan in Pictures has more sunsets for you to check out.
These are a few of my favorite things
May 30, 2013, photo by rickrjw
As you can see from Rick’s photo taken yesterday, 2013 has blessed Northern Michigan with a strong morel season that is still going strong while lilacs are out! Doesn’t get much better than this!
Check this out on black and see more in Rick’s giant Boyne City, Michigan slideshow.
Of course there are morels & lilacs aplenty on Michigan in Pictures!
American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)
Woodcock, photo by lomeranger
This weekend while morel hunting I stumbled upon a woodcock. Yesterday while riding my bike home from work, I stumbled upon my friend Jason. On a whim, I checked his photos and found this picture. All About Birds entry for American Woodcock Scolopax minor says that this superbly camouflaged bird is difficult to discover on the forest floor where it probes for earthworms. Some facts:
- The flexible tip of the American Woodcock’s bill is specialized for catching earthworms. The bird probably feels worms as it probes in the ground. A woodcock may rock its body back and forth without moving its head as it slowly walks around, stepping heavily with its front foot. This action may make worms move around in the soil, increasing their detectablity.
- The American Woodcock is one of the few shorebirds that is regularly hunted for sport.
- The male American Woodcock has an elaborate display to attract females. He gives repeated “peents” on the ground, often on remaining patches of snow in the early spring. After a time he flies upward in a wide spiral. As he gets higher, his wings start to twitter. After reaching a height of 70-100 m (230-328 ft) the twittering becomes intermittent, and the bird starts chirping as he starts to descend. He comes down in a zig-zag, diving fashion, chirping as he goes. As he comes near the ground he silently lands, near a female if she is present. Then he starts peenting again.
- The male American Woodcock gives no parental care, but continues to display long after most females have laid eggs. Some males display at several, widely separated singing grounds and will mate with several females. A female may visit four or more singing grounds before nesting, and she may keep visiting even when she is caring for her young.
- Unlike many birds that leave their nests at hatching, newly hatched woodcocks cannot feed themselves. They are dependent on the mother for food for the first week. The chicks start to probe in dirt at three or four days after hatching.
See Jason’s photo bigger and view more in his Beaver Island slideshow.
Many (many) more Michigan birds on Michigan in Pictures!
Waterfall Wednesday: Sturgeon Falls in Ottawa National Forest
Sturgeon Falls, photo by Wenström
I can’t get enough of the great shots of snowmelt-fueled U.P. rivers. Go Waterfalling’s page on Sturgeon Falls says:
Sturgeon Falls is located in the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness in Ottawa National Forest. The Sturgeon River has carved out a deep, forested gorge, that is 300 feet deep in some places. The falls are located deep in the gorge. The drop is only 30 feet, but the river is very powerful. Above the falls the river is well over 100 feet wide. It then narrows into a chute only about 30 feet wide before shooting over the falls, spraying mist in all directions.
Read on for directions. The Sturgeon River is a Michigan Wild & Scenic river as well!
Check Sven’s photo out on black and see more in his UP Michigan Waterfalls slideshow.
Many more Michigan waterfalls on Michigan in Pictures!
Great Blue Heron Rookeries
Great Blue Herons adding sticks to their nest, photo by ellenm1
The Michigan Natural Features Inventory entry for Great Blue Heron Rookeries explains:
The great blue herons in Michigan are largely migratory, with almost all leaving the state during the winter months. Most leave by end of October and return in early to mid-March.
The great blue heron is mostly a colonial nester, occasionally they nest in single pairs. Colonies are typically found in lowland swamps, islands, upland hardwoods and forests adjacent to lakes, ponds and rivers. Nests are usually in trees and may be as high as 98 ft. (30 m) or more from the ground. The platform like nests are constructed out of medium-sized sticks and materials may be added throughout the nesting cycle. Nests are usually lined with finer twigs, leaves, grass, pine needles, moss, reeds, or dry gras. The same nests are refurbished and used year after year. Nest size varies; newer nests may be 1.5 ft. (0.5 m) in diameter with older nests reaching up to 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter (Andrle 1988). Nests can also be used by Canada geese (Branta canadensis), house sparrows (Passer domesticus), and great-horned owls (Bubo virginianus)…
Most great blue herons return to southern Michigan heronries in mid-March although a few may remain through the winter if there are areas of open water. Courtship and nest building commences from early April in southern Michigan to early May in the extreme northern portions of the state. Both sexes are involved in the nest building process with males primarily gathering sticks from the ground, nearby trees, or ungarded nearby nests. Males pass sticks to females who then place them on the nests. Between 3 and 7 (usually 4) greenish blue eggs are laid in April and May in Michigan. Both sexes take a turn at incubation with females incubating mostly at night and males during the day. The incubation period lasts from 25-29 days. In Michigan hatching occurs in the first week of May in the south while parents are still incubating nests in the far northern part of the state. For the first 3-4 weeks post hatching, one parent remains on the nest with the young.
Check this photo out big as the sky and see more in Ellen’s Kensington Metropark slideshow.
More herons & birds on Michigan in Pictures, and also check out this photo of a Heronry on Absolute Michigan.
Memorial Day & Michigan
While the Memorial Day page at the Center for Civil War Research Center lists roles that people from many states had in creating Memorial Day, there’s no doubt that Michiganders had some part in it:
“On the sixteenth of April, 1862, some ladies and a chaplain from Michigan were chatting together at Arlington Heights. They were talking about the horrors of the war and one lady said: ‘How lonely and cheerless the bare graves of the soldiers look.’ Another proposed gathering some flowers and laying them on the graves of the Michigan soldiers that day. They did so, — and the next year they decorated the same graves. The third year [1864] the same chaplain and ladies were in Fredericksburg, and they decorated the soldiers’ graves there. So the beautiful custom grew and spread its influence with its flowers each year.”
What’s more, as detailed on Michigan in Pictures last year, Michigan was the first state to make Decoration Day a state holiday. Here’s hoping that you have a chance to remember and reflect upon those who have given their lives for our nation, and also that few more are called to do the same.
View Linda’s photo at Flickr and see more in her Great Great Grandfather slideshow.
More Memorial Day on Michigan in Pictures.
The Deadliest Game: Fort Michilimackinac Massacre of 1763
British Troops at Fort Michilimackinac, photo by Robert F Carter
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the most dramatic event at Fort Michilimackinac. On June 2, 1763 the fort was captured by Ojibwa & Sauk warriors, who gathered under the guise of playing a huge game of baggatiway. Elizabeth Edwards of Traverse Magazine has an in-depth article about the massacre that begins:
Under an unusually hot sun on a late spring day on the Straits of Mackinac, British Major George Etherington, commandant of Fort Michilimackinac, was suffering from an acute case of cultural blindness. And there was no excuse for it. Relaxed at the sidelines of a rousing game of baggatiway (similar to lacrosse) outside the fort, the major should have seen the danger signs in this Ojibwe versus Sauk contest of sweaty, half-naked bodies painted with white clay and charcoal.
The 30-year-old officer was born in the colonies, and most likely grew up on stories of Indian uprisings. He’d even served in the just-ending French and Indian War, in which the English had wrested control of North America from the French—a victory that had put this previously French fort in Etherington’s care. Though the major had been raised on American soil and had fought on it, he was still English. And in that country, a battle was a battle, and a sporting event was a sporting event.
Perhaps that explains why the major missed the clues…
Definitely read on for much more at Traverse! Every Memorial Weekend on Saturday, Sunday & Monday, they re-enact this event and much more of the fort’s history in the annual Fort Michilimackinac Pageant. Next Sunday (June 2) they will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the attack at Michilimackinac at the fort as they open the new South Southwest Rowhouse.
Robert has some more good information about the events at the fort including a link to the painting The Conspiracy – Fort Michilimackinac by Robert Griffing that imagines the planning of the massacre. See his photo background bigtacular and see more in his My Neighborhood slideshow.
More from the Straits of Mackinac & Mackinac Island on Michigan in Pictures.
Know your Michigan turtles
I’m Posing for the Camera, photo by capcbd
It appears the turtle above is aware that Michigan’s state reptile is the painted turtle.
I thought it perfect for my day-late post celebrating World Turtle Day (May 23), an annual day of recognition that was started in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue. They offer some tips to help preserve endangered turtles worldwide including not buying turtles or tortoises from pet shop (it increases demand from the wild), not removing turtles from the wild unless they are injured, and something that we can all do when we’re on the roads: if a turtle is crossing a busy street, pick it up and send it in the same direction it was going – if you try to make it go back, it will turn right around again!
It might surprise you to learn that Michigan is home to 10 native turtle species. Learn about all of them on Michigan in Pictures:
- Know Your Michigan Turtles: Blanding’s Turtle
- Spend World Turtle Day with Common Map Turtles
- Michigan’s Common Musk Turtle
- Michigan’s Common Snapping Turtle
- Know Your Michigan Turtles: Eastern Box Turtle
- The Painted Turtle in Michigan (there are two subspecies: the Western and Midland Painted Turtle)
- Happy World Turtle Day from the Red-eared Slider
- Know Your Michigan Turtles: Spiny Soft Shell Turtle
- Know your Michigan Turtles: Spotted Turtle
- The Wood Turtle in Michigan
If you’re trying to identify a turtle you’ve found, Check out Nick Scobel’s Herping Michigan Blog and James Harding “The Critter Guy” at the MSU museum has a great Michigan turtle identification guide and loads of turtle lore.
Speaking of Turtle Lore, I always like to shout out a book I read as a kid that did more to foster my love of Michigan than any other: Lore of the Great Turtle. It was filled with Indian tales of Mackinac Island , and one of these was the formation of the island. While this version adapted by Basil Johnston is not quite the same, I think you’ll enjoy it!
Check this photo out background bigtacular and see more in capcbd’s water slideshow.
Also check out more turtles on Michigan in Pictures and definitely have a look at the turtle slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr!
PS: This is one of the most popular posts on Michigan in Pictures. Hooray for turtles!
Michigan in Pictures 