Spring Trip to the U.P. Woods!--Part Two

Now I am a happy woman....

the Spring runoff of melting snow is long past,

which means we can go out on the two rut roads 

in the U.P.

and look for critters and Spring/early summer scenery.

Part of the thrill for me is never knowing what we will find

around the next corner.

I LOVE seeing Partridge, but they are very shy birds and hard to capture on camera! So when we saw this one on the edge of the road, I had to scramble (quietly!) out of the car to get a shot of him:

(Have you EVER had to scramble out of a car quietly??...it's an ART, I tell 'ya!!)

Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? Is it a tern? I have never seen one of these in our woods before:

Look at the SIZE of these prehistoric-looking rocks!!  If I ever had any doubt that a glacier came down and formed our land, well....this is PROOF!!:

We sure have seen the Mallards this Spring!:

In May, these were the first wildflowers on the wood's floor that we spied...Trout Lilies!:

Their bright, sunny yellow after all the dull winter browns are a delight to see...they came out here WAY before the trees got their leaves:

I spotted our first Spring turtle too!:

And then another turtle! (Can you see him on that rock...wayyyyy out on the beaver pond?)

More ducks!:

Geese:

And it must be time to fish...here is the first water-skipper I saw of the season! He is floating on water in this shot...the sunlight is lighting up where each of his legs are balancing on the water:

More pictures are coming your way of our continued wilderness adventures...

hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy taking them.

Wait.

That would be IMPOSSIBLE !!

Spring Trip to the U.P. Woods!--Part One

I couldn't wait for our northern wilderness roads to dry up from the winter meltdown

so that we could go out for our first Spring ride to see what wildlife we could see.

So, in May, when the roads looked passable...

off we went to explore.

A new beaver hut on one of our favorite ponds out in the middle of nowhere:

It MUST be Spring....the chipmunks were out!:

On the way to Craig Lake, there is a place in the rock bluffs that have waterfalls every spring 

from the snow melting. There are not falls there after the Spring is over.

We came around a corner and saw this Mallard behind a tree. He hadn't seen me yet, so I quietly got out of the car and captured some shots of him:

I just love the old beaver ponds out in the middle of the woods because  you never know what kind of wildlife you will see, and their wild grasses and dead logs make them very picturesque. This time, we spied two pairs of ducks..I am not sure what kind of ducks these were:

One more shot of the waterfalls:

We saw one lone goose...I think she had a nest across the pond, so we didn't stay too long to take her photo:

More mallards!:

We also thought the Mallards were guarding a nest, too:

There was a Mallard pair at another stream area that day too:

We spent all day touring roads we had missed going on all winter....

one of our Spring rituals here that I wait for every year.

The only trouble is, if I had MY way, I would be going and doing that EVERY day now that Spring/Summer is here

and we wouldn't get much else done. 

So, I compromise with myself now to try and limit our adventures to once or twice a week instead.

An addiction like this is hard to deal with.

Is there such a thing as "Wilderness Seekers Anonymous"????

(if you know of any such support group, send me the info, STAT!)

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Speaking of addictions...I hope you are addicted to my

FREE PHOTO CONTESTS!!

This month's theme is:

CIRCLES

So, get busy and look for a photo out there that fits the theme...

and send it to me no later than midnight, by June 30th.

You don't have to be a Blogger to enter,

but you DO

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