This and That: U.P. Spring pictures continue!

I am behind in posting pictures that I took weeks ago

when spring arrived

in the glorious U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan.

So, between still showing you some of the April/May Florida photos

I will still post some photos

of the spring ones I took at home here in the U.P.

Enjoy!

Primrose from my garden:

A yellow finch sitting in the sun, with a little bit of a sassy attitude!:

A rose-breasted grosbeak.

We had four, but they only visited us for about three weeks.

We haven't seen them at all since the beginning of May:

One of my favorite birds! A Flicker!:

We visited some of our favorite rivers this spring...but I loved the foamy swirls

in the water, so I did a black and white of the foam:

Budding trees...I always love when they break out in buds and fresh leaves!:

A duck taking off from the water:

A hooded merganser and mate taking off from the water:

I love spring and the beginning of summer for the flowers blooming, trees coming out with bright green leaves and all the animals we see.

I will be posting more again soon!

More Mergansers!

As you can tell from previous posts of mine, I love birds, especially the water birds and ducks.

One of my favorite birds are the merganser ducks. I think it is their rusty feathered heads that stick out in spikes and their coloring. They look exotic to me.

We have been lucky enough to see them three or four times this summer.

Here are some shots I recently took of them on our autumn trips out on our own lake:

It looks like the one of the left is bending over to poke at the other one, saying: "Look up buddy, she's here taking photos of us again!:

This pair hadn't noticed me yet:

The two on the left are saying: "Why does he always have to swim ahead of us? What does he think it IS!....the Olympics?":

"There he goes again!":

I think the one in the middle of the rock is yawning:

Something has their attention, making them look to the left and they didn't even notice me:

Just LOOK at their heads' rusty feathers! I LOVE that about them!:

Five mergansers, just hanging out:

I love this couple. The head on the one on the right has that perfect plummage again! What a handsome couple!:

Our leaves are slowly changing...I hope to get out this week some to capture some woods shots for you all. I also went on a longgggg hike this weekend and got some photos of a remote section of Lake Superior shoreline, which I will be posting soon.

Have a great day!!! If you get the chance, get outside today and enjoy our beautiful autumn season yourself. Take time to smell the leaves.....I love the smell of fall.

Meandering Merganser...

On Sunday, we decided to go out for a ride in the woods again to see what photos I could capture.

My husband said he wanted to take me to see a small lake that he used to go fishing in when he was younger, called Arflin Lake which wasn't too far from where we live.

The road out to the lake was awful! It was actually blacktopped but the frost heaves had made the road extremely bumpy.

I admit, I complained about it. A. Lot.

Then I sorta whined about not seeing one, single live animal or bird to take photos of.

A. Lot.

I begged him to go off onto a non-blacktop road with the chances of seeing more wildlife.

He wouldn't, saying...."Just be patient, we are almost there!".

Can you tell he is the patient one in this couple?

He was right. It was right around the corner.

So we pulled into the parking lot where the public access site was to launch boats. It was kind of a steep hill.

I looked down and was dissapointed. Dang, there were already people there! So much for pictures!

But it was a pretty little lake...

Here is the view coming down to see the lake. See the little couple sitting in their lawn chairs overlooking the lake? They had fishing poles in the water.:

THEY were probably thinking...dang, there's people here!

We said hello, and looked at the little lake.

It was really picturesque.

Just lovely:

The man said that the deepest fishing hole was right by that big rock:

We got to chatting and found out he was retired, and she was going to work another year and retire then too. We were all grandparents. They had property in Florida where we like to visit. We found all kinds of things in common.

They were delightful!

He asked me about my camera and I told them all about my love for nature photography and how I was dissappointed today about not seeing anything to photograph.

Oh, and I did happen to mention my blog...

No sooner had we talked and I saw a duck to my left in the grass!

He was beautiful!

So, up goes the camera and I start clicking away!

A Merganser Duck:

Diving for his dinner!:

Just LOOK at his handsome head feathers, even when wet!:

He kept swimming close to us, as if posing for pictures!:

And of course: fishing for a meal!:

And I kept saying how HANDSOME he was!:

Man, he was HUNGRY!:

His feathers were marvelous!:

Finally!!!

Success!

He caught a minnow!:






Followed by a sip of water.

Whoops, fella..

you forgot to wipe your mouth!:

Of course. I was happy!

And then, all the way home, I had to listen to my husband teasing me about whining about not seeing anything.

Ok Honey, it was worth the ribbing.

Oh, and one more thing.

We saw the BEST after we saw this Merganser.

But THAT will be in another blogpost.

Let's just call this a cliffhanger, shall we?