Lake, Birds and Sunsets: Part Two

The day after we saw the mature eagle and the beautiful sunsets, we once again headed out to fish a little before sunset.

Again, we were treated to some great sights on the lake.

Here is another fisherman, with some pals trailing him, hoping he would catch some fish too!:

We took our boat out around one of the islands again, hoping to see the Eagle again.

We didn't.

But we DID see THIS!:

If you look close, you will see that it is a YOUNGER eagle, just gettng some of his white feathers!

Here are some more shots of him:

Did you see the few white feathers starting to come in on his chest?

The following shot is even funnier. The young eagle is looking back over his shoulder, so you can see the back of his head.

It looks like he has a bald spot doesn't it?
Maybe that is why they call them BALD eagles!!!
You can clearly see the white feathers coming in to replace his now brown head!:




And you can see he has white armpits in this shot!:

By now, he is giving us the "big staredown". He was saying: "Ok, enough pictures of me! I don't like photos of me in "my awkward stage". Come back when I have all my white feathers, will ya'?":

So, on we went.

We fished until sunset.

No bites.

But I was happy to get more Eagle pictures.

To me, THAT was the catch of the night.

Here is one more shot of that orange sunset over the lake from the night before:

And, before we left to go out on the lake,

we had two visitors

at home.





This little guy had been buzzing my lillies all day long:

And then stopped and rested.

Right on my TV digital antenna.

(It was okay by me!)

Because "The Hummingbird Show" is my favorite thing to watch, anyhow!:

So, before I leave you today, I just wanted to give you ONE more shot of that orange sunset.

Because I probably took 100 photos of it.

Who could blame me???

Lake, Birds and Sunsets: Part One

The last two days, we have had gorgeous, warm, balmy 80 degree weather with a soft breeze.

When we get those kind of days in the U.P., most people try to drop everything and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible.

Those of us that live on lakes, get out on our boats, pontoons, wave runners and ride or fish and enjoy the lake as long as we can.

So, that's exactly what we did.

We grabbed our fishing poles, suntan lotion and soda pop and off we went.

It was as beautiful of a day as we hoped it would be.

Come on the day trip with us, won't you?:

Here is a view of our Lake Michigamme from the boat:

We spotted geese and ducks all over the lake. They must have been enjoying the day as much as we were!:

A shot of the many islands on our lake. We have 97 miles of shoreline to cruise, so every where you ride, you get wonderful panoramic views like this one:




We rode in for dinner and then got out again to catch the sunset.
We weren't disappointed:

It was turning the water orange!:

Wow! This looks like Africa, not Michigan!:

Suddenly, I had the urge to drink orange soda pop:

Wait!

I forgot to tell you the most exciting part of the day!!

When the sun was just starting to set, we were on the far side of one of the bigger islands, so as we turned the boat around to head toward home....

Here

is

what

we saw.....



"Is it???...", I asked my husband.

"I think so...." he answered

It WAS.

It was a huge EAGLE flying close to us!!:

He landed on a tall tree on the big island.

Of course I made my husband drive the boat real close to the tree and strained my telescopic feature of my camera to the limit to get this shot of him:

Isn't he glorious?

I also got one more shot of him, but it was getting darker by the minute:

That's when the orange sunset happened (as in the photos above).

What a day!!!

Sunshine, fresh air, ducks, fishing (we caught a bunch of rock bass), an eagle sighting

and

the wonderful sunset!!

Here is the last of the sun setting on the horizon:

I am blessed.

Useless Facts and Trivia: Volume 12

Yes! It's time again for some Useless Facts and Trivia, along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics. Enjoy!

1. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
Oh, God. Please don't tell me they shaved one to find this out. Because a naked tiger would just be ugly.



2. In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10. Now I have been checking watch ads. This is true over 50% of the time. Now I KNOW you will be checking all the ads you see....you just won't be able to help yourself.

3. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
I think I have met a few furniture dealers that could pass for Al Capone. At least in the fact that they rip you off!

4. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

Awww..that is just plain cute. Wonder who the Cookie Monster is named after then?

5. A mayfly has a life span of 24 hours. I wonder how they check this? Do they put little bands on their wings when they hatch and then when they croak a timer goes off? Poor things...only 24 hours to live. Now THAT makes you think more on how you spent your day TODAY, doesn't it?

6. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. Very similar to husbands and children.

7. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. I know you are going to take one out and count them, now aren't you? AREN'T you? Gheesh, the people that write these things need to find a life. You thought YOUR job was hard. How would you like to be an edge of coin ridge counter?

8. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. How could you look in the mirror to check? I mean, even if your eyes WERE open, they would be all watery and get all gooey with the sneeze. Yuck. It also begs the question....if you sneeze and are driving, then you are closing your eyes then, right?

9. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. Again, how do they know this? Have they measured every elephant's eyes? Or all of the eyes of all of the creatures on earth???? I mean, look at this squid's picture. Maybe it isn't a giant squid...but I can't even SEE his eyes, can you? (Well, maybe he is sneezing and they are closed?)

10. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. That researcher also invented microwave popcorn. Yikes. If I remember right, a man's pants pockets are awful close to the family jewels. So what did the microwaves do to THOSE? I hope they didn't pop like popcorn.

That's all for this installment of Useless Facts and Trivia. I like to keep you informed. Just in case it gets boring at work around the water cooler......

More of Presque Isle...

A few weeks ago, I posted about a lovely peninsula jutting out into Lake Superior from the city of Marquette, Michigan where the forefathers were wise enough to preserve a park there.

We can't go the summer without visiting the beautiful site at least a few times and again in the autumn when the leaves change colors.

This week, we went out to Presque Isle and visited a little area called The Cove where there are alot of rock cliffs and islands to see.

Enjoy the tour!:

Here is the lighthouse and another ore boat approaching the area:

A close up of the ore boat coming into the ore docks:

Here are some of the rock cliffs at The Cove area:

You know me, I can't resist taking photos of crashing waves on the rocks!:

Some more of the rock formations left behind after the glaciers in the area formed Lake Superior shoreline:

This red Coast Guard Station is one of the most photographed and painted landmarks in Marquette:

I think this seagull had one of the best views of the lake. What about you?:

A view of the many islands you can see from Presque Isle, looking out at Lake Superior:

AHHH...more crashing waves!:

We went on another trip further down the coast of Lake Superior toward the town of Houghton, Michigan. I hope to post those pictures for you soon.

Local Police Report Time Again...

Yes, I am overdue in giving you my regular post of local news reports. I have quite the collection of them all the way from last year, since I started reading them and finding them so funny. This one is over a year old already. How time flies when we are having fun.

Once again, MY COMMENTS are in bold italics below:




1. Drunken men throwing apples:
Well, this would not be a problem if the goal is to make applesauce. And, it is cheaper than paint shooting at others. If you get hit, you just eat the applesauce and juice from your wounds.
How did they know they were drunk? Maybe it was an anger management therapy group? Maybe it was an innovative baseball training practice?

2. Possible dog bite:
Now this one intrigues me. How would they NOT know what animal bit them? Maybe it was a drunken apple thrower that got bit and he just can't recall what bit him?

3. Juveniles spraying water at an outbuilding:
That may not be a bad thing. If the outbuilding was an outhouse, it would actually be a community service, now wouldn't it? Or, if the building needed painting, they may have been pressure washing the building.

4. Kids diving off crane:
Now THIS would concern me if they didn't have bungee cords. Come to think of it, if they didn't have bungee cords, they could only do it ONCE, right? If they DID have bungee cords, it was pretty inventive and cheap entertainment. At least the little buggers weren't spraying outbuildings or throwing apples, right?

That's the local police report for this week! Evidently, it was another slow news day in the U.P. for crime (Thank goodness) and a good day for a chuckle...

Another This and That...

Time again to post some photos for you that I have taken over the last week or so out in the woods or on our lake.

I am amazed that I am still finding beautiful wildflowers out there during late summer, but we still are.

So here is this week's collection of "this and that" for your enjoyment.


First, a bright pink wild rose.

This was blooming along Lake Superior on the shoreline.

They smelled as good as they look:

This gorgeous moon was out over our back yard one night!:

These purple spiked flowers were water flowers growing out of a pond:

This is a water fountain on a little inland lake in a small town near where we live:




Another wildflower we saw blooming beside Lake Superior:

This is a sunset over our Lake Michigamme:

I have never seen this spikey wildflower before. We saw it growing beside Lake Superior also:

This bird was some distance from our lake when we were out on our boat fishing.

Only when I got it on my computer did I note that it was a Cedar Waxwing. His color is different because he was opposite the sunset on our lake:

I loved the clouds behind this sunset over our lake!:

These little yellow wildflowers looked like buttons to me:

These old fashioned roses are growing in my yard:

I hope you enjoyed this week's "this and that" collection of photos!

Two of my Favorite Birds!!

If you have read my blog for a while, you know that my FAVORITE birds to see in the wild are sandhill cranes, swans, blue herons and pileated woodpeckers. I have hoped to catch more photos of them all this summer and have been hunting for them to get photos of them to no avail.

So, knowing one secret spot where we once spotted swans a month ago, we went out looking for them again in the same area, hoping I could catch some pictures. Last time, it was raining when we got photos of the swans, so I was hoping for a clearer day to shoot pictures of them. My husband said it was a miracle to have found them the first time, because in all the years he has hunted in the woods, he has never seen swans in the wild other than the time this summer that we happened across them.

But you know ME. I just had to go and look for them again. Because maybe. Just maybe.

Wouldn't you know.....as soon as we got near where we saw them the time that I got to take some photos of them in June, it started to POUR. And then the background got all misty and foggy. So much for clear pictures of anything, I thought!

But we forged ahead anyway.

Right before we got to the pond where the swans were last time, we rounded a corner and out in a field were THESE!!!!!:

Two BEAUTIFUL sandhill cranes. Aren't they gorgeous?:

But they hardly noticed me. They seemed intensely focused on looking for something. They began calling out high pitched sounds and looking about.

I thought maybe they had babies in the field, but we waited a long time and never saw any babies.

Here they are looking and looking about, as if they were searching for something:

The one on the right is calling a sharp, piercing sound and looking about:

It began to pour rain, and I was worried that if the sandhill cranes were searching for their babies that we would interrupt that and endanger the babies...so we rode on, soooooo happy that I was able to see these magnificent birds.

Then, we arrived at the pond where we saw swans in June.

Again, it began to POUR.

We searched and searched the pond to see if we saw swans.

Nothing.

I told my husband that at least we tried.....

and

after all, if we hadn't ventured out to try and see swans again, we would have never seen and been able to photograph the lovely sandhill cranes.

But, as we were pulling out to go, my husband put on the brakes of the truck.

He said he thought he saw white in a grassy area waaayyyyy back in the pond!!!

We got back outside and waited.

In. The. Rain.

It was cold.

It was wet.

But, it was worth it................

Because in a little while, out they swam!

A mama swan and her baby!!:

And then???

The daddy swan and ANOTHER baby!!:





Don't they make an adorable family?:

By now, I was soaked to the bone.

But, it was worth it.

Because who could see anything more beautiful

than

THIS????:

I was so happy!

To see TWO of my favorite rare birds out in the wild on the same day!!??=priceless.

Life is good!!!