Sunday was bright and sunny...but boy was the wind blowin' cold! Brrrr. Still, it was too nice to stay indoors, so I hooked Toby up to his skijoring harness and we headed down the road to the Sharonville State Game Area.
Michigan has these game areas around the state (several in my neck of the woods). They are set up primarily for hunters, so for a naturalist they aren't necessarily great places, primarily because they are not managed for natural features. In other words, there are LOTS of invasive species.
It also explains why there are so many deer.
The landscape was really quite barren. With all the brush and tangles (mostly honeysuckle), one would expect to see a lot of nests and hear a lot of birds. Nada. The only thing that was interesting for the longest time was this bit of snow stuck to the stem of a leaf.
Some enterprising soul built a three-walled fort. Dollars to donuts it's a deer blind.
Now if you are like me and have a thing for trees with fabulous shapes, then Michigan is the place to be. This is the land of the oak tree and in the fall, winter and early spring, the bare branches and contorted forms are incredible to see.
Being a state game area, this chunk of land is not laid out with a trail system per se. There are lots of herd paths, although I couldn't tell you if they were formed by the hunters or the hunted. Some of these have been in use for so long that they have eroded some serious ruts in the ground.
After walking along what I would've sworn was at one time a road, we found ourselves back on a herd path that finally branched in three different directions. The winding path that headed down this slope seemed the most intriguing - it went to the lake/pond.
In the summer I hear cranes calling from this direction most evenings. There are two small lakes (or large ponds) here. This one, I discovered is posted. Must be one of the neighbors owns it. That little dark spot just left of center is a muskrat lodge. Since it was posted, I didn't go down to explore further (darn!).
Why is it that hunters don't take their spent cartridges with them? I could understand if they couldn't find them, but the bright red and yellow shells do stick out on the brown landscape.
Toby and I ended up spending about an hour and half wandering around. He got lots of sniffing in - probably deer, rabbits and the markings of other dogs (wild or domestic). The time we get to spend out in the fields and forests here is so limited: late spring into fall is tick seas
Monday was completely unscripted. I had to make a trip to Saline, and on the way back home I stopped at the shooting range just up the road from the house. Do they do archery, or is it only firearms? Turns out, not only do they have a dinky little archery spot, but they are in the process of building a full-fledged archery range a distance from the firing range. Huzzah!
So, I have my loaner bow and loaner arrows...all I needed was a bow stringer and ear protection (archery may be silent, but the firing range is RIGHT THERE and it is best to be safe than sorry). Where to go? Cabelas, down in Dundee.
I turned the car around and headed to Manchester. Lots of road work going on there - Route 52 has been under construction for about a year now. I didn't want to deal with all that, so I decided to hit the back roads.
Now, I didn't really end up lost...I just wasn't completely sure where I was.
I discovered some really, truly lovely land, though. Noggles Road - you've gotta love the name! It is a dirt road, and seems to go on forever. Both sides were lined with lovely autumnal woodland. There were even some little pocket wetlands along the way.
The camera was lurking in the back of the car. I should've taken it out sooner, for I came around the bend at one point to find a half-dozen full-grown turkeys, beards and all, in the road.
Mostly the drive was wooded, but a few fields zipped by (well, "zipped" is what it looks like in the blurry photo, but in truth I was rarely above 20 mph - bumpy dirt roads do not lend themselves well to speed).
The highlight, after the turkeys, was this hawk coming in for a landing.
I sort of pulled over to take some shots, but of course suddenly it was Grand Central Station! I moved the car further off to the side to avoid getting grazed along the side. The final vehicle to pass was a large, noisy truck, and the bird flew off. Still, I got enough shots to say I think this is a juvenile red-tailed hawk. The dark belly band is the biggest clue. The tail was banded, not a solid russet like we expect on an adult red-tail, which made me think it might be a Cooper's or sharpie, the bird was just too big for either of those. Looking through the field guide later, I confirmed what I suspected: juveniles have banded tails.
I eventually found my way out of the woods and onto a highway. But I had such a good time driving Noggles Road that I was sorely tempted to do it again on the way home from Cabela's. In the end, I stuck to 52 and got caught up in all the constructions...should've followed my whim and headed back into the woods.
I'll be returning to Noggles Road another day - it warrants visits in all seasons.
What a beautiful day we had on Sunday - another in a serious of glorious days. Possible rain was in the forecast, but it never materialized, which was terrific because I had a paddle planned with GREAT, the Grand River Environmental Action Team. Every month from April through October they sponsor a paddle on one of the waterways in south central Michigan. Sunday's trip was to Kent Lake, a man-made lake north of Ann Arbor, where the Huron River was dammed. The lake is located in a very popular county park: Kensington Park. And the big draw...well, you'll see it in a moment.
Over 20 boats set out from the boat launch - canoes and kayaks both. Other water vessels on the lake included sailboats, motor boats, pontoon boats and paddle boards, but the lake is big enough (1200 ac) that we were not crowded.
Are those vultures in the tree?
Nope - they are cormorants. Apparently this is their place - every year these birds hang out on this tiny island, perched in this dead tree and on other branches around the back side of the island. They were fairly oblivious to our group, eying us on occasion, but mostly getting on with their preening and sunbathing.
In the far distance you can see our destination: that low band of light green.
Not the swan...
but the lotuses! American lotus - a rare plant in Michigan, it is much more common further south. This patch appeared suddenly in this lake about seven or eight years ago. No one knows for sure how the first plants arrived, but it could've been via people or wildlife, people, of course, being the most likely route.
Just how big are the flowers? Take a look below!
The large leaves stand upwards of two feet above the water, and the colony is quite dense.
The lotus was once an important food plant to the native peoples, who ate both the seeds and the roots.
You might recognize the center of the flower, and the dried pod below, from dried flower arrangements.
I shook out some seeds and will chuck 'em in the pod at work to see if they will grow.
I managed to paddle through the pads and get up close to many of the flowers. They are just spectacular.
One of the really amazing things about the lotus is the leaves. The surface of the leaf has microscopic structures that work to repel water. It is so efficient at this that scientists are studying these structures to see how they can be copied for creating clothing that repels water. I tried to shoot some video of the water rolling around on the leaf - not easy to do in a boat, holding the camera in one hand and manipulating the water on the leaf with the other, without tipping over. It looks like mercury! Remember those days when we were kids and someone would get a hold of a dollop of mercury and you'd watch it roll around on your hand or desk? Water on a lotus leaf is much safer.
By the time I finished photographing the lotuses, the rest of the group had paddled on. So, I took my time to tour the various coves around the islands. I saw a number of turtles out sunning on the logs. Most were map turtles - a new turtle species in the wild for me.
Typical of most turtles, they didn't hang around very long once they were aware of the approaching boat.
Three turtles and a duck. Can you see all three turtles? I only saw the big map turtle when I took the photo. It promptly dove into the water, and then I saw the soft shelled turtle on the back end of the log. The third turtle, which is in the middle and has its tail facing the camera - I didn't even see until I looked at the photos later that evening.
And this poor little green heron (or green backed heron, depending on your field guide)! I saw him first in the shadows of one island and followed him for 15 or more minutes, drifting ever closer to get a photo. He finally flew across the shallow water to another log, this time in the sunshine. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see he's caught a damselfly.
And here he is swallowing it. Gulp!
Shortly thereafter he turned his back and walked down the submerged log - just to get away from me. I let him go.
All too soon it was time to head back. The folks from GREAT had loaded most of the borrower boats back on the trailers and were ready to go. We bid them all farewell and thanked them for the opportunity to come out to Kent Lake and see the lotuses in bloom.
There were lots of buds on the plants, so if you'd like to go out and see them for yourself, there is plenty of time to do so. It's well worth the trip to see these glorious flowers.
