Last weekend

Well Hello everyone,

Last weekend we were at the cabin together, a rarity. It was our 16Th wedding anniversary. I got there on Friday evening. Denise was already up. She had gone to the morel mushroom festival with her Mom, Uncle and Aunt. No luck looking for mushrooms.

Saturday morning we went to the Kirkland's Warbler Festival. A little history on the Kirkland's Warbler. It is very rare birds who only nest in Jack Pine trees in the a very small area of the northern lower peninsula. The birds have become endangered due to loss of habitat and the Brown headed Cowbird. The cowbird is invasive birds that lays it eggs in the nest of other birds and then those birds than end up raising the cowbirds and there own chicks end up not making because the cowbird chick out competes the other chicks. For more information go to this website,http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12202-32591--,00.html

A pic of a Kirkland's Warbler

A pic of the Brown headed Cowbird

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, U.S. Forest Service and the Michigan DNR work together to create habitat for the Kirkland's. They set up traps, catch the cowbirds and than they are euthanized.

Pic of the Cowbird trap used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

We took a field trip out to the Kirkland's nesting area. You could hear the birds singing but they are hard to see. When they do the bird count they count the numbers of Kirkland's heard singing. This is made easier with the fact that the female Kirkland's do not sing

A pic of a Kirkland's Warbler roosting in a tree. (so they told me anyway)

After arriving back at the festival site we took some classes on Michigan Mammals, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Sharp tailed Grouse and Bats. All the classes were informative. During the lunch break they had a silent auction. Denise bid on a wood duck house. So while she was getting our food I hovered near the wood duck house to make sure we ended up with the highest bid, which we did. We won it for 25$. We are going to put it on a little outcrop area on our property.

We attempted meet up with Shelly and her husband but were unable to because I had no cell service in this area. In fact we had to put minutes on Denise's On Star account so we could try to get a hold of Shelley. Sorry Shelley, I am looking forward to meeting you and the Hubby.

So after the festival we went out for our anniversary dinner. The restaurant was in a bed and breakfast and oh my goodness was the food out of this world. Denise had a Kobe prime rib and I had New York Steak. This absolutely the best meal I have had in years. Than it was back to the cabin to wind down. All in all a very good day.

Red-headed Woodpecker's Home Again

I have to wait all winter for my Red-headed Woodpecker's to come home. They are finally back and have been making whoopie, all day, everyday....



Here is Daddy. Yes, you won't believe it, but I know which is which (He has an odd black stripe on his back). This virile young man is approx. 2 years old. He came from a brood of 2. He was a NOISY juvie. He would cry mercilously to get to my bird bath. It was really funny. As an adult, he's just as noisy, but is a better flyer. He is the noisiest RHWO on the lake.


He's home and I'm thrilled to pieces!

Going to the cabin

Well I am going to the cabin on Friday after work. Denise is already there and she has to come home on Saturday. I have a short son in law list to take care of for my wonderful Mother in law ( yes I have t say that she reads the blog).

Anyway Denise is excited because the tree swallows have nested in the one of our nest boxes. This will be the 3rd year in a row they have used this box. Her redheaded woodpeckers are also back and she is hoping they nest in the one snag on the property. We'll see.

Had an unusual thing happen at work today. We noticed a pigeon standing on the hood of one of our ambulances and next to her was an egg. We felt bad but we had to shoe her away. Our marketing manager took the egg home and she is going to try to put it under a heat lamp and see if the egg will hatch. There was no nest anywhere around. Again we felt bad but we needed the ambulance. Below I posted a pic of the pigeon.

Well we hope everyone has a great weekend and to all you moms HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

Bill