• Tuesday-What'sUP September 16 - 09:11 pm

You may recall the unusual visitors Bill Haller has had at his bird feeders in Bete Grise. It seems these Sandhill Cranes hang around there quite a bit and Bill recently caught them just outside his office window looking like Flamingos with their one legged stance and tucked heads. Actually, I think that's the pose they use when preening their feathers, but they sure resemble those pink lawn ornaments you see. :->

Another good look at a Sandhill Crane was snapped by Frederic W. Koski while it foraged in the tall grasses, most likely looking for something to eat. You can really see the red markings on top this birds head here, kind of looks like something prehistoric, from the dinosaur age.

Now, there's wildlife that's fun to watch up close like the first two photos and then there are those that are better seen from afar, like the Mom and her triplets in the third photo. This party of four were spotted around the Lake Linden area and if I'm not mistaken, it's rather unusual for a mother bear to have raised three cubs like this. They all looked quite healthy, including Mom who had a nice shiny coat, so they must be getting plenty of berries to eat this year. Something to think about when you're out there harvesting berries in the woods.

Hi
I like the Jurassic Park reference. They sound like what I imagine pterodactyls would sound like. On a nature hike, we startled one that was nesting in a hidden pond behind a wood--didn't see it but sure heard it, and if you didn't know what it was it would've been spooky.

Mary says: I liked the reference also, so I carried it over to the Pasty Cam pages. The credit for the Jurassic Park reference actually goes to Frederic himself, as that's the title he gave this photo in his Pasty Guest Gallery Album.

Speaking of spooky noises, I went on a night-time owl calling walk recently. The nauralist played a tape-recording of an owl call & got a screech owl to come in close enough to see (we had red flashlights).

Thanks for the beautiful images and reminders of the the wild! It's going to take each of us to be guardians of its cause to keep it that way.

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected."
- Chief Seattle

"It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of something else."
- Maimonides

"Once you have heard the lark, known the swish of feet through hill-top grass and smelt the earth made ready for the seed, you are never again going to be fully happy about the cities and towns that man carries like a crippling weight upon his back."
- Gwyn Thomas

"Without habitat, there is no wildlife. It's that simple."
- Wildlife Habitat Canada

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
- Lord Byron

If I had an office window with that view, I don't think I would get much done.

We went to Porcupine Mountains- Lake of The Clouds and on the way out of the park we spotted a black bear on the side of the road and we pulled over. I took quite a few pictures. Then the bear walked in front of the truck to the other side of the road. We went and parked on the other side of the road and I took more pictures and movies. My boyfriend had his window down and the bear got so close that we could hear the sound of of the bear pulling the grass out of the ground and chewing it. It was awsome.

There at the right time for the wildlife pictures. I would have loved to have my camera last week when I saw a doe and 3 fawns crossing the road while driving up the Calumet hill. Luckily Taylor saw it too so he wasn't mad at me.

Alex--I don't have a window with a view like that; mine is a parking lot...and I still don't get much done. Work fascinates me...I can sit and look at it for hours....

Lonewolf: !~ ! Thanks so much for these great verses! Great reminders of the mood that once was and has been shoved back in recent years with the urgency (and corruption) of the corporations and powers that be in their quest for ever more profits in the name of progress! This particulary now applies to Alaska!

Kathyl: Where are you finding the Screech Owl(s)? They are rarely if ever found in the UP! The few reports that have been made are down by Menominee.
We get them here down in trolland (St. Clair county) and often right in our backyard. Always neat to hear and/or see one! I use the tape calls now & then to draw them in.

Repeating my message from What'sUP.......

Well, if I can't get an "early bird" under the new system, I at least can claim to be the subject of one!!!! ;-)

YAY!!! We got power restored at about 12 Noon CDT today. We were some of the last to get power in this part of the woods and with good reason; our sub-station welded itself together and as described by the power company, "looked like a melted piece of metal!"

Before I get too far, thanks to all of you for your prayers and well wishes during this time. Thank you so much Mary for posting my message because quite frankly, I didn't know when we'd get power back and I wanted everyone on here to know that we were ok.

It was quite the hair raising experience going through a hurricane but I must admit, where we are located, the storm really wasn't any worse than a good winter storm or a Witch off Lake Superior for ferocity. The same can't be said for the residents of Galveston and especially Bolivar Peninsula who basically lost everything. News is still sketchy about the death toll on Bolivar, but I imagine very few people survived if they got caught out there during the storm surge. Now the FEMA disaster begins......

Even for us, it will be several days if not weeks before things get back to normal. My office downtown has no power or water and the building sustained some damage. Dr. Nat's college has no power either, so we may have some time off before we return back to work since those places were caught in the eyewall of the storm. We had some tremendous gusts here Friday night/Saturday morning (well over 100 mph!!) for about 6 hours which finally knocked our power out at 4:30 am. Once it got light Saturday morning, I went outside and checked the damage which surprisingly wasn't as much as I was expecting considering what we went through. Thank goodness that Sunday afternoon a cold front passed us and dropped our temps into the 80's and upper 50's at night; it could have been a lot worse.

As Dr. Nat says, "we're ok, now we have the huge insurance deductable ahead of us......."

capt Paul: do you know how MD Anderson fared?

Glad to hear your ok, Capt. Now you have a story for your grandkids.

As far as I know MD Anderson and the entire medical district faired pretty well, just some busted windows and such, but they are operational.

Hopefully, the Pasty powers-that-be wont mind if I go over the 2 message per day limit for a few days; I'm sure people want to know what's going on around here........

Mary says: Don't worry about the limit Capt. Paul, just keep us posted how things are going there in Hurricane country.

Here's a screech owl story... I visited Salolampi Finnish Language village in May '07 in Bemidji, MN, and one night was walking back in the dark by myself to my cabin from the sauna when an animal suddenly darted out of the brush right in front of me and scared me half to death. I screamed, and I heard an answering woman's scream a ways off in the woods to my right. It was one of the eeriest things I've ever heard -- The hair on my arms and neck stood on end. I quickly realized it was a screech owl who apparently thought I was kin. :)

And some verse to go with Lonewolf's beautiful offerings (thanks, Lonewolf!) -- from Wm. Butler Yeats:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Signed,
Stuck in da' city, but my spirit in da' UP

Thanks, Capt. Paul, and Pasty for its indulgence.

I just love the photos today. I find the Sandhill Cranes to be most fascinating creatures and there is always something exciting about watching bears in the wild.

nice irish dity lisa ==i remain walter p.

Hi
This may be too late--it's the next day--but to clarify about my screech owl walk, I am not in the UP but in southeast Michigan. The hike--and the owl--was in Kensington Metropark, a few miles east of Brighton.

Sunday afternoon hurricane Ike went through an area that included southeast Indiana and southwest Ohio with winds averaging 60 mph with gusts up to 75 mph, and left behind much destruction. Trees fell on power lines and homes, shingles and siding and entire roofs were torn off of homes, barns, etc. It was estimated that 1-1/2 million homes in this area were without electricity Sunday evening. Nearly 1 million still had no electricity yesterday, complete restoration is anticipate by Saturday.

Schools and businesses have been closed, many reopened yesterday. People are learning to live without cable TV, the internet, running water, flush toilets, etc. Many families are using their outdoor grills in preparing meals, and hauling water from areas where it is available. The shortage of ice has resulted in much food spoilage.

It will be a long time before folks forget about how Ike devasted this part of the country.

Seeing all the wildlife is always one of the highlights of my trips to the U.P. I scared a Sandhill Crane into flight while driving in a desolate area on Drummond Island a couple of years ago. That was a real treat to see it take off. It was so loud, I thought a helicopter was in the area! It's also a real treat to see bears in the wild, especially when they "pose" for pictures like that.

Good pictures.