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| These young Common Loons were getting acquainted. |
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| A Monarch Butterfly getting Milkweed nectar |
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| An adut Common Loon keepingan eye on "junior: |
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| Male Ruby THroated Humminbird at feeder |
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| He spreads those tails getting ready to liftoff. |
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| Three vistors tonight were: Red Breated Nuthatch, Female Rose Breasted Grosbeak, and behind out of sght is a Pine Grosbeak. That is a new one on this trip. |
We spent the day with our friends Steve and Deb at both the above mentioned places. Seney National Wildlife Refuge is just a mile from the campground. In the morning we avoided the rain that was south of us. It did rain last night and through the morning.
Seney NWR is a very large Wildlife Refuge and is associated wth a number of other NWR’s in the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula as well. It is mainly a very large marsh with many lakes, making it an excellent breeding ground for ducks, swans, geese, grebes, loons and associated wildfowl of all types. With many trees in which to nest it also has Bald Eagles, and Osprey in residence. We saw all of these today and more. The auto drive is about 8 miles around and there is a second drive called the “Fishing Drive” that can be taken as well.
Around the walk at the Visitor’s Center was good birding with CEDAR WAXWINGS, YELLOWTHROAT WARBLERS, YELLOW RUMPED WARBLERS, and YELLOW THROATED VIREOS making an appearance there. On the road there were many TRUMPETER SWAN, COMMON LOON, the RED THROATED AND PIED BILLED GREBES. Many young of these species were also present and in the water with the adults. CANADIAN GEESE were abundant with young as well. A few OSPREY flew over during the drive. One SANDHILL CRANE flew right up next to the truck and we watched it fly and call its “luk luk” all the way across the lake. The total today was 35 birds, as we shared what we knew wth Steve and Deb, who continue to improve their knowledge of birds.
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| One of the Trumpeter Swans in the Refuge. There were dozens. |
Even at the campground where we set up our bird feeders, we identified BLACK CAPPED CHICKADEE, RED BREASTED NUTHATCH, RUBY THROATED HUMMINBIRD (there were two adults and a wee baby that the male wouldn’t let near the feeder.). There was also a female ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAK, CHIPPING SPARROWS, and a MALE PINE GROSBEAK.
A famous stopping place for tourists especially, is Kitch-iti-kipi Springs a clear water spring that is really a large pond. In it, a raft has been built to hold 30 people in order to ‘drift’ across the pond and back looking down to see the bottom of the pond in the clear water. It is driven by a hand powered cable . (Wheel and rachet system). You would find it a few miles north of Escanaba in a large park there. It was fun to do, and as the water is fed by a spring that moves 10,000 gallons of water a minute. It is clear to the bottom of 25 feet or so. There are three types of trout in the pond ,namely Rainbow, Brook and Speckled. Two layers of rock “squeeze” the water between them , hence creating a permanent “pond” .
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| View of the Pond from the raft. Some fog. |
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| Looking down into the "well" at the bottom of the pond. |
In as much as STeve and Deb had returned from a European trip recently and they had not seen our trip so far, we exchanged photos on the computer after a supper of Chili and salad.
The day was much cooler (63F) and we did drive through some rain on the way to the Springs and back. At the campground it was not so, We are on the northern edge of the cold front and hence have missed the heavy rain today.
Tomorrow we move from this site to another one in this campground in order to have a full hookup wth sewer. We can stretch the black water to four days , but as we will be staying 4 more days ,we couldn’t make the complete stay without a sewer or ‘dump’. Steve and Deb will leave for home, tomorrow.
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