There was an eary morning fog that disappaited by 9:00 am.The day was mostly sunny with high cirrus clouds, and little breeze. Morning was cool at 50F but the temp got up to 73F.
The day that was planned was a “round trip” including the two above mentioned Lakes and the Tacquamenon River upstream a ways near McMillan. We never made it to Mcmillan. Seney NWR still had an auto route that we had not driven yet, so we went for that. The “Fisherman’s loop”.
The two Manistique Lakes are adjacent to one another and only about 12 miles from the campground. On the way we stopped ,as we often do, to ‘scope’ a side road that led to a smaller lake. At the entry to the road there was a ‘sick’ apple tree that the warblers were having a field day with. Many worms I believe.
We stayed quite a while and came up with a BLACK CAPPED CHICKADEE, NASHVILLE WARBLER, and YELLOW WARBLER. Then proceeding to the two lakes we acquired the COMMON LOON, COMMON TERN, COMMON YELLOW THROAT, HAIRY WOODPECKER, RED BREASTED NUTHATCH and a TENNESSEE WARBLER. That was a good start for the morning. Why are they called "Common"? Because they are also fund in the "Old World" and so are 'common' to both 'world's'.
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| Always alert for animals we did see this fawn and female. |
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| The female looks back to make sure we are no threat. |
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| The pubic dock and boat launch includes this entry |
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| This dock was donated piece hy piece by many. |
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| A look at the north shore of Little Manistique Lake |
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| Walking the plank, they all jumped in at Mom's command! |
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| Mom leading the group through the reeds. |
The young ducks were a hit with the camera and we watched them for almost an hour.
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| Cedar Waxwings have been common . |
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| The fire tower in Seney is seen for miles. |
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| One of the many ponds in Seney NWR. (Swan, Loon, Ducks, Grebes) |
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| The 7.5 mile Road around the Refuge. |
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| First this 'anvilhead' then later in the day we saw heavy lightning south of us. |
That was when we decided to go back to the NWR and drive the “fisherman’s loop”.
It was a good decision and although we did not see any Bald Eagles nor Osprey, we did identify the KINGFISHER, TRUMPETER SWAN, and a very special treat was a BLACK BILLED CUCKOO among the Alders. Added to them were the SWAMP SPARROW, BLACK THROATED GREEN WARBLER, SANDHILL CRANE, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH and a few other ‘regulars’.
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| Can you name this common Michigan Berry? |
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| Turtles love the summer. |
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| One of my favorites is the Joe Pye Weed. (Butterflies like them too.) |
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| This is the bird we could not identify. Go for it! |
There were two of the females with young in the water that we could not identify. There is little to separate them from other ducks at this time of the year , We are not that expert to be able to make that determination. I thought they were Grebes, Ruth thought otherwise, so “no decision”.
By 3:30 we were finished and headed back to the trailer. It was a fine day, mostly sunny, and little breeze. Although a very large thunderstorm seemed to be headed toward Lake Michigan as we drove in the drive to the trailer.
Ruth had made a Spinach quiche, and together wth a cherry cobbler the supper meal was a hit!
Tomorrow we will return to Seney NWR and work on more warblers and woodland birds.
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