Lakes, Swamps, and Marshes

Camera: Chinon Genesis III Ducks, on the pond at Meijer Gardens, on a grey day in 1997.

Explored! #86 on Flickr on Saturday, July 14, 2007. Thanks! One of Michigan's treasures.. If you take M-28 across the Upper Peninsula, there's a long stretch of road along the edge of the Seney Wildlife Refuge. In the sixties, when I first vacationed in the UP, the trees were all scrubs, and quite frankly it was an ugly road, a super-straight highway through nowhere. Getting off the road to see the scenery just didn't seem like a worthwhile activity; better to hurry on to Tahquamenon, or Munising, or points west. We didn't know any better. On a June day in 2002, Joan and I found these fine skies, a handful of Sandhill Cranes, and many smaller birds. And an Osprey, patrolling low over one of the pretty pools. A final note: Forty years later, the trees have matured and M-28, though still generally judged to be dull, is far more interesting. There's still little clue about these nearby delights, though. Camera: Nikon N90s

Joan told me yesterday she'd seen baby geese out by the pond, so I set out to get a picture during today's lunch break. I found them in the grass between the parking lot and the marsh. The adults saw me coming and began herding the goslings to the pond. Three of the little ones followed mom into the water; three more hit the water with dad. The seventh waited until he was personally convinced I was a threat. In a few weeks the parents' strategy will change . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Working beside a wildlife refuge has its attractions.....

The Kalamazoo Bicycle Club takes an excursion to Scotts Mill County Park, sometime in 1976. As I recall, the park hadn't yet officially opened, but we found the park system's naturalist wandering the place and she gave us a tour. An interesting day. The building in the background is the miller's home; the mill itself is to the left of and behind the photographer. The fence in this photo is also prominent in the photo I posted a few months back.... This photo may be mine--in which case it's an unusually clear shot from my Minolta Zoom 110--or (more likely) it was taken by my brother (Kalamazoo Richard) with his Olympus OM-1.

Michigan Audubon's Baker Sanctuary, near Battle Creek (even nearer Bellevue).

It's August 12, 1994, major league baseball's gone on strike, and we're returning to our Denver hotel room after a day exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. This would seem to be Lake Granby, between Estes Park and Winter Park, the places we were (nominally) visiting. Truth, though, is that we were looking at the mountains. Colorado's really quite spectacular.... Camera: Chinon Genesis III

We saw Great Blue Herons, Ospreys, a young Sandhill Crane, an Eagle's nest (but no Eagle), Loons, and hundreds of more common birds. And some of the finest scenery anywhere under a glorious Michigan sky on a perfect day. DEET would have been helpful, though. The flies were outrageous.

Twin Lakes State Park in Michigan's Copper Country. We had marvelous skies and delightful weather all week. Camera: Nikon D70 Photo by Joel Dinda

Another view of the Twin Lakes sky. I've also posted a version in black & white .

Same picture as this one , except black & white....

Twin Lakes State Park, Michigan's Copper Country (near Toivola). Methinks the picture speaks for itself.

Joan, on the Escarpment Trail above Lake of the Clouds in Michigan's Porcupine Mountains State Park. J.W. Foster and Josiah Whitney, who surveyed the Lake Superior mineral deposits for Congress in the middle of the nineteenth century, included an engraving of this lake, which was then called "Carp Lake" (the river remains the Big Carp-- see msprague's comment , below ). It seems that the Porkies were already a tourist destination at that time. Lake of the Clouds is clearly a preferable denomination....

South of Bellevue, Michigan. Michigan Audubon's annual CraneFest is next weekend . During October, Big Marsh Lake is one of the premier places for watching Sandhill Cranes. Around sunset thousands of cranes gather at this lake. Taken from the Kiwanis Youth Area a couple years ago. No cranes in this picture, but some time ago I posted another view which hints at the event's beauty.

Better large! Another photo from yesterday. Not all the birds in the preserve are cranes.

Even without the Sandhill Cranes and other birds, Big Marsh Lake is an attractive place.

This pond is behind Waverly Park Apartments in southwest Lansing, Michigan; it's at the center of this aerial photo . There's a story. Sometime in 1988 I discovered that Waverly Park (my home at the time) has a diagonal boundary because the property line was originally defined by the Lansing/Jonesville branch of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, a line which was laid in 1869. Although the right-of-way was abandoned in 1940, the trace of that line still shows on the land; for instance, the right-of-way straightened the far edge of this pond. I rather like to imagine a New York Central 0-6-0 puffing by with a short passenger train in tow; it should be whistling for the crossing at what was then called Packard.... This photo dates from 1988 or 1989. The camera was a point-n-shoot 110. Not bad for a cheap camera.... This track has traces for 60 miles. I imagine I'll show you more of them as I stumble across my photographs.

Another pond. This one's at Michigan DNR's Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery , near Mattawan on M-43. We visited here fairly regularly when we were kids. Now that I've grown I find the hiking trails more interesting than the fish. The sturgeon are quite impressive, though.

Better large. Mountain Iron, Minnesota, has a viewing tower which overlooks the Mountain Iron, Minnesota Taconite (MinnTac), and Wacotah mines. Mountain Iron was the original Mesabi Range mine. MinnTac was perhaps the last great mine on The Range. Wacotah, as you can see, has become a rather pretty lake. And there's an amazing amount of gear in this picture. Shot August, 1992, with a panoramic point-n-shoot.