A Returning Regular

I looked out the kitchen window and saw two pale shapes on the ground. Couldn't decide what they were.

Before I got back with the camera, one of them was gone. But the other was still there. What is it?

Did you know? It's a flicker. This is a woodpecker, but one that spends most of its time on the ground. This is a male- note the black moustache. It was probably a pair, but the female flew away.

Lots more flicker info through the link below if you want. I really love the way they look. And you can't see the yellow undersides of the wing feathers here, but it's stunning when they show it off.

I hunkered down and worked hard today. Got stuff done on all current projects. Did errands. Silver star for me (I should be doing a couple other things too, so no gold).

See Northern Flicker

Charley Harper's Isle Royale

This puzzle was loaned to me by hiking buddy Bill. I really liked doing it. It was just the right level of difficulty to be both challenging and fun.

Its a puzzle of the art work "Isle Royale" by Charley Harper who is known for his geometric depictions of nature. Here's the entire puzzle.

The dominant dark shapes are two moose.

But the rest of the pictures are really oriented the other direction with birch and aspen trunks. There are also aspen and maple leaves that you can easily see.

And all the other animals are just hiding out in the trees. It would be too many pictures to highlight them all, but here are a few. The squirrel.

The butterfly.

A flicker.

And four wolves. I show this one, even though its tail bleeds off the edge because it has a blue jay on its back.

There are also a red-headed woodpecker, two chickadees, a sparrow, and a brown creeper.

It was a very busy day. I went to Muskegon to the dentist where they took new x-rays and said that the bone has grown back very well, so we scheduled a date in March for the implant!

And then, early this evening, I gave my program about the NCT via Zoom to the Green Mountain Club in Vermont. It would probably be more accurate to say they hosted it because people from anywhere could sign up. They said there were 123 people watching. And time for questions afterward. I love to share "my" trail with people!

See Delightful Cat Library

Flicker Behavior

Flickers are woodpeckers that you usually see on the ground. Today, one landed on my deck railing and stayed there a while.

I'm not going to apologize for the less-than-crisp photos through a screen curtain, because I was just happy to catch such an interesting behavior.

At first it kept spreading one wing as if to dry it off. This makes sense, except there are no nearby puddles or bird baths (I didn't set mine out to just be empty while I was away).

You can see some yellow coloration on the wing. This is the eastern "yellow-shafted" flicker. The wing and tail feathers have bright yellow shafts.

Then it turned around and spread both wings. You can really see the yellow shafts in this view.

I can't find any specific answer on woodpeckers doing this. Territorial mating display is a possibility, although this bird didn't appear to be acting aggresive. Perhaps it was just sunbathing. It may have been sunning itself to help remove parasites. Thermoregulation is another possibility, but that's more common in water-fowl, and this was still morning when it wasn't super hot.

At any rate, I thought it was really interesting.

I kept my word and did very little that required energy today. I worked on the computer to collate data from the Adirondack trip.

See Flicker

Still Along the Manistee

 
Headed north again to continue onward in Wexford County on the North Country Trail.

This entire section is along the Manistee River. I started at Harvey Bridge and did all the off-road pieces as far as where 23 Road would be if it extended to the river. Then I turned around. Throughout this section, the trail is mostly not as high above the river, so you get some closer views and access points.



The deciduous trees are barely greening up, but at least the conifers are looking green. As I mentioned before, the Manistee has dozens of oxbows. Here are 4 different ones just from this section I walked today.









Right about in the middle of what I walked is a lovely reliable water source deep in a valley. It's the North Branch of Anderson Creek.



Here is one of the mile markers on the Cadillac to Traverse City Indian Trail. You can't actually walk this trail (too much is lost to private property, I think), but you can find most of the markers by driving around and walking a little bit. This is on my "want to do" list. And now I know that I'm on trail Angie and I hiked in 2000 because we took pictures at this marker.



Caught a male flicker showing off and singing.



Total miles walked, about 13. I only carried the day pack. It was the hottest day we've had yet (over 70), and it takes me a while to get used to heat. I wanted to have an enjoyable hike, not a death march.

The worst thing about this section is that an awful lot of it is accessible by 2-tracks, and there are all kinds of vehicle camping spots that are... what? Not dispersed really, not official campsites... they just get used. And they were almost all occupied today. People certainly are not considering them to be under the banned uses. Since parts of the trail follow these old roads, I walked through or around a lot of people's camps today.

Total NCT miles hiked this year- 190

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI, Harvey Bridge to theoretical extension of 23 road, and back. Off-road miles only. 13 miles

See I couldn't stay Inside

The Local Critter Count

 
Here's some of the local (in back of my house) wildlife of the past week. Nothing new, although one of them did something new.

First up is a female widow skimmer dragonfly. I actually got really good pictures of both the female and male in 2011. So, if you want to see them better, follow the link below and click on the thumbnails.



Next, we'll do the plain old whitetail deer. Lots of them, but they do have a certain charm (until they eat all my plants).



The dead branches at the top of one of my aspen trees is a favorite spot of the birds. Today, a flicker took advantage of the perch.



Now it's back to the insect world. This one is a little creepy, but interesting. This is a bracken fern covered with rose chafer beetles. These are annoying brown beetles that will eat certain plant leaves so fast you can almost see things defoliate. They love roses, but also hollyhock and birch. Well, I guess they also like bracken. At least for mating. The ferns in this area were black with pairs of beetles. That's better than all over my rose bush. They don't bite, but they fly and they tickle when they land on you.



Finally, the oriole. Not that this is a great picture. It's not. But it's the solution to my mystery singer. For weeks, there has been a bird here singing twitter, twitter, cheep, cheep. Over and over and over. I could not identify it or find it. I asked real birder friends. I tried to record the sound (with no success). At long last, yesterday, I heard the singer, saw it fly to the aspen, shot a picture and wow. It's the oriole! This is the first time one has ever stayed to nest around my house. I hope I can find the nest this fall to show you.

He wasn't doing a typical song for an oriole, but they are highly variable. I did find a similar one on youtube, so I'm really sure it's my mystery bird.



Saw two sandhill cranes today too. The bird I have not seen or heard this year is the meadowlark. Seems odd. They have always been dependable regular visitors.

In other news: I did some things for the Writers' Rendezvous and wrote two chapters in The Bigg Boss. Also made more rhubarb granola. This batch has more rhubarb, and I like it. I have a trip coming up. Not far away, but I'll be gone nearly a week. I think I'll be able to blog though. Stay tuned.

	See Widow Skimmers See Northern Flicker
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Flicker Revealed

 
This post can be brought to you because the Flicker came to a sad end. She flew into a window and broke her neck. I found her within a few hours, and there was no decomposition yet. It's sad, but it allows me to show you the beautiful coloration of the feathers. Technically, this is the Yellow-shafted Flicker, Colaptes Auratus, because the feather shafts of wings and tail are... yellow.



There is a western variant of the species, the Red-shafted Flicker. I haven't ever seen one. Keep in mind, this is a woodpecker. Now for the beautiful surprise. I'll turn the bird over.



Pretty spectacular, eh? If you prefer to see one alive, follow the link below.

	See Northern Flicker
if you like this blog, click the +1

Northern Flicker

It rained almost the entire day, and that was a good thing! We need rain here- quite a few of the recent storms have missed us, and things are dry. I also needed to spend a good solid day of inside work without being tempted to head off into the woods. I'm showing you a visitor to the yard from yesterday.

It's the northern flicker, Colaptes auratus, a kind of woodpecker. You've seen it before if you are a regular visitor here. They always seem to like my lawn. This one is a female.



It's easy to tell because males have a large black "mustache," which this bird does not have. Maybe I'll get lucky and have a male visitor who wants to pose. The focus on these pictures is much better than the ones I took in 2009, and these are from the back so you can see the red stripe on the head. You can also see one of the yellow shafts on the tail feathers. This is sometimes called the yellow-shafted flicker because of that. Flickers in the western US usually have red shafts. They used to be considered a different species, but now they are known to be regional variants of the same bird. Click one of the pictures to reach some other views that show the black bib in front.

See Two Birds and a Plan for a video of the flicker feeding See The Flicker for a very blurry picture of a male

Winner! - Edited and Changed!

We have a winner! It's NOT Ratty of The Everyday Adventurer. Julia of Our Simple Life also entered, but the email got lost in cyberspace and just arrived, but is dated correctly before the deadline. The final score, Ratty 4, Julia 6! Rainfield, of My Journey, gets an honorable mention for guessing one of them in a comment.

Shucks, I thought this contest would be fun with just some guessing on the closeup pictures. How can I make the contests more interesting for you, my friends?


Here are the answers:

1.
This one was the fantail of water from the high speed ferry between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island. Ratty guessed fog over a body of water. Pretty close! Julia said the sky.


2.
This is the down on the back of a baby swan. See Fluffy Treats on an Urban Trail". Ratty guessed the fur on one of my dogs. Julia said fox fur. I would have guessed fur too. Amazing how much feathers can look that way, isn't it?


3.
This is the top of a mushroom/ fungus. I don't know what kind. Ratty and Julia both got it right!


4.
Ratty guessed ice on a creek; Julia- ice with water beneath. Exactly!


5.
Ratty said a ground squirrel, and it is. Julia got it exactly: a thirteen-lined ground squirrel! See New Digs for Peabody's Great, Great, Great...


6.
Ratty and Julia both guessed a red-wing blackbird. Right on! See Gale's Pond- A Wonderful Day


7.
Ratty and Julia both guessed a turkey vulture. This bird is easily spotted here by the wings in a V, and the naked head. See Turkey Vulture


8.
Ratty said "no clue". Julia said water. Rainfield actually got this one right! He said in a comment that he saw a reflection in the water. It was branches in a stream, and they turned out to be more interesting than the water strider, the little insect, that I was trying to picture.


9.
Ratty guessed weeds on a pond, and he's right. Julia is closer, saying rushes emerging from water with reflection. Thought this one might be hard. I love how these soft-stem bulrush all dried curly.


10.
Neither Ratty nor Julia had a guess. This is the flicker. See See Two Birds and a Plan


OK! I'm posting this from a dial-up connection at Ester's house, and I have to get on the road again really NOW. Gotta go... I have things to show and tell, but they will have to wait.