Kicking Back - Awesome Day!

 
Got to spend the day with Loretta, Paula and GayLynne. After a leisurely morning, we headed out for a couple hours of kayaking. Relaxed!



Loretta and Paula exhibit good form. We paddled downstream on the Pentwater River into Pentwater Lake and around to a landing near the house.





Back at the house, Loretta and I had to check out Paula's zipline, built for the grandkids. But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it too!





Ending the day with pizza!

Of course, now I have to go to work very soon, but what an awesome day!

	See Trail Work Day
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River Rat!

 
No, not a sports team from anywhere. This is the real deal- a muskrat in the Pentwater River. I was quite a bit above it, so had to zoom in a lot, but you can see the skinny, naked tail.



I just like the shapes of the ripples it made as it was swimming upstream.



Every so often it would come toward the bank and appear to sample some bit of vegetation.



These pictures aren't nearly so good as the ones I got in Furry Swimmer, Part 2, but I was happy to see one of these critters. Although they are very common, I don't actually see one very often.

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Pentwater River Residents

 
Driving over the Pentwater River today, I could see some birds off in the distance. I wondered if there was anything interesting, so I stopped.



I zoomed in and it was just a bunch of Canada geese. Disappointing. But wait. There is something else out there. It's one of our native swans, the trumpeter or the tundra. Which one?



I think I've finally learned what to pay attention to. That said, these pictures are grainy because I had to zoom all the way out, including the digital zoom, which reduces picture quality. Both native swans have black bills and a straight profile from forehead to tip of beak. But the key difference, from a distance, is whether the black face patch connects to the eye. On this swan it definitely does. That makes it a trumpeter, Cygnus buccinator.



Every other time I thought I had a close shot of a trumpeter, it was a tundra swan. You can follow the link below, and even though those pictures are grainy too, you can clearly see a yellow spot that separates the eye from the black cheek.

You can also see a nice black V on the forehead.



The swan didn't really care what I thought, or what the geese thought. It was much more interested in completing some grooming.



I think my next swan goal needs to be to get close enough to get some decent pictures.

	See Tundra Swan
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Snow on Branches

 
Today was a work day, and the only theme that seemed to develop was the way the snow collected on branches. With the sun peeking out occasionally, it made some bright images.

I chose these three for the variety. First is snow "puffs" sitting on a jackpine branch.



By contrast here's a long shot of the Pentwater River (only a couple miles from its source- I'm thinking river following again). But today, the view was defined by the branches lined with snow.

The red oak wasn't holding the snow, but it was still holding on to its leaves and the sunshine.

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