Arcadia- Authors and Animals

The final day of Arcadia Daze was shorter and calmer, with a little more time to do things besides interact with potential buyers.

John Wemlinger is an author I met at an event a couple of years ago. He told me I should try to get into Arcadia Daze, and that was good advice. I did well. I finally felt I had a comfortable enough margin that I could buy one of his books I wanted- The Cut- an historical fiction concerning the momentous and contentious cutting of a channel from Portage Lake in Onekama through to Lake Michigan. It dropped the water level of Portage Lake by 20 feet. I've just started reading it, but I can heartily recommend it.

He bought my sampler book, Accidentally Yours. I don't know if he's started it yet or would recommend it, but I'll tell you it's an eclectic collection of all the kinds of things I write. You may not like all the entries, but you'll probably like some of them.

John's wife Diane helps him with "marketing" (and moving all the crap around that one needs at these events). They make a great team. We had a good block of time before people really started coming through to talk about editing and publishing and all that sort of authorly stuff.

Since the vendors did not have to stay as long today, I popped over to Arcadia Marsh for a walk. The middle section of the marsh boardwalk is closed from April 15 to July 15 when birds are nesting, and I'd never managed to get there except during that time. But today, I got to walk all the way through.

I got some nice plant pictures but none of anything very unusual, so I'm going to show you animals because animal pictures are harder. Critters are more mobile than plants!

Who doesn't love turtles? Painted Turtles, and I chose this picture because their reflections are also in focus.

There were several Cedar Waxwings flitting around a space of open water.

Female Wood Duck swimming around.

And although this is just a female mallard- probably our most common duck, she's doing some nice contortions to get her preening accomplished, and notice the spread tail feathers.

I'm always tickled to get a good picture of a dragonfly. I've shown you this one before, but not very often. This is a male Widow Skimmer.

A nice Muskrat working its way around the same place of open water as the Cedar Waxwings. There was a lot of watercress here, and although cattails are their primary food, they will eat the cress too, so maybe that's what it was doing.

I thought that was probably going to be it for the wildlife. Another couple saw a green heron, but it was gone when I got to that spot. I walked the boardwalk trail twice to get in some miles, and almost at the end of the second time, I spotted a family of Trumpeter Swans. OK, it's getting so I see these fairly often, but I still love finding them.

An excellent day and weekend. The weather was neither too hot, too cold, nor too windy for an outdoor event. Developed a good relationship with a fellow author, made some money, and had a great hike. Can hardly improve on any of that!

Miles walked in 2026: 248.5
Miles walked for Onekama Challenge: 60.3

Streets in Arcadia 0.7 miles. Arcadia Marsh boardwalk twice 4.6, for a total of 5.3 miles.

See Arcadia Daze

Glorious Temperature!

  Cathy is now officially semi-retired, so we can do longer walks on Tuesdays. There is still the constraint of bell choir practice at 5 pm, but we were able to do a longer road walk. And we chose a place where not every road is a straight, flat line.

We were welcomed by this cutie.

The temperature was almost 60 degrees! I started out with a light shirt over my t-shirt, but ended up shedding even that. There was a light breeze, but surprisingly, it was warm. The wind near the lakes is almost always cold. The sun made last year's beech leaves glow.

This loop was out on the north portion of Hamlin Lake. There are quite a few other loops we can do in this area, so I'm sure we'll be back there. Upper Hamlin is more narrow and is oriented east-west. There's a map at the link below if you care to see. I was a bit surprised to find that it's still completely iced over. (If you look at that map, we were hiking near the number 10)

We walked past a place I've showed you before, but there is a new sign there now. This is Indian Pete Bayou. More about it at the link below.

It certainly felt spring-like in more ways than just the temperature. We saw and heard the first red-wing blackbird of the season. Ditto a sandhill crane. I tried to get a picture, but only got two shots of blue sky. I did catch a cedar waxwing.

Sun on the water makes nice reflection pictures.

We hiked a 6.4 mile loop, and had time to go buy cold drinks and a salty snack. We went to the beach to enjoy them. Locals enjoy walking the beach in any season, even if we have to put up with the ugly sand fencing in the winter. It does keep the sand from drifting to some extent. Even so, they always have to do serious road and park cleaning in the spring, to return lots of sand to the beach. You don't have to guess where the lighthouse is in this picture! People were even walking on the breakwall today.

In other news: Finished the tax paperwork- ready for the appointment tomorrow. Took this walk, had bell choir practice, and then did grocery shopping. I think I'm done for today!

And just a silly sidenote- I got an itch to rewatch the 1978 movie, Coma, last night. It holds up surprisingly well. Still pretty creepy!

See Indian Pete Bayou

How Many Oxbows?

 

How many oxbows can you stand to see? I hope about 4 more. How many oxbows are there on the Manistee River? Who knows? How Many oxbows are there between Harvey Bridge and Baxter Bridge? Well, over 30, counting the curves that "face" north. You can't see all of them from the trail. Let's just say, "it wiggles a lot."

Here are two that are near Baxter Bridge





This is the "famous" one, the view from Highbanks Rollways. (More on this later in the week)



And one more with naked sand banks.



There was also this lovely unnamed stream crossing in the afternoon sun.



And the cedar waxwings were flying about. There were a lot of juniper bushes along the trail here, and I wonder if that's what attracted the cedar waxwings. They do eat juniper berries.



The temperature is supposed to drop again for this week, so I'm glad I went out today. It was 70, dropping into the 60s with a cool breeze and warm sun. Just my favorite kind of day. I expected the ticks to be out since I've seen a couple already, but not a one this weekend.

I took a lot more pictures than this, and you'll see some of them in upcoming days.

Total miles today- 12. I'm tired, but not exhausted.

Total NCT miles for 2020- 202

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI. Baxter Bridge to the extension of 23 Rd. and back

See Still Along the Manistee

Bird Bookends

 
This has been the view out one of the windows to the deck quite regularly for the past two weeks. It's a pair of phoebes that have a nest somewhere out in the aspen grove.



They come and sit on the empty birdfeeders like bookends around the unused bird bath. It's like a bad joke.

I've tried to get better pictures, but they are so nervous they won't come near the deck at all if I sit outside, and they don't sit still anywhere longer than a few seconds. This is the best I got, through a window. You can almost sense the wariness.



Still, I'm glad to have their company.

I added a rock to the center of the birdbath in case it was the smooth edges the birds don't like. Nothing doing. No feathered creature has been near it. I wonder if the ceramic birds on the rim scare them off.



Look who's in one of the dead aspen branches. A cedar waxwing! They don't usually show up until the mulberries are ripe.

	See Phoebe See Two Birdbaths, No Birds
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Cedar Waxwing Preens

 
For simple elegance, it's hard to beat the cedar waxwing. This one was very busy keeping himself clean and neat.









Success!

I'm out the door for another night of work!

	See These Birds are in the Wrong Tree
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These Birds are in the Wrong Tree

I wanted to make the title, "Why These Birds are in the Wrong Tree," but I have no idea! The first bird is, of course, an American Robin. It's sitting in a large maple tree. Nothing very unusual there. While I was trying to get a good picture of it, another bird flew in.



This one is a male goldfinch, quite a bit smaller than the robin. They are both males, and they actually got into a bit of a discussion about who should be using that half of the tree. Meanwhile, yet another visitor stopped by.



This is a Cedar Waxwing. These are elegant, slim, gray birds with a crest, and in between the other two in size. He had the good sense to choose the other side of the tree. Here they are again.



And why do I think they are in the wrong tree? Because the maple tree has no fruit for the birds to eat, and in my yard is a tree that should be covered with birds at this time of year, and it's that mulberry you've seen before. For some reason, the birds aren't flocking to it this year. Go figure?



See Mulbery Mystery