What a joy that the weather has turned cooler and the crowds have left northern Michigan.

Nearly stepped on this little guy as I hiked Fisherman's Island this afternoon.  Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens). Once the most abundant frog in Michigan but numbers have fallen in recent years and now rare in some parts of the state.

Substantial stream-bank erosion on the Boyne River following the melt:

Here is a nice example of cased caddis from last Saturday's lab analysis of the Boyne River aquatic invertebrate sampling:

Several decent sized stone fly nymphs downstream from Dam Road:

Here's a pregnant doe looking around the house on May 22.  Judging from the grunting and size of her middle section she was close to the happy day when I saw her and may even have been looking for a nice spot to give birth.

She was strangely curious of me as I quietly took her picture.

Six days later, this deer was looking up at me through the deck rails first thing in the morning.  I'd like to think it was the same deer but I'm not sure.

She had a small companion

Trout Unlimited will be assigning an intern to the Miller Van Winkle chapter shortly to study the water flow of the South Branch of the Boyne.













Here are some images of the spillways currently in place under M75 at Boyne Falls and the pond created upstream:

Slowly adding to my life list.  Yesterday in Young State Park identified 16 species including a Black and White Warbler and a Yellow-rumped Warbler.  These are not my images. Heard many unidentified species and need to work on the audible identification although I'm not a subscriber to the hear it, list it school of thought.






Photographing these guys is proving tough and I'm greatly looking forward to spending some time with bird photographer Paul Rossi up in the Eastern UP on May 27.  He says, "We will drive to certain locations and walk to explore each area.  We will start right after sunrise (which is 5:54 a.m.) by birding some open grassland and ponds: LeConte's sparrows, Upland sandpipers, Sharp-tailed grouse, Snipe, American Bittern, Sora, Bobolink, Northern Harriers, etc.  We will also go to the coastal marsh.

After that we will go to locations based on what I find in various locations this year.  There is quite a bit of logging going on up here this year and I must visit certain areas of Hiawatha National Forest and Lake Superior State Forest to see if they are still there.  Rest assured that there are many options.  I will make sure that we will visit a productive inland swamp, mature hardwoods, coniferous woods, etc.  There are many beautiful areas loaded with birds at that time.  I will see what is 

out there and make a plan, making sure that we do not drive too far between walks.  This is the best time of the year for the most variety and visibility of birds in this area."

Northern Michigan Padding Club's recent "Spring Whitewater Rendezvous" at the Bear River Whitewater Park. The river through the park has a 75 foot drop over one mile. 

A great Northern Michigan resource for the paddlers but I think I'll stick to fishing.