Here are a couple of sunset views from the Headlands in early April. The night of the owl banding.

Encountered three red fox kits while motoring around Walloon Lake this afternoon. They were walking down the side of the road and showed no fear of the car.   Two of them hung around the roadside long enough for me to grab some quick pics with the point and shoot from the driver's seat.  I wish I'd had the Canon handy.

Spent this morning with the TU guys cleaning the Maple River downstream of Woodland Road. I floated down with fly-fishing guide Phil Croff.  A self-taught boat designer, Phil builds his drift boats with characteristics that suit the rivers of the Tip - the Maple, Sturgeon, Pigeon, Bear, Black, etc..


Very little trash was found but there were many downed trees across the river as a result of the monster early-March snow storm.  Phil came well prepared with a chain saw and hatchet and he created a narrow passage down this fine stretch of trout stream whilst leaving as much deadfall as possible for improved fish cover.

Later in the afternoon I met an angler with Indiana plates about to fish the TU section. Earlier in the day he had caught a nice Rainbow on a Hendrickson dry.  Interesting since Phil and I saw very few rises during our three hour float. Even more interesting was the astonishing coincidence that that this man's wife's maiden name was Miller and his name was Van Winkle.  He said, no connection whatsoever with the originators of the host TU chapter.  Almost unbelievable but he seemed to be an honest man.  And he was fly fisherman so he was probably being truthful.

Back to the Straits from 3:00 - 4:00pm for more hawk watching.  Steve reported it had been a very big day for eagles.  Sure enough, we saw several immature Golden Eagles and at one point saw a group of four Bald Eagles mixing it up as they prepared for the crossing.
Plenty of other hawks came through plus several Turkey Vultures and one American Kestrel that sat in the trees near by. (Not my Kestrel image.)

Great article in this month's Guitar Player magazine about Peter Green, one of my all time favorite Brit-Blues guitarists.
http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/148104

The print edition article is full of insights into Peter Green's note selection and more.  This inspired me to begin transcribing some of Greeny's early work on Someday After a While (You'll be Sorry) off A Hard Road by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.  Really great stuff.  Of course, playing it convincingly is another matter and I'm still struggling to approach the guitar tone on the recording with the Epiphone Les Paul, Fender Blues Junior and various pedals.  Yes, these licks had been played earlier by many of the blues greats in America but why did the same exact notes not have the coolness factor subsequently generated by Green and Clapton?

Spent some time with Boyne City's bamboo rod builder Alex Wulff today.  We reviewed some old cane rods of mine, the only one of real interest being the 11 foot Sealy Octopus split cane rod that I used for course fishing back in the UK when I was a youngster.  That would make it about 50 years old!  It just needs the stripping guide re-soldering and it's good to go.  Alex suggested using it for Spey casting and recommended that I seek out the Spey teacher John Breslin who could be participating at the FFF Great Lakes Council School and Fair June 15-17 which I will attend:
http://www.fffglc.org/

We discussed potentially re-furbishing the split bamboo rod that Donna picked up at a garage sale.  Boyd King (Beulah, Michigan 1903 to 1978) seems to have been the owner, not the rod builder. Boyd was obviously proud enough of the rod to put his name on it so it was probably a decent rod when it was new.  Much work would be needed starting with re-wrapping the cork handle.  Not worth the effort per Alex.

Next week I'm going to observe Alex working on tip sections to go with the three five weight butt sections already completed. Alex typically uses the (Jim) Payne 101 taper which he believes is as fast as you will get in bamboo.  Alex offered to lend me some of his books to learn the fundamentals but these well-thumbed volumes were obviously highly valued by Alex and in frequent use so I declined. Asked which one book he would  recommend for beginners Alex suggested Handcrafting Bamboo Fly Rods by Wayne Cattanach.  Another recommendation was to attend the bamboo rod conclave but it seems this is not happening this year.  Grayling public library has a good collection of books addressing all aspects of fly fishing and would be an interesting place to spend a cold, stormy day sometime.

Hiked a new section of the North Country Trail in the afternoon through the upper Jordon valley.  Did not see another soul for three hours. The Trillium is coming into bloom.  My image but I needn't have bothered with 4,750,000 images of Trillium on Google Images. Seems like people are interested in Trillium until you realize there are 94,800,000 images (non-offensive mind you) of boobs. Does this mean that people are twenty times more interested in Trillium than (non-offensive) boobs.  What if we included "offensive" boobs I wonder.

Managed a (just-about!) dry stream crossing at the old lumbering-era bridge ruin adjacent to the Fish Hatchery to save myself about an hour on the return leg.

Sat in on the Miller Van Winkle TU chapter board meeting yesterday evening at City Park Grill in Petoskey. Such an enthusiastic and knowledgable group; I'm looking forward to getting to know them better and maybe fishing with them.  Incredible stars as I drove into Boyne after the meeting but I still can't rationalize getting more involved with NOMAC in view of everything else that's going on and the images beamed to my lap-top courtesy of Hubble.
Link to clear sky chart: http://cleardarksky.com/c/RvnHllMIkey.html
Link to NOMAC: http://www.nomac.net/

We still have some Steelhead in the Boyne and I managed to land another really nice fish this afternoon after earlier losing one in the same spot and then catching a sucker (minus two points!). As I was walking downstream to the car after the sucker I saw two big male Steelhead cruising upstream; I was able to follow them and as luck would have it they rested in the water I'd just fished!  The rig was still set up to give me a really great drift through the slot and so without wasting any time, in went the fly.  I was pretty confident I'd hook one and sure enough I did.  A big fight ensued and I was pleased to net the fish on 3x fluorocarbon. No camera unfortunately.  Air temperature 50F, water 41F, overcast, light rain, falling barometer.

Impressive performance by singer/songwriter/guitarist Willy Porter at Freshwater on Saturday evening.  This guy has been around having opened for Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull and other big names.  Watching Willy play his guitar was almost enough to make me give up trying.  A highly entertaining act.  Great songs with plenty of humor tailored to BC thrown in.  Too bad the venue is so claustrophobic which spoiled it for some people.
http://willyporter.com/

Back up to the Straits for a couple of hours on Friday afternoon for some more raptor watching. Unfortunately, the wind had not shifted to the south as forecast so I did not see the large numbers of last week. I think I've now got the differences between a Buteo and an Accipiter, Red-tailed Hawks are pretty obvious from below if the light is right. We had one red tail fly low and slow right over our heads. The official six hour count for the day by Steve Baker was 174 birds heading north across the Straits (as compared with 602 for the previous Friday):
59 Turkey Vultures
2 Bald Eagles
4 Golden Eagles
1 Northern Harrier
26 Sharp-shinned Hawks
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 Red-shouldered Hawk
6 Rough-legged Hawks
71 Red-tailed Hawks
2 American Kestrels
1 Peregrine Falcon
For access to the North American Hawk Count database go to http://www.hawkcount.org/
Tried a bit more digiscoping on the using my Alpen 20-60x80 spotting scope, Alpen's (well made) bracket adapter and my little point and shoot camera but the results were not encouraging even for close, static and therefore very easy subjects like this Morning Dove:

This Northern Flicker was about 100 yards away and relatively well lit and static. Even with a stack of post image enhancement, a very poor result:

There's no getting around the fact that for serious bird photography I'll need a serious big lens for the Canon which will have to wait.

Alex Wulff discussed bamboo rod building at a Friends of the Boyne River meeting yesterday evening and has invited me to see the process at his shop here in BC.  From what  he said, the process is not so much difficult as it is tedious. I'd like to build a rod under his guidance if he will take me on.

Interesting presentation last night at Petoskey Audubon by Vern Stephens of MDNR discussing the restoration of Michigan's grassland ecosystems and specifically the work at Arcadia Dunes near Frankfurt.  Grasslands are immensely diverse and beautiful ecosystems.   Prior to European settlement Michigan had approximately 2 million acres of grassland and now, according to the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, less than 1% of the original prairies remain. 
Apparently, restoration is worth considering for parcels as small as half an acre.
http://www.gtrlc.org/land-stewardship-project/grassland-restoration/
If you don't go that far, there's much that can be done with garden plants to attract wildlife to the yard and this book is recommended:
http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Nature-Home-Wildlife-Expanded/dp/0881929921/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334160126&sr=1-2

The spring migration of raptors is in full swing as I witnessed up in Mackinaw City yesterday afternoon.  Saw dozens of birds high up in large kettles staging for the flight north across the straits. I was told they were mostly Buteos with a few Bald Eagles and a couple of immature Golden Eagles. With a forecast southerly component to the wind, today should be even better. Working on my hawk identification skills so that I can begin to tell one from another up high.  Also saw two large flocks of Sandhill Cranes passing through.  I'll be back in Mackinaw City on Tuesday with the Petoskey Audubon outing. Followed yesterday's hawk watch with a pot-luck at the Headlands Beach House; then nets and audio lures were set up for (Northern Saw-whet) Owl capture and banding followed by star gazing.

The Headlands is one of only six dark sky parks in the USA as designated by the International Dark Sky Association. Another fabulous Northern Michigan resource:

http://www.emmetcounty.org/darkskypark/

If you prefer to look at stars from the comfort of home:
http://skysurvey.org/

Although there was a full moon, on this night we saw a great many more planets (three) and stars (millions, who knows) than owls (zero as of 10:45pm when I left).  Here's somebody else's image of a full grown Northern Saw-whet Owl.  And here's a link to hear what they sound like.  Big noise for a little bird!

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Saw-whet_Owl/sounds

Continued my hill training this morning with an eight miler including the challenging "Ridge Run" up the back side of Avalanche Preserve and now recovering watching opening day from Comerica Park. Tigers look poised for victory but wait...now Boston just tied it up at the top of the ninth!
Avalanche is another great Boyne City resource.
http://gov.boynecity.com/uploads/1215019708Avalanche_map_062708.pdf
Wondering about creating the Boyne Trail Challenge, a run linking the trails on Avalanche Preserve, Young State Park and The Hill Preserve.  Perhaps include the swamp section and beach in Young and the broken bridge crossing of the Boyne River to spice things up.  Start and finish in downtown. Maybe 20 miles, not marathon distance. The hills and rough going would be challenge enough.

Hiked up "The Hill" yesterday.  100+ wild acres on the other side of Lake C. from the house. Thank you Messrs. Herzog, Mrstik and Herzog. The trail we created last fall seems to be getting plenty of use.
http://landtrust.org/Newsletters/Fall2011.pdf

Looking south from "The Hill"

Not much wild-life to be seen - just a few deer and the usual escorting group of Chickadees. But the views made up for it.

Looking north at "The Hill"