Good morning hike

It was our first family hike of the season, because it was our first weekend hike of the season. Calvin and I really like the quiet of the parks during a spring weekday. We run into other hikers on occasion, but usually it's just the two of us and the wildlife. But Jon really likes joining us, too. He's in it for the turtles mostly, and the fuzzy critters, but we're all improving at identifying bird calls, too.

This weekend we took advantage of the prettiest Saturday yet with an early hike (not too early, since it still gets pretty chilly at night) all three of us together. The day started out overcast, but the sun started peeking out early and eventually joined us full time. We found lots of signs of spring in that brilliant green color that will soon flush all our fields and lawns. We found snakes, and for the first time turtles. The squirrels are ubiquitous, of course, and those fluffy little cottontails. And, amongst our usual feathered friends, we spotted a winter visitor migrating through.

Eastern Phoebe (or possibly a Least Flycatcher?)

Northern Cardinal male

Northern Cardinal female

Canada Goose

Red Squirrel

Song Sparrow

Eastern Cottontail

American Robin

Unidentified fuzzy buzzing thing

Painted Turtle

Spring hike 4/6

Thanks to our island vacation, we did miss out on one week of woods observation. I had intended to get us out the Wednesday after our return, but I think I already mentioned our slow return to normal. Plus, after a few days in the warming Caribbean sun, the thought of hiking in upper 30/low 40 degree weather wasn't appealing. So we missed last week. That means that we don't know exactly when the biggest change we noted in the woods took place, but the moment we stepped out of the car, the change was obvious.

Spring peepers.

The wood was suddenly noisy, alive with the mating calls of frogs. We learned something today, though. There are lots of different frogs sharing those spring waters, and while the Spring Peepers are noisy, it's really the Western Chorus Frog that is the loudest of the loud. My personal favorite was the Wood Frog; he has a funny little low chuckle that made us both laugh.

Frogs galore were not the only unique views we got today. We saw two different pairs of snakes mating. That's a sight I have never seen before. And a whole slew of Mourning Cloaks, the earliest butterflies of the season. Moss and other plants are beginning to green up, and the birds are in an interesting state of transition: we saw several year-round species, of course, but also one winter visitor who must have been on his way out, and one summer denizen just back from warmer climes.

Plus raccoon paw prints.

by Calvin

all those ripples are frogs, and then some

Wood Frog (by Calvin)

Wood Frog

Wood Frogs

frog eggs

Western Chorus Frog

Western Chorus Frog

by Calvin

Veery

Brown Creeper

Common Garter Snakes mating

Common Garter Snake

Raccoon print

The wildlife of St. Thomas

Although we never left the resort, we did find time to partake in one of our favorite activities—wildlife watching. There were reptiles galore, of course. They were pretty much everywhere we looked. And we swam with some fascinating amphibians. And the early mornings belonged to the birds. We didn't have to leave the resort to find them, they came to us.

Lizards: small, medium, and large

Anole?

Anole

Anole

Ameiva?

Iguanas, Iguanas, and more Iguanas

Green Sea Turtles (which we saw while snorkeling at Turtle Cove, but also these guys swimming around in our own bay)

Brown Pelican

Magnificent Frigatebird (Juvenile)

Magnificent Frigatebird (Juvenile)

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Zenaida Doves

Gray Kingbird

Bananquit

Great Egret

We also saw a number of Atillean Crested Hummingbirds flitting around the flowers on our front lawn, but sadly they were too quick for a picture.

Cali part 5: Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Yosemite was definitely beautiful, but I think for me Kings Canyon surpassed it. Less traveled and certainly more rural, the drive into Kings Canyon is stunning and precarious. It's also a road to nowhere, literally to "Trail's End", and which point all travelers must turn around and head back over the same treacherous thirteen miles they drove on their way in; Thirteen mile that took over an hour to traverse the first time and will certainly take equally long on the way back, if not more so since now the trip is mostly on the outer lane, the one that seems to be only inches from a catastrophic drop.

It's an amazing and completely worthwhile trip.

On this final day for the parks we saw General Grant and General Sherman (the two biggest trees ever), we drove into and out of the stunning Kings Canyon, and straight through Sequoia in a setting fall sun.

We also saw a bear. A real, honest-to-goodness, big black bear.

He was beautiful.

The trees...they're big.

Kings Canyon: the pictures don't do it justice.

That's our road way down there...

...and way down there, too...

...and that's our road again, hanging precariously off the side of that mountain...

Sequoias are surprisingly spongy on the outside

I have no photographic evidence, but imagine a bear here...

Fall weekends

Michigan football on Saturdays

Family biking on Sunday mornings, followed by doughnuts and cider at the mill.

And, on occasion, wildlife in the neighborhood (although that has nothing to do with it being a weekend...at least not with this kind of wildlife)