Wildlife on Parade

Huron River, Hudson Mills to Dexter MetroPark

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21 May 2013

In a couple of days, Ellen is headed out of town for the better part of a week so we thought, why not squeeze in a quick kayak trip while we can?  Actually, we had a fairly long trip out of town in mind, but the threat of bad weather led us to choose this shorter trip on our home river, closer to home.  This ended up being a great piece of luck for us–the animals on the Huron must have been putting on a pageant or something.  We saw so many animals! To put it in the form of a list (corresponding to the order of slides above), and with kudos to Ellen who is a whiz with our super-zoom camera:

• An adult bald eagle! This bird had the mien of a veteran predator. It perched on its dead tree and calmly watched us float by, beak just a little bit open and looking dangerous.
• An osprey! I was the first one to lay eyes on it when it swooped down and got a fish out of the river in front of me. Then, downriver a bit, it nicely posed for a picture for Ellen.
• A red-bellied woodpecker! It hopped from tree to tree to tree but managed to sit still long enough for Ellen to get a few good shots of it.
• A bossy Oriole, who seemed to be constantly yelling, “GET OFF MY PROPERTY!”
• A crazy goose who decided to roost atop an upturned set of tree roots, like it was condo living for water fowl.
• A small furry mammal I cannot identify for sure, but it was no muskrat–I think it was a mink.
• Snakes ahoy! Ellen stumbled upon a snake paddling over to take a picture of a cool flower; she found another one draped on some dead fall.  I spied one swimming across the river with the speed and determination of a long-haul trucker–actually, that one was scariest, as it charged Ellen and then kind of tried to board her boat, before it got freaked out itself.
• Then there was a heron, a staple on the Huron but in abundant company today, as you can see here.
• Also no small amount of turtles, but all of them (like the one above) leatherbacks.  Leatherbacks always look to me like hard shell turtles left out in the sun too long, until they melt. And that got me thinking, what profiteth it a turtle to have a soft shell?
• Finally, a crane. (Heh heh.)

So the big news was the animal parade.  But also, this was the first day the weather was warm enough that I felt like sticking my hand in the water to take some shots with my underwater camera.  As a notso hotso swimmer with a mortal fear of drowning, I am not always thrilled about looking at underwater pictures, but I’m fond of the ones I took because they remind me of one of my favorite passages from Julian of Norwich’s book. Julian was an English mystic (also the first woman to write a book in English) who had a series of showings, or revelations from God. I think she’s especially good at deploying imagery that ordinary kinds of folks can access. Her underwater scene is a good example of this:

One tyme mine understondyng was led downe into the see ground, and there I saw hill and dalis grene, semand, as it were, mosse begrowne, with wrekke and
with gravel. Than I understode thus, that if a man or a woman were under the broade watyr, if he might have sight of God, so as God is with a man continually, he should be save in body and soule and take no harme; and, overpassing, he should have mor solace and comfort than al this world can telle. For He will that we levyn that we se Him continually thowe that us thinkeith that it be but litl, and in this beleve He makith us evermore to getyn grace. For He will be sene and He wil be sowte, He wil be abedyn and He wil be trosted.

None of this makes me want to abandon my lifejacket, but I am always glad to see something in the world and think, “huh, Julian saw this too!”

Twilight Paddle

Huron River, around the Obama Bridge

17 May 2013

Ellen and I had a day–well nigh a week–that had us busy with this, that, and the other thing, but we still managed to find time to take our boats out for a twilight paddle on this cool, clear evening. We chose this trip for two reasons: 1) it’s close to home and easily managed for an evening trip 2) Ellen had been on a bike ride past this part of the river earlier and seen some brand-spanking new baby swans that we wanted to welcome into the world.

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You never want to get too close to a baby swan–or any swan, really, as they can be mean–but Ellen’s super-fancy zoom lens allowed us to get a good look at the babies without annoying the parents. We also saw some frogs, up close (really close, with the zoom lens) and personal, a very cool beaver (probably, maybe a muskrat, but it seemed too big) who swam with us a while, various winged beauties, and an evening train.  It was a totally delightful paddle, our only complaint being that it was too short.

A Quick Spring Trip

Huron River, Argo Park to Gallup Park

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4 May 2013

With the work of the semester almost completely behind us, Ellen and I headed out on our quick trip through town on this lovely Saturday afternoon.  The sun was out and nature had on her greenest first buds, but the water was still a little chilly, and the wind was, at times, nothing short of howling.  Get a gander in the slideshow above at the waves on what is usually the very calm Gallup Pond.  At times it felt like we were paddling in the ocean!

All of the animal pictures above are courtesy of Ellen and her handiwork with our new super-zoom camera (shout out to step-bro Greg for his help picking it out!). There weren’t a ton of turtles out on the river itself, but we started seeing a few trying to soak up some rays on Gallup Pond.  Ellen got a great shot of one little guy who looked all snuggled into his own turtleneck trying to stay warm.  She also captured a family of geese on the move, some swallows who ducked in and out of their nifty viaduct condominiums, and a handsome green heron.  We were extra-happy to spy in a strainer off to the side the cat carving in the tree you’ll see after all the photos of all the animals, especially because our own cat Sweet Pea is getting up there in years and having some health issues.  We felt like he had representation on the river.

Here’s to more trips to come, and soon!

Easter Paddle 2013

Huron River, Lower Huron Metropark to Willow Metropark

30 March 2013

Ellen and I scheduled our annual Easter paddle a day early this year because of the threat of rain on Easter (which has indeed come to pass, though as I compose this post early on the afternoon of Easter, the sun is peeking through the clouds every now and again).  Our pal Doug came along and brought everyone’s favorite paddling fuel, chocolate chip cookies.  No one could say we picked a bad day to paddle; we hit a high of 58 and there was not a cloud in the sky.  We also were not supposed to have much wind–a light 5 mph wind was what weather forecasts predicted–but it turns out we had a little more than that and often had to paddle into a pretty stiff (and chilly) headwind.  But we persevered.

Our paddle was mostly without incident. We all were a little rusty from the long, cold winter that left us with too few opportunities to paddle, and truth be told, we would benefit from a few “get ready for the put-in” drills; we were slow getting our boats unloaded, creaky getting on and off the water.  But the only real issue we encountered was the downed tree blocking the river you see to the left here; there was another tree coming from the other side, too, complicating matters further.  It was possible, but dicey, to try to go through this blockage in the middle, and no one really felt like risking going in the still-chilly water. Luckily, Ellen found this little detour around river right, and we were able to squeeze by without a portage. (Though, truth be told, if portage we must, now is the time–no poison ivy!)

Though the Muscovy duck that we always see when we do this paddle was on hand to say hello (see right), not much other wildlife was on the river.  We saw lots of robins, several weasels, and one lone heron who apparently flew back ahead of his friends, and we irritated the same pair of ducks for the entire length of our paddle, but that was about it it.  Ellen was on high turtle  alert but, alas!, saw none.  Soon, soon.

The river felt like it was sloughing off the remains of winter and getting ready to bring out its spring colors.  We eagerly await the spring river but were glad to get out to say farewell–or maybe, this year, good riddance!–to winter.  We paddled 10 1/2 miles in about 3 hours, which put our average speed at 2.7 mph. (Ouch–slow! Remember, the wind was against us!)

 

Finally!

Huron River, Hudson Mills to Delhi Metropark

9 March 2012

We finally, at long last, started our 2013 paddling season with this 6-mile trip on the Huron River, after what has felt like a pretty long and snowy winter. Truth be told, it still felt like winter a little bit on the river, though it was a balmy 43 degrees and partly sunny (though more cloudy than sunny for us while we were on the river,). And it looked a bit like winter still, as you can see in the photo the the left here.

Not to mention the photo to the right here–there’s Ellen enjoying a bracing cup of Earl Grey while standing next to our boats, which moved a lot like sleds on the snowy trail.  I came within a very narrow limit of sending first my boat and then both my boat and me separately into the river a little too soon thanks to that snow.  But we did manage to get on the river safely and to have a trip with no unpleasant incidents.

We saw a few other paddlers leaving the river for the day–apparently we worked the last paddling shift–but shared the river with no other humans, and few other animals, even, except for birds, of which we saw many.  There were tons of woodpeckers and bluebirds, and best of all, we saw a robin!  I think it took us, a couple paddlers bundled up like crazy but out on the river, as a sign of hope of spring just as much as we took it as one. Come any time, spring; we’re ready for you!

Once more unto the breach: 30 trips, 3 new rivers!

1 January 2013

This year will mark the third in a row that Ellen and I try to reach the goal of taking 30 paddling trips, 3 of them on new rivers, before the year is up.  We’ve come close to this goal, but never gotten to it yet.  In 2012, we were able to make 23 trips, 2 of which were on new rivers (Florida’s lovely Loxahatchee and Michigan’s own Shiawassee), and this was with a record dry summer and low, low, low rivers.  Still, though we didn’t hit the marks we set for ourselves, we managed to hit some others we weren’t even trying for, to wit:

• We paddled in all months except January.
• We shared a very skinny river with gators!
• I had my first wet exit, which resulted in our camera being lost at sea.
• We paddled into a great lake.
• We paddled 25 miles in one day.
• Though technically not new rivers, we paddled new portions of several rivers we know pretty well (the Huron, the Grand, and the Kalamazoo).

So here’s to trying again in 2013, and to a year of paddling that brings yet more unexpected adventures!

Hello, December!

Huron River, Delhi Metropark to the Obama Bridge

1 December 2012

Even though both Ellen and I had no time to spare, with temperatures for the day topping out in the 50s, we knew we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a December kayak trip.  We finished up this quick paddle of just under 4 miles in about an hour and a half, time well spent!

That little stripe of picture above is a shot of Tubbs Street rapids, not so intimidating maybe, unless they mark your return to rapids after some whitewater dumped you out of your boat.  That was the case for me, and I was a little anxious.  But Ellen pointed out that we had on the most expensive and elaborate outfits we own–complete with lots of Smartwool, neoprene, and spray skirts.  And we braved the rapids without incident!  They were actually fun.

The little piece of the river we paddled was truly Hawk Central; lots of hawks wheeled around us and looked down on us from high perches as we made our way down the river. The hawk to the left here was particularly giant, and watching it take flight made me start dreaming up a horror film about a homicidal maniac hawk–like what Jaws  was for sharks only the movie about a hawk would have to be called–wait for it–Beak.  Doesn’t that sound completely horrifying?!  I told Ellen about this idea while we were working our way downriver, and she says I need to get to work on a tag line–something like how in Jaws Roy Scheider’s character Martin says to the salty captain Quint, who has volunteered his boat to try to catch the killer shark, “you’re gonna need a bigger boat.”  But what on earth do you use to catch a killer hawk?  I leave this matter in your capable hands.

Our trip ended with a nice little meander down Honey Creek, which must have been named in December when the flora turns the color of honey, as it is in this photo.  A herding dog named Champion lives in a house at a bend in Honey Creek, and he always comes out to bark loudly at us, to see if we will acquiesce to herding.  As usual, we declined, though it was nice to see Champion as usual.

As we finished up our trip, Ellen noticed a slightly submerged thing over in some shallow water and said, “I’m going to go see if that’s a log or something dead.” When it turned out to be something dead, I asked only one question: “Is it human?” It was a deer, or part of one, and likely not the work of Beak.