April Adventure.......................

I am so glad we decided to go out today. It looked drab this morning, grey skies and bleh, but was warm. So as I needed to take a break from the garden. I have been exhausted. Feels good though, and got a lot accomplished and its still April. Anyway, I didn't sleep well last night so I was tired as well. I have been wanting to go to Leland and walk on the beach but it really didn't appeal this day. So we took the usual route.............. We stopped first at Good Harbour Bay. It was misty in the distance and cold so we didn't linger.

I better show the farm critters we saw before we got that far. We had to go see the coo's

Those birds were trouble, as soon as I stepped out of the van they began to fuss..............not sure what they were either but they were very vocal. We stopped at my fav thrift shop in Lake Leelanau and found some treasures. Of course I did..........after Good Harbor we continue to Narada Lake. We were happy to see some birds were back, we heard Loons and the Swans were back. Some Canada Geese and several other varieties of ducks. They kept flying away and coming back only to fly again and it wasn't long before I found out why......an Eagle. The first one I have not seen here before. A Bufflehead male and female.

The others were new to me too,

I looked for an ID on the duck with the white side and I find something called a ring necked duck but it doesn't have a ring, so not sure. The other that seems to be right is a Memugaa.......Apart from that I will have to look further and hope we see them again. We heard but I didn't see the Loons. Anyway, the reason for all the flying and activity soon became clear. A Bald Headed Eagle.

Not the best pictures but he was a way off I thought he caught something but upon closer look it seems he has a friend. Well not to dwell on the water fowl too much there were other critters out today. It was nice to see the Turtles sunning and Gerry got a shot of what looked like a Snapper. I believe the small bird is a Phoebe.

After we left Narada we went up the back road to see what else we could see. We stopped to see if there were any Turkey Vultures on the roof of one of the farms they seem to enjoy frequenting and sure enough there were two chatting on the roof. Not a good picture and they left when they saw us. There were 3 all together and we saw them soaring over the forests. As we left I saw a courting couple in the bushes, a couple of Turkey's

From there we went on to Port Oneida, lots of birds there but not a lot else. Starlings, Red Winged Black birds and cowbirds in a flock and very busy, we saw but didn't take a picture, a lone Sandhill Crane.

It was the first time seeing so many things in a day. We did go into Empire but no deer out today, it's time for babies and so they are probably hanging out in the woodlands. Going past the Dunes we saw a Heron, you can barely see it in the one picture I did get and a couple of ducks on the pond.

So we went home after a rather satisfying day. Glad we went