Make it Snappy at Oakwoods Metropark

The native people didn't have it easy back in the day. No shopping decisions to be made because there weren't any stores. Food had to be earned. First with throwing sticks or stones at food.

 Then came the bow and arrow.

 Or you could learn to gather apples.

 

Survival isn't easy. Unless you have Chase watching your back.

You have 20+ explorers handling snapping turtles. What could go wrong?

Nothing actually except for an intimate moment with nature. Baby turtles hatch late summer and have a yoke sack that feeds them for many weeks so they don't even try to eat. So all fingers were safe during this educational exercise.

All the babies were launched successfully. Good job Chase.

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Duck Festival Bigger Than Ever

The Point Mouillie Duck Fest was incredible this year. For $2 parking, a day of constant entertainment could be achieved. From vendors to hip boot races and dog jumping there was never a dull moment. Of course, not having duck weather helped out immensely.

Vendors included Cabela's, Gander Mt. and Knutson's Sporting Goods as the largest ones but many, up to 60 others, had wares for sale from antiques to fine crafted duck calls. The big tent held the crafters, mostly wood carvers of all types, that were selling everything from ducks to humming birds. There was also a kids play area to burn off some energy pent up from shopping at all the stops. Live entertainment had this layout shooting exercise, hip boot racing, bb gun and archery shoot, sling shot contest and duck calling. 

Also the Huron River Jump Dogs were practicing and competing all day.

 

Just a great outdoor happening put on by a lot of people but with a big plug to Joe Robison the southern Michigan waterfowl specialist and Pointe Mouillie Supervisor.

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Hawkfest Delivers

What a wonderful day at Lake Erie Metropark. From the kids’ activities to the professional bird counters there was something for everyone to do. Booths for many birding associations, bird info, seminars, live bird displays and a visit by a pair of bald eagles were some of the happenings.

The bird counters set up by the boat launch area and were busy counting. Over 200,000 birds had been counted in the previous week. Saturday was slow, with the strong breeze out of the south hampering kettling for the raptors. Kettling is a group of raptors soaring in a circle riding the warm air drafts and easing their way south. They don’t get the warm updrafts over water so Lake Erie funnels them to the very location of the Metropark.

I learned birding from my brother Roger, who just recently passed away. After my Dad passed away Rog took me on his family vacations and taught me how to spot birds and what to look for in identifying them. From Colorado to Lower and Upper Michigan I got to see a vast variety of birds. That experience has stayed with me and kept me interested in bird watching. Birding is a great exercise in that it only takes a bird ID book and a pair of binoculars to participate. Once you try it you’ll be hooked.

                            

One of the other things going on during the festival was the banding of raptors. The USFWS had a capture operation set up in the area. With the migration in full swing this is a perfect time for them to do this. A report came in that they had captured and banded a Broad Wing Hawk. Normally they catch smaller raptors like the kestrel so there was much excitement about this. After some info talk the captor was released.

Fly away Rog.

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Lake Erie Metropark's Hawkfest

This is must see fall action. The raptors migrate south and Lake Erie funnels them west, right over LEMP. Hopefully the timing is right so many kettles will be seen drifting south on the drafts of warm air, drafts aren't found on the lake as much so the birds stick to the warmer land. All that's needed is a pass to the park, binoculars, food for a picnic and the need for having a fun time.

See hawks in the sky and meet a few at Lake Erie Metropark’s “24th Annual Hawkfest,” a two-day celebration of the annual fall migration of birds of prey - hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures - on Saturday and Sunday, September 21 and 22, from 10 am to 5 pm each day at the Marshlands Museum and Nature Center of Lake Erie Metropark in Brownstown.

Programs include talks on birds of prey, including an osprey update, raptor rehabilitation and the Oak Openings Raptor Project. Members of the Michigan Hawking Club will bring hawks and discuss falconry. Live birds of prey will be brought out during special programs by Joe Rogers on Saturday at 10 am and 3 pm, and the Howell Nature Center on Sunday at 11 am and 3 pm. Also, on Sunday, Reg Pettibone’s Native American Hawk Dancers will perform traditional “eagle dances” at 4 pm. Kids can play educational games and make crafts.

Each September, tens of thousands of broad-winged hawks pass over the park, which is designated as an Important Bird Area and one of the premier hawk watching sites in North America. All together, about 16 or 17 different species of migrating birds of prey fly overhead during the fall migration season. Hawk watchers will be counting migrating raptors, and their spotting scopes can be used to take a peek at birds in the sky. Typically, 200,000 birds of prey migrate over Lake Erie Metropark from September through November on their southward journey.

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The River has a Thousand Eyes

Sounds reminiscent of an old Twilight Zone episode, or a good day fishing in the spring when the walleyes are running. No, this is about the new world we live in. Cameras are every where from elevators to the streets of Missouri. Now an unfortunate rule breaker has been caught right at the head of the Detroit River. Fishing for the favored walleye he caught a trash fish, at least in his mind. The trash fish was a musky, not of legal size, so he made sure it wouldn't survive and then threw it back in.

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Everyone should be alarmed by this video, not in the way as it pertains to Ray Rice but in a way that cheapens our natural resources. Musky fishermen and especially musky clubs on both sides of the border are spitting mad about this. Some musky enthusiasts even have long tanks on their boats that they put caught fish in to recover after a long battle. These tanks are very expensive and almost required when fishing when the water is warm. So you can understand their voracity when someone kills one of their future prizes.

The buzz created by the video finally got to the authorities and he will be dealt with thru the proper channels.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/accused-muskie-hater-apologizes-for-killing-fish-and-heated-confrontation

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Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink

Blue green algae toxins have brought back the curse of the ancient Mariner.
Water everywhere but none to drink. The problem has existed for many years but for some reason no has become acute. Over 40 years ago there was a documentary about the Great Lakes and the narrator canoes from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario. As I remember the context of the film, past history of the waterway was compared to current conditions. When the canoeist gets to Lake Erie he dips his paddle into semi-pristine water and lifts it up to drink from the run off. Quite a trick to pull off but when you're thirsty it is refreshing. As the paddle hits the apex of the lift the water turns from 17th century water to the sludge that existed in the 1960's, green and chunky. Along with DDT and mercury problems many considered Lake Erie dead.

 

An effort was started to clean up the Great Lakes and things turned around quickly. However there's always been an algae bloom in Lake Erie and this causes a dead zone that can cause major fish die offs. The lake is shallow in terms of the rest of the Great Lakes and accepts many chemicals from the Detroit River and the Maumee. This feeds the algae and along with the warm temperatures of the shallow water their population takes off.


 







The problem is very complex with contributions coming from fertilizers and the waste of animals, including humans. Nowhere else on the Great Lakes does this problem happen even though almost every lake has the same types and amounts of contributors. Thankfully now the Feds are chipping in. $12 million is set aside to find out where the worst contributor exist. From manure to excrement to farm runoff, how much and where from. Hopefully we'll get some answers that solve this big problem and get the albatross off our necks.

Fine Dining at the Nature Center

After putting together the craft for the day, a crayfish trap, Chase took everyone down to the fire pit along with a few dozen of his new best friends. The crayfish were a little docile being store on ice in a cooler for a couple of days. Even so they displayed the double claw over the head move that give most predators a second thought about dealing with the pincher's. The taste of the fine dining usually overcomes this fear.

Most of the explorers have indulged in this delicacy so they don't know the reward is greater than the fear. With a little schooling about how to hold the crawdad all comers grabbed their own and added it to the boiling pot. Just grab behind the head because they can't reach behind it with those claws. Soon all had put in 3 or 4 and we had enough for a feast.

Next was getting at the reward. With help from the adults the explorers were peeling off the shells and dipping their tails in butter. A fine dine was had by all. Thanks Chase.

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Who Would You Want to Look in your Most Treasured Book?

Just about every fanatic outdoor person keeps a book of info garnered from outings into the unknown. Fisherman jot down weather observations, sunlight levels, lure color, trolling speed, how many of what kind of fish caught and on and on. Hunters also use weather observations and sunlight levels and with those direction deer are traveling, time of day which trails leading to which scrape/rub, which calls used and how many deer. As you can see people dedicated to an endeavor try to use all the info they can, whether good or bad, to help them harvest their game. Much of this info is kept secret, hard to come by details earned thru trial and error.

Who would you let look thru that encyclopedia of personal info and tips? Kevin Van Dam if you fish for bass, maybe. Tom Miranda if you're a big game bow hunter. I guess it depends on your fanaticism and what your game is.

 How about J.D. Martinez standing on first base unaware that someone has his secret hitting book.


Should JD be mad? Miguel is by all accounts the best hitter of a baseball in the world. I guess that's someone you'd let look at it but draw pictures, I don't know about that but in 25 years that book might just be worth more than the info inside, just look at the pictures.

Don't Look a Gift Turkey in the Snood

  This is an old story now but I'm finally getting around to tell it. Opening morning broke cool but not too crisp and the birds were very vocal. This is southern Michigan farm country and the amount of birds are amazing. I heard a few on the east part of the farm I was on, enough to keep my interest peeked. My cousin Jojo on the other hand was surrounded by a large flock of turkeys. As if they knew where he was and that it was opening day all the toms stayed too far away, even for him, to take a shot with the booming 10 gauge he uses. The toms I saw were thru binoculars in the farming field hundreds of yards away from my decoy set up. They would gobble to my calling but never took a step closer from the path they naturally take. A little after 10 it was time for breakfast.

  We got back about 1 pm after doing some road scouting. The sun was high and no birds were in the fields. Usually we see some toms trying to determine the pecking order but not today. So back to the blinds we went. On the way out to eat I took down my dominate ton hen pecking decoy so as not to educate any live toms in the area. So I set the decoys back up and got in the blind. Almost instantly and before I even tried calling I heard a gobble of to my east. I'm sure it was on of the toms I had heard gobbling earlier in the morning. I called and he gobbled for quite some time. He got close but nowhere near seeing range let alone shooting range. At some point during the excersice I asertained that what I thought were double gobbles were actually a different birds gobbles.

  Now to my west there were two different toms gobbling to my calls. They were very interested and I could tell one or both would be coming in to the decoys. I set up my camera to capture the event but things didn't go as I had hoped. This turkey came in but didn't go the right way. He's puffed up but became silent when he got close.

Here's the set up I wanted him to come into. He was headed that way but didn't make the commitment. He backed out and started coming straight toward me. I called and the other tom replied.

I had a hard time with the camera and was frustrated so I shot the tom the first chance I got. This was a really nice bird with a 91/2" beard and 1" spurs. A big 2-3 year old and probably still hanging out with his brother.

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Give a Man a Fish...

Have you ever wanted to learn to fish? Join the DNR for "Hook, Line and Sinker", a weekly fishing program conducted by our staff at over 30 state parks and fish hatcheries in Michigan.

They'll teach you casting and fishing basics, and we can provide a rod and reel to use if you don't have your own equipment. Hook, Line and Sinker programs begin in mid-June and continue throughout the summer.

Participants under 17 do not need a fishing license. Programs are FREE; however, a Recreation Passport is required for park entry.

The  experienced, friendly instructors will introduce you to fishing in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. With step-by-step direction, you'll learn fishing basics like knot-tying, setting up your pole, casting, selecting and using bait, and removing fish from the hook. After the 20- to 30-minute lesson, you'll be ready to hit the water and exercise your new skills.

There are many parks across the state that offer the program and the closest to the DR is - Sterling State Park, Monroe, 734-289-2715. Call for info.

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