Bill and I don't get a lot of time to just do whatever we want. Certainly we don't have time to waste. So when we have a free day we think long and hard about how we are going to spend that time. Recently, with the summer camping programs coming to an end we have had a couple of those very precious days to decide what to do with.... And it's late in August...and the monarch butterflies are starting to migrate....sooooo we used our first free day to go see if they were gathering in the U.P. on the shore of Lake Michigan waiting to make their long journey across the big lake. Oh, and Clydes Drive Inn in St. Ignace is on the way...
Perhaps many people would find it a silly endeavor to take a three hour drive on the chance that you might see a few (or a lot) of monarch butterflies, but that's how we roll. We like each others company and time in the car where we can only visit, listen to music or podcasts, and enjoy each other is something we look forward to.
This is what we listened to this trip 'This American Life' NPR "The Feather Heist" a must listen. We love a few other podcasts too but that is a blog for another time.
Dewitt Jones who's quote I have named this post is someone I was introduced to by my mentor Jim Doty. He is a retired National Geographic photographer who now does really great inspiring talks. In one of Jones's most famous talks he quotes another famous photographer Minor White who says "Don't ask what will I take today, ask what will I be given today".
We set out to find and photograph the monarch migration but when we got to our destination we found only three butterflies.
So we would not "take" many photos of the monarch migrations instead we were given...Pelicans!
I have never seen Pelicans in Lake Michigan before. I've seen them in Yellowstone National Park, which surprised me as I think of them as being a very southern bird. According to our friend Steve Baker (experienced birder) White Pelicans actually nest in Michigan on the islands in Lake Michigan off of Escanaba. Who knew (well he did)
We also saw these cool things. (be sure to click on the image to scroll through the images)
We then moved on to the Seney Wildlife Refuge, a favorite place. And boy were we treated to a show by the loons and juvenile loons there!
Almost a week later I read that many areas had reported over night monarch "roosts". Surly they were close to migrating. So, call us insane if you like, but after Bill was done working at the bakery we took another drive up to see what was going on.
This time we saw TWO monarchs!
So off we went to Seney again. More loons, some sandhill cranes, and a gorgous sunset!
