A Dog Named Norman

April 10, 2023

One of the many joys of a picture walk is never knowing what I’ll find or who I’ll meet along the way. Yesterday, I met a dog named Norman. It brought a smile to my face. Why would anyone name a dog, Norman, I wondered? It seemed like a very formal moniker for such a small, scruffy little beast. So, I posed the question to the human attached to the other end of the leash, “Why Norman?”  

“Well,” she said, “I named him after my dad who recently passed away.”

Black-capped Chickadee
White-tailed deer, a common visitor on my walks

That was even funnier, I thought, to name a dog after your dead parent, but I kept my chuckle to myself.  Instead, I shared the fact that my own father was also deceased and was also named Norman! For the life of me, though, I couldn’t even imagine naming a dog after my dead parent! It just didn’t seem right–and it conjured up an unappealing visual in my head of walking my dad on a leash and cleaning up all his messes!

Male Wood Duck

Earlier in the day, long before I met up with Norman, I had been walking along the creek behind our house hoping to find a wood duck in the early morning light. I expected one to swim out from the cattails along the bank, but it splashed down suddenly in the water next to me and jolted me out of my quiet reverie! Later, I was pleasantly surprised to find a female northern shoveler and a male blue-winged teal swimming in close proximity to the newly-arrived wood duck. What a great find! Both the shoveler and the teal are rare visitors to our creek!

Once the early morning light started to change, and no longer had that soft golden glow, I wandered through the woods adjacent to the creek and headed over to a nearby preserve where I hoped to find a loon.  I had never seen a loon here in Michigan, but knew that one had recently been spotted on the lake at the preserve and hoped I’d get a picture!

Common Loon

It took me awhile to find the loon. It’s not a very colorful bird, and it does have a habit of swimming rather low in the water. Even on a relatively small body of water, like the one I was visiting, loons can be difficult to spot.

The painted turtles were out in droves!
Male Mallard flying by

While I had my camera focused on the loon, something in my peripheral vision distracted me. It was an Osprey flying towards me on the left with a good-sized fish in its talons!! I turned to take its picture and didn’t have time to change the settings on my camera. I just started shooting as fast as I could and hoping for the best! In photography, this method of shooting is often called ‘spray and pray!’ Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s always worth a try.

My ‘spray and pray’ shot of the Osprey with the fish!

As I continued walking around the lake, I was delighted to find two great blue herons in relatively close proximity to one other! I’ve never seen two blue herons at the same time except at a rookery. A short time later, I spotted a third!

Great Blue Heron

One of the birds that never takes me by surprise is the Canada goose! It’s absolutely everywhere, but quite easy to overlook as a desirable photography subject. Even the most mundane of subjects, like the Canada goose, though, can make for a beautiful photograph given the right circumstances and a little bit of ingenuity. If nothing else, Canada geese are great subjects for practicing one’s photography skills; they’re not hard to find, they’re easier to photograph than smaller, flightier birds, and they really are stunning in their own right.

Canada Goose in peaceful repose only a few feet from where I was taking pictures of the wood duck
A busy little muskrat taking a snack break along the edge of Asylum Lake

On this particularly warm spring day, I also saw swans, turtles, grackles, and one very busy muskrat chewing away on something tasty; totally oblivious to my presence. Up in the trees surrounding the lake, there was a musical assortment of robins, chickadees, bluebirds, red-winged blackbirds, golden-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped warblers, and one little brown creeper scurrying up a tree.

Eastern Bluebird
Little Brown Creeper scurrying up a tree

I always head out on these picture walks wondering what kinds of surprises I’ll find or who I’ll meet along the way. Yesterday, my best surprise was the osprey with the fish, but the funniest surprise was the dog named Norman, and the story of his name. I’m still smiling!

Sandhill Crane

First Snow

November 10, 2018

path through woods 11-9-2018 9-02-16 AMI was so eager to get out the door yesterday morning to take pictures that I didn’t even take time to eat breakfast. It was the first snowfall of the season and I was hoping to catch lots of beautiful shots of otherwise ordinary things. I felt like I was ‘racing’ against time, though, because the forecast called for rain in just a few hours. Not wanting to lose any time driving somewhere, I just walked out our front door to explore the woods, streams and ponds in our complex.

It was so beautiful—and so incredibly quiet! The snowfall muffled all the sounds and it felt rather

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“What’s up world?”

magical walking so silently through the woods as a few lingering snowflakes drifted lightly to the ground. I’ll probably be sick of all the snow in a month or two, but yesterday, it was a wonderland. Even the squirrels looked cuter in the snow!

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Ruby Crowned Kinglet–A tiny bird seemingly overflowing with energy, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet forages almost frantically through lower branches of shrubs and trees.

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Golden Crowned Kinglet–Though barely larger than a hummingbird, this frenetically active bird can survive –40 degree nights, sometimes huddling together for warmth.

 

My favorite surprise, though, was finding and ‘capturing’ ruby crowned kinglets and golden crowned kinglets. I rarely see them. They are very small and  very quick –which makes it a bit of a challenge to get them to sit still long enough for a picture!

At that point in my walk, I had the added challenge of a camera that wouldn’t focus properly. I thought maybe the battery had gotten too cold to function so I pulled it out and tried to warm it up—ha! I wasn’t any warmer than it was! Eventually, though, I got it to work and had another ten minutes or so of picture taking before my little flock of kinglets fluttered off into the woods somewhere.

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White Throated Sparrow–another bird I don’t often capture and was thrilled to see.

Just for the record, yesterday’s bird ‘count’ included:  white throated sparrows, goldfinches, cedar waxwings, golden crowned kinglets, ruby crowned kinglets, cardinals, tufted titmice, mallards, geese and house sparrows.

 

 

 

 

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Willow Lake, another great spot for birds!

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Cherry Creek bridge where I often see herons, geese and mallards.

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My 8 point buck!!

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The new snow on the not-ready-for-winter trees looked lovely!

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Tufted Titmouse–Tufted Titmice nest in tree holes (and nest boxes), …they use natural holes and cavities left by woodpeckers. These species’ dependence on dead wood for their homes is one reason why it’s important to allow dead trees to remain in forests rather than cutting them down.

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One of several beautiful deer I saw yesterday morning that were easily within 10 or 15 feet of me.

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A mallard on the wing

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The cardinals really stand out in a winter woods.

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Golden Crowned Kinglet