Just Outside My Back Door

We’ve been back to our home state of Michigan for well over a month now after a three-month hiatus in Florida. I haven’t returned to my usual photography routine of taking pictures every day like I did in Florida or like I did through most of the pandemic years when all my regular routines were put on hold and I had time to pursue this hobby full time.

My picture taking days have taken a nose dive since returning to Michigan. It’s not that I’ve lost interest, or sustained an injury, or had a spate of bad weather. It’s pickleball. I’ve been distracted by pickleball.

There are pickleball courts right next to our condo, and there’s a whole community of pickleball enthusiasts nearby who are readily available to play. It’s impossible for me to stay home if I know there’s a pickleball game going on. As a result, I haven’t gone on any ‘field trips’ this spring or gone for many picture walks.

A male Grackle enjoying my peanuts and seeds

Mostly, I’ve been finding an hour or two here and there to stand outside our back door with my camera in hand to take pictures of all the usual suspects: woodchucks, woodpeckers, chipmunks, squirrels, white-tailed deer, and a wide variety of colorful songbirds. They’re all back there carrying on with their busy, productive lives even when I’m not there to document it.

The most interesting critter in our backyard has been the local woodchuck. I was standing outside our back door taking pictures of all the different birds landing in the nearby trees when I noticed movement about 50 feet from where I was standing. When I zoomed in on the mystery creature, I discovered it was a mama woodchuck transporting her little babies, one by one in her mouth from point A to point B. I’m not sure why she was moving them, but it was so much fun to watch! By the way, did you know that those little babies are called chucklings? I loved learning that little bit of trivia!

Mama woodchuck with one of her several babies

Then, the other day a red-headed woodpecker showed up! I rarely ever see them, and I’ve never seen one in our backyard! Getting a picture of a red-headed woodpecker was almost as exciting as getting one of a pileated woodpecker, but the pileateds are regular visitors to our yard, and the red-headed woodpecker was definitely not! So it was a great find!

The cutest little visitors are the chipmunks and the squirrels. They’re everywhere out there eating the fallen birdseed, digging holes everywhere in the grass, and constantly trying to steal birdseed from our second story feeders. But, they’re so darned cute and so photogenic I’m inclined to think of them as entertainment rather than irritating pests.

Among the most stunning creatures in our backyard are the wood ducks, the Baltimore orioles, the white-tailed deer, the yellow warblers and, perhaps, even our resident turkey. In all fairness, though, all the creatures I photograph are beautiful to me.

Wood Duck on Cherry Creek behind our house

I feel quite lucky to have such a wide variety of interesting creatures right outside my back door and I treasure all the opportunities I have to photograph them.

White-tailed Deer wondering what I’m up to

There’s no need to travel far to be amazed.

White-tailed fawn at the edge of the small wooded area behind our row of condos

A Holiday Collection

December 28, 2019

A beautiful wild Turkey at Kensington Metropark on a very frigid December day

In the span of just eight days, from December 19th to December 26th, my picture walk weather went from a frigid 16 degrees and 20 mile an hour winds to a balmy 61 degrees and no wind at all!

From the 19th to the 26th, I went from wearing two, three and four layers of clothing (depending on what body part I was trying to keep warm) to wearing almost nothing—no hat, no mittens, no earmuffs! It was warmer here in Michigan on Christmas day than it was in southern California! Go figure!

The hardest part of taking pictures on a really cold day, is keeping the fingers of my right hand from totally freezing off. My pointer finger (and its nearby friends) risk a bit of frostbite every time they leave the warmth and security of my mitten. Unfortunately, they are forced to venture out every single time I have to change the settings on my camera. What saved them on December 19th, though, was an early Christmas gift from my husband—a pair of toasty, re-chargeable hand warmers!

Winter days in Michigan, even when the weather is balmy and clear, is a challenging time to find things to photograph. I usually have to look long and hard to find anything at all. Fortunately, I enjoy the ‘hunt’. It’s a very relaxing endeavor to go on a picture walk because all of my attention is focused on the looking. When I actually do find something, my heart skips a beat —even if it’s ‘just another deer’ or ‘just another sparrow’. The subjects may be the same as yesterday but everything else is different—a different day, a different location, a different set of weather conditions. So I snap away to my heart’s content adding another hundred pictures to my rapidly expanding collection.

Starlings
There were dozens of these birds all gathered at the tops of the trees.

Starling, a beautiful but invasive species

Bluebird on Staghorn Sumac
I had been admiring the bright red sumac and wishing that a bird would land on one –and then this bluebird happened along!

Mute Swan
I was touched by the fact that beautiful swan let me get within a few feet of it without being scared off– so that I could take pictures of the ducks out on the pond!

Swimming on the Wrong Side of the Sun

November 25, 2019

Male Northern Shoveler at the Muskegon County Wastewater site
I love their huge beaks!

Almost all the snow had melted from our big, unexpected snowfall on November 13^th when my husband and I decided to take advantage of an unusually ‘balmy’ day for a picture walk. Temperatures were expected to be in the low 40’s– a relative heat wave compared to what we had been experiencing and it wasn’t supposed to rain or snow! So we headed up to the Muskegon County Wastewater Treatment Plant to see what we could find. With all of it’s man-made ponds, the wastewater site is a great place for birding!

A well-camouflaged Wilson’s Snipe at the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery

Until a few years ago, neither of us had any idea that a wastewater treatment site could be a great place to find birds. On our first visit there two years ago, we got to see an elusive Snowy Owl and were really hoping to see another one. What we found instead were tons of Northern Shovelers, a few Ruddy Ducks, the usual cluster of Mallards, lots of Buffleheads, a few Lesser Scaups, and a boatload of Geese and Gulls. Many of the birds we saw, however, were too far out in the water to get a decent shot, or they were swimming along the edges on the wrong side of the sun!

Killdeer at the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery

Juvenile Bald Eagle flying overhead at the Muskegon Wastewater site

Juvenile Bald Eagle and an adult Bald Eagle cavorting overhead
at the Muskegon Wastewater site

It’s a real challenge this time of year to even get out of the house and take pictures let alone find something interesting to photograph. The weather always plays a role in my decision making and it’s often too cold, too wet or too icy to go mucking about with expensive camera equipment. The upside, though, to winter photography is freshly fallen snow. It provides the perfect backdrop for all the birds who are out and about braving the elements along with you– and the bare trees make them infinitely more visible!

A beautiful Carolina Wren singing its heart out behind our house.

In spite of the vagaries of winter weather, I usually manage to get out for a picture walk on most of our winter days. More often than not, though, I lug my camera around for hours without finding much of anything. Fortunately, I’m easily entertained and all it really takes to keep me going, is one good shot — whether it’s a tiny wren, a solitary eagle, a wild turkey or even a common duck (just as long as it’s not swimming around on the wrong side of the sun!).