Day 4: Barataria

The day after the marathon, we wanted to be out walking and moving around to work out the soreness in our legs. So we headed over to Barataria Nature Preserve. The view from the car driving over a bridge:Me, in front of the information place:
It was gorgeous!
We had a bird checklist, so when we saw something new, we could narrow down its possible identity:
We saw plenty of black vultures flying around; this guy was resting:
More scenery:
Some ibis walking around:
We stopped at a grocery store and had a picnic lunch near the preserve:
At another location, we found many armadillos! This guy was walking on the path, following behind us:
The armadillo is in the background:
This cute little raccoon was foraging around:
Crocodile! (Or, alligator; I can't tell)
There were many different habitats, so we got to see a variety of birds. Many of them were small and fast-moving, so no pictures. Luckily trees don't move!
Another armadillo, walking on the boardwalk:
And a snake on the boardwalk!
We stayed there all day, and returned to our car after dark. As the sun was setting, here's an egret. I loved how you can see his reflection.
We hated to disturb this egret, but he was perched on the side of a bridge we needed to cross.
Searching, mostly unsuccessfully, for more birds:
But we did see a squirrel:
This picture gives an idea of how dark it was. We didn't get him on camera, but we saw a black rail here:Rails are quite elusive, so this was very exciting!

Me, close to the car:
And with that, we returned home after a long but successful day of birding.

Day 5: More Birding

The next day, we did some more birding. This seemed to me to be a typically Louisiana picture:A little shorebird on the mudflat:I love how Brian captured this seagull in mid stretch:We had to walk out along this ledge to get a better view:
Back at the information area. We'd asked where the best places in the park for birding could be found, and a very nice woman told us to follow her in her car.We would have walked right past this tree:But if you look closely, there was a great horned owl nesting there! (The woman let us take a picture through her scope):
We were lucky to see the striking red-headed woodpecker:
Then, off to another marshy area:We were just getting ready to leave when Brian heard a rustling in the grass. We decided to stay longer to see what might materialize. I am so glad we did as it was a king rail! We watched her for probably about 10 minutes. Our bird book said you probably won't see any rails -- just hear them -- as they are so elusive. And we got to watch her for a long time. It was great.
One final bird of the day:We returned home earlier than we had the night before in order to go for a short run. It felt great to run again, though we ended up running along the tram lines which could be a little nerve-wracking when a tram was coming! Luckily, they don't run very frequently and we were always able to get out of the way. The tram line appears to be one of the main running routes in the city.

Day 2: Hiking

On our first full day in Michigan, we were excited to get out and see some wildlife. particular birds, though we are very bad birders as we don't have binoculars! (This trip revitalized our interest in birding and we have binoculars on order that will hopefully be here by the end of the week).

There was a nice hiking trail withing walking distance of our cabin, so that's where we headed.Stopping at a stream, hoping to see something:
I got a little hot with my jacket, so Brian offered to (insisted on) carrying it. I think it was so he could have more bug protection! Luckily for me, the bugs were bothering him and leaving me alone!
Unknowingly, Brian had trapped a bug on his head when he put my jacket over his head to keep the bugs out. And then wondered why there was non-stop buzzing! He finally realized what had happened, got the bug out, and resumed his protective head cover.
Taking a rest and contemplating the beauty:Most of our wildlife sightings were signs of wildlife rather than the animals themselves, such as woodpecker holes:
And deer tracks:There were all kinds of interesting fungi growing:
In the middle of the trail, we came across this sad little chair (we did not sit on it!):
They are camouflaged, but here are two black-capped chickadees who were building a nest on top of this tree:More beautiful scenery:
Finally, the bugs got to be too much for Brian, who tried to scare them away with his jacket:

You can see Lake Superior in the background:We needed to cross a stream to get over to the lake. The first bridge option was pretty rickety:The more stable looking bridge had a barrier placed so we had to go over it to get to the bridge:A pretty wildflower growing on the barrier:Side view of the rickety bridge. Yes, that is a round trunk used as support!When we finally got to the lake, we skipped some rocks:A butterfly:We heard a frog, so we tried to locate him in the pond. These guys hide very well, but we finally saw him:
We walked back over the bridge:But then realized we needed t go back over the bridge again in order to follow the (confusing) trail. This bridge looks unstable, but we were walking over solid ground, so if we'd fallen off, our feet wouldn't have even gotten wet.It took us a lot longer to finish the hike than we anticipated. We had a great time, though! We walked back to the cabin. We ate lunch and then Brian did a sauna while I read and napped a bit. And did more of that through dinner. It was wonderful!