October 29, 2020

Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary

I had a chance recently to visit Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary, just off the road to White Cloud, Mich. Here, pink lady's slipper and star flower dot the rolling terrain around the eponymous lake, a pothole left by the last glaciation. Ringed by federally owned forest, the property had been a retreat for a wealthy Chicago family and their son-in-law Albert Schmidt. Schmidt eventually joined with the Santa Fe Impressionists in New Mexico. Before that the land was the rightful land of the Council of the Three Fires and the Odawa, Ojibway and Potawatomi.

It was a relatively warm fall day, the sun shining brightly and the landscape mostly yellows and reds, including the many blueberry bushes that were changing colors. I didn't detect much bird life, though, and was ready to call it a day. That's when I heard a black-capped chickadee call. Interesting, I thought, chickadees often attract other species during migration, forming little mixed flocks as they move through the woods.

I strained to see the chickadees, they weren’t making it easy, before I heard a repetitive high-pitched call. Bingo. Brown creeper, working its way high up in a tree. Again, these birds weren’t making it easy to see though. A couple minutes later, a bird smaller than a chickadee flits out for an insect, high up still. I’m thinking kinglet, and make out that it doesn’t have a mask like a chickadee and has a greenish-gray tone. Then it’s on to whether it’s a golden-crowned or ruby-crowned kinglet, and I note a black crown stripe and just barely detect a dash of yellow, almost more of a feeling of yellow or an expectation of yellow than an actual ID of yellow more than anything else. Soon enough, a white-breasted-nuthatch calls and just barely comes into view. I didn’t see much else—I heard a red-bellied woodpecker—but it was a pleasant experience to say the least.

Posted on October 29, 2020 01:47 PM by bobdolgan bobdolgan | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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