nature lesson from the great lakes state

Hey Family,
while many Sportels are enjoying the beauty of CO, I want to help us remember what MI has to offer. First, I start with the spring ephemeral in my back yard. Does any one know what a spring ephemeral is? Sam? WEll below is an example. Bonus point (I don;t care if I am allowed to give points or not Ben) to anyone who can comment what a spring ephemeral is and why it is called that. Two examples are in my backyard; Trillium grandifolium, or (great) white trillium, which did real well this year and the one pictured below, Sanguinaria canadensis, or blood root. Hint: I took pictures because of that spring ephemeral thing.
That is an old picture. like April. Now, for what I did today. I had the afternoon to myself and it was an especially nice memorial weekend for MI. So I decided to finally break out my kayak and went solo to the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. I hit up too lakes. Hall lake is real nice. easy to get in and has nice flora, including some blooming Cornus florida. Mom and dad have one of these.
Secondly I went to Deep Lake. I was just going to check it out, but I decided to go for another paddle. I had the boat, why not. This lake was nice too, I was more impresses with the birds here though. First I saw the Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus, much cooler scientific name than common). I had to look this one up because I am not Uncle Steve. It was a normal looking little bird, but then I saw one almost hovering over the water like an oversized hummingbird. It was really moving. Then a couple of the birds chased each other around and I saw one going for a quick head splash in the water. Luckily I saw one on a branch later which helped me ID it when I got home. The picture below is of one from th internet, I didn't have my camera in the boat. I'm not that confident yet.
Another interesting bird I had seen before, but not like this. This was different for two reasons. I saw a nice pair of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). Before, I experienced flock after flock of them in Nebraska as we drove to CO, and another pair last fall at Fish lake near Orangville MI.
The pair I saw this time was first of all cool because of how close I was. I was working my way through a muddy canal that drained into the lake. Nice and quiet because it was far away from where other boats could fit and far from where people could walk because it was surrounded by reed and swamp. It was no problem for the cranes though. I saw hanging out near the edge. I put the kayak into neutral as I coasted by. They just stood there, 15 feet away at the most, probably with some fear. AS I passed they slowly strutted away from me Jurassic Park style and one made a little noise like a raptor.
I think the kayak allows you to get a little closer. I think it is not very intimidating because it is quiet and very low to the ground, making me shorter than the birds.
The second thing that made it interesting was their color. Apparantly the birds can sometimes stain there feathers. The preen (that cleaning thing they do to take care of there feathers, like ducks do all the time) with there muddy beaks and the feather get stained with the iron in the mud. I was a little confused at first when I saw the cranes looking more of a cattail brown than the usual grey blue. Then I used the bird book to solve yet another mystery. The picture below is of a stained one, but the links above have plenty of good pics too. Once again not my pic.

Another funny thing. So I was going down this canal thing to see where it led. Well it was pretty much just further into the swamp. This thing got so narrow that I actually had to get out and take my boat out of the water to turn around. It was very cool to do a kayak style bushwhacking adventure.
Oh yeah, I got pretty close to a Great blue Heron in my boat too. He was doing some weird neck thing and seemed very nervous, so I couldn't get as close as I did with the cranes.
I hope you all learned something.