Says it all!
When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen:
– There will be something solid to stand on, or
– You will be taught to fly.
This is the stuff of sleep aid commercials, but this one is real: Actias Luna, the Luna Moth. A friend shot this great photo this past week while on Drummond Island in northern Lake Huron.
But what of the Luna Moth – such a beautiful creature. It has no mouth to feed and doesn’t eat. It’s purpose in life is to emerge, mate and die, living perhaps one week before vanishing from your dreams.
Photo: Asheville Citizen-Times
Rangers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have closed two backcountry campsites due to overly familiar black bear.
Park officials say no one has been hurt. The closures are simply a precaution, a story in the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.
Bears have been coming into camps and getting close to campers, park officials have said.
The park bear population is estimated at 1,500. Staffers there say most encounters are uneventful.
The story reports that the closed areas are Campsite 113 in the southwestern end of the park in North Carolina and the Cosby Knob Shelter in the northeastern corner of the park on the Tennessee side.
Read more: Bear precautions
Found at Sculpture Gardens on Facebook
Ok. So it isn’t necessarily local and it isn’t necessarily good for you, but what a sweet twist on an old camping favorite. Now, how not to eat a whole bag…
By Howard Meyerson
Smaller shot sizes will be required to hunt ducks at certain waterfowl management zones. Photo by: Howard Meyerson
Smaller shot sizes will be required at two managed waterfowl hunting areas this fall if a proposal calling for No. 1 shot, or smaller is approved by the Natural Resources Commission for safety reasons.
Organized hunters have approached the state seeking changes at Pointe Mouillee and Harsens Island state game areas, according to state officials.
Larger, triple-B shot has been allowed, but hunters at those game areas have grown concerned about safety due to the close proximity of the hunting zones.
“We had a couple of incidents last year and the Harsens Island and St Claire Flats groups came and asked if we could look at shot-size, said Joe Robison, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife supervisor for southeast Michigan. “One hunter had to go to the hospital after shot penetrated his skin.” “This is going to improve the area and make hunting safer.” Continue reading
Imagine being able to walk from North Dakota to Maine.
Then, if you were really of a mind to, you could turn and hike down to Georgia.
That’s the gist of a Washington Post story today that discusses the progress, at long last, being made connecting the 4,600 mile North Country Scenic Trail with the Appalachian Trail. Both are part of the America’s National Trail System.
The North Country Trail is the nation’s longest hiking trail. It is long overdue to get this kind of exposure. Read more: Big Trail Connections.
To see a map showing the trail check out: North Country Trail Map.
Common sense would tell most of us that it is cheaper to ride a bike to work than to drive a car, but data compiled by League of American Bicyclists and others suggests a vast amount could be saved by riding even one day a week rather than driving.
How much? At least $4.6 billion annually, according to a story today in Forbes Magazine which reports:
“The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is $308, compared to $8,220 for the average car, and if American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the entire year, it would save more than two billion gallons of gas, for a total savings of $7.3 billion a year, based on $4 a gallon for gas.”
Read more: Pedaling to Prosperity.
Owls are such unusual birds with their big eyes that draw us in and calls at night that make us smile. Despite the warm-fuzzies most associate with owls, they are effective predators – raptors, plain and simple.
I came to know this first-hand some years ago, while hiking a remote northern Georgian Bay island. I came across a Great Horned Owl mid-day on the rocky beach. I don’t typically associate owls with daylight. They are nocturnal hunters by and large.
And yet, there it was, a knee-high bird standing on the sunny shoreline at mid-day. It had a large, mature seagull in its beak. The gull was so large that the owl was weighed down. It could fly only a few dozen yards before having to land again. It slowly hop-scotched down the shoreline and finally made a concerted effort to fly up into the trees.
This pair looks about as innocent as any owl could. But I suspect they will be terrors when they grow up – in that charming and unusual way that is so characteristic of owls.
If you enjoy owls, you might want to check out The Owls Fan Page on Facebook.
The St. Mary’s River produces more sea lamprey than all Great Lakes tributaries combined.
By Howard Meyerson
Sault St. Marie, Ont. — Anglers on the St. Mary’s River may notice a change in water levels in the river’s rapids in June and July. An experimental sea lamprey trapping effort below the Brookfield Renewable Power Co. hydro-dam there requires higher flows at night when spawning lampreys are more active, said Great Lakes Fishery Commission staffers.
This is the second season of the experiment and the flow-change agreement between GLFC and the power company. Researchers say the river produces more lampreys than all other Great Lakes tributaries combined. The trapping experiment is testing net designs and the effectiveness of changing the dam’s flow regime.
“There are about 15,000 spawning sea lamprey in the river,” said Mike Siefkes, the GLFC sea lamprey program specialist. “We now capture about 4,700 lampreys at all the trap sites on the river. We get 3,500 at the power site.
“That’s about 23 percent of the river population and we are looking to improve our trapping efficiency and double that to 60 to 70 percent, closer to 9,500 to 10,000 lampreys.” Continue reading
After more than 30 years in the outdoor writing business, you would think I'd know better.
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