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Welcome to the Pine River Review. Our sight is dedicated to our little homestead located along the Pine River tucked inside the Chippewa Nature Center's 1400 Acres of wild in Michigan's lower penninsula. We love to share our pictures, video, comment, and our own homespun music. Step inside our world as we celebrate this beautiful nook!


Monday, November 12, 2012

With Respect to Cavegirls...

 
 
    It seems that Fall has moved by me with astounding speed from the first unexpected tinges of red and gold in the hardwoods to these latter days of burnt orange, peppery grays, and of course, the omni-present browns that crunch underneath my feet. I have stayed pretty close to home for the most part this Autumn season except to visit Shiawassee Wildlife Reserve once on a preemptive photographic attack before it's borders were closed off to all but the bird shot slinging shot gunners. Fortunately, my own backyard can keep me busy with photo ops. Such is the blessing of living inside the wild and gun fire free boundaries of the Chippewa Nature Reserve along the Pine River. The wintering birds are arriving and I'm getting acquainted with a troupe of regulars that will have become old and dear friends by winters end. Take this Red-bellied woodpecker as an example, I've had plenty of opportunities to capture it's profile in the cloudy all day twilight so common in a Michigan November. The difficult trick, and it has become something of an obsession, has been to catch him (her?) clearly in-flight. Believe me, those wings are beautiful spread out airborne. That shot, when it comes, will take light and luck to pull off and Luck has been at hand, providing for example; a flock of Cedar-waxwings just at the golden hour scarfing up dried cherries in the orchard. I have been able to creep close and drop the shutter on these genteel souls often. So, the luck is there.
Now all I need is light. 

 

 


 
  Eaten Alive
 
    Night drops like an iron curtain at 5:30. After that the woods and river that surround my home crowd in with a deep and impenetrable darkness. When your out in "The Dark" and most especially alone, deep shadows can transform branches into bears and boulders into tusk wielding wild boars. Those under functioning hunter gatherer instincts, formed over 200,000 years of living in the field, can flood your central nervous system with an uncontrollable dread, the fear of being hunted and eaten alive by fellow creatures. I have seen this outdated instinct run amok in my partner Suzanne who has come to live with me in the pseudo wilderness outside fortress Detroit, leaving the street-light drenched safety of city nights behind. The call of the wild is heavy upon her and she feels a little threatened by it, just my opinion. 
   Yes, there is an increasing population of wild feral hogs in the general area and it is open season all year 'round on them, even the odd male bear has been seen to roam through the county in the early spring dejectedly looking for territory... But really, the circumstances surrounding the last person eaten alive by a wild animal in Mid-Michigan probably had a saber-toothed tiger associated with it.
   I have no problem walking through the neighboring woods at night, (that's how brave I am!) I kind of like the feel of hair standing up on the back of my neck. From here we can charge across the road and hike for miles through the familiar forest, lucky us. We do so nearly everyday and Suzanne is wonderful to walk with, when the sun shines. Her amazing sense of hearing and smell fill in nicely for my siren ears and other smoke reduced sensations.
   However; as visibility subsides and the other senses heighten in importance, she detects the aroma of things that are not there. Walking at night sets her on edge. Her freshly fueled ancient instinct to check for the possibility of wild animal threats burns brightly and unashamedly against a truly dark nightfall. At the witching hour the prehistoric Bio-chemistry that boils up from below bubbles away any small comfort statistical analysis can bring. In a single adrenalin filled heartbeat imagination can easily best boring old common sense.
   Last night Suzanne served us more than a morsel of shear fight/flight terror. We had just arrived home and I went in to unlock. Suz was alone outside unpacking the trunk when a pack of coyotes within a spears throw of our front door started howling loudly and plaintively. She yelled for me to come quickly. The blood curdling din, such as I have never heard, did not abate and the look of vindication on her face, that I told you so moment, well, I'm sure that has not changed in a hundred thousand years.
    Give the cavegirl credit, she had it right this time.   
 
     
 
 
 
Speaking of Howlin' Wolf... 
 
     I have been pushing my study of bass guitar perhaps a little to hard. My left hand is in a uproar. I am rehabbing, but what I need right now is to lay off. The Rickenbacker lays tilted against the couch pleading, "What's up man, wanna play?" How can I not say yes? So I pick it up and bang on it long enough to test for pain and stiffness and set it back down. I've got a gig Wednesday night; blues and rock for three hours straight, no breaks. Stupid right? That's why I'm being so good about icing and heating, I sure don't want to be dragging around a lame hand when things get cookin'.
     I am in dire need of diversion.
   

 
     Many a blues man has remarked about a supernatural influence on their playing. A crossroads moment if you will, when a sort of deal is struck with destiny. Did Robert Johnson truly sell his young soul? I've often thought Bob Dylan's deal involved never being able to come off the road in exchange for his genius and fame. These are extreme cases, often fate pushes it cause in subtler ways.
     I was tired of woodsy solitude and made the trip to town. Always I hit the second hand stores. Here I find my people, a little tattered around the edges, with that shy, yet wonderfully optimistic personality obsessive/compulsive people tend to have. Like them, I look for odd bargains and project materials mostly, occasionally I find something more. When I started poking through a bin of cassette tapes I had no idea what I was getting into. One after another old blues titles emerged; Robert Cray, Robert Johnson, Bobby Blue Bland, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and on and on 'till my arms were filled with 50 of the little treasurer chests. What a gift, and they were half off too, the whole lot set me back only ten bucks! 
    As I play through these gems, so eloquent and soulful, I wonder, who originally collected them and why and how did they wind up on a shelf for me to stumble upon in a second hand store? Like the movie, "The Red Violin," the history of ownership can be as interesting as the object itself. 
    Certainly this find was a good push in the right direction for me, positively enlightening, and yes, I feel a little personal visitation from the powers that be was involved. The whole experience had that peculiar otherworldly vibe. Could moments like these soon be outlawed? 
    In my country, before our Supreme Court, rests this question: Should it be illegal for Americans to resell or give away their privately owned copyrighted material such as books, C.D.'s, and DVD's?
    Copyright owners argue that they should be paid every time their work changes hands. If our Justices come down in favour of publishers interests over the rights of property owners used book stores, thrift shops and their E-quivalents like Amazon and E-bay, will be restricted from selling used items such as these. The very premise of a lending library or a neighbor to neighbor sale might be threatened.
    Consumerism could reach new depths with this "buy and burn" idiocy.
 
   Will new rule?... and the Hand Me Down Blues sung from sea to shinning sea?
      
 
  
 
            Be there or be square!   ;-)WBW!

40 comments:

  1. I do love your birds!!! And the flowers, of course! Always fun to see your post and, as always, I enjoyed it very much! Hope your week is going well!

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  2. Good to read a new post from you Springman; missed your lively accounts of your birding moments. Cedar Waxwings very smart and how lovely the berries hung on the branches; looking a lot like Christmas already. A red-bellied woodpecker, minus a red belly? Just a red crowning glory (mo-hawk) to show off? Is it a juvenile perhaps …? I loved your account of Suzanne's encounter with the coyotes; I guess she's being 'conditioned' and one day she'll be as brave as you are and stalk the woods in the depths of the night with no qualms. There is a good book in your Springman if ever you become weary of blogging. Maybe it's sitting on your back-burner for the days when your knees might prefer 9-5 sitting at a keyboard, racing your fingers across qwerty tabs. I'm sure good light will prevail and you and your camera will seize the moment with great dexterity. Last thing; I love rockin' music and guitar especially. I hope you might sneak in a blues and rock u-tube for your fans.

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    1. Thank you Carole.
      The Red on the belly is barely a blush. We need to lobby the bird naming committee!

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  3. Greetings - nice to hear your voice again! And you have woodpeckers, which you may remember are a personal fav or mine! For all my rational understanding that there is very little in the bush in SE Australia that can do harm (apart from snakes, spiders and scorpions!) the unexpected noise in the bushes still gets the hormones flowing!

    WBW going well - and I have a treat on it for this week - it will publish in 5 hours!

    Stewart M - Australia

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    1. Ah yes, the big three...Lions, tigers, and bears. Or as you put it Mr. Stewart; Snakes, Spiders, and Scorpions!!!! Not to mention the Great Whites menacing off your shores! I'll stick to the woods if you don't mind!
      Bless you and WBW!

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  4. the coyotes are very active here, too, but that's to be expected when you're out in the countryside. :)

    love your waxwing photo. so soft and subtle.

    good luck with the gig!

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  5. An enjoyable read this morning until I got to the final paragraph...yikes! You're not making this stuff up are you? No, I know you are not for it is just something insane enough to be running through our government's pea brain. Have a good time this Wednesday night and take your Aleve or Advil, whatever works for you.

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    1. Yes Sir, I always take a double Motrin and hour before going out. This crazy drummer I work with can run marathons around me and does not slow down.
      More on the story.... I will print a link on the post....
      Copyright laws changed drastically to favor publishers a few years back. This is the second prong of their attack to eke out more market share. What a power grab.


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  6. Incredibly gorgeous shots! You have a very good eye and amazing skill with your camera.

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  7. Beautiful shots of the birds as always Dave. The thing is, I miss your most excellent pros more than anything. Thanks for the treat and "Rock On!"

    On another note, it really irks me when wildlife refuges close to everyone but hunters. These are public lands and should be open to the general public always. If folks want to kill the wildlife they should be limited to a section of the refuge only.

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    1. I'm with you on this one Larry. I would love to get in there when they're shooting, right at peak migration. At Shiawassee photographers and sightseers are shut out from October until the Bald Eagles fledge, and that's in July! Bird hunters pay a lot of bills and have huge drag politically. I'm the one getting the cops called on me for taking bird pictures. It's easy to be subversive these days!

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  8. Hiya fella, great to see you back! lovely post in so many ways, seems I can meet you on a couple of topics here... firstly got the Waxwings here in the UK this weekend past (see my post...!) of course our are the Bohemien species. And secondly a top Bluesman was born here in my own Town of Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK..... John Mayall.

    Happy Days Springman, good to have you back fella

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    1. Oh yes!
      John Mayall is a old favorite of mine and I have a ton of his earlier music. It takes about one note to recognise that voice. You have a great native son there. British blues is a miracle I don't quite understand. Your national genius for it I mean. Look at the gifted players that have come through Mayall's group alone, they are second to none. This is a subject I definitely warm up too. By the way, his 70th B-day concert on dvd is a hoot.
      Cheers to you Sir!

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  9. Great to hear from you, old friend! Your images are breathtaking!

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  10. Springman, awesome photos of your woodie. Sounds like you are having an exciting time there. I was surprised Bombay Hook NWR closed off a section of their refuge for hunting this past weekend. We were there on a Sunday, you would think they would give people a break on Sunday, they can hunt every other day. The coyotes screaming would send chills right thru me. Glad to see your post!

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    1. Getting thrown out of your Wildlife Reserve for months on end is tough. I know I'm primed to go at migration time and it seems cruel to be completely disenfranchised right at that moment!

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  11. How did I miss your return to blogland until just now! Hooray. So much good stuff in this post, I don't even know where to start, except I enjoyed it all. The pictures of course...wonderful woody and my favorite, the waxwing. And I am of course, one with Suzanne on the night critters issue. Though at first I thought you were going to be talking about mosquitoes under the topic 'eaten alive"...

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  12. Beautiful shots! I have to laugh about your coyotes. I have spent countless hours cruising cemeteries and golf courses here looking for coyotes. I hear other people reported seeing them and they keep hiding from me. You have them out your front door. Maybe a meet-up at your place is in order.

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    1. I wish I could predict their arrival like Suzanne can. That is a great party idea. We already have meteor parties.
      BTW we watched "The Grey" last night. That movie should help satisfy your coyote fixation. When I turned off the TV and the room went pitch black the little LED lights on entertainment center looked like a pack of wolf eyes lit up in the distence. We were afraid to go to bed.

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  13. So good to link up again Springman! I've missed your beautiful, amazing pictures, and I love your stories..
    It sounds like you are enjoying yourself in a wonderland of nature. Can't get any better than that..
    The coyotes have been making a comeback around here too, but so far they haven't gotten too close. A few years ago I did hear them in our front yard one night, and that is an unforgetable frightening experience.
    I spent this past Saturday taking pictures and videos at our son's FF2 final class, Next step, Fast Team..And then Sunday at our DIL's final scene support class. She is juggling this with her nursing classes .I'm so proud of both of them.
    I'm so sorry our teams hit the dirt this year, but there is always next year,hopefully-- I'll be there to root them on again.
    Take care.

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    1. Our recent experiences on the East Coast point to the need for well trained First Responders. The idea of Civil Defence organised by the People (read Government) is paramount. God help us if they privatise that!
      I'm sure your son and DIL are a blast to be around with all these exciting achievements being accomplished. But if you think that is exciting, wait till that first fire!
      Sad isn't it? Tigers are first losers.

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  14. Sparingman, you are back in form and in force! Great narrative about primeval instincts. I miss the coyotes that wailed outside my bedroom window in New Mexico, though I have heard them a couple of times in the cornfield next to our NE Illinois condo. In fact, this past week a coyote ran off with a little Yorkie in the yard of a nearby home.

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    1. "primeval instincts" don't you just love the way that sounds?
      (...)moment of silence for Yorkie.

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  15. Great photos of the birds and nice to know you are still watching and photographing them.

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  16. Waxwings are amazing! LOVE your shot!

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  17. Stunning series of shots here, Springman.. got a chuckle out of the BTBS phrase :) haven't heard that one in many moons.

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  18. I really enjoy reading your text, you're a great writer! Nice shots of the woodpecker also, looking forward to seeing that flight shoot!

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    1. Oyvind, Cheers to you Sir!
      I've been working hard on that woodpecker flight shot for a little over a month, maybe today. I figure it's one of those one in a thousand shots, I'm not even half way there yet!

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  19. Oh, it's good to read your stories and view your wonderful photos again. I have tried in vain to get a good flight shot of a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I have several unidentifiable blurs. The Cedar Waxwings in your post and the header shot are gorgeous captures.

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    1. Getting a blur is no small accomplishment, way better than empty frames!

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  20. Just found your blog and will be busy trying to catch up on your older posts and pictures! We have a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers that make the back yard home but you're right, getting a decent flight image has been a challenge! Great post. -- Wally\

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  21. Hey Dave, good to see a post from you. The banner/header image, as well as the other Cedar Waxwig images...oh my, touch my heart...love them. I am really bummed, for the past 2 years, they have been here and somehow, I have either missed them, or they skipped us...Take care~

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  22. A great read, Springman! And love that shot of the waxwing. They are such gorgeous birds to begin with, and even more so when you couple them with red fruit. Great story about the coyotes too! (I can sympathize with your first sentence about early nightfall -- now that the clocks have changed, the sun sets at 4:23 in the Boston area. Means I won't be heading home in the daylight until March or so.)

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  23. Great to "see" you again, Dave!! Beautiful bird shots as always and a great read.

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  24. Good to see you out and about, Sir Springman...

    Am wondering why they call it a red-bellied woodpecker, when the red seems to be especially on its head. Though after googling a red headed woodpecker, I see there is a big difference between the two.

    Any attempts to regulate what people do with second hand copyrighted material will simply push such business farther underground into the darkness of the black markets, no ? What a bunch of rot ! Stock up while you can on the old treasures out there.

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    1. Mr. Owen,
      How wonderful to get a visit from you Sir.
      I've never seen a true red headed woodpecker, the one with the completely red headand the fact is they're supposed to be home to my region. The Red-bellied is, I agree, a puzzle if you go into it expecting to see a red belly. The color is really a blush, and only appears at certain times of the year. And it's not like they don't have that outstanding red Mohawk. A good marketing person would surely emphasize that.
      In the Mohawk language; karontakaroks = woodpecker. Add that to your knowledge base!
      Why does it have to be the Big Scary Black Market? Why not just "the market"? I remember exchanging money on the black markets in Europe and Africa back in the early 70's. A hundred dollar bill went a long way back then. I did not feel guilty about bypassing the official rate. Don't let the middle man make you feel guilty about not paying him, that is his main trick. The odds are always in favor of the House, don't worry they do okay.

      "Stock up while you can on the old treasures out there."
      Well noted Mr. Owen. "And don't trust your Stuff to the Cloud" I might add.

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  25. Sorry I'm a bit late commenting on this post Dave... It's nice to see your still posting and capturing some wonderful images.

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  26. Hi Dave, beautiful photography. I'm just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
    http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/

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  27. Awesome post with a lot of great photos of colourful birds. I like this a lot!

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