The north woods

Last night I woke up shivering in my sleeping bag with the wind howling over the tin roof of the cabin. The woodstove burned out but too reluctant to crawl out of bed. It's official, I'm back. Northern Michigan and the Great Lakes.

I'm here to teach at the Biological Station, a station for studying and teaching biology. Sort of like a summer camp of sorts, made up of researchers, students, and eclectic hippie outdoorsy types interested in the natural world. Ecology, geology, botany, ornithology, archaeology, and all types of inquiry. Run by the University of Michigan and based up in the northern most tip of Michigan's lower peninsula, just before crossing the straits of Mackinaw. A land of aspen and paper birch forests, innumerable lakes and singing loons. Small towns and outdoorsy living in the land between the lakes. I'm up here for the second spring in a row to teach an intensive field ecology course for the next month to undergraduates, most with little real experience in the field. Its a great atmosphere to learn, a special community of people, and amazing magical place for me.

Spring is very late in arriving here. The trees are only now beginning to leaf out and the weather is testy and temperamental. Soon the aspen trees will drape the forest floor in a snow of seedy down and birds will be hatching to coincide with the spring insect hatches. Today was blustery and cold, but we spent most of the day indoors anyway getting CPR/First Aid training for the course. Tomorrow the students will be arriving and in place of lonely solitude will be a bustling community of new faces.

For now I'm enjoying that solitude though, along with this loon. Symbol for me of wilderness and most certainly a good omen, lucky. I snapped this shot of him hunting along the lake edge, the leaves of the far shoreline colored in spring hues.