Stalking the wild robin, Yooper blog & spring photos

Green grasses survive the winter; peeking up through snow

OK, what shall we talk about today first?  Stalking the wild robin or Yooper Blog? Time to visit the coin jar, find a penny and toss it in the air.  How about:  Heads = robins,  Tails = Yooper Blog.  You’ll just have to wait for Spring Photos until later.

The penny says…one moment please for the toss…tails it is!  We shall discuss Yooper Blog.  Specifically, a blog called Yooper Steez, also referred to as The Ultimate Upper Peninsula Blog.  It’s part of a website promoting our beautiful northern peninsula of Michigan, and you might want to check it out.  The promoter of this website is Justin “Bugsy” Sailor and he’s actually the brother of one of our son’s friends from high school.  So we’ve watched this fellow grow up and it’s cool to see him promoting our wonderful Upper Peninsula.  (A Yooper is a resident of this fair peninsula, and Steez means “style with ease” according to Bugsy.)

And guess what?  Justin asked me to write a guest blog and send some photos.  For some reason, this wasn’t an easy assignment.  Do check out his blog.  (You don’t have to read what I wrote…you regular readers already know the scoop.)  Just scroll through his blog and, if you look through photos, you can witness people wearing Yooper Steez t-shirts from around the world.  Our son’s photo is actually in there…from his winter vacation in Zihuateneno, Mexico.  See if you can find him.  Any Yoopers among you might even want to buy a t-shirt.  I’m pondering it myself.

Look! The leaf melted a perfect leaf-hole in the ice

As for stalking the wild robin, I am still shaking my head.  Last night Barry said, “Hey, have you seen any robins yet?” and I swear my heart stopped for a moment.  Because…unbelievably…I had forgotten about robins.  Forgot about them completely. 

Which is the oddest thing, considering that every year for the past thirty years we begin our robin-search in late March.  My good friend, Lyn, celebrates a birthday on March 27th and so often a robin appears to announce Spring.  The only excuse for forgetting robins is my vacation down in Florida last week.  But, still, that’s not much of an excuse.

The minute Barry mentioned our migrating state bird, my eye fixated on the lawn.  Again and again, searching for that harbinger of warm weather.  My husband thinks he spotted one while I was in Florida, but it wasn’t a definitive spotting.  We need a definitive spotting. 

On the way to town today, I surveyed every scrap of dry land.  No robin, no robin, no robin.  Then I started thinking about spring photos when…suddenly…a bird that looked suspiciously like a robin took flight over the car and landed on a telephone wire.  But you couldn’t really tell.  Was it or wasn’t it? 

Final decision:  not a definitive spotting.  I will let you know when we’ve stalked the wild robin and can definitively identify it.  A photo may or may not accompany the stalking.  Stay tuned.

Sideways view of bristly sharp grasses sticking through leaves

Finally, Spring Photos.  There are thirteen interesting ones I’d love to post for you.  Unfortunately, there’s not enough space.  Alas.  I’m also not sure if those of you in more southern climes would “ooohhh” and “ahhhhh” over the ferns and wintergreens and other greenery that’s wintered under the snow.  But we Yoopers are enamoured by green at this time of year.  Any green.  Light green, dark green, vibrant green, green poking through snow or under ice.  (Were you amazed by the perfect leaf-hole in the ice?  I thought it was the most amazing sight.)

So here’s a final light-ish green photo in this spring series.  March is “going out like a lion” tonight with the wind howling wildly, so I wanted to get this published early, in case the power goes out.  Happy Spring to all!

Beautiful lichen...or is that moss? Anyone know the difference?

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