WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY

Earth Day comes one day a year – April 22nd. It should be every day in my humble opinion.

These days “Earthlings” must rejoice in every nature encounter because the flora and fauna that existed for most of our lives will one day be gone due to Man’s inability to care about Mother Earth.  We spray harmful pesticides everywhere, causing countless butterflies and bees to bite the dust. Once upon a time, birds and animals were respected as fellow beings, but sadly no more, something I’ll dwell on later in this post.

Weather woes.

Since I began my walking regimen in 2011, I am much more in tune with the weather, consulting multiple weather sites daily before setting off on a walk, even though surely I am not made of sugar and won’t melt if it DOES rain. 

But, the dramatic climate changes are much more worrisome to me.  The weather across the world now is erratic and frightening.  While walking I ponder many things and often reflect on how I, like most Michiganders, took our four distinct seasons for granted.  Yes, there was the occasional welcome January thaw, or a need-to-grab-a-sweatshirt-before-heading-out day in August, but it was never the roller-coaster weather we experience nowadays.

I’ve taken a lot of long walks in nature recently to bolster my sagging walking stats which nosedived in Winter and early Spring.  Winter and Spring were sparring most of March and early April, but once Spring erupted, it did so in earnest after a minor snowfall just the week before! 

This past week was finally filled with sunshine and warm, even gentle breezes.  Yes, I loved feeling the sun in my face and this time I wore a sun hat every day after burning at the Boardwalk at Dingell Park on March 13^th when flukey weather ensued and temps soared to the 70s while I gazed at ice floes still clinking about in the Detroit River.

Last Thursday, I took a three-hour walk wherein the temps were 25 degrees above normal with a “real feel” of 90F (32C) by the time I got back to the car at 1:30 p.m.  It was stinkin’ hot and yes, of course, I said I would not complain about the heat after our brutally cold Winter, but it was really TOO hot and TOO soon.  There I said it and I thought it would take at least until June to utter those words.

The winds of change.

The expression “the winds of changes” almost became the title of this post, but I remembered this great Thoreau quote I had tucked away and used it instead. 

Here in Michigan we have dealt with incessant gusty winds for months now, going back to last Fall.  For a long time, I thought it was my imagination – was I not mindful of gusty winds in the past? Then I learned from two meteorologists I follow on social media that Michigan is one of five states dealing with above-average wind gust speeds.

This is due in part to our unsettled weather patterns of late.

Last weekend I strolled the shoreline at Lake Erie Metropark where Lake Erie’s waves were crashing onto the huge boulders.  There was no wake from freighters, nor pleasure boats  – the water was whipped up by the wind.

I was walking at Lake Erie Metropark exactly one year ago, marveling how many marshes were bone dry.  While strolling on the wooden overlooks, instead of gazing into the water, I was looking at dirt and lifeless reeds.  So, after spotting Paul Cypher, one of the interpretive guides on a trail, I stopped to ask him about this strange sight and his response was “the incessant winds are drying up the marshes” and then added “it is going to get worse.” 

Well, Paul was correct and I saw this for myself right after photographing the wild-looking waves last week.

Not every marsh is dry, but the water levels are definitely down.

I’ve taken even more pictures this past week at other venues and it is the same thing. In this photo below you can see the shoreline is now mud. This makes me wonder what will happen to the habitat for all the waterfowl?

The plight of Michigan’s geese.

My heart continues to hurt about the destruction of my favorite nature nook, Council Point Park.  Not only is there the scarcity of squirrels, reduced after Winter’s brutal circumstances, but now even the Canada geese, always in abundance at this venue, are scarce.  I now wonder if goslings will debut at the Park as they usually do, just before Mother’s Day?  We generally have up to five families of geese that appear in the months of May/early June.  The geese nest along the shoreline, which continues to look raggedy and bare and the water level is very low there as well.

But, if I am dismayed daily by the plight of Council Point Park’s inhabitants, I was horrified to learn a few months ago about the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ grand plan to reduce Michigan’s Canada Geese population.

Their cruel and heartless plan is to eradicate many Canada Geese because they are a bother. 

Yes, geese gather and produce copious amounts of droppings, some which eventually end up on beaches where people like to swim and the beaches are then closed due to contamination.

Yes, in the suburbs with lakefront properties, geese gather to graze, or they stop traffic to waddle slowly across a road. 

Yes, the gander will hiss and flap his wings should you approach his mate as she sits on a nest or perchance you stray too close to his offspring.  Geese, like swans and many other waterfowl mate for life and are loyal and protective of their mate, a value I’m sorry to say is not always found in humans.

I was horrified to learn that Michigan’s DNR are herding geese from large parks and some suburbs and once corralled, they are NOT relocating them to an area where they are less “bothersome” but instead they are killing them en masse by gassing them.  But before this happens, the parents are separated from their goslings, a reason I don’t understand as the goslings are similarly gassed.  These geese do not die instantly, but instead they try to hold their breath and sometimes live for 30 minutes or longer until, with their last gasps of breath they die. 

As a nature lover, I am upset by this cruelty, which takes place very early in the morning, so it is accomplished as unobtrusively as possible.  Additionally, the geese are captured in June and July when they molt and are without flight feathers, so they cannot fly from their captors.

The Michigan DNR is on board with this, saying all other remedies to shoo the geese away from areas where they bother people have failed.   There were/are movements afoot to stop the cruelty of gassing geese, but to no avail as you see in this recent news article …

… or in this recent video.

I always participate in the Michigan DNR’s “Run for the Trees” event to assist in reforestation efforts in our national parks and other sites where wildfires have occurred.

I signed up for the event last December, so this will be my last time participating. I will find another charitable race event to benefit nature.

As I meander along the woodsy trails or waterfront walkways, I guess I will need to have a greater appreciation for my feathered friends – will there be a time when they are no longer with us?

Well this nature lover cries foul, er “fowl” … and, while all the geese won’t be gone, it is sad to think of possibly waving goodbye to cutie pie goslings like these.

Thinking about how deer herds are culled as deer cause vehicle accidents or they are bothersome is disturbing to me as well.

Stepping down from my soapbox now …

I will continue to do my part for Mother Earth.  I once walked more than I drove my car and was proud to say my feet had more miles than my car tires in any given year.  While this was good for MY health, it was not good for the car – my car has 15,600 miles and will be 16 years old in September.  I now drive more than I walk to keep the car in good condition.

DTE, my energy provider, always congratulates me in their DTE Home Energy Report because: “you use X% less energy than your efficient neighbors” – yay me!

I am sure I am not exemplary, just doing my part to ensure Planet Earth is around longer.

P.S. The family of Canada Geese and the sweet goslings are from my media archives as no goslings have arrived yet, but I saw two different Mamas sitting on a nest this week, so hopefully it is not long now.

As promised in my Mother’s Day post, I am joining Terri’s recent Sunday Stills Challenge from earlier in the week: Earth Day.