West Michigan Autumn

West Michigan isn't really in it's autumn color peak just yet
but since I'm a short timer here, I thought I'd get out and see
what was available.

All of these are on the west coast of Lake Michigan from
Ludington on up onto the Mission Point Peninsula north of
Traverse City.

(click on the photos for increased size and resolution)

Ludington, Michigan Courthouse

Pumpkin Patch, near Manistee, Michigan

South of Onekama, Michigan

Highway 22 north of Onekama, Michigan

From Sleeping Bear Dunes

Motorcyclists on Hwy 22 north of Sleeping Bear Dunes

Vineyards, wineries and orchards - Mission Point Peninsula

Grapes yet harvested

Orange and gold

While I was out, I managed to find three more lighthouses.
The Mission Point lighthouse is a few hundred yards from
45th parallel.  It's the point halfway between the north pole
and the equator. These are just a fraction of lighthouses on
Lake Mission but time doesn't allow tracking them all down.

Old Mission Point Lighthouse

Point Betsie Lighthouse

Big Sable Point Lighthouse north of Ludington, Michigan

Birds and Bees Weekend

There's not much story to tell, other than riding around hoping to take pictures of smaller things this weekend.

The first part was Friday afternoon south of town at a local state park, where I was continually watching for rattlesnakes.  Thinking (maybe my imagination was going wild)  I heard a light rattle, I changed directions and in doing so, a large Jackrabbit hopped across the trail and scared me.  I believe I've seen deer that size in south Texas.  Anyway, the only slinking thing I positively saw was a couple of lizards.

In a small cluster of flowers, there were quite a bit of honey bees gathering pollen.

Saturday afternoon, I rode up into the mountains east of town near Sunspot.  Way out in the boondocks, I was attracted to a small waterfall near where a group of ATV enthusiasts were camping.  This time, I figured if I fell off the side of the thing, somebody might be able to rescue me.

The best part of the whole thing was a patch of gypsum weeds and thistles growing in the delta of the falls.  Dozens hummingbirds of a couple of different varieties battled for the choice flowers.  I was totally absorbed it it and shot birds until it was really too dark to be doing so.

All of these pictures were taken with a Nikon D7000 with a Tamron 60mm prime lens.  As for the bird pictures, I was not able to get very close so most of the pictures have been cropped from a larger shot, as much as 400%.

Here's a few.

 

 

 

I am not sure what this was.  It was much larger than the Hummers 

and looked quite a bit like a parakeet.

 

 

 This is not a bird but some kind of huge insect.

 

As I mentioned before, dark came much earlier than I wanted, so I left and drove slowly, being careful not to hit any of the several deer that stood on the edge of the road.

Beautiful sundowns as usual.