Enjoying the great outdoors is so beneficial to our emotional and physical health. But how might those feel who’ve fallen victim to the effects of Lyme disease? We’re going to take a deep dive into this important topic. It seems the occurrence is on the rise, though that may well be due to better diagnostics. For many years, diagnosing this disease would prove to be quite difficult leading to missed or delayed treatment, leaving many victims suffering with the long-term effects of what can be a devastating disease. We would later learn that Lyme disease … Read More
Michigan’s Sweet Flavor Of Spring
The typical timeframe for gathering sap from tapped maple trees, at least in my neck of the woods, is March 1 to April 1. This year, however, folks I know in the maple syrup world were tapping their trees by mid-February. I’ve also seen times when maple sap hardly ran at all, so it is pretty much up to fickle weather conditions. Last year, the early sap-flow in February caught many folks by surprise, and due to the ensuing balmy weather, which caused maple trees to start budding out sooner than expected, sap-gathering ended in … Read More
Murphy Lake’s 16 th Annual “Pike Pull” ice fishing contest
Located near Millington in southwestern Tuscola County, (manmade) 209-acre Murphy Lake has long offered some bountiful fishing opportunities. It was created during the 1850’s by lumbermen to be able to float logs down Goodings Creek to the Cass River near Vassar. Small creeks were vital during the lumber era to readily access the forest and more easily remove winter-harvested logs. Damming the creeks was a common practice to build up enough water depth to send a flotilla of large logs in a controlled downstream rush when the dam was opened in the spring. Goodings Creek … Read More
My First Year In The Tree Saddle
Are you thinking about getting into saddle hunting but just haven’t been convinced that it’s right for you? Last weekend, my hunting partner, Steve and I took to the woods with my two black labs and removed our climbing sticks and bow hangers from the last three of the five trees we prepped for bow season last fall. Our season was very successful. In fact, even though Steve did not harvest a deer from his saddle, he did fill both his Michigan buck tags for the very first time in his life. As for me, … Read More
Backpack into the Ontario “bush” for Lake & Brooke Trout
Matt and I would become lifelong friends after the two of us made our way into the Ontario wilderness for several days of hiking, camping, and fishing. We shouldered our packs, aluminum canoe, and walked from the truck to the trailhead marker, which was nothing more than a small weathered wooden box & sign mounted on a post. If you didn’t know where to look you’d never see it. We signed in with the date we were going in and our expected date of return. I had been hearing about this adventure from Matt for … Read More
MI Shed Hunter Kills Black Bear in Self Defense
Twenty-three-year-old Kyle Nelson from Norway, Michigan killed a black bear in self defense while looking for shed antlers on April 12, 2024. He shot the bear with a CPX2 9 mm handgun made by SCCY that he has with him every time he goes in the woods. “I was walking along a swamp bottom where I got a buck last fall to try to find antlers from bucks that made it through hunting season,” Nelson said. “At one point I heard a noise by a big pine tree. When I looked toward the sound, a … Read More
Enjoying Wintertime bushytail hunting adventures
Michigan offers a generous squirrel hunting season which runs from September 15 to March 31, and you don’t have to travel far in the state to find good squirrel hunting opportunities. While I thoroughly enjoy squirrel hunting during the earlier fall season, I also always look forward to wintertime “bushytail” hunting. Due to the recent late deer hunting seasons in January that I enjoyed participating in, from February to the end of March will have me put a frequent focus on squirrel hunting, pending weather conditions, of course. Stormy and blustery winter weather doesn’t offer … Read More
WHEN MICE MAKE HEADLINES: The Trilogy
You know life has slowed down when the big excitement of the day is an in depth discussion about unusual mouse encounters. Being a wildlife blog, we took liberties here by including mice as a part of the wildlife kingdom. To kick things off, let’s start with a story I wrote a few years back, but never published, about a crazed mouse whose munchies attack was such that being lured into the first trap where his leg became entangled would not deter him from further pursuing another midnight snack…. Or could there be more to … Read More
Dealing with The Big Chill
Michigan has had some rather mild winters in recent years, but this year has been an eye-opener. At least in my Thumb area, it has been an up and down matter, sometimes featuring freezing rain and soon followed by snow, often lots of it, usually accompanied by strong winds creating drifting and whiteouts. In fact, I’m amazed by the strong, sometimes erratic, winds which have become unbelievingly common this winter. Yep, folks, snow coming down backed by 30-60 mph winds can get a bit interesting! I will never forget the Thumb in experiencing a balmy … Read More
Predator Hunting At Night
The coyote is an amazingly adaptable and very prolific wild critter which has expanded its range across North America and has recently even ventured beyond the Panama Canal into South America. It is now found in states where coyotes have never been documented before, and can be found in every county of Michigan, even in suburban and urban areas. I first began seeing coyotes in the Thumb area during the 1980’s, and their population has been steadily increasing statewide. One of the things which is assisting the coyote in the Lower Peninsula especially, is an … Read More