Yoopers!

Yoopers! The folks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula think this is "Da place to be!"


Here are a few photos from our first day of exploring Michigan's Upper Peninsula- or as the local call it the U.P.

A northern forest speciality: Bunchberry, Cornus canadensis. This relative to the dogwood tree is an acid loving ground cover.


The view scape. Now imagine the haunting call of the common loon. This is how we spent the entire day.


Water, bogs, Jack pine, butterflies, more dragonflies than you can shake a stick at and birds galore. I may never come home.

White Admiral - technically the same species as our Red-spotted Purple, this is another color morph. Our Red-spotted Purples/ Admirals are mimics of the highly toxic Pipevine swallowtails. Since there are no Pipevines this far north, no reason to mimic them. The bold white stripe on the White Admirals is a real stand out in the forest. It is no wonder in order to have survival of the fittest, they needed to tone it down!

Canadian Tiger Swallowtails puddling

At first glance they appear to be the same as "our" swallowtails, however they are a bit smaller, and a few of the lines appear different. Different enough to warrant being a separate species.

Lot's of new things to see... gotta run!