Call of the Wild

 By James M. Jackson

We live deep in the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Our property has 3/8ths of a mile of shoreline on a 248-acre spring-fed lake and consists of upland hardwoods and lowlands filled with tamarack and black spruce. We are blessed (and sometimes cursed) with wildlife. It is a big part of why I feel called to live here.

When people ask what kinds of animals we have, they mainly want to know about big animals. Do you have wolves? Yes, we do. We named our property “Wolf’s Echo” because at night the ululations of the resident wolf pack would echo up and down the lake. We have other canines as well: coyotes and red fox, but people can find them everywhere.

They ask, “Aren’t you afraid of being out in the woods with the wolves?”

Nope. Over the years, I have met dozens of wolves while I’m jogging. I see them, stop, and start talking to them. Those encounters always end with the wolf cutting into the woods and, after a few yards, magically disappearing.

I will admit to being concerned one time while jogging. Near the end of my run, I startled a wolf that had been sleeping under a pine tree by the side of the road less than a half mile from our house. If he was there when I had jogged past at the start of my run, neither of us noticed.

By the time he heard me and sprang to his feet with his hackles raised, we were only fifteen feet apart. He and I remained statues for the longest time, during which I calmly told him that he could go anywhere he wanted. These were his woods, I said. I’d wait right where I was until he chose whatever direction he wanted. He eventually trotted away, stopping every few paces to look over his shoulder at me. After the run, when I looked at the statistics my Garmin watch collected, it didn’t surprise me to see my heart rate had spiked a half-mile from the run’s conclusion.

Those who hunt ask about deer. Yes, we have deer, although our area is not great deer habitat. The main thing that keeps deer numbers in check is adequate food supply and winter snows. We have had generations of does bring their fawns into our side yard to snack on young red maples and use the salt lick we provide them. Hunters blame the paucity of deer on wolf predation. Wolves do take deer, but a study in our area conducted by Southern Mississippi State biologists proved black bear predation causes many more deaths than the wolves. And automobile strikes killing deer dwarf those caused by other animals.

And moose? Oh yes. There is nothing quite like meeting your first moose in person. Those suckers are big! We love our moose and even name them. Adult males are easy to tell apart once they grow their racks. We especially love seeing the calves. My all-time favorite calves were Frick and Frack, named before we determined they were, in fact, sister and brother. We spotted them at an early age, all spindly legs topped by enormous heads, and watched them for nearly two years before they went their separate ways.

It’s not all fun and games with moose. Bull moose during rut season are the most dangerous animals around here (other than humans). Of course, you never want to come between any mother animal and her young, but bull moose can and will charge anything when their hormones are running high.

You can’t outrun a moose. The way to escape a charging moose is to get a big tree between you and them—or better, climb the tree. That said, the only time I was concerned about a moose was during the rut when I had already run past a bull. The first I sensed its presence was when it snorted. I looked back into the woods and saw it fifty feet away. It stamped a hoof, and I took off lickety-split, looking for a suitable tree. Fortunately, instead of chasing me, it used its rack to thrash a thicket of young trees.

Once I knew I was safe, my concern changed to what would happen when I had to run past that spot on my way back home. I spent the run strategizing how to handle my coming encounter. On my return approach to the place I had seen the moose, I began talking in a loud voice—a very loud voice.

I didn’t see or hear the moose. Whew!

We have black bear. They can be a nuisance. They love bird feeders, both seed and the sugar-water feeders we leave for the hummingbirds. We have lost more than one trail camera to bears’ curiosity. The most fun we had was last year when we got to watch (via trail cameras) the antics of triplet cubs as they explored docks and a mineral block I have set out on a table for the moose. Here's a short video for your entertainment:

It’s always a thrill to catch sight of a bobcat. Others, sadly not me, have seen lynx. Cougar records are becoming more common in our area—mostly, I suspect, because more people have trail cameras in the woods. So far, they have not bred in the U.P.

We frequently encounter river otters. They do know how to enjoy life. Porcupines and skunks can be an issue if you own too curious dogs. This past winter snowshoe hares girdled many of the young maples near the house. The members of the weasel family are often as curious about us as we are about them.

I have annual battles with beaver that want to plug culverts over the roads we travel. And the mice, moles, and voles have a penchant for setting up housekeeping or storing seeds in automobiles, ATVs, and snow machines under cover. Bats are great consumers of mosquitoes, and more often than we’d like, find their way down our wood stove’s chimney.

Sightings are special, but I also love the calls of the wild. I never tire of hearing the wolves. My heart thrills to hear the birds. I often fall asleep to the duet of barred owls. Mornings often start with eagle calls or the blare of trumpeter swans. Sometimes my wake-up call is the buzz of ruby-throated hummingbirds as they perform their aerobatics at our feeders. I never complain about these early alarms. They are my calls of the wild, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.

WILDLIFE EDUCATION CENTER AND MUSEUM

Last weekend my sisters Elaine, Suzanne and I went to the most fascinating natural history museum and education center in Beaver Creek State Park in Liverpool, Ohio.  It had large Ohio Wildlife Habitat Dioramas with one of the largest collections of mounted animals in the region. Many of the animals were displayed in their natural habitat. Each display was in front of dioramas painted as beautiful backdrops of where they would have lived.

The museum is operated entirely by unpaid volunteers and there were about a half dozen there that day and very helpful. It is funded by grants, gift shop sales and donations. It receives no federal, state or local tax dollars.

Thank goodness he wasn't alive.

We wandered through room after room that had different animals as well as signs identifying them. We saw bears, raccoons including two albino ones. There were deer and fawns as well as beavers, ground hogs, foxes both red and gray ones, coyotes, squirrels, mountain goats, as well as all kinds of water fowl and a room with stuffed birds behind glass.  

There were bobcats and even a cougar and a wolf although we don’t have them in our area.

There was a hands-on room for children, too, where there were animal pelts that could be felt as well as a place that children could go into that represented a beaver lodge with branches up above it and more mounted animals.  I was surprised how soft the fur of a beaver is.

One room had a live animal display with snakes and turtles as well as a contained indoor bee hive displaying live honey bees building the honeycomb while the queen lays her eggs. At the back out of sight was an opening tube where the bees could go out to get their honey from many flower gardens all around outside the large building. A TV in another corner showed them coming out and going back in. One of the volunteers pointed out the queen bee laying an egg and after she was done her back was tan.

There was a room with bird eggs and another with rocks, minerals, fossils and shells, and a room of Native American Artifacts and another room with insects including butterflies.  There was a research library and a gift shop. In the gift shop I bought a cute soft bluebird that sings a beautiful song when you squeeze it.

The nature museum is only open from 1:00 to 5:00 and only on Saturdays and Sundays from the first weekend of May until the first weekend of October. Outside there was a nature trail, but we didn’t take it because we were ready to go to supper elsewhere at a restaurant on our way back to my sister Elaine’s house where Suzanne and I had left our cars.

Have you ever visited a museum like this?

Would you like to?