Monday For messages about today's picture, see Cam Notes. This area is for other friendly conversation. Please read our Acceptable Use Policy.

Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• In Search of our Ancestors    • New Arrivals
• Politics and Religion, Ketchup or Gravy
Fourteen Years of the Pasty Cam ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Which two years in today's review are the most alike, and why?

I would say 1999 and 2006 because they both have 2 deer in them, though one of them are fake, lol!!

Have a great day!!

or 2008 and 2003 both have boats

How about 2004 and 2003 ... the subject in each is people rather than scenery ... they both have close-ups of people. :-)

2011 and 2010 both have whitecaps on Lake Superior

Totally awesome, Charlie!!! It's so much fun to see how people see things differently.

2008 and 2007 have boats. 2007 has a freighter.

It was great to check the radar this morning and see Capt. Paul's neighborhood getting a good soaking!

Beautiful pictures! Too cold for me tho. By the way Deb and Kosk, thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday.I didn't feel good so I never got on line.

Note of interest for those who remember the old days of "The Hut" :

Paul Hendrickson who literally built the Hut restaurant and with his wife Nadine owned and operated it for many years recently passed away. His obit is: here. He was a quiet, talented and classy gentleman. The business provided summer employment to many young people from the area.

Thanks 4 another slideshow.

I see in this week's (Sept 21, 2011) Ontonagon Herald that the Michigan DNR has confirmed the presence of a (radio collared and ear-tagged!) cougar in Ontonagon County! — At long last!

---

Quote:

"The cougar was captured on a trail camera on private property on September 8; DNR Wildlife Division Staff visited the site on September 12, and confirmed the camera location."

---

FRNash, why did we have to wait for DNRE to confirm this? Cougars will stalk you and spring on you when you least expect it. I know a lot of folks here didn't wait for the report. Nor did they wait for the DNRE report on the wolves. What is more important, the lives of the farm animals, the pets and the people? Not. Yoopers take control of the situation, not the DNRE...and that's the way it is.
Also have talked to Yoopers that have seen Black Panthers. No, I'm not living in Chicago.

So true, Hollidays (Hollybranches), it sure seems that DNR/DNRE are the only folks that don't know it, until someone rubs their noses in it — in the cougar scat that is!

Are any of these cougars wealthy?

...ear-tags or nose rings, I'm not picky

I’ve worked extensively in remote areas of the American West and found that mountain lions tend to be shy. That being said, mountain lions are predators and under the right circumstances, for example, where numbers of people have invaded their range and disrupted their prey, when people are jogging and look like prey, when small children wander the woods, and so on, the animals will attack. I have not seen any reputable reports of “black panther” varieties of the mountain lion (Puma concolor). The gene for melanism has not been shown to exist in Puma concolor. It does exist in jaguars and leopards, but I doubt either one of those would be seen in the U.P. Jaguars tend not to range far north of the southern borders of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. Leopards are not even a New World species. But I will admit, I am no expert on this topic. I do work with someone who is and recall this from some of our conversations.

My most memorable incident with a mountain lion occurred about fifteen years back. I was working in a very remote part of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. I had broken my leg a couple of days before and was limping very badly on my way back to civilisation. I rounded a turn in a canyon and immediately spotted a mountain lion. Its muscles bunched. Its tail twitched. I immediately drew my only weapon, a geology hammer, and shouted something appropriately defiant. The mountain lion leaped, but I managed to convince it that an easier meal could be found elsewhere.

Even after the incident in the San Juan Mountains, I love mountain lions. They are beautiful, amazing, powerful animals. It was just doing what lions do and I was a geologist invading its range, and limping as I was, I probably looked like easy prey.

My sophomore and junior years at John F. Kennedy High School, home of The Cougars, we had a live cougar for as mascot. Such a beautiful animal. By my senior year the cougar was replaced by a kid in a lame cougar costume.

I also love the mountain lions. I'm not really too worried about it being near me - my grandfather hunted, trapped and fished in the Mass City area his entire life and always taught me that most wild animals will shy away from people and you would most likely never see them up close. I have found that to be true for the bear that lives by me as well as the coyotes, wolves, bobcats, etc.