• Friday-What'sUP July 14 - 06:12 am

Mike Schneider reports that right across the road from the beach, at Sand Point Road in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, is a Marsh Walk. There's a neat raised board walk that takes you through the marsh, where you can see snapping turtles like the ones in the first two shots here from Mike. He spotted the snapper checking him out, just floating in the marsh water. Then in the second photo, it was swimming along oblivious to the school of minnows that was swimming alongside him. Obviously, he wasn't hungry at that time, because otherwise, I think he'd have been snapping up those little fishes.

Something else Mike captured as he was watching him, watch him, was a frog that was doing a good job of blending in with his surroundings. Mike actually titled this one, "Frog with bling", due to the sparkle you can see in the close-up shot of him. The sun glinting like that, really does make it look like that frog may have on a sparkly diamond. Maybe he was a magic frog, sitting there waiting to be kissed into a Prince. ;->

Familiar sights to me this summer, for sure. We've spent a lot of time at the lake, and especially at the boat landing where there are tons of frogs and they are so noisy!!

Fun pictures!

Way too cool!

I remember as a 8-9 year old kid wading in a pool of mucky water and discovering pollywogs and investigating the gelatinous areas and seeing the new new pollywogs. On a Wednesday Earl Gagnon of the Daily Mining Gazette asked if he could take my picture and my sister Pegs',as we played in muck up to our chests. On Saturday the picture appeared on the Green Sheet of the Gazette much to the surprise of my parents. Just one of of those moments Earl Gagnon was famous for catching.

Terrified of snappers. Had one take a big chunk out of our tractor tire. That's some powerful jaws!

We were watching some animals programs last night (the ones I hate where the stronger ones prey on the smaller ones) and I woke up this morning after a giant boa came after me on the shores of Lake Superior and grabbed me. Holy crap, lol!!! No more of those shows for me. I hate them anyway, but Ron loves them!

lol Deb, I do not watch Swamp People or River Monsters!

They are terrible, lol! Heck, Ron even records them if he is going to miss them.

Tire-eating snappers? Giant boas? Now I'm going to have nightmares. :-)

I love frogs.....especially bullfrogs 'singing' out in our pond. Now snappers are another story. I like tortoise but not snappers. Son-in-law was fishing in the pond one day and caught a large snapper....thankfully the line broke.

Hi
My calendar at work is showing Miners Beach at Pictured Rocks. One of my co-workers was surprised; she thought the park was nothing but cliffs. I didn't know about the marsh walk in these pictures, though, so thanks for the new information.

Deb, if you were to go hiking in the Everglades, you may encounter a real-life boa or python. The largest ones have been known to take down small deer and alligators. You'd just be a tasty snack.

Great pictures today. I do love frogs. Here in Florida, they all perk up during a heavy rain and start croaking to attract a mate. It's quite a cacophony.

We had plenty of frogs this Spring, but then the drought started and I haven't heard a frog since. The toads come out at night and enjoy the puddles left when I empty the dogs' water buckets. We can usually expect to find 2 or 3 toads soaking up moisture in each puddle. It is very bad across the three "I" states - Iowa, Illinois, & Indiana. Nice to see wet pictures and amphibians.

Very neat pictures today!

Very bad in the "O" state too, Paul.

You are so right about the drought, Paul. Here in my area of
Indiana the corn is a lost cause. I have a corn field beside our
property and one directly across the road. They are now
brown three quarters of the way up from the ground. The
cornstalks that do have ears on them are very small and will
most likely not fill out if we don't get some real rain soon.
Soybeans still have a chance if the were planted earlier than
late May. The ones planted late around here had poor
germination rates. This will mean even higher prices at the
grocery stores, unfortunately for everything.

How are the sunflowers doing, Cindy? I love your profile pic. When living in N.D. we used to see miles and miles of sunflower fields. What I think is neat about sunflowers is that their heads follow the movement of the sun.

Funny you should ask. I was curious about that today, and
drove by this field and it's corn this year. The sunflowers in
my garden are blooming nicely because they are getting
watered. The rest of my garden isn't doing as well. What
tomatoes I do have are the smallest I've ever had. It's just
been too hot and dry.

It appears this summer is a case of the haves and the have-nots!!! While some parts of the country are dealing with drought, others are getting pummled by rain, including us. Yesterday, we picked up 13.86 inches of rain in 6 hrs., flooding everything around us. Luckily, we sit on the "high ground" for SE Texas, so we have no flooding concerns. Unfortunately, most of the roads around us flooded last night and this morning, which made my morning commute exciting.......

Cindy, I wonder if sunflowers would have fared any better.
Capt. Paul, blow some of that drenching rain up our way....we're parched!

love the froggy picture ;O)

love the froggy picture ;O)