Square Gulls

The stretch of beach near the Presque Isle Park breakwall is rocky, and usually strewn with interesting bits of driftwood, the occasional piece of strange trash, and of course, dead gulls. Last week, I took a walk along that beach, and encountered four gull bodies, all in different stages of decomposition. Some had been recently scavenged, while others had been caught up in the rocks for quite some time, slowly desiccating.

Photographing dead gulls is a bit of a challenge for me. After a while, they all start to look alike, so for this particular series I took a different approach. I kept the compositions more ambiguous, and when post-processing cropped them to a square format. 

The first was a ring-billed gull. Though very decayed, the body was mostly complete, including the head. It was tangled up in the debris adjacent to the breakwall, and looked like it had been there for a long time.

 

The second, also a ring-billed gull, was no more than a pair of wings held together by the keel and breastbone. This is how gulls often end up, as all of the more tasty parts are scavenged, leaving behind the near-meatless wings.

 

The third ring-billed gull was freshly-dead and very freshly-scavenged, likely by other gulls and crows. All that remained were its wings and feet, held together by a few bones.

 

The last gull I found was a juvenile herring gull, and compared to the ring-billed gulls, it was huge! Like the previous gull, it was recently-dead and freshly-scavenged. Left over were the wings and feet. The body was positioned in such a way that when the wind gusted, the wings would flap:

See also: Along the Shores of Lake Superior and Of Gulls and Carp.

Broken Doe

Yet another doe was hit overnight on M-28.

 

Her body was pushed or dragged across the road, from the middle line, leaving behind a smear of hair and stomach contents. When she finally came to rest, one of her front legs was broken in such a way that it was twisted bizarrely up and over her head.

The ravens had been feasting, as evidenced by the scat and feathers littered around the carcass. Screaming from the nearby treetops, they impatiently waited for me to be on my way.

Seney

After a few gorgeous days' worth of backpacking at Pictured Rocks, Steph and I headed out to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. Before driving the several-mile loop through the refuge's marshland, we stopped at the visitors center – and it's one of the best I've visited! For starters, there is an abundance of taxidermy, and I do mean everywhere. Most of it is at eye-level and is extraordinarily well-done. The mounts represent the native mammals, birds, and fish that call the refuge their home.

 

 

One display has an assortment of the owl species that live in Michigan. Barring a natural history museum, I'm not sure I've seen so many taxidermy owls in one place!

 

Seney is famous for its loons. There's a wonderful taxidermy exhibit that shows an adult loon swimming with its young on its back, as well as a loon diving underwater. It's a display that you have to see firsthand to truly appreciate, because the amount of detail involved is pretty stunning. Amazing, too, is the center's wolf mount. Set in a natural, nonthreatening pose, the wolf stands in a realistic habitat at the edge of recreated water. Beaver tracks are visible in the mud.

Next to the wolf mount is another excellent exhibit at the visitors center: a side-by-side comparison of wolves and coyotes. The display contains photographs of the two canids, as well as tanned pelts and replica skulls, and illustrates well the incredible size difference between them. It's a great hands-on feature that is especially important, as around here, coyotes are constantly mistaken for wolves, and vice-versa.

Perhaps the best part of the Seney visitors center is the "touch table." A common feature of nature centers, this one is likely the best I've seen. 

Touch tables are generally low-to-the-floor and easily accessible by both children and adults alike. They allow visitors to handle objects from nature – things they wouldn't usually find or see – such as animal skulls and bones, antlers, feathers, turtle shells, pelts, and so on. Being able to not only see but touch these items – to feel an otter's dense fur or a raccoon's sharp teeth – opens the door to endless learning.

Accompanied by an extensive collection of furbearer pelts, this touch table even has several older taxidermy mounts. Despite being within reach of young children, they were all in pretty decent shape!

 

If you're ever passing through the Upper Peninsula and are about to embark on the 25-mile "Seney Stretch" – or, if you have already, and want to stretch your legs – I highly recommend a stop at the Seney visitors center. It's both kid- and adult-friendly, there's a great shop full of amazing nature books and field guides, and while you're there, you can take a drive through the refuge. Chances are, you'll see trumpeter swans, loons, ospreys, and bald eagles!

Another Day, Another Doe

Overnight, a deer was hit on M-28, 10 miles east of the US-41 junction.

 

Before dawn, coyotes had picked away at the doe's rear end. The flies had only just arrived.

From earlier this month, some tips on how to better avoid deer-car collisions.

North of the 45th Parallel

From the DeVos Art Museum webpage:

The North of the 45th is an annual juried exhibition of artists living North of the 45th Parallel from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Each year a different juror from outside of the area, but within the Midwest, is asked to select pieces for the exhibition from an open call for entries. The jury process is anonymous and based on image, title, media and dimensions. This year's exhibition is juried by Wally Mason, director of the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

This year, Stephanie and I entered artwork, and both of us were selected to be a part of the exhibition! It's an honor to have our art hanging at the DeVos Art Museum, so this is pretty exciting. Steph's piece, Bloodthirsty, is from her recent and ongoing series of paintings that explore the human perception of Coyote. My piece was taken back in October of 2010, at Pinckney's graveyard of poached deer. Photographed with the medium-format Ciro-flex, it's something that I haven't posted here before:

 

I had the photograph printed at twenty inches square – the largest print I've ever ordered! This is the artist's statement that I supplied for the exhibition:

My body of work explores a world not often seen or sought. For years I have been documenting dead animals, in an effort to portray decomposition as a beautiful, fascinating, and ecologically crucial process. Accustomed to photographing natural and accidental animal deaths, I was thrown a curve when, on State land, I encountered a veritable deer graveyard. It was a place where poachers had dumped the remains of their spoils, with no regard to law or human decency. It was a disturbing, ugly scene, one that spoke volumes of waste, greed, and disrespect. Yet, in the end, and in the eyes of Nature, these poached deer were no different from any other dead animal: their bodies would decompose, feeding generations of insects, before returning to the earth.

The opening reception for the exhibition was held on Friday evening. There were lots of people at the gallery, along with some great music courtesy of Kerry Yost and, of course, The Chanteymen!

The North of the 45th Parallel Exhibition runs through August 5th. If you're in the Marquette area, be sure to stop by! This is a great show, and there is some truly unique artwork on display.