For more than four decades, I have been to the Lake Michigan shores of northern Indiana and southern Michigan each summer; my wife’s family has been going much longer than that. But this summer we saw some things we’d never seen before.
Part 1
It has often been my habit to go down to the shore in the very early daytime hours, usually at sunrise. I mostly have the beach to myself, but in recent years, I’ve increasingly been sharing the sunrise with some of the deer that populate the woods near the lake (woods that, it should be said, are being replaced more and more by ever-larger homes, but that’s a different topic).
This year, “increasingly” took an exponential leap. I saw deer just about every one of the eight days I was there—generally two or three at a time. I didn’t go to the beach early every day, but the first day I did, I crossed paths with a mom and two fawns grabbing some breakfast along the path behind the dunes. They didn’t seem to mind my presence, and, with the help of my new super-zoom camera, I was able to get some decent closeups, like the one at the top of this page. A few more:
As mentioned, I often see deer on the beach itself, drinking from the lake or playing in the waves. Usually they’re way up the shoreline, only in telephoto range. But one day, I was at the beach a little while after the sun had come up, mostly looking for seagull photos. I was probably ankle-deep in the water, and I guess I’d been looking to the east for a while, because when I turned to look the other way, there suddenly was a deer not 25 yards from me, testing the water.
I lifted my camera and fired off a few shots, including this one with the iconic Michigan City lighthouse in the background.
Apparently, the deer hadn’t noticed me before this. I don’t know if she heard my camera or if she just saw me in the water, but she quickly got spooked and ran back to the shore and the dunes beyond.
Part 2
It’s possible that I’ve taken more photographs of seagulls than anyone in the world. Every year, I shoot dozens—OK, hundreds or thousands—more. I find them to be fascinating, but challenging, subjects.
But before we get to the gull photos, there was one bird picture that would have loved to have gotten on the trip, but it happened when I didn’t have my camera handy. We were sitting on the beach, mid-afternoon, when we saw an unusual large bird about 50 yards out into the lake. As we watched, it dove into the water and grabbed a fish, and rose back into the air and started flying back toward shore. By now we saw the white head and realized it was a bald eagle. It flew to our right, still holding the unlucky fish, and disappeared behind us over the dunes, before any of us could even think to pull out our phones. In all of our time going to the “Michiana” shore, we’ve never seen a bald eagle, at least during the summer.
Anyway, back to the gulls. I know there’s not a whole lot of love for them, but they’re more beautiful than anyone gives them credit for, and they can be graceful when they fly, particularly if there’s a good breeze blowing. It’s something to watch a gull face up into the wind, flap its wings and rise straight up a few feet, and then let the wind take it and swoop back in instant acceleration, gliding a few inches above the sand or the waves.
If I have a choice on Reincarnation Day, I think I’d like to try coming back as a seagull.
I have yet to take the perfect seagull photo, but I’ll keep trying. Here are some of the best from this year’s crop:
