​Elk Rapids Almanac
April 2017

April-Spring Comes to Lake Michigan. Up early, urged out of bed by the certainty that there’s not a moment to lose. It’s spring! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! On the beach the air is saturated with fragrance and freighted with promise. A breeze drifts across the dunes; birdsong sparks from the treetop. Then, over the hills to the east, the scarlet edge of morning cracks the sky like a distant fire and suddenly the lake is shimmering with light and color. Bigmaplepress.com By Jerry Dennis.

March 24-The neighborhood red fox, with the day's catch in its mouth, walked down the middle of Ottawa Street in the afternoon. (Greg Reisig)

March 26-Noticed today that the male goldfinches at our bird feeder are turning bright yellow as they do in spring and summer. (Jane Stauffer)

March 25-Today we heard a flock of Sand Hill Cranes fly over the forest while we were taking a walk. It was too foggy to view them.
(Gary and Jane Stauffer)

April 3-9- This week we had a flicker, a downy woodpecker, a pileated woodpecker, and a red-bellied woodpecker at the feeders and/or in the trees. (Terri Reisig)

April 5-The Steelhead were in behind the dam the last week of March. Saw two, caught one, other people caught four-five. Previous day there were two fish caught. It was a beautiful day, but cool behind the dam. Hoping for warmer weather. Fishing between the rains this week. (Pat Stites)

April 7-The red fox was back again, walking through the yard, stopping here and there before it visited the neighbor's yard. It looks like it is losing its hair. I wonder if this is the same fox that gorged itself on the mulberries in the yard last summer. (Terri Reisig)

April 7. A red fox appeared in our back yard, and had no hair on his tail and a bald spot on one hip. A bit of research indicated it has mange. Sarcoptic mange (sarcoptes scabeii) occurs in urban foxes, caused by mites, often from returning year after year to the same den. The outlook for the fox is grim, and mange can often devastate a fox population for years. (Royce Ragland)

Steelhead Trout

Red Fox

Pilated Woodpecker