Elk Rapids Almanac
August
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Plants: The rain gardens in Veteran’s Memorial Park are in their second growing season, doing their job to filter pollutants and slow stormwater run-off before it reaches the Bay. They need three growing seasons to become established and low maintenance. The tall-stemmed purple plants, native species Dense Blazing Star, “Liatris Spicata”, recently caught the attention of a young resident and her grandparents, who were impressed to learn about the purpose of raingardens. The gardens were made possible by Grand Traverse Watershed Center, as part of village green infrastructure efforts. (Villagers, please feel free to pull out the rag weeds and other invasives you can identify!)
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August visitors learning about the plants and function of the rain gardens in Vets Park
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August 17
Bear, oh my!
Bear spotted in the morning on Elk Rapids Golf Course - August 2022
August 17: It was a beautiful morning for the Elk Rapids Ladies Golf League. While playing in the fairway, one of our foursome shouted BEAR! We all looked to see a black bear running across hole two toward the green on hole one. This unusual sight, perhaps a first during league play, caught our attention as we continued to watch it make its way toward Ames Street, where traffic stopped. It was sighted at other locations in the Village later that morning. I understand that the ladies playing hole 6 saw a Fox around that same time. Perhaps they saw each other and ran in opposite directions! _Cheryl Bachman.
Note: Bears, cougars, foxes, deer, tree martins, etc. are increasingly seen in cities and small villages like Elk Rapids. What this means is their natural habitat is shrinking, raising questions about how humans and non-humans can share habitat, and more importantly, why it even matters. Such topics as wildlife corridors and animal habitat are gaining attention nation-wide and are increasingly a topic of neighborhood discussions.
Here are a few comments from around town:
Here are a few comments from around town:
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“Given that a bear climbed over the fence in my backyard to graze on birdseed, I believe it is important that we find a way to live together with the natural world that shares our environment. To that end, we need to be responsible for the well-being of the animals around us, whether that means taking in our birdfeeders at night when a bear is sighted in the village, planting more native species of plants, shrubs, and trees to host our animal friends and sustain the ecosystem, or creating and preserving green spaces in the village to provide the necessary habitat so the birds and bears can thrive.” _ Terri Reisig.
“Causing certain natural wildlife to be in cities and towns is very sad, as we humans push into more wild space and take away their natural habitat, leaving them nowhere else to go.” _Zoe Macaluso, Elk Rapids High School. “Bears often are seen inside our village limits. Anytime a bear is observed in the village, the police department would like to be notified: however, the DNR only wants to be contacted if the bear doesn’t leave or if there are special circumstances. Two interesting sidenotes: I was running radar near the golf course last week when the bear (the smaller one, the mother was also in the village at the same time) ran across the street on Ames right behind me. A first for me in thirty years of traffic control! I remember prior to our trash compacter in the 80‘s, there was a trash dump at the same location, and I would see several bears a night there!” _Dave Centala, Chief, Elk Rapids Police Department. |
August Birdsong
A very active cardinal has been singing its heart out early evenings in the vicinity of Ottawa and Chippewa Streets. No one was sure why it would sing non-stop at that time of day or this time of year. A neighborhood word jockey described the bird as “crepuscular”, which refers to events relating to twilight.
Kay Charter, Saving Birds Thru Habitat, offered this opinion: “In general, birds sing to attract mates, to defend their nesting territories, and to warn of dangers. They are genetically triggered to begin singing in the morning’s first light until sunset. However, “songbirds” (those birds we typically find at our feeders), also occasionally sing for what we would call “the joy of it.” They just sing. Mockingbirds, thrashers and catbirds typically sing at night, but birds like cardinals do not. However, if a male cardinal (and it would have been a male) sings at night, we must assume he is doing it for the joy of singing.” _Kay Charter, Savingbirds.org.
Note: See Earth’s Wild Music for inspirational reading about the sounds and songs of Nature. Kathleen Dean Moore, 2021.
Kay Charter, Saving Birds Thru Habitat, offered this opinion: “In general, birds sing to attract mates, to defend their nesting territories, and to warn of dangers. They are genetically triggered to begin singing in the morning’s first light until sunset. However, “songbirds” (those birds we typically find at our feeders), also occasionally sing for what we would call “the joy of it.” They just sing. Mockingbirds, thrashers and catbirds typically sing at night, but birds like cardinals do not. However, if a male cardinal (and it would have been a male) sings at night, we must assume he is doing it for the joy of singing.” _Kay Charter, Savingbirds.org.
Note: See Earth’s Wild Music for inspirational reading about the sounds and songs of Nature. Kathleen Dean Moore, 2021.