10/21/11 IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO-ONE SOME SWANS

STILL SOME BAYFIELD FALL COLOR

TUNDRA SWANS ON CHEQUAMEGON BAY

...HARD TO TELL FROM WHITECAPS AT A DISTANCE

Friday, 8:00 AM.  31 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is cloudless and the barometer is down, predicting precipitation, but the humidity is only 29%. There is heavy frost on the roof and truck windows, but what is left of the garden plants and the hanging baskets show no effects, so this was not  a killing frost.  The banana and the lemon tree, some geraniums and a few other tender plants are all inside.  There is still time to take care of leaves, etc. so I am not really behind on yard work, yet.
    The weather yesterday morning was very nsettled, the barometer down and the wind out of the N, and I remarked to Joan that I would expect to see whistling swans showing up on Chequaegon Bay.  When we went to Ashland later we looked and looked for the big white birds.  Sure enough, we finally spotted these two new arrivals just east of the Fish Creek bridge. At a distance they were hard to tell from the whitecaps. We often have large flocks of the native swans resting both spring and fall on Chequamegon Bay and smaller bays and inlets throughout the area, but in fall they sometimes just whistle on through riding a strong front.   It’s an ill wind that blows no-one some swans.