Yooper Critters!

"...we got some of da best hunting and fishing in da whole world.  Bear as tall as Norway Pines!  We got wolf, moose, beaver, wild turkey, quail, rabbit, fox and, ah course: da bucks.  Holy Wah do we got bucks - big as Buicks!  You can slice da venison off a one Superior State buck and feed da whole state of Wisconsin!"
- Albert Soady (played by Harve Presnell) in "Escanaba in da Moonlight" (2001)

Yes, as Albert says in the Jeff Daniels mystical off the wall comedy film, the Upper Peninsula sure does have critters.  All kinds of critters.

I was thinking about that this morning after I saw a pair of bald eagles while driving to school.  No, I wasn't in the U.P., I was in the Lowp, as I call the Lower Peninsula.  I was not even in the northern part of the Lowp.  I was at the intersection of Tittabawasee Road and and M-47 near Freeland, MI just after the bridge over the Tittabawasee River.  As I crossed M-47 a bird with a huge wingspan leaped off a branch of a tree and flew off.  As I sped by I could clearly see the second massive bird with the distinctive white head sitting on a nearby branch.  I was surprised because I usually don't see many bald eagles in the Saginaw area, although I do know a few are around.  They must have been attracted by the open water on the river.

This eagle was photographed at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge in the central U.P.

Well, the U.P. sure has eagles.  Tons of them.  I love 'em.  They are one of my totem creatures.  My heart jumps a little every time I see them.  On the Keweenaw Peninsula in the northwest of Upper Michigan, there are raptor migrations in the spring where you can see hundreds of bald eagles, golden eagles and thousands of other birds as they travel north.  I almost need a heart defibrillator when I see that many in one area.

Albert left out a few critters besides eagles: sandhill cranes; owls; canada geese; hawks of all kinds; trout; salmon; whitefish (my favorite),.....

Usually what I picture whitefish as looking like.  I hear they are a silver fish.

...pike and many other water breathers; moose; mink; weasels; porcupines; fishers (they eat porcupines); bobcat; lynx; coyotes; and many miscellaneous little critters the predators love to eat.

And yes, we have cougars.  After hundreds of sightings and tracks reported over the years, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has finally admitted that there are cougars in the Upper Peninsula.  Well, we Yoopers are used to Lansing taking its time when it comes to things regarding the U.P.

I'm sure I may have left off a few from Yooper critter list.  There are so many, I lose track.  Remind me, please.

You don't have to be a hunter or fisher (the non-porkie eating kind) to appreciate Yooper critters.  Lots of folks from the U.P. or just visiting love to wander around the two tracks through the woods just to look at critters.  You don't have to eat them and/or put them on your wall to appreciate them.

What's your favorite Yooper critter?  Why?  Which Yooper critter would you like to see but have not yet?  Drop me a line and let me know.