Three-point stance

In case you woke up this morning thinking 'does Williams County, Ohio, have red squirrels?' the answer is that it does. Williams County, the most northwestern of all 88 counties in Ohio, has red squirrels and fox squirrels. These were among the many discoveries on our recent trip east to Ohio and Indiana. Our trip list totaled 55+ species with the last species tallied when a black-crowned night-heron flew over the Indiana Toll Road yesterday evening near Gary. There are a few photos now posted on the driftless area Flickr site (I spared you the photo of me in a three-point stance over Indiana, Ohio and Michigan).

Great lake

Great story in the Plain Dealer today by D'Arcy Egan. It highlights the reasons why Lake Erie is the most important Great Lake.

Lake Superior has 50 percent of the water mass of the Great Lakes and 2 percent of the fish. Lake Erie has 2 percent of the water mass and 50 percent of the fish.

Full disclosure: the expert quoted in this story is the uncle of one of my best friends.

Hills sadness

There's a sadness in seeing a towering hickory on the edge of a freshly graded development. Such sights are common here on the edge of the Allegheny Plateau. Northeast Ohio once was mostly upland forest--beech, hickory, maple, oak, hemlock. The few areas that weren't cleared for farming in the first part of the 19th century are being claimed by development in many areas. Now the shagbarks are exposed. Skinny, swaying trees, most without any branches at all until two or three stories up.

Elsewhere in Willoughby Hills, a sighting of a northern mockingbird. The harbinger of global warming was seen at Airport Greens Golf Course. Also, the plague of eastern kingbirds this summer continues. Several seen at the golf course.

State straddle

The past few days have been a tale of Northeasts--northeastern Illinois, northeastern Indiana and northeastern Ohio. We departed Wednesday from Chicago and arrived at Pokagon State Park, in Indiana, later that night. The campground has a lot of potential--wooded sites, nice online reservation system--but was a bit disappointing. As the problem has been in the past, raccoons and other varmints were lurking in the woods around the sites. They were ready to pounce at the slightest sign of humans. In our case, no food out at all and yet they were creeping up on us.

Also, maybe I haven't camped in the lower Midwest in midsummer for a while, but there were a ton of bugs around. A plague of daddy longlegs descended on our tent, and the mosquitoes were fierce in the morning. Our tent was set up on a hardpan dirt surface that made sleeping incredibly uncomfortable. Anyway, we'll probably stay in the nearby Potawatomi Lodge next time around.

It was a perfect summer morning amid the glacial lakes, marshes and woodlands of the region. We meandered a bit by car and found the point where Indiana, Michigan and Ohio come together. Representative really of nothing, though there was a stone marker signifying the convergence of the boundaries. It took a three-point stance to straddle all of them at once.

All told--40 plus bird species already and should be more to follow.

Good morning

The Tour de France started today, and I'm here with a somewhat live blog of the action...

7:30 a.m. - Versus begins the telecast with a dramatic narrator describing the geological forces that shaped the Alps.

7:34 - Ah, Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll make their first appearance.

7:36 - A lengthy conversation about doping. The past two Tours have been ravaged by drugs. Team Astana, including new signee and 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador, already has been banned this year for past transgressions.

7:44 - Top sprinter Tom Boonen has been barred from the tour for using a "social" drug: cocaine.

7:47 - Predictions for Stage 1. Sherwen: Oscar Freire. Liggett: Thor Hushovd. Roll: Fabian Cancellara. Craig Hummer (I miss Al Trautwig): Riccardo Ricco(?).

7:50 - The last time the race ended in Plumelec, in 1997, the winner was Erik Zabel. Zabel is in the Peloton today, too.

7:56 - There are two American teams in the Tour for the first time: Garmin-Chipotle and Team Columbia.

8:00 - We join the stage in progress and there's been a crash near a feeding station. A Cofidis rider went down in the Peloton. He has to abandon just 55 miles into the Tour.

8:02 - T-Mobile no longer is fielding a team in the Tour. This is the team, once known as Team Telekom, that had given us the likes of Jan Ullrich and Andreas Kloeden. They were like the Cobra Kai of cycling. They'll be missed.

8:08 - There's an early breakaway. I've never neard of these guys other than Thomas Voeckler. They have a 4 minute, 11 second advantage.

8:12 - Liquigas again is fielding a team. I will look up what Liquigas does before the end of the stage.

8:23 - The crashed rider is diagnosed with a broken wrist. Cyclists break wrists and collarbones like we get paper cuts.

8:33 - There's a guy playing bagpipes next to the road.

8:34 - A check of Wimbledon -- Serena Williams leads Venus Williams by a break, first set. NBC doesn't bother with last names in its score box.

8:50 - Sprinter Alessandro Petacchi is barred this year for too much nasal spray, says Liggett. Cycling is bizarre.

8:54 - Another crash and a Liggett-ism. Frank Schleck, a "pre-race fancied rider," is part of the crash.

8:59 - Back to NBC, where Venus has now won a break to tie the set.

9:05 - Venus wins the first set, 7-5.

9:10 - The Peloton has cut the lead to 2:29 behind the eight-rider breakaway. Twenty-five miles to go.

9:17 - Peloton is 1:28 back as a Cofidis rider goes on the attack. And now another attack. The group accelerates and decelerates. Sherwen says this will only help the Peloton catch them.

9:21 - Lilian Jegou and David de la Fuente do break away and there are six chasers 49 seconds behind them. About 20 miles to go.

9:27 - Sherwen says the chasers are only "prolonging the agony" now and the Peloton catching them is inevitable.

9:35 - Jegou and De la Fuente trade slipstreams. I love cycling etiquette. And now they chat a bit. Sherwen says most riders speak French.

9:36 - A crash in the Peloton. And one rider comes up with his rear wheel in hand. The Pelton continues its merciless push forward.

9:44 - The Peloton is only one minute behind the leaders. Ten miles to go. The leaders are trying to stay away and at least wear the yellow jersey for a day.

9:45 - A few hundred miles north, in England, Serena and Venus both hold serve, 3-3, second set.

9:51 - Peloton just 18 seconds behind the lead duo. Ten kilometers to go.

9:56 - Another crash, this time on a narrow climb. Another wrist injury perhaps.

10:00 - The Peloton churning forward now with three kilometers to go. Team Columbia at the front.

10:02 - There's a narrow stone bridge that everyone is worried about. Peloton makes it across intact.

10:02 - Erik Zabel, 1997 stage winner here, is near the front!

10:03 - And a rider attacks. Team Gerolsteiner reels him in and sends its own rider out.

10:04 - Now the attacks are coming from everywhere.

10:05 - And "fancied rider" Alejandro Valverde has some burst in his legs -- and takes the stage.

10:07 - Back to NBC, and Venus has won her fifth title at Wimbledon.

FYI, Liquigas is a gas product distributor in Italy.

Cold July

There's no doubt I am partial to cooler weather--especially when it is supposed to be much warmer. That's why I was so pleased with our trip to the Chicago fireworks display last night. We took to our bikes and made the five-mile or so journey to the downtown area. We decided to take the less-traveled back side of Navy Pier to its eastern terminus. The result was a lightly crowded area of a hardy folk--it had to be less than 60 degrees and there was a consistent wind whipping in from the northeast (traversing hundreds of miles of icy Lake Michigan water).

An article in the Tribune today bemoans the cold temperatures beach-goers will encounter this Independence Day. I have gone swimming in the lake this year, and it takes some elan to get into this water. I first stepped in and nearly sprinted out. Then I saw a group of four-year-olds splashing around and figured if they could do it, I could. Well worth it when air temparatures are hot, but not this weekend.

Jarring news

A study published in the journal Science details avian evolution and may change the way birds are classified. The study, conducted by the Field Museum here in Chicago, shows that nightjars and hummingbirds have a lot in common and grebes and loons--often thought to be related--don't have much in common. Here is a paragraph from an online report:

"Similarly, distinctive lifestyles (such as nocturnal, raptorial and pelagic, i.e., living on the ocean or open seas) evolved several times. For example, contrary to conventional thinking, colorful, daytime hummingbirds evolved from drab nocturnal nightjars; falcons are not closely related to hawks and eagles; and tropicbirds (white, swift-flying ocean birds) are not closely related to pelicans and other waterbirds."