A buddy and I were hiking deep in the North Woods near the Porcupine Mountains. These mountains are well named. A ranger at the trailhead warned us that porcupines could get under our truck’s hood and eat the engine hoses.

I had a camera for birds. My friend was just interested in hiking. I saw Pileateds (common there) and a Ruffed Grouse that walked fast, thumping his wings.

I saw a Northern Shrike and wanted to follow it. We were a few miles into the woods when a guy came from behind a tree with a slingshot. The kind that wraps the forearm. He had it cocked with a metal ball ready. He asked us what we were doing.

I told him we were looking for birds and bears and anything else we could photograph. He said, “Why would you do that?” with a toothless grin. He said hunters like us had shot his dog. He said we came from Detroit and might shoot people’s dogs.

We weren’t from Detroit. We weren’t hunters. We had no guns. We liked dogs. But the conversation was over. Then my pal said something about how cool the slingshot was. He’d seen that kind and knew the model. He asked smart questions about it and talked fast. They bonded.

Another dude, someone we hadn’t seen before, came out from behind a tree carrying a rifle and stood with the slingshot guy. My friend who had no interest in birds had the gift of gab. He talked some stuff to these guys, and they laughed together while I watched.

When they left my friend whispered: “Go.” And we walked out. Later he said we’d been in the cross hairs for a while, but he worked things out. Birds seemed less important then. But later I saw Bald Eagles on a nest and three kinds of herons, Black-Crowned Night, Little Blue and Great Blue as well as Mergansers and bear sign. I forgot the two guys. For a while.

I’m grateful to my friend. He’s gone now, having died in a car accident not long after that. He wasn’t a bird watcher, but he could talk some two-fisted talk. It was good to have him there, that day in the North Woods.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 11:39 pm and is filed under "Daily Sightings" A Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.