We are once again in the Eastern Time Zone. Almost shocking, our circle around the forty-nine States is coming to a close. I can’t say that brings particular pleasure or disappointment. We are still entering new territory. Anne is not sure she had ever been in Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota nor Wisconsin. Neither of us has ever been in the “UP” - Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We have yet to cross the Mackinac Bridge. We will make that crossing the day after tomorrow. We will reach familiar territory upon reaching Pennsylvania next week. This year we will have visited most of the States. We missed Idaho (by a few miles) and several interior states - Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Kentucky. We’ll also probably miss the New England States of Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This year we have enjoyed enough grand vistas, sights, and sounds of wildlife, and memorable human encounters for a lifetime. Though we will probably never again tour so far for so long again, we have no reason to simply stop moving. Forces may incline us to stay more in the East for a few years, but there is a great deal to explore between Newfoundland and south Florida. Lake Superior, a freshwater sea, remains at our side after three days of driving. We are now at Whitefish Bay, its eastern terminus. Whitefish Point resembles the Provincetown peninsula, but without the town. A major lighthouse there serves shipping. Superior is perhaps the only freshwater lake that requires such a device. More than one hundred seamen have perished there with their vessels. An historic society operates a shipwreck museum at the point, bringing to our attention the various ships that have perished. The most recent, of course, was the Edmond Fitzgerald, whose fate was tellingly recounted in a popular song. Whitefish Point is also an important bird area, a jumping off and landing place for migrants crossing the big water. We are here a few weeks too early to see significant fall migration, but we will be checking the Point in the morning to see if anything of interest takes advantage of an easy north breeze to jump across. Most of the adult birds have now completed their family duties, are joining flocks, and inclining southward. By the end of September, the “neotropical migrants” among them will have largely left the continent. The juveniles will follow a few weeks later. The interior northern tier states are suffering a rather severe drought this year after two dry years. It is so dry that some of the trees are already changing color. We last saw a drought this bad a couple of decades ago in New Jersey. This afternoon a few drops of rain fell and we prayed with the locals that the weather would become serious. Being here, we have avoided the severe heat of some regions of the East. We hope that the southlands cool off before we reach the south end of Lake Erie next week. August is a tough month to bird, but we have done well, harvesting some migrants and also Eastern summer birds that were in the tropics when we were last in the East – in January. We were disappointed not to find the mountain plover in Montana and the buff-bellied sandpiper in North Dakota. We have a small chance at the latter here. These would be life birds for us. Regardless of the birds, the sights and smells of the Eastern deciduous forests have been welcome to us. Here are pine and hardwood forests. These are relatively simple plant communities. The dominant hardwood community is of sugar maple, beech, and yellow birch. Groves of tall sugar maples are always wonderful to see. Sadly, here too there is a loss of trees to alien pests. These join overfishing and habitat destruction as perhaps the worst environmental problems of this era, likely much more significant than air and water pollution. Sad to see forests without elms, chestnuts, hemlocks, spruces, and pines. Very sad to see groves of dead trees in all regional forests. Life is change, but a bit of conservation is in order.