The Great Lakes, part 3



[Image courtesy NASA's Visible Earth]

For our next look at the Great Lakes we're going to focus on Lake Huron:

[Modified image courtesy Wikimedia]

Lake Huron is a pigeon!

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but the overall shape reminds me of a pigeon or dove; especially the characteristic way they have of gliding with their wings pointed upwards as if out of respect to God. Please note that I modified the image a little bit by adding a few borders near the belly and head in order to highlight the pigeon's shape. The main things to do are ignore Georgian Bay (on its belly) and Thunder Bay (on its back). Here's another unmodified look at the lake:

This is now the third great creature we've seen in this study that used to live in North America in huge numbers before it was colonized by Europeans. That was the Passenger Pigeon. "It lived in enormous migratory flocks – sometimes containing more than two billion birds – that could stretch one mile (1.6 km) wide and 300 miles (500 km) long across the sky, sometimes taking several hours to pass. Some estimate that there were three billion to five billion passenger pigeons in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America. ... The species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century. At the time, passenger pigeons had one of the largest groups or flocks of any animal, second only to the Rocky Mountain locust" (courtesy Wikipedia).

Pigeons and doves have a certain remarkable ability: they can home. That is, they can find their way home from places they've never been to. In particular... "the homing pigeon is a variety of domestic pigeon derived from the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia domestica) selectively bred to find its way home over extremely long distances. The wild rock pigeon has an innate homing ability, meaning that it will generally return to its own nest and its own mate. This made it relatively easy to breed from the birds that repeatedly found their way home over long distances. Flights as long as 1800 km (1,118 miles) have been recorded by birds in competition pigeon racing. Their average flying speed over moderate distances 500 miles is around 80 km/h (50 mph), but speeds of up to 177 km/h (110 mph) have been observed in top racers for short distances" (courtesy Wikipedia).

I found it very curious that the town of Pigeon, Michigan, lies between the wings of the Lake Huron pigeon:

When pigeons are carrying a message, they become carrier pigeons. This one appears to be carrying Georgian Bay, but I'm not sure what that's shaped like. It's more important to remember Who carried the best message of all, the Word of God (Matthew 3):

16 And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.