Monthly Archives: October 2016

Lapland Longspur and Spruce Grouse

October 13, 2016Year 3MN North: Pagami Creek Forest Fire Regionrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Although I love bike touring, I did miss the ability to make trips out into the wilderness in search of unique birds and neat photographic conditions. Even though my wife and I only arrived home late yesterday afternoon, I was away from the house one hour before sunrise this morning (6:25 am) such that I could reach the Pagami Creek Wildfire Region which is NW of Isabella, Minnesota early in the morning (i.e. when birds are actively feeding). This area burned back in 2012 and now is a great wilderness area where one enjoys experiencing how natures rejuvenates itself.

I scored two species of birds which are difficult to find, Spruce Grouse (saw four and photographed two unique birds) and Lapland Longspurs. The longspurs are a lifer for me. To reach this forest fire area I had to drive 60 miles north of Duluth, and then follow a 20 mile logging road deep into the wilderness. It was worth the effort. I had been hoping for bright skies which had been forecast, but instead the weather delivered was clouds, temperatures just above freezing and even some light snow on the ground in places!

Here are a few pics from this morning.

Lapland Longspur (immature)

Spruce Grouse

Bicycling Under the Aurora Borealis

October 12, 2016Year 3Bike Tours, Northern Lightsrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Yesterday Molly and I finished 1,371 miles of self-supported bicycle touring which found us riding along the shores of Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan. We were on our bikes for 33 days and during that period we never, not even once:

Watched any TV
Listened to a Radio
and
Rode in a Car

I will admit we bring tablets along in our panniers, which we use to keep in touch with the world and upon which we download lots of books from our library. Imagine if you can what it is like to disconnect from the normal media and transportation methods and see America at 12 mph. (read my daily trip bike diary)

Perhaps my favorite experience from the entire trip was watching the Northern Lights out over Lake Huron. I only had 30 minutes before the moon came up and washed out the dancing lights with its brightness. I only wished I had thought to insert my bicycle into a photograph before the display was dying down. Still, it’s a neat picture. The location is Drummond Island on Lake Superior, but not too far from the Straits of Mackinac and Lake Superior.

Aurora Borealis by Bicycle

Our Final Route … we started and finished in Milwaukee

Door County Day Tripping Ducks!

October 6, 2016Year 3Bike Toursrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Even though today was only our second “rest” day of the 28 days we have toured, I was cycling by 6:50 am. My goal was to arrive at Peninsula State Park shortly after sunrise for some quality “birding by bicycle”. The early light equates to better photographic conditions, and more active birds. While I did not find any exotic birds making their southern migration, I did find a flock of well over 250 Common Mergansers which were bunched up in a protected cove of Lake Michigan. I knew that the huge winds out of the south over the past few days would have stopped any southward migration while our feathered friends awaited favorable winds out of the north. Birds are like cyclists … they love tailwinds and HATE headwinds. Oh yes … my rest day equated to 25 miles on the bike!

A couple of cormorants hang our with the mergansers