Lake Superior added ice last week! The big lake never adds ice in late March. This time of year is when the first hints of spring are supposed to appear in the Northland. North Shore streams and rivers are supposed to open up and have huge amounts of water cascading down the hills to Lake Superior. Early arriving ducks are supposed to gather at the mouths of streams and feast on fish preparing for spring spawning runs. Instead we have more ice on the “Big Lake” and over a foot of snow in the deep woods. Over the past few days God threw in 25+ mph winds and birding was not pretty … actually almost impossible. Smart birds, even the early migrants, are staying hundreds of miles south of the Arctic Riviera.

Life is also on hold. The Hoeg family awaits the arrival of a new child … our fifth grandchild. My wife (not to mention my daughter!) is at wit’s end. Spring means new life, and soon both birds and baby will make appearances! In the meantime, I enjoy the fruits of my bird feeders. While it is winter everywhere else in my neighborhood, my six feeders insure our forested yard if filled with bird song and color! I am not the Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde’s children’s book)!

Yesterday afternoon I enjoyed some time with my pileated woodpeckers (female pictured). I think I may have discovered the hole the happy couple intend to use for a nest. Regardless, both the male and female Pileated Woodpeckers let me get real close as I am the “food guy”. They regularly visit my suet feeders. I think a good stiff wind will soon blow over this dead birch given their excavations.

If one knows where and when to look, color is everywhere in this land of black and white. I found God finger painting before sunrise this Sunday morning … Canal Park on Lake Superior.