As a dangerous blizzard rages outside, it seems like a great time to catch up on recent outings. Today I will be house bound due to dangerous weather, but over the past 7 days we had amazingly mild weather including light winds. I took the opportunity yesterday to drive up to the end of the GunFlint Trail. In short, I was “Ice Planet Birding”.

Prior to our mild stretch we experienced severe cold with temperatures reaching down to -30F to -40F. Lake Superior had some of its highest percentage of ice coverage in years. In fact the National Park’s Ice Caves opened, for one day only, for the first time in ten years (involves a trek over the Lake Superior ice). Today’s storm is breaking up the ice.

While the caves on the south shore were providing an amazing, beautiful experience, on the North Shore the combination of pre-dawn light and ice created a winter wonderland of color. Until I was north of Tofte, ice stretched out over Lake Superior as far as the eye could see. These photos were taken before sunrise, and then at the actual moment the orange disk popped up over the horizon.

Pre-Dawn at Split Rock Lighthouse

The Moment of Sunrise at Beaver Bay

Amazingly all of this ice was gone six hours later. HUGE winds came up out of the Northeast and did a combination of breaking and pushing ice sheets down towards Duluth.

Two days earlier from this trip up the shore, I visited my Greenwood Creek Bird Feeders. Just 1/3 mile north of the feeders is Greenwood Lake. How many of you have ever seen, let alone driven on an ice road?

Greenwood Lake Ice Road (video link for blog email subscribers)

The Movie!

And of course … an Ice Planet winter bird. This Snowy Owl may look like it is waving, but actually it is letting everyone know to behave while birding … or else! Image taken two evenings ago in Superior, Wisconsin.