Category Archives: Year 13

Ice Planet Birding

Year 13, ,

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.

Goldeneyes Diving for Zebra Mussels

Year 13

Lake Superior’s ice limited the open water where the Goldeneyes could forage for their zebra mussels breakfast. Goldeneyes, which normally spook very, very easily allowed me to watch their morning feed from only 30 yards distant at Duluth’s Canal Park this morning. They were hungry! This stop action video slowed the diving down from a few seconds to 13 seconds. The video is a compilation of exactly 40 photographs. Every Goldeneye will disappear! (video link for blog email subscribers)

Goldeneyes Diving in Real Time (video link for email subscribers)

Goldeneye Single Images

Goldeneyes Synchronized Diving … New Olympic Sport!

Owling with Rich circa 2026!

Year 13

Isn’t technology wonderful?! Last year I had to being hiking in the woods by 6:00 am (1 hour 20 minutes prior to sunrise) awaiting the morning “love hoot”. Some mornings my local owls were cooperative while other mornings they remained silent. My goal for being a “crazy man who hikes in the pitch dark forest” was to discover the nesting area. Male Great Horned Owls during the final courting process will perch within 20 yards of their lady love’s nest. Given the hoot I then note the location and revisit during daylight hours and find the owl’s latest home.

As noted, this year I am doing things differently because of BirdNET-Pi (my own post on how to build your own listening device). I also have three other target locations where I will be able to take similar birding actions … two Great Horned Owl territories and one Barred Owl domain. Ain’t technology sweet?! (Owling with Rich … the movie … video link for email subscribers)

The Movie!