Our new grandson, Michael Patrick, arrived yesterday afternoon! There are now five munchkins in the new generations of Hoegs with prospects for many more! Hanging and Helping out with Molly at our daughter’s house.
Early next week we will then head south to start our spring bicycle tour … over 1,000 miles in Texas. We call our ride the Two Timing Texas Tour. (daily bike tour diary)
Transitions!
My trip diary and our planned route.
Yesterday’s 25 to 30 mph wind fell to about 15 mph today … with plenty of sunshine. In short, even though the temperature was only 33F, I bicycled up the shore of Lake Superior to McQuade Harbor. I do NOT want to know the chill factor, but suffice it to say during the first half of my ride there were nice white caps out on the big lake and I was cold.
Thankfully, every ride has a turning point. Instead of slogging at a 10 to 11 mph speed into the wind, I turned and flew home … never below 15 mph, and often as high as 20 mph. When I reached my uphill turn at Lester River I spied a duck landing on the water. I decided to dismount and check out what quacker had landed at the mouth of the river. Am I ever glad I got off my bike and checked out the duck. A lone Long Tailed Duck, normally found on the Arctic Ocean, decided to take a break from its northward migration. Although given my cycling clothes I was definitely not dressed for hanging out in the wide open getting blasted by the wind, I figured watching a Long Tailed Duck from a distance of often less than ten yards might be a once in a life time experience!
Here are my images:
A soon to be wet duck!
Immediately after … escaping to a new ice berg!
Swimming
Profile
Long Tailed Duck Imitating a Penguin!
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.