Crisp Point Lighthouse Bound!

Year 10

Guess where Molly and I are headed?! It will be our tenth year serving as lighthouse keepers at this remote outpost on the wilderness shores of Lake Superior. One drives a 20 mile long dirt road to reach the light, and that is only after another 20 miles driven along a smaller paved road. The lighthouse is 1 hour and 20 minutes to the nearest town of Newberry, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. I guess we will not go out for pizza! Round trip to any services is 2 hours and 40 minutes. We pack in everything needed and stay the duration.

Only the keepers are allowed to camp at the lighthouse. There is no keeper’s residence. Here is me next to a campfire from a few years back with the lighthouse in the background. We will be at Crisp Point during a low light period (not quite new moon). I am hoping Lady Aurora decides to dance!

I Can’t Believe I Ate the Vole Thing! (Broad-Winged Hawk)

Year 10

Yesterday while on Admiral Road in Sax-Zim Bog I saw a Broad-Winged Hawk dive into the roadside trail grass. Moments later it emerged with a vole and flew up onto a near branch. I had always thought (obviously incorrectly) that Broad-Winged Hawks needed to tear their prey apart and eat its food in chucks. Not!

Right now, if you spend any amount of time in the woods, it is highly likely you will find raptors hunting. On my way back to Duluth I discovered a flock of Northern Flickers being repeatedly attacked unsuccessfully by a pair of immature Peregrine Falcons. This particular battle went on for almost 10 minutes … fun to watch.

Here is the sequence of photographs I took of a Broad-Winged Hawk eating a vole. It then flew directly onto the other side of Admiral Road, still very near me, but into the sun. I left it hunting for more food.

I can’t believe I ate the Vole Thing! (Broad-Winged Hawk)

Birding Good-Bye to Summer at Northstar Lake

Year 10

I spent the Labor Day Weekend and then some up at my NorthStar Lake cabin which is the southern most body of water in the Hudson Bay Watershed. Although the temperature reached 90F on two different days, this birder proved he was “RAM Tough” by bicycling on each of those two days. This is a personal achievement for me as it was just shy of three years ago I collapsed while trail running due to a misshapen heart valve. I spent 30 minutes on the ground (most of that time passed out) and eventually managed to hike out of the forest … meet the ambulance … followed by open heart surgery.

Rich Hoeg is RAM Tough (end of Suomi Hills Bike Ride this past weekend … found the RAM sign off a truck on the highway towards the end of my ride).

Before taking the pontoon boat out of the water, I visited two local loon families. I was disappointed to not find their juveniles. Normally I would expect the chicks to still be with their parents. Anyhow, the loons were busy preening towards the end of the afternoon. If you look closely at the plumage on their heads you can see the loons are starting to transform into their winter colors (essentially gray and white)

Labor Day itself I took two friends up to Toomey Williams Forest Road in the Pine Island State Forest. My friends were intrigued to see Boreal Forest Bog Habitat! The raptors did not disappoint, including this Red-Tailed Hawk.

Finally as we got near Northstar Lake and drove past the one farm in the area, a family of Black-Billed Magpies made their presence known. The magpies were busy eating at the Roadkill Cafe! Here in northern Minnesota we are at the extreme eastern edge of the magpie’s range. Thus, they are a rare bird unlike out west.

With this post I am officially welcoming Autumn. Here in northern Minnesota the temperature today will top out around 58F, and we have entered meteorological Fall.