Ice Scenes from the Arctic Riviera! Long-Tailed Ducks

Year 6

Yes, Lake Superior and its North Shore are often referred to as the Arctic Riviera. This morning I walked out to the end of the Two Harbors breakwater and was blasted by the north wind. Open water is disappearing fast, and soon our end of the lake will be locked in from Minnesota across to Wisconsin. When you see the ice flows and small bergs you’ll understand our nickname, and why Arctic birds like the Long-Tailed Duck consider our environs a good place to hang out for the winter. They feel at home!

Two Harbors Light … I stood there to take photographs. The ducks were restricted to the open water leads. The breakwater is coated with thick ice. If the wind had been stronger, I would not have felt safe being out at the light.

Long-Tailed Ducks

Long Tails

Super B-Owl Sunday Snowy Owl

Year 6

Approximately one hour prior to kickoff I found this Snowy Owl hunting in the Duluth area. I think I watched the better game. Snowy 1, Vole 0! The owl was actually perched on a grandstand lights power pole at a small outdoor stadium not used in the winter. I’ll take my location over the Atlanta stadium any day.

Polar Vortex Northern Lights

Year 6, ,

The Polar Vortex is over! As I type out this post on Saturday morning it is a balmy 13F above zero (-10.5C)! Given there is no wind and the sun is shining, my ski will be heavenly a bit later this morning.

My own “last hurrah” was photographing the Aurora Borealis two nights ago. When my Northern Lights alarm awakened me at 12:30 am, a quick check of the technical numbers and cloud cover weather radar which revealed clear skies 20 miles to my north, by 12:45 am I was out the door and driving north. 37 miles later I arrived at a remote lake (Stewart Lake) and watched a nice display. The temperature was -17F as Lady Aurora danced across the sky for me including a small substorm. By 3:15 am I was home back in my nice warm bed. Here is a taste of what I watched.

Realizing many of you have never seen an ice road, I also took this photograph as the Aurora was calming down. I used a small flashlight to give about a one second burst of light to illuminate the scene. The structure on the right in the image is the dock at the boatlanding. I took my photos from terra firma only because the extra elevation made for a more interesting picture. I did walk quite a ways out onto the ice road checking out photo angles. 

Birding has not been a total bust in this cold weather. Over the past few days I have found lots of Pine Grosbeaks at a nearby old berry farm, and an immature red-tailed hawk which a Snowy Owl actually found for me (long story … thanks Snowy). The cold weather returns next weekend. The ice is forming rapidly on Lake Superior … here’s hoping trips to the Apostle Islands Ice Caves are in my near future (near solid Lake Superior ice).

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