Seeing America by Bike … and Birds!

Year 3,

Sam Cook, the Duluth News Tribune outdoor writer, wrote in today’s Sunday paper a nice feature about all of Molly’s and my self-supported bike tours taken throughout North America.  Molly and I have now bike toured 6,366 miles in the past four years through the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, New England, the Canadian Maritimes, Texas, the Ozarks and of course … our own Lake Superior region!

Last Spring we biked through the Texas Hill Country, and then turned north through East Texas, the Ozark Mountains finishing along the Katy Trail in Missouri. This year we will move across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, and bike tour Scotland. Thus, I am pleased to announce the 2016 Scotland Tartan Tour. It will be fun to see the Scottish countryside at 12 mph! Expect to accompany me via this blog as I bike and bird through Scotland! (follow our trip via my daily trip diary)
scotland-tartan-tour-logo
Read Molly’s Overview!

An Explosion of Color!

Year 3, ,

Even before the Spring rains come to green up the Northwoods, there is lots of color waiting for the person who is willing to invest time in the watching … and listening! The color started yesterday when I started hearing … pound, pound, pound! For the next nine hours, and then restarting at 5:30 am this morning, a pair of Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers declared out wooded lot their home turf! Amazingly, I never quite knew how the sapsuckers listened for a response. Take a look at the photos. The birds put their ear right against the tree.

The tour of color continued yesterday evening with moonrise over Lake Superior. Although it may be spring, a gorgeous harvest moon came up over the big lake. Finally, these morning I was amazed while birding on Rossini Road. This beautiful splash of yellow and black was in an unusual location! I had never seen a meadowlark deep in the Northwoods. Pine forests, and not meadows are what we tend to have in abundance.

Rossini Road Eastern Meadowlark
Y3-M04-Rossini-Road-Eastern-Meadowlark-2 Y3-M04-Rossini-Road-Eastern-Meadowlark-3 Y3-M04-Rossini-Road-Eastern-Meadowlark-4

———-

Moonrise Over Lake Superior – Old Duluth Central High School
(see the next post for yesterday’s moonrise at Canal Park)
Duluth-Central-High-School-Moonrise

———-

Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers Setting Their Territory
Y3-M04-Yellow-Bellied-Sapsucker-04 Y3-M04-Yellow-Bellied-Sapsucker-11-Listening Y3-M04-Yellow-Bellied-Sapsucker-10-Listening

Lake Superior Moonset!

Year 3,

Not many people can say when they arrive back at their house at 9:15 am that they’ve already been out for 4 hours! However, such was the case for me, and my morning. Awakening shortly before 5 am I realized there would be a beautiful moonset down at Canal Park. I jumped quickly out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed a Diet Coke and I was off a few minutes after 5 am. These three images were the result! In addition, it was fun to talk with the early morning fishermen on the South Pier. The smelt are running along Park Point, and with it the larger salmon and lake trout … which brings out both the fishermen and diving birds.

After Canal Park I drove north to the Rossini Road Wilderness. The clear skies and good light deserted me, but I still had fun watching all the ducks, increasing amount of shorebirds and one river otter … everyone was intent on catching breakfast. These two stops took me the noted four hours … back at home by 9:15 am for a late breakfast!

Moonset at Canal Park in Duluth Minnesota (Aerial Bridge)
Aerial-Bridge-Moonset-3 Aerial-Bridge-Moonset-2 Aerial-Bridge-Moonset-1

———-

Rossini Road Bufflehead
Bufflehead-1