Sea Smoke!

Year 3

My home town (Duluth, Minnesota) is sometimes referred to as being located on the Arctic Riviera. Duluth is situated on the western end of Lake Superior and winter temps in northern Minnesota sometimes plunge to night time lows of -30F or colder (-34.5C). From a birding vantage point, local birders may see unusual birds from “way up north” which actually consider our winter climate “warm” (see recent Ivory Gull post).

Yesterday morning, rather than Canal Park, I spent time at the other entrance to our harbor over in Superior, Wisconsin. The conditions were bitterly cold, and birds were not present. However, continuing my prior post’s theme of “why I bird” even when unsuccessful … I offer in evidence, Sea Smoke! The beauty of the morning was cold and stark.

Folks from down south may read up on the topic of Sea Smoke via Wikipedia. People from up north should understand the term!Arctic-Riviera-Lighthouse-1

The Beauty of Remote Birding!

Year 3

Some folks may wonder why I enjoy an unsuccessful birding expedition. The answer is easy. While it might make better birding sense to travel over to the Sax-Zim Bog where although not crowded, I would have more eyes helping me spot rare winter birds, that is often not my choice. This morning, as the temperature bottomed out at -16F (-26.67C) I explored the wilderness region inland from Lake Superior and northwest of Two Harbors. My primary road was, and is in fact about the only road that splits this remote forest, Rossini Road.

Take a look at my two photographs. The first image was taken before I turned inland about 20 minutes before sunrise near the Talmadge River on Lake Superior. The second picture was taken along Rossini Road. For most of my 70 mile drive, I saw no one. Life is good, and beautiful!

Sea Smoke Pre-Dawn Light
SeaSmoke-Sunrise

———-

Rossini Road Flocked Pines
Rossini-Road-Flocked-Pines

Northern Shrike: I Eat Tweety Birds for Breakfast!

Year 3

Yup, that’s what Northern Shrikes do! After catching said bird, a shrike will sometimes impale the songbird on barbed wire to store its catch for a later meal. Ouch! May not sound nice, but it’s Mother Nature at work.

Found this Northern Shrike twice today  at the exact same spot on Scenic 61 about 1/2 mile north of the Lakewood Pumping Station. Work the tops of the pine trees on the lake side from the Northern Shores Townhomes to the Inn on Gitche Gumee. The shrike would tend to perch of the very tops of the pines, and then dive bomb to the trees lower down below the cliff’s edge. I assume it was attacking songbirds. I saw the bird immediately after church around 12:00 noon, and I took this photo at 4:00 pm … same exact stretch of shoreline. Thus, there is pretty good chance it will be around in the same area on Monday morning.

Y3-M01-Northern-Shrike-1 Y3-M01-Northern-Shrike-2