Tag Archives: MN North: Duluth Harbor

Ice Night Shipping

Year 5

Last night my wife was ushering for a local theater, and I decided to wonder how I might spend a quiet evening at home. Given the dearth of anything worthwhile on TV, I decided to check the status of our local shipping.

Eureka! A saltie had just sailed under the Aerial Bridge. If you are ever in Duluth, or anywhere along the North Shore of Lake Superior there is a great web page (works very well on a smartphone) named Harbor Lookout. This site gives you information of what ships are expected, and their planned arrival or departure times.

Now back to my evening’s entertainment. The Federal Rhine, was slowly being assisted by two tugs to the CHS Grain Elevator to take on a load of wheat. I suspected the harbor ice and night lights reflecting off the ice would make for a beautiful scene. You be the judge.

As a fyi … I took these images with my Sony A6000 and a wide angle lens. Clicking or pressing upon the images will yield the best night arrival experience (expanded view).

Docking at the CHS Grain Terminal

Making a large turn next to the Duluth High Bridge

Transitions: Deserts to Ice Flows

Year 5,

Molly and I have arrived back in the Northland from Tucson. An attitude adjustment due to Duluth’s cold weather might seem to be required, but I actually am thrilled to be back to Lake Superior.

Sunrise is now much earlier, 6:38 am. As my credo is to get going with the sun, or earlier, my wake-up times are moving towards 5 am. This morning, I wanted to take a bicycle ride up the shore before the forecast winds reached 30 mph. Biking into that kind of a head wind aside from being cold, is real hard work. Thus, with only 15 mph winds I biked up to McQuade Harbor … 38 minutes to McQuade … 22 minutes back with the tailwind!

Although there is over two feet of snow on the ground, the early migrants are working there way along the shores of Lake Superior … Bald Eagles, Crows, Gulls, Mergansers and Ravens. These hardy birds push hard to be the first returnees to the Boreal Forest. Here are a few images taken over the past two days.

Ice Flow Gulls

First Active Bald Eagle Nest on the Duluth Waterfront

Darth Vader Bird

Super B-Owl Sunday! Northern Saw-Whet!

Year 5,

At 7:15 am the air temperature was -19F. In short it was a great day to go birding. The skies were crystal clear and the winds were calm. In my book, that means owls should be out hunting. I was not disappointed, but first I had to take a trip down to Brighton Beach on Lake Superior and enjoy the pre-dawn light over the ice fields!

After some time down at the lake, I went birding. Within a few minutes I found my first Great Gray Owl of the day hunting only two miles from my house! While I am still waiting for a yard owl, this was pretty cool. Over the course of the morning I saw three Great Grays, and one Northern Saw-Whet. Early on in my morning travels I stopped to take a photograph of this horse. Kind of cool how frost forms and freezes on the back of a horse at -19F.

Some time with a Northern Saw-Whet Owl

A Black-Capped Chickadee photo bombs my image

A Great Gray Owl dressed up in snow flocked pines

This afternoon after a Nordic ski I decided a change of pace was in order and went looking for Snowies. I did find two but photo opps did not appear.

In short is was a great Super Bird Sunday! (what’s football?)