After five weeks away from Duluth, and a beautiful but strenuous bike tour through the coastal mountains of British Columbia, I am home! Last night I slept in my own bed (heavenly), but had the unique experience to waking up in the middle of the night and NOT knowing where I was. When one sleeps in a new location for a month straight, the brain gets confused.

This morning I was up before dawn, and enjoyed some local birding. The ball fields at the end of Park Point were drenched from the recent rains. I thought I would find more shorebirds working their way south, but the numbers were low. A quick trip over to the Roy Johnson wetlands in NW Wisconsin was equally unimpressive in terms of grassland birds found. Oh well, it’s nice to be home and birding on my home turf.

A Lesser Yellowlegs and Friend Photographed this Morning.

Birds! Who needs birds!?

Had fun photographing some other activity out on Lake Superior and the harbor yesterday.

One “bird” watches another take off from Sky Harbor Airport.

The Coast Guard Cutter, Alder, at work out on the big lake.

The shorebirds invasion continues! Earlier this week we had ugly weather. Winds out of the south pushed migrants up to Lake Superior, where they flew into strong NE winds coming down the lake. The shorebirds took the logical approach and stopped on Park Point. Only a foolish bird would continue north into a fierce north wind.
I enjoyed more time with Dunlins, Sanderlings, and Ruddy Turnstones. In addition some gulls which were working their way up to Northern Manitoba stopped by … Caspian Terns and Bonaparte’s Gulls. What I find amazing is most of these birds only spend about a month on their breeding grounds in the Arctic, and then they start their migration south.

A Flock of Dunlins

Caspian Terns and Bonaparte Gulls