Tag Archives: WI North: Richard Bong Airport

A Superior Snowy!

Year 6

They’re back! Duluth / Superior Snowy Owls! Best late afternoon / evening’s entertainment in December … owling followed by Bentleyville. I will admit it was a touch cold just before sunset this evening. I spied the owl from a distance, and then found a spot to park my car. The Snowy was kind enough to sit tight while I hiked 1/3 of a mile in the -1F (-15F chill factor) conditions. The owl then let me take photographs for over five minutes before moving on to its next hunting perch. By the time I got back to the car, I was cold … but happy!

Posing for me

Snowy Owl Take-Off

Snow Geese!

Year 6

Although thousands and thousands of Snow Geese migrate through the Dakotas and extreme western Minnesota, here at the tip of Lake Superior this beautiful white bird is a rarity. Each fall I hope to find a small flock, and today I finally struck pay dirt. A small group of six birds was hanging out at the Tri-State Fair Grounds in Superior. Even though it was still wet and windy this morning, I enjoyed some quality time with my geese. Finally, when I say thousands and thousands of Snow Geese migrate a bit west of here, see this post from this spring when I chanced upon the northward migration … some cool videos.

Superior Snow Geese! (first image gives a nice comparison in size vs a Canada Goose, and the last image shows a Blue Morph)

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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