Many folks might think I might be referring to the neat article featuring my year long photography project published on Friday as the cover article for Weekend Outdoors in the newspaper of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St. Paul), but you would be mistaken. Instead I learned an important lesson at sunrise yesterday, do not trust the collective intelligence of ice fishermen! Ever heard of Lemmings?!

24 hours earlier I had noticed ice fishermen heading out onto the Lake Superior ice in search of trout and salmon. I figured, if all these folks are out on the Lake Superior ice, it must be safe, correct? Not!

Although I was only 15 yards off shore at Brighton Beach, while fisherman were 600 yards out, guess who broke through and got wet? I suspect it was an ice pocket where water had seeped through a crack, but scary and not the kind of morning for a partial dunking. I immediately lay 100% prone to spread my weight and rolled onto some good ice. My clothes froze solid during the short 300 yard walk back to my car.

Later in the afternoon as I was returning from my volunteering gig at the Sax-Zim Bog Visitor Center, I noticed a huge expanse of open water out on the lake where it had been solid ice at sunrise. Finally, because this is mainly a “bird photography” blog, here is a sharp-tailed grouse I photographed during my morning drive to the visitor center.

• View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon images to view at full size)

Addendum: The STRIB really did a nice job with their treatment of my 365 photo project. Read now via: Star Tribune Online| PDF Version

The Ice Planet Fishermen (photo taken moments before I broke through the ice)

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Sharp-Tailed Grouse

When hiking the NorthWoods, or driving remote roads, I always pay attention to the crows and ravens. If I notice a large number in the trees, or along the roadside, I always slow down and inspect the area. More often than not I find an animal carcass. This was the situation as I drove along a rural highway in the Sax-Zim Bog birding area. I discovered a bear carcass which was providing breakfast for many animals and birds. Over the course of thirty minutes I watched a red fox, a bald eagle, tons of ravens and this hairy woodpecker enjoy “bear for breakfast”!

I’ve also included with this posts two photographs taken thirteen hours aprart which bookended the night. My vantage point was Hawk Ridge overlooking Lake Superior.

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A Hairy Woodpecker enjoys some bear for breakfast

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Moonrise Over Lake Superior

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Sunrise over Lake Superior (same vantage point … 13 hours later)

Who does not like peanut and jelly? It’s all American after all … even for Boreal Chickadees down from Canada! A trip to the Sax-Zim bog today yielded two new species for me:

• Boreal Chickadee
• Sharp Tailed Hawk

As you can see, this Boreal Chickadee was enjoying the all American food near the Admiral Road feeders! In addition I did NOT take any owl photos today. I tried both at sunrise and sunset. The colors in the sky were gorgeous, and I found four different owls, but none of them were kind enough to pose with the crimson skies in the background. Bummer!

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Boreal Chickadee

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Sharp Tailed Grouse

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Sunrise at Kelly J’s (no owls!)