A few years ago when I bicycle toured through Scotland I loved the local birds, but had difficulty with my ID’s. It was fun to create my own names, and invite my readers, you folks, to make an ID in the comment section. Let the game begin!

Apparently signs of winter are appearing up here in the Arctic … from huge blooming fields of fireweed, to flocks of Norwegian Tuxedo Birds getting ready for the trip south. There were well over 30 birds in this one flock.

Here is the fireweed and a “typical view” while cycling today. What wasn’t typical was in riding 25 miles we had to take one ferry (hour long), ride three tunnels ranging up to a kilometer, and climb through a smaller mountain pass. Heck … a 25 mile ride only takes me two hours on the North Shore of Lake Superior (touring, not road bike). Covering this distance including the ferry took six hours which included time waiting for tge ferry and necessary preperation before each tunnel to rig up flashers, take off sun glasses, etc.

Finally into every life some rain must fall. I took a mild tumble off the bike when I could not kick out of my peddles in time and fell into a ditch (had strayed a bit to far onto the shoulder). Normally no problem, but the ditch fell away such that my foot could not reach ground. The end result is a mildly annoying bruised rib (or slight fracture). It only hurts when I get up after a rest.

One more bird tried to wear a tuxedo, but did not pull it off … hint … this gull is the largest in the world!

I did manage to ID both birds. Have to love Merlin Bird ID from Cornell.