I am proud to announce that my “Arctic Riviera” photograph of the Superior Entry Lighthouse (Wisconsin) is the two page feature starting the Great Lakes Region / Chapter in the United States Lighthouse Society‘s new book, Lighthouses of America. The book has only five regions, thus to be one of the five prime photographs starting a chapter / region is a big deal!
It was a very cold day in January when I took the photograph … well below zero with a HUGE wind! The society is a 501C non profit which exists to promote the rich history and save American’s lighthouses.
Here is the Amazon link … still time to order and receive by Christmas! Your order will not affect my compensation. The book is already a #1 Amazon Best Seller!
I spent almost three hours well north of Duluth this morning, my first birding expedition in about one week. I was despairing of seeing anything after 2+ hours of nadda, zippo and zilch in terms of birds. My primary target were Spruce Grouse which definitely were a “no show”. However just before I was about to head home, jackpot!
Definitely an irruption … this is the 10th Snowy Owl I have seen since October! It was fantastic to find an owl in a rural location well north of Duluth which hunts during the day w/o fear of crows. My impression is the Duluth / Superior “industrial” birds tend to hunt at night due to the crows which mob any owl dumb enough to be out in the open. While most owls hunt at night, Snowy Owls breed in the land of the Midnight Sun up in the Arctic. Thus, these birds are used to hunting during daylight hours … assuming no crows. Oh yes, I also saw a Hairy Woodpecker shortly after finding Snowy.
Unfortunately I timed my close-up of the owl wrong. After waiting 15 minutes for the Snowy to pounce on some unsuspecting vole, or at least change perches, I zoomed in with my camera. Bad timing.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. In this stressful holiday season we all need to take deep breathes, relax and remember what is special about this time of year. With that thought in mind Molly and I drove 200 miles yesterday to NW Minnesota. Our goal was to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, now in its 19th year. For many years I had been wanting to see this holiday spectacle, and we decided what better spot to view the train than in a small town out on the Minnesota prairie?!
The town and citizens (all 292 of them) of Plummer were fantastic in rolling out the hospitality. In addition to the great train, this small town was all decked out for Christmas. The town hall hosted a dinner with carolers; the museum was open with hot cider, and school buses were near the concert site for warming up in case the Minnesota winter was too extreme!
At 6 pm the train rolled into town, and at 6:15 Kelly Preston and others hosted a free 30 minutes concert … right from a box car decked out as a stage (make sure to watch the concert video). Canadian Pacific actually has two holiday trains. One travels the northern United States, while the other crosses southern Canada. Well done Canadian Pacific, we will visit your train again next year, perhaps up in Nipigon on the shores of Lake Superior.
