Category Archives: Year 5

Birding Luck!

Year 5,

When birding even with great knowledge of habitat, one should never underestimate the value of luck! Over the past two days Lady Luck has been kind to me. At times I can drive the back roads, and hike remote trails and see almost nothing, but then there are times when you just get lucky.

Yesterday, when I noticed on weather radar that the heavy rains would be ending soon, I quickly decided to head over to Sax-Zim Bog. I only saw one other birder, and beyond that two other cars. Given the birder was out of his car and had binoculars glued to the sky, I stopped.

Connecticut Warbler! This little bird is one of the hardest to find warblers in North America. Its numbers have fallen over the past two decades, and its preferred nesting location is in the middle of tamarack bogs. These two facts make finding this little guy difficult, but this Mr. Connecticut was singing his heart out at the top of a pine tree. My thanks to Steve Clark who had been looking for this warbler for well over a day. Me, I just stumbled upon him and his find. Here is the eBird report which gives the location. I really believe this warbler has a nest near by, and will stay in the same basic area for a few weeks.

Bog Birds: Connecticut Warbler and Eastern Kingbird

Today, I drove south to attend a wedding. I only had a few minutes to bird at the Fish Lake Nature Trails. Once again, luck was with me. This Red-Headed Woodpecker immediately greeted me and posed nicely for a photo.

As noted, birding knowledge is great, but I will take luck anytime!

Boat Nerd Post … Part 2!

Background, Year 5

It’s 6:45 am and its pouring rain outside. In short, my routine of leaving early to walk the woods in search of birds makes no sense. Instead, I am comfortably ensconced in front of the fireplace. The NE wind is blowing in off Lake Superior, and given Gitche Gumee’s water temperature is 37F, the air temperature outside 1/2 mile from the lake is 45F. Now you understand the fireplace. Our furnace is turned off, and heat is required!

One of my most loyal readers, Bonnie, commented upon yesterday’s “boat post“. As many others of you have commented favorably in the past about my nautical writings away from topics about out feathered friends, here is this morning’s “boats, not birds” follow-up! In addition to the resources noted in yesterday’s blog post, for a few dollars on either the IOS or Android platforms, one may purchase apps which track ship movement worldwide. These apps should incorporate AIS (Automatic Identification System – Wikipedia link) and Google Maps. On my Android smartphone and tablet, I have installed “MarineTraffic“.  This Marine Traffic link opens their web site which displays ships on any platform via a web browser (Android, IOS or PC … kind of cool!). Move the map around and zoom in somewhere. There is a whole lot of boat traffic on the high seas! On smartphones or tablets, their app work much faster and provides more data than the web site.

While I could use my app for the Duluth area, it works for any region of the world. Just position the map by dragging to any locale and wait for the app to update and display the current ships n that area. For instance, if I was out in San Francisco and wanted to see ships sailing under the Golden Gate bridge, I would take the aforementioned action.

Screenshot from my tablet … long pressing with my finger pulls up specific information about any ship. I used my PC’s graphics editor to add the red arrow.

Further pressing on the ships navigation white bubble yields even more information.

Anyhow … that ends today’s “Boats, not Birds” Tutorial!

Boats, not Birds!

Year 5

It was blustery over the weekend. Lake Superior showed one of its infinite varying moods. Our region experienced lots of rain, winds gusting to 40 mph, and big waves out on Lake Superior. Like any “young boy” (now in my early 60’s), I love boats. Thus, with birding being difficult I migrated to the lake. On Friday I photographed the Michipicoten (built in 1952), one of my favorite ore boats, as it arrived at Duluth’s Canal Park.

Some of you may not know that Duluth is one of America’s largest ports, and is located at the western terminus of the St. Lawrence Seaway. In addition to ships like the Michipicoten which ply their trade wholly on the Great Lakes, Salties sail to Duluth carrying cargoes from around the world.

Duluth’s port is managed by the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. With their permission I am attaching a pdf of the most current issue of their magazine, Spring 2018. If you are a boat nerd like me, a historian, or just like pretty photos of ships on the lake, take a look. Back issues may be accessed via their web site.