I was bridged this morning! In native “Duluth Lingo” this means gettng stopped by the Aerial Lift Bridge. However, we locals do not mind the wait. You just sit back and enjoy 10 to 15 minutes of quiet time. In fact, I left my car parked in the middle of the road and walked over to the pier and took these two images of the Philip Clarke down bound with a load of iron ore. The sun had only been up for five minutes.

I would have been birding / walking Minnesota Point by sunrise, but as I noted … I got bridged. Thankfully the shorebirds waited for me and I had a delightful 60 minute hike along the sandy beach … not another person in sight … seeing well over 300 shorebirds winging their way back from the Arctic. It is good to be bridged in life!

Semipalmated Plover

Baird’s Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone

ID’ing Shorebirds can be darned difficult. In a prior post, I reviewed some good resources …

I have often espoused about the importance of catching first light for photography. I hope this post will demonstrate the importance of that fact. My target bird for this morning was an unusual migrant already heading south (yes … the southern migration has now started). A Whimbrel which breeds on the shores of Hudson Bay and the Arctic  has been calling Minnesota Point its temporary home for the last week. The tall grasses at the end of Park Point are providing a tundra like / meadow environment which this bird likes.

I left my home at sunrise (now 5:30 am) and arrived at the Park Point fields a few minutes after 6:00 am. The golden orb was only just beginning to peek over the pine trees that populate Lake Superior’s dune barrier. I took my first photos when the Whimbrel was in the full shade. Although this meant many, many blurry images, knowing that my target bird would pause every so often during its search for breakfast … I pressed the shutter and waited … one out of every series of images would normally be in focus and of a stationary bird.

Pay attention to how my photographic opportunities varied from the first rays of sun, to almost 30 minutes later when full sun was now the equation. I like the soft light of the earlier pictures, and left my Whimbrel when in my opinion the sun was getting to high in the sky (6:45 am)! Notice how the plumage color changes as I acquire more light for photography.

One final comment as we now start to head into the southern migration here in the extreme northern reaches of the United States. Unlike the northward migration in the spring, during the southern migration birds will “hang around” if they find good food sources. This gives a person the opportunity to enjoy birds for a period of time as they will not immediately “push on”.

Whimbrel at 6:08 am (love the heavy dew on the grasses)

Whimbrel at 6:10 am (now that the sun is up, the dew is hard to see)

Whimbrel at 6:23 am (early sun means shadows!)

Whimbrel at 6:26 am

Whimbrel at 6:40 am

Perhaps I should have just titled this post Morning on Minnesota Point, but if one visits Duluth at some point you will get “bridged”. While some folks might find having to wait 15+ minutes for a freighter to steam in or out of the harbor, we Duluthians take it in stride. If the Aerial Life Bridge is up, you have been “bridged”. Two possible responses to being bridged are to fume at the delay, or take a native’s approach. Leave your car in the middle of the road and walk over the pier to watch the boats. I took the latter approach.

Alpena Arriving in Canadian Sunrise Forest Fire Haze

I was actually heading home when I was bridged. My arrival on Park Point was timed to be shortly after sunup. By 5:30 am I was hiking the dunes and beaches. This Brown Thrasher greeted me with song the moment I started my hike.

After some time on the dunes, I walked over to do some beach combing. While I did see some Common Loons fishing close in to shore, no Red-Throated Loons made their presence known. However there were hundreds of Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings migrating north together. Even though I only had two hours for birding given I had to be home by 7:40 am, it was a great relaxing time. I had the beach to myself most of the time.