Picture A Day for 22 Days

Some are out of order.

Bluefin Resorts

Yellow-rumped warbler

Crystal Cove

First hail of 2013

Snowmelt runoff

Watching raven babies from afar

View from the Ridge

Napping mid-trail

9:30 pm after ropes course

Vulture circling deer carcus

Broad-winged hawk 

First Voyage of 2013

Camping on the shore

Bald eagle lurking

Wildflowers from fall

Raindrops on pussywillows

Raven Lake is cracking

Bufflehead ducks

Starring contest with chipmunk

Spring really trying to happen

Sunset from the deck. 

Still Swinter...

Wolf Lake is still frozen...

As is Raven Lake...

 Baptism River is flowing enough for ducks to hang out, but lots of ice still. 

Over the weekend I was working with another student naturalist to host the Superior Hiking Trail Associations annual meeting at Wolf Ridge. The SHT is a backpacking trial that goes from Duluth to Canada along the shore. The group consisted of a lot of older people that loved getting together and hiking. With my partner we led a hike on the property and our biggest concern was whether or not we'd need snowshoes...in May! We didn't end up using them (although we should have probably with ankle deep snow).

We went down to the Baptism River on site and it was roaring from all the snow melt. It was also really cool to see all the ice sheets that had been pushed up onto the shore. 

Us with our hikers. We just kept telling how much fun they were compared to whiny children. It wasn't an easy hike - hills, slushy deep snow, and it rained most of the time, but they loved it, as did we, because that's the type of people we are. 

Pussy willows after the rain

 Foggy Lake Superior from Marshall Mtn Overlook. It was the first time I'd been to the overlook in 2013!

Searching for Peregrines and Shots of Superior

First off, what a great way to start a Monday morning, eh?

So if you don't know the story of peregrine falcons, you should look it up. Very short version is that peregrine falcon populations plummeted due to DDT. They were one of the first species (along with bald eagles) to be placed on the endangered species list in 1973. Captive breeding became a large part of reintroducing peregrines to the wild. And a lot has been done on the North Shore because the peregrines love to nest on the cliffs of Superior. Wouldn't you if you were them?

The population has been very well monitored since then (bands and blood samples). On Monday we went looking for a nest at Pallisade Head, a place where they commonly nest. Basically that consisted of scanning cliffs with binoculars hoping to see a female peregrine nest sitting on eggs.

We assumed precarious positions to look and found one! We saw a but sticking out of a crevice in the cliffs. We set up a spotting scope and looked closely.

I was among the first few that hiked around to look straight down on the momma...and we found out it was actually just a Candadian Goose.

Look closely for a brownish butt.

So we continued the search.

And a few minutes further along the cliffs we found the remains of a song bird that had clearly been a delicious meal for a peregrine falcon. So we looked harder...

And we saw her! Look between the cedar tree and the cliff, and she is looking right at the camera. She's hard to see but she's there. We believe she was sitting tight to protect her eggs instead of flying around screaming at us. 

Here's a zoomed in shot. 

A shot of everyone looking closely at her. 

And now for some random shots....

Sawmill Creek (where we do stream study) is finally open!!!!

Creek entering Superior - dirty snow melt water. 

Crystal Cove

Big ship! (carrying iron ore or taconite or something or another like that.)

Crystal Cove - the beach where we've had fires and gone swimming. 

Kennedy Creek (coming from Raven Lake on Wolf Ridge campus) entering Lake Superior.

Water running off everywhere on top of Oberg Mountain (near Tofte).

Another overlook on Oberg Mountain. 

Ladies Weekend

I had the pleasure of hosting a ladies weekend with my  mom and entourage, Mary Jane, Mary Jo and Sue.

Thankfully the wildlife cooperated from the start and we had a snowshoe hare waiting for us right outside the hotel. They are named so because of their gigantic back feet which help with their flotation over deep snow in the winter. They turn all white in the winter for camouflage and all brown in the summer for the same reason. This guy just had white feet and tummy left.

The first night we went to Gooseberry State Park and the falls were raging with all the snow melt!

We spent Saturday morning meeting the animals of Wolf Ridge. 

Sue fell in love with Elcie (of course, who wouldn't).

Mary Jo got up close and personal with Thistle. (Elcie was jealous of the attention...or the peanuts).

And my man Chup flew for them.

We also put together enrichment
 for Korrpi and watched her genius brain at work. 

Next we hit up the ropes course, where both Mom and Sue tried it out and they did awesome!

Then we hiked to one of the best overlooks I've seen along the North Shore - Wolf Ridge's Superior View Hike. 

It was sunny, 60 degrees, I got a sunburn, and there was still tons of snow on the ground. They did great with the conditions (randomly having a leg sink down two feet and lots of sliding in the slush). Glad I could provide the opportunity to be hot in a t-shirt while surrounded by snow.

 We saw a willow budding along the trail. So even if mother nature is confused I'm convinced spring is still on its way. 

 We also had a wonderful dinner at the resort I'll be working at this summer. The gulls cooperated and lined up on their posts for a picture as the sun was going down.