On the trails
This isn't directly bird-related, but I hope it seems relevant.
I wrote in an earlier post about a hike I had taken with a couple of friends on the Twin Lakes Trail near Silver Bay. I noted evidence of tremendous damage from the late-March ice storm that hit Lake and Cook counties. I reported that there must surely have been significant obstructions on the trail, but that they all had been cleared away. The Twin Lakes Trail is part of the Superior Hiking Trail network, and I saw this as further evidence of the fantastic job the hiking trail's staff and volunteers do, year in and year out.
As it turns out, what I experienced was only the tip of the iceberg -- an apt metaphor in this instance.
In the Summer 2009 issue of The Ridgeline, which is the Superior Hiking Trail Association's newsletter, executive director Gayle Coyer writes about the extent of the damage and the massive effort to bring the trails back into good order.
Here it is: The ice storm affected about 100 miles of trail, from Beaver Bay to Lutsen. Thousands of young popple and birch trees were broken and bent, and large branches were broken from maple trees. The ice storm was followed by 16 inches of heavy, wet snow, compounding the damage.
"This was the worst event to ever hit the trail," Coyer writes.
So much snow remained on the trails that cleanup couldn't even begin until late April.
Work began in earnest the first weekend in May, when more than 15 crews attacked various sections of the Superior Hiking Trail, using chainsaws and dragging trees away. Coyer chronicles many groups and individuals who worked for weeks to get the trails cleared. The result was that when my friends and I hiked in June, we could see astonishing amounts of damage, but the trail was as good as ever.
That doesn't necessarily mean you'll encounter perfect hiking conditions in every instance. Branches continue to come down in high winds, Coyer writes, and probably will for a couple of years.
You can watch birds without hiking, but the two activities certainly go well together. I take advantage of the Superior Hiking Trail often, and I'm consistently thankful for its existence and the hard work that goes into creating and maintaining it.
If you have an extra day off during this holiday weeend, you could do much worse than spend some of it on one of the many wonderful trails in Northeastern Minnesota.
Posted by: John Lundy on 7/2/2009 at 10:15 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: wannabe birder birding outdoors
A touch of yellow
A male and female goldfinch came -- separately -- to my nyjer (aka thistle) feeder today. It was the first I've seen of goldfinches in months, and I've had very few takers for the nyjer. I was wondering if it was still any good, but each bird spent quite a bit of time at the feeder, so that's a good sign.
It's quite a contrast to the winter, when I couldn't keep up with the redpolls with three nyjer feeders.
It also added some much-desired color to my feeder stations. The only color I've been seeing is the showy blue of a couple of blue jays that have been making daily visits for millet and water; the wine color on the house and/or purple finches; and the red epaulet on a red-winged blackbird that paid a surprise visit yesterday. (I usually only see red-winged blackbirds at my feeders in the early spring.)
A touch of yellow was welcome. I hope they stay around, but goldfinches can be fickle.
What kinds of birds are you seeing? Do you have pictures, observations, questions? I might not know the answers, but someone probably will. Send them to me at jlundy@duluthnews.com
Posted by: John Lundy on 7/1/2009 at 12:27 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink
Tags: outdoors birding wannabe birder
Name that Bird (Road Edition)
If these birds don't look familiar to you, there's a good reason. Both pictures were taken in April by Kurt Kuehn ... in Sierra Vista, Ariz.
OK, travelers, we need your help on these. Can you name either or both of these birds?
No. 1:
No. 2:
Your bird pictures, observations and comments are warmly embraced. Send them to me at : jlundy@duluthnews.com.
Posted by: John Lundy on 6/26/2009 at 3:47 PM | Comments (6) | Permalink
Tags: wannabe birder outdoors birding
A mystery bird controversy
Wherever two or three birders are gathered, you will have differing opinons on .... What is that bird anyway?
Such as the case with our most recent round of Name that Bird. It hasn't gotten many responses, but those who have responded agree the bird in question is a ruby-throated hummingbird.
Except that Kurt Kuehn, who took the picture, thinks it's more likely an Eastern phoebe.
Let's take another look at the photo. This version, toned in Photoshop by my colleague Beverly Godfrey, is a little lighter, so there's no quite so much shadow on the bird:
It's a ruby-throated hummingbird, writes Duluth native Kathy Carr Lodholz, now of Ridgefield, Wash., in an e-mail. "There's only one bird that has a bill like that, and they do have more of a notched tail than other hummers, depending on how he is holding his tail at the time."
But Kurt is standing by his phoebe. "I still don't think so," he writes of the hummingbird theory. "Where are the scallops where the gorget ends?"
Well, I couldn't answer that question -- at least not without scrambling for my dictionary. The gorget is the "necklace" that gives the hummingbird its ruby-throated name. I have to admit I'm still not quite sure about those missing scallops.
For comparison, Kurt offers other pictures that he is pretty sure are of the same bird, and he's pretty sure that bird is a phoebe. Here's one of them:
To my eye, this is a wonderful picture of an Eastern phoebe. But the bird in the first picture looks more like a hummingbird -- mostly because of that bill. But my thoughts are definitely not the final word.
While we're looking at pictures, here are two more that Kurt sent my way today, both of birds that weren't very cooperative with the photographer:
A robin, of course, but notice the white patches. Kurt describes this as a partially albino robin.
And this:
Probably a tree swallow, Kurt says. It's obviously in a hurry to get somewhere.
Keep those pictures, observations and comments coming! And thanks, everyone. My e-mail address: jlundy@duluthnews.com.
Posted by: John Lundy on 6/23/2009 at 8:43 PM | Comments (7) | Permalink
Tags: wannabe birder birding outdoors
Frankly, Scarlet ...
I've been waiting for a long time to use that heading. I thought I'd use it when I finally saw a scarlet tanager.
Instead, it's Corey Flath of Fargo, N.D., who not only spotted a scarlet tanager outside of his house but got pictures of it as well.
Check out this beauty:
I told Corey that the scarlet tanager is No. 1 on my list of birds I want to see.
I might, possibly have seen one fly past me on the Western Waterfront Trail earlier this year, but I didn't get nearly a good enough look to count it. A return visit to the same spot a few days later yielded nothing.
Bird pictures -- scarlet tanagers or otherwise -- observations and comments are gleefully accepted at jlundy@duluthnews.com.
Posted by: John Lundy on 6/22/2009 at 4:34 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink
