Laura Erickson
Ivory gull
Ivory gulls live year-round in the high Arctic, but occasionally a few will travel south to locales like Duluth, where this one was seen.
Birders flock to Duluth to see rare bird
An ivory gull, rarely seen in the contiguous U.S. states, has spent the week hanging out in Duluth’s Canal Park, drawing far-flung birders for a chance to see this lifer.
Laura Erickson devoted an episode of her “For the Birds” radio program to the sighting. From the transcript:
Ivory Gull has been one of my most yearned-for birds since I started birding. It belongs in the high arctic, where it seldom leaves the pack ice even in winter, though an individual will wander south every year or two to give birders a big thrill.
A second ivory gull was spotted in the area, too, but it was later found dead on Park Point. It may have been killed by a falcon, Laura says in a Duluth News Tribune story by Sam Cook.
+ Local birder Richard Hoeg posted a few photos on Monday.
Lake levels get unexpected winter boost
The latest lake level numbers are in – and, surprisingly, Lake Superior rose 0.4 inches in December, a month in which it usually declines by 3 inches. The Lake started the month of January at 9 inches above its long-term average level.
According to the news release from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:
Based on provisional data, water supplies to both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan-Huron last month were higher than any December on record (1900-2014). This was due to above-normal precipitation combined with unseasonably warm temperatures, which resulted in above-normal runoff and below-normal lake evaporation.
A case of mistaken lake identity
Inspired by the much-talked-about Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer,” The Arcs released a song this week called “Lake Superior.” It quickly got coverage across the web, from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork.
But in the group’s haste – they wrote, recorded and released the track in just a few days – we believe they forgot to double-check their map. The documentary’s events actually took place beside Lake Michigan, in Manitowac County, Wisconsin. Lake Superior’s been framed!
(It’s an error of geographic proportions that reminds us of the woes of the Upper Peninsula, occasionally either left off maps or mislabeled – once as part of Illinois in a textbook, as YooperSteez.com recalls.)
Ice Project returns on Superior waterfront: Roger “Iceman” Hanson hopes to best last winter’s ice sculpture, which reached 50 feet tall. The warm winter hasn’t helped his quest so far, though there’s some serious cold in the forecast.
Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw visits Duluth: “The ship and crew are here, in part, to familiarize new crew members with ports on Lake Superior,” writes Kenneth Newhams of Duluth Shipping News.
Thunder Bay shipping season winds down: Just a few more vessels will load this month, reports CBC Thunder Bay.
Snagging drones in Houghton: A team at Michigan Tech built a drone catcher to “pursue and capture rogue drones that might threaten military installations, air traffic, sporting events—even the White House,” writes MTU’s Marcia Goodrich. Here’s a video of the drone catcher in action.