Screengrab of WDIO video
Lutefisk Dinner
Mmm, mmm, good
Ah, the traditions of the holiday season in Duluth: the Christmas City of the North Parade, Bentleyville Tour of Lights and rookie reporters eating lutefisk on live TV.
First Lutheran Church hosts a Lutefisk Dinner each year, and local TV stations have long sent “lucky” young reporters to cover the event and sample the pungent Scandinavian fish dish. Here’s a hilarious compilation (funny for us viewers, anyway) of first bites over the years from the ABC affiliate, WDIO.
WDIO’s latest sacrificial lamb was Baihly Warfield, who got some coaching from legendary local chef Beatrice Ojakangas. (It didn’t seem to help.) The local Fox affiliate dispatched reporter Chelsee Moe, who put on a brave face for the camera... but it didn’t last long. (Our advice for next year: more butter! Or go for the meatballs.)
Warming climate linked to food chain changes in Great Lakes
Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio:
A warming climate is transforming the base of the food web in the Great Lakes, according to a new study published recently in the scientific journal "Limnology and Oceanography." Researchers say rising lake temperatures could spell changes for the rest of the food chain.
Microscopic algae called cyclotella are taking over the bottom of the chain. The researchers say organisms will need to adapt to the new food source. What that means for critters at the top of the chain, like lake trout, they don’t yet know.
The Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth received a $2.5 million grant in September to continue the research, which “will expand to gathering data in the near-shore areas of the Great Lakes and deploying robots to collect data year-round, including under the ice in winter.”
Ontario Parks
Crested Caracara
Wawa gets unusual visitor
A crested caracara, almost never seen farther north than Texas, has been hanging out near Lake Superior Provincial Park.
“This Crested Caracara has got some birders flocking to see it, to add it to their Ontario lifetime birding list!” reports Ontario Parks NW. Ontario birder Josh Vandermeulen posted about the sighting and snapped some great photos. It may be the same bird that spent much of the summer and fall around Munising, Michigan.
The Audubon guide to the crested caracara has a map that shows just how odd its Lake Superior visit is.
Lake projects keep Corps of Engineers busy: Brady Slater, reporting for the Duluth News Tribune: “A busy year of projects on the westernmost Great Lakes saw $60 million poured into 254 construction and dredging contracts, the Detroit District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported in a news release early this month.” About a third of that figure went to maintenance work on the Soo Locks.
Lake level 6 inches above average: That’s according to the latest monthly report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lake Superior continued its seasonal decline in November, but dropped 1 centimeter less than normal for the month.
Are you an artist? Do you love Isle Royale? The national park’s artist-in-residence program starts taking applications on Jan. 2. Three or four artists will be selected for two- to three-week residencies.
And if you love camping, the Michigan DNR is looking for volunteer campground hosts at parks across the state, including many in the U.P.
The port of Thunder Bay reported a strong November thanks to a big grain harvest, says TBNewsWatch.
There’s still time to send in your nominations for the 2017 List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use or General Uselessness, compiled each year by Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. They’ll be accepted until 24 hours before the list’s Dec. 31 release. Last year’s list included “vape,” “secret sauce” and “manspreading.”
Bayfield to appoint first Poet Laureate: “The Bayfield Poet Laureate will be in the limelight for a two-year term. Though several duties will be required, the main one is to write one poem per year for presentation and publication,” writes Hope McLeod for the Bayfield County Journal. Applications are currently being reviewed. Duluth has had a poet laureate since 2005; Ellie Schoenfeld started her tenure in October this year.
High Falls video: Thanks to rain earlier in the month, the High Falls of the Pigeon River (on the Minnesota-Ontario border) was running high this week. As the temperature dipped during the week, the spray coated the gorge in a layer of ice.