By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee

“By the shores of Gitchee Gumee, by the shining Big Sea Water…” 

Thanks to Longfellow for his Song of Hiawatha, which I memorized a small part of as a child, I have very romantic childhood memories of playing Indian princess, bride to Hiawatha, in my wigwam by this big lake. I’m enthralled by Lake Superior—this is the first time either one of us has actually seen it. Wow. Big Sea Water, indeed. It holds about 10% of all the surface freshwater on the planet, and Wikipedia says that its water could flood the entire continents of North America AND South America to a depth of 1 foot (and you know the internet doesn’t lie!). 

It really feels like we’re by the ocean, except for no saltwater smell in the air. Jack got his great day of flyfishing in on Thursday (see previous blog) so yesterday (Friday 9/20/13) was my turn to schedule some exploring and birdwatching. We drove down to the town of Superior, which is still in WI but right on the border with MN. Superior and Duluth together, called the Twin Ports, form the largest freshwater port in the world. We saw miles of docks, huge cargo ships, and tall storage and loading facilities all along the lake shore. 

First we were heading for a birding event on the beach called the Jaegerfest, held annually by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology at this time. Jaegers are arctic ocean birds that migrate to this area around this time. They make their living parasitically by pestering seagulls to make them disgorge food (reminds me of some people I know…). We found our way to the beach, where a line of birders was set up with their scopes and long camera lenses. 

Beach birders on beautiful Lake Superior watching for the Jaegers.

This was a friendly group and they filled us in on what to look for. A large group of ringbilled gulls was sitting on the beach nearby and in a just a few minutes, we heard a shout from a birder “Jaeger!” Suddenly all the gulls, hundreds of them, flew up, as the dark jaeger flew among them, seemingly crashing into them at times. The gulls obviously hate these jaegers! This one was a parasitic jaeger, as we were told by the birders, and we watched it for a few minutes. Finally the gulls settled down again, and soon the jaeger cry went up again. This time it was a long-tailed jaeger, with long tail feathers; it had the same effect on the gulls as before. Interesting birdwatching! These birders are REALLY into their hobby…  The two jaegers were “lifer” birds to add to our list. An added bonus to our time on the beach was a bald eagle that flew overhead, checking in to see what all the fuss was about, I guess.

Parasitic Jaeger

Next we drove into Duluth to the maritime museum in Canal Park, which is right below their aerial lift bridge. This interesting bridge is located at the entrance to their harbor and it has an elevating section that is raised to allow ships to go under it. The museum tells all about Great Lakes shipping; you can listen to the radio traffic and watch the ships and boats go in and out of the harbor through the narrow canal under the bridge. Great museum; learned a lot. We had lunch in a restaurant next to the museum (whitefish cakes and wild rice soup—two local delicacies, both yummy), and hung around the museum for several hours waiting for one of the giant cargo ships to come under the bridge. Finally did---very impressive. A special type of cargo ship has evolved for the Great Lakes called “lakers.” They are up to 1000 feet long and carry enormous loads of iron ore pellets, grain, cement and other bulk goods very efficiently. It was a thrill to see one of these monsters up close, navigating the narrow canal. Worth the wait.

Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth MN. Raises 135 feet.

Great Lakes ship loaded with 37,000 tons of corn passes under bridge. Ship is 750 feet long. Some are 1000 feet long.

After our ship encounter, we headed up on the ridge overlooking the city to a spot called Hawk Ridge, to see if we could spot some of the migrating hawks or eagles. It was a little too late in the day; we saw a few birds but no hawks or eagles. Beautiful spot though. Supposedly the ridge is on the shore rim of the ancient, larger glacial lake that formed when the last ice sheet melted.

View from Hawk Ridge with Lake Superior in background. No charge for the rainbow.

A fascinating and satisfying day up here in the north lands!