Stromboli's Rolling Log: Day 106, Tuesday July 17,2018, Minnesota birding on the roads.

It was another sunny 73 F day with NO wind blowing all day. We are thankful for the weather and great days.

Today the travels we took kept us relatively close to the campground as we took a "loop" of some 20 miles X 20 miles. (times 2.) That allowed us to look into some of the many lakes that Minnesota has . They claim 10,000.,and as we Michiganders know , Michigan has over 11,000 lakes not including the Great Lakes. So we did that. turning off Hwy. 12 at one point to see what was there. Some times there was little but sometimes there was lots of action. Probably the best road was in a subdivision that adjoins a small lake. There were many warblers and sparrows in the shrubs and bushes and on the lake a COMMON LOON and baby. I forgot to mention yesterday we spotted a SANDHILL CRANE taking off across the marsh at one point.)

Other good spots were found where there were small parks and of course boat launches. At one boat launch I had just stopped and in behind me came this very long (40 feet) trailer with a large engine on the back (250 Mercury). Behind that was another trailer with a strange rig on its deck. Here are the photos so you will understand.

The second trailer had a pair of docks to be hauled across the lake for installation.

It was backed to the water and unhitched

It was pushed manually into the water and then attached by straps.

The lead boat then maneuvered to prepare to move out.

Another stop was the place where the Mississippi River exits Cass Lake, which is one of the many lakes it traverses on its journey to becoming a river. Here we saw birds and the coffer dam that slows the flow into the river again.

The Mississippi River gets larger as it exits Cass Lake

The flow of the current can be seen with the Ring Billed gulls and Common Mergansers on the rocks.

Cass Lake from the Northeast corner.

Some of the back roads must be seen to be appreciated.We took one called Tower Trail, near the town of Pennington (Pop. 69) but did not know its final destination. It led into the Chippewa State Forest . We drove on a fairly good gravel road for about 4 miles and it was all the same, with some forest and some scrub land. Finally I told Ruth we would eat lunch there in the one lane road. We were just about finished when in the rear view mirror Ruth spots lights coming. It was a road grader! About 10 feet behind me was a very small pullut and I backed onto it and the grader went by piling a long line of dirt on the far side of the road. We returned the way we came and found that the grader helped to make the return much smoother than the trip in. There were no vehicles other than the grader on the road.


Isolated, straight and 40 miles long we found out later.

That day we did see the DNR folks busy with coming into and coming out of two different lakes.The one young man told us abut the Tower Trail as it went deep into the forest for 40 miles and at a "T" you had to make a choice as to which way to go. Both about 20miles of forest road.
It was a good day and with about 27 birds identified including a EURASIAN TREE SPARROW, we had a good time today.Tomorrow we head for Wisconsin and the town of Superior.