Bentleyville Christmas Lights in Duluth, Minnesota

A few weeks ago, I met with my parents in Duluth, which is located half way between us.  We had a nice dinner at the Grandma's restaurant in Canal Park, and walked through the Bentleyville Lights show.

I've been driving past the light show on Highway 35 for many years, but had never had the chance to walk through.  It was definitely worth seeing this display up close, and I hope to make it a new tradition to meet up with family for this wonderful event.

If you go there, be sure to dress warm.  The winds coming off of Lake Superior can be chilly.  I walked out to my car after dinner, and was compelled by the wind to put on my insulated snow bibs over my other winter clothes.

The displays were a mixture of religious and secular, as well as themes of Duluth and northern Minnesota.  Some of my favorite things were the tributes to those who serve our country as members of the military or as emergency responders.

Below are a pictures of characters from the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer film, and a Nativity Scene:

Is that the spirit of Burl Ives?

Abominable Snowman, Elves, and Reindeer

Nativity Scene

Between many of the displays, there were tunnels of lights of various colors.  In the middle of everything, there was a giant Christmas light tree which was constantly changing color, sometimes with the beat of the music.  Many of the displays also had moving objects in them.  A took a short video of the Lift Bridge display with the Christmas tree in the background.

Tunnel of Lights

We got a bonus light show when a late-season ship went through the Duluth Canal.  It was neat to hear the ship's horn echo off the hillsides and buildings, and see the spotlights on the ship beaming through the darkness.  I could not see the name on the ship, but think it may have been one of the 1000 footers.

Ship under the Duluth Lift Bridge

Duluth Lift Bridge

The ship had arrivedin the furthest inland seaport in the world, Duluth, Minnesota.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Snowy Owl

I saw my first Snowy Owl in the wild today!  It was thrilling to see this great hunter of the tundra grace the shore of Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Over the last week, I had heard several reports of this owl around Artist Point, and the Grand Marais Municipal campground.  After eating lunch with some old friends, we searched both locations for the bird.  We did not find it at that time, but did talk to another avid birder, and he told us where some of the recent sightings had been.  Shortly after that, I had to go to the radio station to do my first show.

About two and a half hours later, one of my friends called me, and said he was looking at the Snowy Owl at the D.N.R. boat landing.  When my dinner break came a half hour later, I went down to see if I could find it.  After a little searching, I saw it sitting on the ground next to the harbor.  It was eating a gull, but kept a close eye on me while I took a few pictures.  I have a 60 x optical zoom on my camera, so I was able to photograph it from a distance.

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) - Grand Marais Harbor, Lake Superior, MN

This is an immature Snowy Owl.  They are the most likely ones to come out of the Arctic for the winter.

The darker bars are also an indicator of immaturity.  Adult male Snowy Owls can be almost pure white, and adult females are not as dark as the immature birds.

For more information about my birding, see John Silliman's Birding Blog.

Hawk Ridge

One of the best birding experiences in Minnesota is going to Hawk Ridge in Duluth during the fall migration.  Much of the flight of raptors is derived from using the updrafts coming off of the land to stay aloft.  Therefore, these birds migrate down the shore of Lake Superior, rather than over 3 quadrillion gallons of cold water.

Hawk Ridge is located on the Skyline Parkway in Duluth, a long way above the big lake.  You can find it on a detailed map of Duluth, or look up Hawk Ridge online.  Their website also has the detailed day by day raptor counts.

When I arrived at Hawk Ridge, there were cars lined up a long way back.  People stood along the road with binoculars looking skyward.  Skilled volunteers would point out groups of raptors to those of us who were not as experienced as they were.  The official counting crew was up on an elevated platform with spotting scopes and binoculars.  From time to time, they would send someone down to update the official count board.

Official Count Board

It was not uncommon to see 5 or 6 bald eagles fly over at the same time, often times accompanied by other raptors.  One of the most interesting things I saw was a young peregrine falcon chasing a bald eagle.  The falcon was a lot smaller than the eagle, but the bigger bird did have to make a quick maneuver to avoid the fastest bird in the world.

Bald Eagle Over Hawk Ridge

Migration starts over Hawk Ridge in mid-August, and goes through November.  In the autumn migration of 2017, there were officially 80, 130 raptors of various types that migrated over Hawk Ridge.  For the day to day, and individual bird species counts, see the link above.

In my 2 hours at Hawk Ridge, I saw 40 bald eagles, 1 peregrine falcon, 3 red-tailed hawks, and 5 broad winged hawks.  I was there on the Sunday after Labor Day, and hope to return about the same time next year.  This was a wonderful birding experience, and I would recommend it to birders of all ability levels.

Winter Storms

We just passed the anniversary of one of the most notorious storms in Great Lakes history, known as the "Storm of the Century," or the "Mataafa Blow".  It occurred on November 27 - 28, 1905.  Many ships went down, including: the Mataafa (off Duluth), Lafayette (north of Two Harbors), the Ira H. Owen (last seen near the Apostle Islands), the Edenborn (Split Rock River), and Madeira (Gold Rock Point).  That storm was the reason the famous Split Rock Lighthouse was built next to the Madeira wreck site.

Our first winter storm of this season occurred on the last Thursday of October.  We had lots of snow, high winds, and very large waves on Lake Superior.  I was down in Grand Marais doing a radio show that night, and got some pictures and videos of the event.

In the parking lot by the Coast Guard station, my car shook with the gusts of the wind.  The water in the puddles on the pavement was moving sideways, as though there was a current present.  Gigantic waves were breaking off shore, and large waves were going right over the beach, slamming into the sea wall, and sending spray into the parking lot.  I've included two videos of the event at https://vimeo.com/245136292 and https://vimeo.com/245141109.

Grand Marais, MN Lighthouses in storm.

A few days after this storm, I drove through Duluth, Minnesota.  Lake Superior was the color of the Red River of the North outside of the Duluth and Superior Harbors due to the pounding of the waves.  Massive waves also destroyed much of the Duluth Lake Walk according to reports of Duluth residents.

The snow from that storm still remains on the Gunflint Trail over a month later.  Winter has come a little early for the region, and many of us look forward to the winter fun ahead.

First Snow

I woke up two days ago to the first snowfall of the year, along with some rain and sleet.  There was no accumulation, but that is probably not far away.

I've had several people ask me if that is early.  I tell them that historically, we are close to the anniversaries of some of the biggest winter storms in Minnesota state history.

No one who lived through the Halloween Blizzard of 1991, and had to clean up afterward, will forget it.  The autumn had been a mild one.  Temperatures on October 28th and 29th were in the sixties.  In the Twin Cities, only three Minnesota Department of Transportation plows had their blades attached.  The leaves were still on many driveways and lawns.

On Halloween, the sleet and freezing rain started in the morning.  By early afternoon, the precipitation had changed to snow.  The snow came down hard enough to close down the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, and pull all of the MTA buses off the roads for the first time in a decade.

I remember trying to remove the snow from our driveway.  The snow was so heavy that the snow came out of the auger of the snowblower, and sank right back down into the machine.  We had to clear the snow in layers to get it off of the driveway.  The plows cleared the roads within a few days, but the frozen rain and sleet under the snow did not really melt until the next spring.

There was 8.2 inches of snow in the Twin Cities on October 31st and 18.5 inches on November 1st.  Overall, there was 28.5 inches that fell in the Twin Cities between October 31st through November 3rd.  Duluth had 37 inches of snow, and the Gunflint Trail had about 4 feet of snow, according to the locals.  The temperature fell to -3 Fahrenheit on November 4th in the Twin Cities, and the wind chill fell to -50 Fahrenheit in greater Minnesota.

The source for many of the vital statistics of the storm came from Storms! by Martin Keller and Sheri O'Meara.  There is an accompanying book called Storms 2 by Sheri O'Meara that also has some great Minnesota storm information as well.


Current Weather: Rain and Snow with near freezing temperatures.

Forecast: The rain and snow will be changing to all rain this afternoon, back to rain and snow this evening, and to all snow late at night.  3 - 5 inches of snow accumulation possible.  Temperatures falling to the lower twenties and possibly upper teens over the next few days.  Gale Warning on Lake Superior today and tomorrow.

Kadunce River Trail

Last Monday, I decided to bicycle along the North Shore starting at the Kadunce River Wayside. After 20 miles on the bike, I decided to hike inland from the wayside on the Superior Hiking Trail.  In all the years I have been in Cook County, I have stopped many times at the wayside and hiked along the shore, but have never hiked inland along the river.  I found it to be a very pleasant surprise.

The trail followed a narrow, but steep gorge with lush vegetation up to a scenic bridge crossing.  There were multiple waterfalls as the river made its way to Lake Superior.  The gurgling of the river made for a very relaxing hike.

After crossing the bridge, I turned around and headed back to the wayside.  There were people along the way photographing the beautiful scenery along the trail, and we talked about how Cook County was such a great community.  Some of the great aspects we talked about were the WTIP radio station, and the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire department, both of which one of the photographers and his wife support.

Upon reaching Lake Superior, I walked along the beach, and took some pictures of the shoreline and the river.  I also got a nice look at some Lapland Longspurs, which were species number 116

in my Big Year (see my other blog).

Kadunce River

Lapland Longpurs Calcarius lapponicus)

Lapland Longpurs Calcarius lapponicus)

Minnesota State Fair

A few weeks ago, I got to go to the Minnesota State Fair.  As a whole, it was a very fun and fulfilling day.

The one frustration of the day came before I even arrived at the fair.  Being a Sunday, the park and ride lots located at the churches did not open until 1:00 PM.  I had planned to meet my friend Les on the west side of the fair at 1:00 PM, so I needed to pick up a bus at one of the other lots well before that time.  One piece of advice I can give you is to get to those lots very early if you are going on a Sunday.  I found all three lots to be full, and had to go out of one of the church lots anyway.

When I finally disembarked at the fair, I was on the east side, and it was already 1:13 PM.  I walked very quickly across the fair (not easy in those crowds), and arrived at the Schells stage seven minutes later.  Les arrived about ten minutes after I did, having gone to the same three full parking lots, another church, and having missed the first bus.  After that, the whole day was uphill for both of us.

Fair-sized Crowd!

It was a little while until the fiddle contest began, so we decided to do a bit of exploring.  One place that sounded like fun was the Miracle of Birth Barn.  In it, they had a bunch of incredibly pregnant animals, and bird ready to lay their eggs.  It was virtually wall to wall people, but we did manage to get up close to a pig giving birth.  After much struggle, she sent two piglets into the world in quick succession.  There were already some walking around (dragging their umbilical cords), and it looked like more were on the way when we left.

Newborn Piglet

I also enjoyed seeing the chickens.  They were is a pen with a curved floor, so every time one of them laid an egg, the egg rolled to the outside of the cage.

The next leg of our journey brought us back to the Schell's Stage, and the Minnesota State Fiddle Contest.  The contest had already started the day before, so we got to see most of the finals in multiple categories including, trick fiddle, fiddle tunes played on another instrument, double fiddle, and (to determine the State Fiddle Champion), the open fiddle.  In the open fiddle, each of the contestants played three different songs, and were given combined scores from both days.  Also during the open fiddle, the judges were behind a curtain, and the contestants were announced by number only.

 One of my favorite parts of the event was when the judging was all done, and the fiddlers got on stage and jammed together.  I took some videos of the whole group doing Redwing, and The Girl I Left Behind Me.

After the fiddle contest, we went to the education building, checking out the booth for our alma matter, Concordia College - Moorhead, and other booths as well.  I went to the AMPERS booth, and talked to the people from one of our sister stations.  Our WTIP station broadcasted there the following Wednesday.

I tried a lot of different foods while I was there.  Most of them were great, with only one thing that was just good:

Deep Fried Pickle Sampler
$8.00
The pickles had several types of breading, and I liked the spicy Cajun one the most.

Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip Cookies
$9.00 for a large cone.  I ate a few before taking this picture.
They were very good, but I wouldn't get the gigantic bucket.

Chocolate Creme Puff
$4.00
Messy, but very delicious.

Corn
$3.00
Tasty.  I ate this right before the heavy rain shower.

Foot Long Polish Sausage on a Stick
$7.00
I thought this was a great alternative to the a corn dog.  The insides are better tasting and not as scary as a hot dog.

Deep Fried Candy Bar (Milky Way)
$4.00
The chocolate and caramel inside were molten, and quite tasty.
As of a few years ago, It was the highest calorie item at the entire fair.
Luckily, I only go to the fair every few years.

Cheese Curds
$6.00
Greasy, but good.  Another great food to eat every few years.
One of the most famous foods of the Minnesota State Fair.

The only food that was good, but not great, was the $4.00 Carmel Apple with Nuts.  It was late in the evening, and the carmel was kind of hard (it might be better earlier).  The Granny Smith Apple inside was good.

Another place we visited was the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) building.  The outdoor exhibits were closed since it was getting dark, but there were some fun things to look at inside.  I especially enjoyed the fish and the snakes.

It took a while, but I finally got this sturgeon to smile for the camera!

At the end of the day, we sat outside the Grandstand, and listened to some modern Country artist while waiting for the fireworks.  Here are some pictures of the show that followed:

You can watch a video of the grand finale at Minnesota State Fair Fireworks.

Picking Blueberries

It is blueberry picking season on the Gunflint Trail.  Over the years, I have learned how to make my picking very effective, and thought you might like to benefit from my experience.


What to Bring:

*A gallon ice cream pail works great for carrying the berries and freezing them later on.  It is easy to carry, seals on top, and presents a big target to drop the berries in when you are picking fast.

*A water bottle or two is important to have along.  Blueberries are usually located in open areas, where you will be exposed to the sun.

*Bug and sun resistant clothes are very important.  I like to use light weight, quick drying, long sleeved shirts and pants.  If you use bug repellent, make sure it will not eat your clothes (DEET will destroy a number of materials), and be careful of where you spray it.  Remember:
Edible Berries + Bug Spray = Poisonous Fruit

*A first aid kit can be very helpful.  It is easy to become scraped or bruised when crawling around in the brush looking for berries.

*Optional items are: binoculars, a camera, and a GPS.


Where to Look:

*Burned areas make for the best blueberries.  Statistically, the best blueberries occur 3 - 5 years after a fire.

*Rocky granite hillsides are the best place to look on the Gunflint Trail.  Other rocks with a rough texture also work well, such as diabase or greenstone.  Avoid the areas that have predominantly smooth rocks such as shale or slate.


Things to Know While Picking:

*Some people are clean pickers, and others are dirty pickers.  It is better to be a clean picker.  A clean picker picks only the ripe berries on a plant, and leaves the other ones to ripen and seed new plants or be picked by someone at a later date.

*Dirty pickers pick all the ripe and unripe berries on the plant, and later throw away the unripe ones.  They are also more likely to use the destructive blueberry rakes which not only strip all the berries, but partially defoliate the plant.  To me, this method is like clear cutting a forest, and not planting anything in return.  It is wasteful, and is not sustainable in the long run.  Plus you have the frustration of having to sort the berries when you want to eat them later on, whereas the clean pickers just have to rinse the berries and enjoy.

*I like to pick the berries with my palm up, pulling the berries off of the plant with my thumb and forefinger.  That way, the berries drop right into my hand.  If any berries hit the ground, I leave them there to seed new plants.

*If you are going back and forth on the same trail, don't forget to look on the other side of the trees or rocks as you are coming back.  In a recent blueberry picking expedition, I found a lot more berries on the way back.

*The freshly burned areas have much thicker foliage than other areas, and it can be easy to get lost.  It is a good idea to keep your car, boat, lake, river, or the trail in sight.  A GPS unit can also be helpful in getting you back home, however, remember that a GPS is an electronic device that can fail.

*If you pick with a partner, be sure you can trust them before giving away your best berry patches.  However, it is fun to have company when you are picking.

*Leave the earbuds or headphones at home.  You may hear some great recorded music, but you miss all the live music of the forest.


Preserving your Crop:

*Simply put your ice cream pail of berries directly in the freezer (or add them to one already in there) right after you pick them.  Wait to wash them until you are ready to eat them.  A lot of people say that you should wash the berries, and freeze them on a cookie sheet with waxed paper.  This is adding a step where no step is needed, and adding wax to your fruit as well.

*You can also make preserves, or dry the berries, but I prefer to freeze them.


Identification of Blueberries:

For the proper identification of edibles blueberries, you need to look at 3 things: the berries being right on the bush, the type of bush (note leaves), and the 5 pointed crown on each berry.

This is an overall look at the bush and berries.  Note that the wild blueberries are not as large as the genetically modified ones you find in the store, but they are a lot more tasty.

Poisonous blue bead lily berries.  Note that these are coming out of a lily plant,
and are on the end of a long stalk.  They also lack the pointed crown of the blueberries.

Please note that the edible blueberries, and the poisonous blue bead lily berries grow in the same habitat, and the poisonous berries can be sitting right next to the edible berry plant.  Always look for the 5 pointed crown before consuming the fruit.  The berries on the left are the poisonous blue bead lily, and the ones on the right are the edible blueberries.

On the Air

A while ago, I wrote an article about what goes on before a radio show, possibly leaving some of you wondering what happens when we go live in the studio.  This article will give you some idea of what it is like to be hosting a live show.

I always listen to the previous show for the last 5 - 10 minutes.  If there is a live show out of the other studio, they usually end on time, but a prerecorded show might end a few minutes early, so I have to be ready to go live at any moment.

When it is time for my show to start, I transfer the broadcast to my studio (usually Studio B), turn on my microphone, and give the station identification:

"You are tuned to North Shore Community Radio, broadcasting at
90.7 FM WTIP Grand Marais,
90.1 FM WGPO Grand Portage,
89.1 FM WKEK Gunflint Lake,
and on the web at WTIP.org."

"Now stay tuned for Thirsty Boots (or Women in Music, Classic Country, or Monday Night Mix)."  I then play my theme song if I have one for that show.  My theme songs are:
"Polka Radio" (Peter and Paul Wendinger Band) for Polka Time,
"You're Looking at Country" (Loretta Lynn) for Classic Country, and
"A Calling on Song" (Atwater-Donnelly) for Thirsty Boots.

We were taught in our radio training to pick theme songs that are short, and fit with the theme of the show.  The radio station is really great about letting the hosts play what they want on the shows.

After the theme, I introduce myself, read several underwriter cards, and give out the weather forecast.  If it is on my list, I will also test the Emergency Alert System, which entails holding down a button, and waiting for the buzzing sounds to finish.

I then introduce my first full set, giving information about the musician, and sometimes the songs, although it is safer to back announce the songs (since there are times when the wrong song is played).

I get my music ready to go before the top of the hour announcements, so I usually have to just tap the button on the board, and bring up the volume to start it.  The exception would be MP3, or cassette tape songs (which I have not done in a long time), with which I have to also press play on the device.

Our studio gives us the ability to listen to music through overhead speakers, headphones, or a regular radio receiver.  When a song is ending, and a new one is beginning, I use the headphones, since that best allows me to adjust for the variations in the recorded volume of songs.  After that, I usually take off the headphones and listen to the overhead speakers.  The regular radio receiver and the dials on the board let us know that we are broadcasting.

As soon as the song starts playing, I reach down to my music collection, and grab another recording.  It is usually not for the next song, but the song after, since I commonly have the next song in another player.  When I start a set (group) of songs, I already know what will be played in that set, and am figuring out what I will be playing on the next set.

One of the most important things for me in picking out music is flow.  Getting a smooth flow of music is easy in a Polka show, but is much more of a challenging when doing the Monday Night Mix or Women in Music shows.  I also like a good flow from show to show.  When I am ending the Women in Music show, I will often times play some big band songs, since the following show is Swing Session.  Transitioning from Polka to Classic Country, my first full set will be Country dance music.  If I feel like my transition from set to set may not be extremely smooth, I will talk longer between sets to keep the audience from getting a jarring experience.

Some hosts have every song planned out for the whole show, and others have an idea of what they want to play, but do not have the specifics written down.  I use the latter method, in large part because it makes it easier to work with requests.  Also, two songs may look like they will flow well together on paper, but in reality do not, so I need to change the song on the spot.

There are also a lot of great reasons for using the complete planning method.  It might be less stressful during the show, because you are never lacking an idea of what to play.  It is also good because you are less likely to say something you shouldn't.  The planning method used really depends on what works best for the host.

A very important thing to do as soon as the song starts, is to turn off the microphone.  I personally turn down the volume, and turn off the switch to make sure it is off.  Many of the hosts on our station have left the mic on, and had their private conversations or ramblings go out over the airwaves, and I am no exception.

I love getting phone calls during the show.  The vast majority of the callers are great.  They tell the host that they are enjoying the show, and sometimes request a song.  We love hearing from callers like this!  They let us know that we are making a positive difference in the world by hosting a radio show.  Here are some guidelines for having the best chance to talk to the host and get requests played:

1. The host is also the engineer, and answers the phone (except during pledge drives, or specific call in shows).  If you hear their voice on the air, they are not going to answer the phone.

2. Wait 30 to 45 seconds after the first song of a new set starts.  This gives the host a chance to get the next songs ready, and enter the current song in the online playlist.  There is also a fair amount of time before the set ends.

3. If you don't get the host right away, try again later.  There is a strobe light that we can see in both studios if someone is calling, but we may not be looking in that direction, or we may be in the bathroom, or talking to someone else.

4. When you talk to us, keep the conversations relatively brief, since the set of music only lasts so long.

5. Give the host your requests with at least a half hour of the show remaining.  It can take some time to find the song and artist you requested, especially if we have to go search the station library.  There is also no guarantee that we have have the song.

Most of the music hosts at our station log our playlist online.  You can access the playlists at wtip.org.  When I first started hosting shows, we had to write the list down on paper.  Thanks to the typing class I took in high school, the online method works a lot better for me.

When we are on the air, we do not know how many people are listening (although the station can see how many people are web streaming us).  It could be one person, or a thousand people.  In our training, we are told to talk as though we are talking to just one person.  We are also told to use our own voice, since that rings most true to our listeners.

Roughly every twenty minutes during a show, we read underwriter cards, and play promos.  The specific cards and promos are on a list that we find when we arrive for our show.  Due to the FCC regulations, we have to read everything on the cards word for word.  Since we are a public station, we are not allowed to give any calls to action (Go eat at ...), or prices since that would be advertising instead of underwriting.

At the top of the hour, we give the station identification again, as well as weather, underwriters, promos, and other announcement (such as birthdays).

In case you are wondering, the next time I am on the air is on Thursday, August 3, 2017 from 8 - 10 PM for the Thirsty Boots show.  Thanks for listening!