15 Years in Cook County

Today was the anniversary of my arrival on the Gunflint Trail, fifteen years ago.  Exactly two years before that, I graduated from Concordia-Moorhead.  I had the day off from work today, and decided to celebrate by taking a ten mile hike.  In the course of my journey, I saw Gunflint Lake, Ham Lake, the Cross River, Lonely Lake, and Lookout Point.  I also counted 24 different species of birds.

As a year-long celebration of my decade and a half as a Naturalist, I have started a birding Big Year.  The Big Year is done by birders across the continent (and even the world in rare cases).  Participants pick out a geographical area, and find as many bird species as they can in one year.  Some of the options are: North America, the Continental United States, one state, one county, or your backyard.  I am going to do a ten-mile radius around myself.  If I am already going somewhere, I bird along the way.  A few years ago, I did another Big Year (April 2014 - April 2015).  I was much more of a novice birder at the time, but still was able to see 93 species.  My goal this time is to beat my old record; I'm simply competing against myself.  It would be nice to add several new birds to my life list as well (I already added one today).

Some of the highlights of my 15 years in Cook County are:

• Learning a lot about history, nature, music, and much more.
• Over a decade on the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department.
• Eight years as a host at WTIP.
• Learning a dozen musical instruments in the last decade.
• The Gunflint Trail and Cook County Communities.
• Visits from friends and family.
• Great camping trips.
• All the nice people I have met over the years.
• Performing in the Radio Waves Music Festival.
• Great birding.
• Wonderful pets.

Below are some pictures of today's journey:

Gunflint Lake Overlook

Ham Lake

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapilla)

Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser) on Lonely Lake

Lookout Point Overlook