After photographing eagles at Reads Landing we drove up to Redwing. The eagle count at redwing has not been great this year and we didn’t expect to see much. As it turned out there were only a few eagle flying and about a half dozen sitting in trees.
My wife has put together an exhibit of eight of my winter photographs for the Menomonie, Wisconsin Public Library. The photos selected are shown below.
A Female Northern Cardinal taken during snowstorm.
A Bald Eagle shot at Colvill Park in Red Wing Minnesota. It was fourteen below zero.
These trees covered in ice were photographed above Lake Superior at Tettegouche State Park in Minnesota. A strong March storm roared across Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Nor’easter caused huge waves along the lake which then froze on the trees.
Bridge along the Red Cedar Trail near Downsville, Wisconsin after an early November snowfall.
An Ice formation at Devil’s Punchbowl near Menomonie, Wisconsin
Bond falls is my favorite winter waterfall destination. It is located near Paulding, Michigan in the U.P.
Trees photographed, during a winter snowstorm, while skiing the Backcountry Trail at Swedetown. Swedetown is located in Calumet, Michigan.
A rock and Ice formation along the Apostile Islands.
Apostle Islands Ice Caves:
Normally I’m complaining about the lack of a good winter but this year we have had a fantastic winter. Every winter I look forward to photographing the Apostle Island Ice Caves but this is the first year since 2009 that they have been accessible from the ice on Lake Superior. I was very surprised when I checked  the middle of January and found that the ice caves were already open. Normally they don’t open until January but with the cold weather they were early this year.
We immediately drove up to Cornucopia to visit the caves. This was followed by two other visits to the caves. We weren’t the only ones visiting the caves. Thanks to social media more than 140 thousand people visited the caves before they closed in mid March.
In-spite of the large number of people visiting the caves I was able to get some great photos and, for the first time, my wife was able to visit the caves. As you can see by the number of blogs I wrote on the subject this was my favorite winter activity.
Bald Eagle Watching:
The cold weather has been a boon for Bald Eagle watching since it concentrated the eagles in areas where there was open water. This winter we spent time visiting three locations along the Mississippi River to watch Eagles. Our most productive location was Covill Park in Red Wing, Minnesota where we always saw eagles. There were also a large number of ducks that provided entertainment when the eagle watching slowed down. The water is always open below the heating plant above Covill Park so the eagles and ducks hang out in this area.
The second best location was Reads Landing in Minnesota. On three occasions we saw large numbers of Eagles at this location. We also saw Trumpeter Swans that were hanging out in this section of the river. Viewing at this location slowed down as the winter progressed.
Alma, Wisconsin was the least productive area we visited. We only saw a significant number of eagles on one visit. On several other visits we didn’t see any eagles or only saw a few. I found this a difficult area to photograph eagles because you are usually looking into the sun.
I wrote a number of blogs describing our visits to these locations.
Trumpeter Swans Watching:
We made a number of trips to Hudson, Wisconsin to watch the Trumpeter Swans. Several people had mentioned that Trumpeter Swans hung out on the St. Croix river but didn’t know the exact location. We eventually found them in downtown Hudson.
Because of the very cold weather they were hanging out it a very small area of open water close to shore during the coldest part of the winter. You could walk down along the shore and photograph them and they didn’t seem to be the least concerned with your presence.
These trips resulted in several blogs reporting on our visits.
Lake Superior Ship Watching:
The very cold weather resulted in a lot of ice on Lake Superior. The early ice made for some great opportunities to photograph ships in the cold weather. One of my favorite year around activities is ship watching in Duluth and Superior Harbors so being able to photograph them working in ice was a great adventure.
Baie Cormeau
We were able to watch ships arrive in the harbor during the very cold winter.
Baie Comeau
The Coast Guard Cutters were very active this winter and I was able to see them in action as they were breaking the ice and anchored in the harbor.
Coast Guard Cutter Alder
Tug Boats were also required to help break the ice when the Coast Guard was not available.
Helen H
A large number of ships are in the Duluth/Superior docks either being repaired or for winter layup.
American Spirit
The long winter will continue into spring as the ice breakers are working to free the harbor of ice and the ships in layup are waiting to head out for the 2014 shipping season. The season should start in the next couple of weeks.
Coast Guard Cutter Alder
Rush River Ice Formations:
I discovered the Rush River Ice Formations this winter. What a wonderful place to visit. A local land owner has run piping around his property tapping into underground springs. At about two dozen locations on the property he has run vertical pipes with holes drilled into them. The result are some spectacular ice formations.
Long Ski Season:
For the second year in a row we have been blessed with a lot of snow. The difference this year is that the ski season started at Thanksgiving and has continued into March. With a little luck we should be able squeeze in at least one more ski trip this year.
Our favorite location this year was the ABR Ski Trails because they usually receive early snow and they do the best job of grooming of any ski location. They are usually able to have good skiing even after warm weather because they have equipment to break up the trail in icy conditions and lay a new track.
We also skied at The After Hours Ski Trails in Brule a number of times this year. This is a great location because of the large number of trails and its close proximity to Duluth.
We discovered the Boulder Lake Ski Trails near Duluth and made sever visits to these trails. There are enough trails to provide a nice day of skiing without skiing the same trail twice.
We only made one visit, to what we consider, the most beautiful ski trails in the Midwest. These are the Swedetown Ski Trails in Calument, Michigan. They get more snow and beautiful light fluffy snow than anyplace else.
Philip Schwarz Photography Blog 