Winter Wonderland 2010

A truly rare occurrence, a blue moon on the last day of the year, still hung in the early morning sky on January first as we headed North- ward into the teeth of an arctic blast (a much less rare occurrence). Although our hopes at seeing lots of bird activity were not realized, our spirits remained high, as we were headed on an 800-mile round trip journey through western Minnesota, where prairie, deciduous and evergreen landscapes converge. How different in every way this trip from our recent foray in the Yucatan!

The picture below was taken in the truly remote reservation lands to the west of Lower Red Lake. At -33 degrees, the soil begins to deep freeze, creating a low hanging a fog. We have witnessed this phenomenon over water, but never over land, as this is the coldest temperature either of us have ever seen.

From Thief River Falls, we navigated across back roads to Itasca State Park, which we had visited over the summer. Along the way, we saw a few white winged crossbills and grouse, and marveled at their ability to be "out and about" in such extreme con- ditions. The Mississippi headwaters, while far from mighty, remained unfrozen.

We took some cool "car cam" video as we drove through the park.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In spite of the cold, we did manage to get some skiing in at Maplewood State Park north of Fergus Falls (it was a balmy -8). That's Kristen below, all bundled up in our thwarted attempt to do some hiking. Without show shoes, the drifts proved too deep.

This fox, seen as we were headed to ski at Bunker Hills, seemed quite well equipped to handle the cold and snow.