One Thousand Days in Nature: Life Bird #575: Iceland Gull

Pleased to Meet You 13 January 2013

Iceland Gull

My most celebrated days in nature are deliberate journeys into truly wild places. In Northwest Wisconsin, we are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, wild and scenic rivers, and large tracts of contiguous habitat. True expanses of wilderness thrive to our north, but the land here where I live is plenty suitable for packs of wolves, fishers, bears, Cerulean Warblers, and so much more. This is the wild.

On rare occasion, my journeys afield take me elsewhere, to strange places where endless and vast wildernesses intersect bustling humanity. Today, the vast and unforgiving wilderness of Lake Superior spanned out before me, so inviting in its mystery. But my nose filled with the smell of grilled food, and the roar of tires on the metal planking of the Duluth lift bridge busied in my ears. I was standing at the hard edge between a world of ice and wild waters and a world of tourist shops and grills. With cement under my feet, I found it unusual to think that the only thing between this city and a herd of wild woodland caribou in Canada is that spectacular stretch of icy water fading to the infinite distance. As if to celebrate this odd transition and, perhaps, my life as a birdwatcher, an elegant little Iceland Gull floated past me on ivory wings and settled in the water just a few meters away. Hello!

The Iceland Gull truly lives up to its name, and it is rare here. Almost every winter a very small number of them overwinter on the open waters of Lake Superior. They come from the Arctic Circle, nesting in Iceland and Greenland. It had taken me a long time to finally make the acquaintance of this smaller, rounder, and softly sweeter cousin to the similar Glaucous Gull. And it was about time, since my life list of birds in the wild has many, many much more unusual sightings. Nice to finally meet you, wonderful visitor from the Arctic. You are Life Bird #575 for this ornithologist. Cheers!

All images were made with a refurbished Canon 7D and Canon 300mm f4 IS flourite lens. I always shoot my images in RAW, and the silvery light of thin, low overcast and snow flurries at 3 degrees F required some white balance adjustments. The Common Goldeneye ducks provided endless entertainment at Canal Park. Canal Park, Duluth, Minnesota, is a great place to get a life bird...and a burger!