Pole on the George Washington Pines Trail

Last night we arrived at Gunflint Lodge on Gunflint Lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail. It would be nice if I could say it was in the town of Gunflint, too, but it ain’t. Driving the trail at night, we saw two moose calves, and in the morning, lots of tame whitetail deer around the cabins. At one point I counted something like 16 outside our window. The lodge has corn so the guests can feed them, which means the deer become spoiled pests. A big doe actually stamped her foot at me when she thought I was going to mess with the corn I had given her. I stamped my foot right back at her, the ingrate.

At breakfast, we saw a lot of birds at the main lodge’s window feeders:

PINE SISKIN (lifer for us both)
PINE GROSBEAK
HOUSE FINCH
GRAY JAY (Pole only)

We drove along the Gunflint Trail in the morning, and Pole saw a RED CROSSBILL. It was a lifer for her, as it would have been for me had I seen it. It can be tough to bird from a car: you’re often going too damn fast and the car sometimes blocks your view. Pulling over and getting out isn’t always an option, either, especially on icy, winding highways.

Later we walked something called the Moose Viewing Trail. Instead of a moose, we viewed some noisy red-breasted nuthatches and a BROWN CREEPER. Final trip was to Grand Marais where we found the usual suspects in the harbor: ring-billed gulls, goldeneyes, and mallards. Also spotted a bald eagle in the distance being mobbed by a gull.