Articles

Birds killed after hitting windows in downtown Duluth

Two off-course flights into downtown buildings this week resulted in the deaths of almost 30 Bohemian waxwings and the injury of several others.

• Bohemian waxwings
• Witness: Birds fell like scene from horror movie

Outdoors blog: Surfers play on big waves at Stoney Point

Cold delays DNR walleye sampling, egg-taking

Fisheries biologists with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Duluth and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in Superior annually sample the St. Louis River walleye population by electro-fishing above the Minnesota Highway 23 bridge in early spring. Most years, they sample about 1,000 walleyes to learn their ages and lengths. This year, DNR officials plan to sample 5,000 to 7,000 fish and do a full-fledged population estimate, said John Lindgren, fisheries specialist senior at the Minnesota DNR.

Northland anglers, wildlife caught between seasons

Anglers are getting twitchy about the fishing opener. Whitetail fawns are dying up north. Steelheaders are iced out of North Shore streams. Fisheries biologists wonder when they’ll be able to strip walleye eggs for stocking. Here’s a look at how this stubborn winter is affecting fish, wildlife and the people who pursue them.

• Angler on ice floe
• Tough winter for deer
• When will the ice go out?
• DNR may struggle to open boat launches
• Anglers could see bait shortages
• Cold delays DNR walleye sampling, egg-taking
• Average ice-out dates for some Minn. lakes
• Anglers waiting for North Shore steelhead, catching lots of Kamloops rainbow trout
• Bird migration well behind normal
• Winter, by the numbers

When will the ice go out?

With Wisconsin’s fishing opener set for May 4 and Minnesota’s for May 11, anglers are wondering whether the ice will go out in time to fish open water.

• Average ice-out dates for some Minn. lakes

DNR may struggle to open boat launches

With the Minnesota fishing opener fewer than three weeks away, Department of Natural Resources crews in northern Minnesota are facing a challenge in getting boat landings ready for the fishing opener on May 11.

Tough winter for deer

Up to 40 percent of last year’s fawns are likely to die this winter in northern St. Louis and Koochiching counties, along with about 15 percent of adult deer, according to Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife officials.

• Deer in snow

Anglers could see bait shortages

Bait dealers say some minnows may be hard to come by on the opener. Bait dealers in western Minnesota supply much of the bait for Northeastern Minnesota, said wholesaler Craig Keuten of Duluth. Those dealers typically trap and strip eggs from suckers to raise sucker minnows. That process is far behind the normal schedule this year, Keuten said.

Anglers waiting for North Shore steelhead, catching lots of Kamloops rainbow trout

While steelheaders on Wisconsin’s Brule River have enjoyed a longer period of good water conditions than normal this spring, North Shore steelheaders are just biding their time, waiting for rivers to open. As of midweek, most North Shore streams were cold or unfishable.

• Lots of snow north of the lake

Field reports: Explorer is featured Izaak Walton speaker

Paddling to Hudson Bay in 2011 changed Natalie Warren’s life in a way she hadn’t anticipated.

Columns

Sam Cook: Familiar youth begin to make their marks

The e-mail popped into my inbox the other night, and I recognized the name of the sender. He was a young man who had grown up in Duluth, the son of family friends, a high-school skiing teammate of our son and daughter.

• Sam Cook

Sam Cook: Enjoying the musky mornings and golden days of grouse season

The old tote road trail not only looks right on this opening day of Minnesota’s 2012 grouse season — it smells right, too.

• Dan Mettner of Duluth

Hopes, dreams wait for their school bus

Sam Cook column: It’s a new school year, and those first few days are always dicey. So many unknowns. So many risks to take.

• Sam Cook

Bowhunters quietly thin Duluth’s deer population

Sam Cook column: My wife came in from her flower garden the other day after we had returned from a four-day trip. “Well, the deer are now eating my gladiolus and impatiens and snapdragons,” she announced.

• Sam Cook

Sam Cook: The iWorld is at your fingertips

I’m standing near the 5,516-foot summit of Big Bald, one of the high points along the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina. Am I at the top? Can I go higher? Wait. It occurs to me I can check this.

• Sam Cook

Like all good dogs, Chico was a teacher in the field

SAM COOK COLUMN: I can still see him locked up on point, every rib on his gaunt frame showing, lungs heaving, forepaw raised, tail high. We called him Chico; he was an orange-and-white English pointer.

• Chico in action

Canine friends wag their way into our hearts

SAM COOK COLUMN: We come to know our dogs like we know our families. We know what every hesitation in their gait means, or the flick of an ear, or the scrunch of a brow. Then one day they are gone, and we wonder how we will go on.

• Sam Cook

Enjoying the slow slide of summer

SAM COOK: The word came down from the birders late on Tuesday. The nighthawks were moving.

• Sam Cook

Duluth Retriever Club honors volunteer's memory by naming field for him

It’s a perfect place to train retrievers. The 40-acre field with a narrow pond is part of the Duluth Retriever Club’s property along Lester River Road north of Duluth. Now the parcel has a name: Ron Nelson Field.

• Ron Nelson

Sam Cook: Enjoying the twists and turns of life’s journey

She was young and bright, and she asked good questions. We had a chance encounter in Canal Park the other day, but it was where the conversation went from there that left me a little wistful.