This is a general post of a few photos we have taken over the past month. The photos show the color changes we have seen while hiking in the bluffs. My (Nate’s) conclusion is that the fall here is too short. I realize that people who live here call the past month or so fall, but it just never really felt like it to me. Heck, last Tuesday I fished in short sleeves and today I had ice building up in my guides. Up in Duluth I would start fishing for steelhead in late Sept. as the leaves began to turn color. At that point it would gradually get colder, with average temps probably around 50 or 60 and dropping into the 40’s occasionally. But this year I didn’t even feel like Steelhead fishing until late in October. The weather here was still like summer (in Duluth) during October and it just didn’t provide the same feeling of years past. Now it’s freezing. So the bottom line is that I missed fall this year in more ways than one.

The bird migration has been impressive so far. The Tundra Swans have made up the majority of the birds flying over, but we have also seen geese, ducks, and a ton of Bald Eagles. The other day we counted 10 eagles either sitting in or hanging around a single tree. I’ll try to post an areal photo of the swans at a later date. Some guys from work flew over the river and took some photos to see where the swans were hanging out. It looks like snow from up above. Pretty cool.

I’ll also take this opportunity to give a couple of links to some information about a neat project I’m starting to work on:

http://fishhabitat.org/images/documents/FHP_Candidates/fishers_farmers_fhp.pdf

http://fishhabitat.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=103:midwest-driftless&catid=44:partner-profiles&Itemid=37

The short version is that I’m starting some analyses of landscape-level factors (land-use patterns) that influence the “health” of the rivers in the driftless area. The goal of the fishers and farmers program is to improve water quality and fish habitat in all of the different types of rivers in the area, from cold-water trout streams, to cool water smallmouth bass rivers, to the big muddy (Mississippi) itself. The portion of the project that I’m working on isn’t all that scientifically interesting, but it takes my personal enjoyment of fishing and links it with some of my professional expertise to help solve some practical conservation problems. I’m looking forward to being practical for once.

Ok, that’s it, enjoy the photos.