I was looking through the online version of the Duluth paper for a press release we had sent out regarding our Lampwork bead making demonstration when I found a reference to the raptor count at Hawk Ridge. I went to their web site www.hawkridge.org and clicked on the count page. I clicked on September 1999 and noticed that on one day last year over 40,000 hawks had passed by the ridge. That was all I needed to know, that and how to get there.

Susie and I zoomed to the ridge. As it turns out, Lake Superior is in the path of a major migration route. Like myself after watching the "Perfect Storm," hawks too are reluctant to cross large bodies of water. In the hawk's case there are no thermals to ride and no food, so they follow the north shore of Lake Superior. They ride the thermals of the ridges, which takes them over or near Hawk Ridge. Conditions were not great that day, it was warm, but that was not to last. There is a full time counter stationed on the ridge from late August through December. In the wooded ridge area there is also a banding site. It is out of the way of easy access, and consists of a blind, some fine netting and a few conscripted warblers for bait. They net 60 to 80 birds a day. One day, when we got to the ridge, there was a bander there with a couple of Sharp-Shinned Hawks. The bander had two tubes, coke cans taped together, with yellow feet sticking out of one end. She grabbed one bird by the feet and removed it from the can. After displaying the bird for a couple of minutes, she let go of it and it took off, ziz-zagging through the scattering crowd. The second bird was a larger female. When we got to the ridge the next day, we were too late for the display. There was a tube on the ground, two coffee cans taped together, no doubt we had missed seeing a bigger hawk.

We have noticed that a large percentage of the RVers, many of which have $125,000+ rigs, use the showers and toilet provided by the campground. Instead of using the built in toilets and showers in their rigs, they march to the bathroom shack. We asked the people next to us, they use their shower stall as an additional closet. It makes me wonder what is in their closet.

The Olympics don't happen often enough. It's not that I would watch them if they occurred more often, just that it is obvious that the International Olympic Committee has way too much time to kill. They must have committees that meet constantly in an effort to choose which new sports to introduce to the games. My evidence: Synchronized Diving. I rest my case.

We had a lampwork bead making demonstration at a local bead shop last Saturday. Our new friends at Superior Beads were nice hosts, and there was a great turnout. We had a ball, Susie was full time selling stuff and I cranked out a bunch of beads for the people who wanted to see how it was done.

We are going to do the tourist thing this week and head south next week. We are going to take an underground mine tour tomorrow, and we have planned a couple more day trips later in the week. Updates to follow.

We met a man at one of the local fishing holes. He was a crewmember on a ship. He described his job and it apparently is not as glamorous as one would imagine. His ship is a salt-hauler. He sails out of Cleveland on 95-day tours. His ship was in too bad of condition to bring onto Lake Superior so they stayed on Lake Erie and Huron. Apparently it was a rust bucket held together with paint. He worked in the engine room. There is my argument: stay in school.