"Irruption"
(24.5x18.5 in.), $3500.00

Wildlife biologists use the term irruption to describe an animal that leaves its home territory in search of food. In this case, a snowy owl has left its home in the distant Arctic and traveled as far south as Duluth, MN in desperate search for food.Snowy owls find that the rodent population of the waterfront area fills that void just fine. This irruption, however, is different than most other irruptions when the snowies leave the Arctic because there is a shortage of lemmings, a large part of their diet. This year the owls have left because there were an abundance of lemmings, so many that the owls had a tremendous hatch, forcing the first year males to flee their territories.   It is late December 2011 as the 826 foot long M/V Lee A. Tregurtha makes a late season run with nearly 30,000 tons of iron ore pellets loaded at the CN Dock in west Duluth, now destined for Indiana Harbor, IL. A mere hum emits from the passingTregurtha’s diesel engines in St. Louis Bay of St. Louis River as the undisturbed snowy continues hunting from its perch on the Duluth Interstate Fishing Pier, site of the old Interstate HighwayBridge.