5/9/13 – Big progress! Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 14″.
Here is note from Sawbill Poet Laureate, Ed Dallas, who lives in north central Minnesota:
Bill,
Just to let you folks know there is light at the end of the tunnel as the ice on our little lake went out yesterday and I will be canoeing this afternoon careful to not be run over by all the ducks and loons. Now if by chance Sawbill Lake still has plenty of “hard water” to make the opener a little difficult then this haiku might be newsletter material.
opening fishing
the old dare devil skips
across the bay
Have a good one,
Ed

5/8/13 – Sorry for the slow post. I was out of town yesterday. May 8th Sawbill Lake ice report: 19″. – Bill

5/7/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 23″ of ice. The Sawbill Lake Ice Technicians had to hop across open water on the end of the dock to make their measurement. The ice hasn’t “floated up” yet, but that will probably happen today. Some of the smaller ponds along the road will probably lose their ice today. The local rivers are all ice free now.
The lynx video below has gone modestly viral on YouTube. It’s the most viewed and most emailed entry on the Duluth News Tribune website and was linked to on Facebook this morning by Minnesota Public Radio’s popular Morning Edition host, Cathy Wurzer. What fun! – Bill

5/6/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: still 24″ of ice, but the ice is quickly melting away from the shore. The bay leading into Sawbill Creek is about half open. It is already in the 60’s here today and may hit the low 70s tomorrow. – Bill
Here is the latest edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP, North Shore Community Radio.

5/5/2013 – I had a lucky and amazing encounter with two lynx on my way to town yesterday. It was the first time I’ve used my iPhone for video, which explains the shaky camera work, but I was grateful just to document it. – Bill

Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 24″.

5/4/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 24″ of ice. It is raining today, so the rainfall is seeping down through the porous ice sheet, which is causing more damage to the ice than meets the eye.
This morning, everything was covered with a thin sheet of ice from freezing rain overnight. – Bill

5/3/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: No change with ice depth at 24″. It may have actually added a little ice and had definitely firmed up with this little cold snap we’re experiencing. It is actually snowing lightly as I write this.
The forecast shows dramatic warming in the near future, so don’t lose hope. I still think the ice will go fast once the temperatures swing back up. – Bill

5/2/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 24″ of ice. We had freezing temperatures overnight, but the predicted snow did not materialize. The lake surface is frozen hard enough to walk on this morning. – Bill

Sawbill Lake Ice Thickness Technicians Leif Gilsvik and Tyler Campbell are bundled up for their work on the cold, windy lake this morning.

The continuing ice situation is starting to get to Leif.

A pair of Common Mergansers (aka the Sawbill Duck) wait hopefully in the open water by Sawbill Creek. The male Mergansers are only here for the brief mating season, then they continue north, leaving the females to incubate the eggs and raise the ducklings. Photo by Luke Opel.

Purple finches add a splash of color to the early spring landscape. Photo by Luke Opel.

Redwing blackbird coming in for a landing. Photo by Luke Opel.

5/1/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 24″ of ice with no snow, slush or standing water. This means that the ice is porous enough that the standing water has sunk into the ice sheet and the warm weather yesterday knocked the slush on top down to nothing.
The Sawbill Lake ice measuring technicians report that the top 6″ of ice is seriously degraded a compared to the 18″ under that.
Yesterday, Luke Opel was photographing some canoes that we are putting up for sale when the snow on the roof of the store slid off in one large sheet. – Bill

4/30/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 5″ of slush and water on top of 24″ of ice. Sawbill’s ice measuring technicians report that it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the slush and the ice.
The weather this afternoon is sunny, warm and windy, following a hard rain this morning. Everything is melting really fast. We’re down to an average snow depth of about 10 – 12″.
Unfortunately, the forecast is for rapidly falling temperatures tonight and more snow tomorrow – only for a couple of days though – and then it will warm up again. – Bill