Who would have ever thought that Buffalo’s ice boom could be so beautiful? A friend of mine, Laird Robertson, was out kayaking at the mouth of the Niagara River on a balmy day in December when he captured a snow owl perched upon one of the floating vessels. The snow owls have been making a comeback in Greater Buffalo, but to see one up close like this, in such an unexpected place… it’s truly magnificent. “It was incredible to get that close to him way out there,” Laird told me. “I used the current of the river to slowly push me towards him so I could shoot. Beautiful bird!”
On a completely different train of thought, Laird, being an all around outdoorsman, came across a post in Montreal Blog that points to Buffalo as the city that invented the ice bike (see here). The author credits Ice Bikes of Buffalo for the ingenious invention, and swiftly calls for decision makers in Montreal to get on the horn to the company to place an order.
Thanks to Laird for sourcing all of this great stuff for us on this day before Christmas.
You might recall that back in September I wrote an article about Buffalo being the one of the up and coming hipster cities. Well, the chicken coop featured in the article belongs to Laird (see here), who, when it comes to “everything outdoors” might just be “The City’s Most Interesting Man”. Not only is he the founder of the Buffalo Surfing Club, raises chickens in the city, rendezvous with snow owls on Lake Erie in December, restores houses on the West Side, makes coffee tables out of reclaimed wood/pallet wood/Italian leather, frequents farmers markets (as seen on BRO), is a great photographer and traveler, he’s also a diehard lover of Buffalo and does his best to take full advantage of the four seasons in a way that makes me envious of his fervor for his natural surroundings.